VESSELS UNKNOWN

TWENTY ONE

                                                                           UNIQUE    
      
          By the time I got home, it was already mid afternoon. I tossed my bag on the bed and went into the bathroom to take a bath. I spent thirty minutes scrubbing my body, my thoughts, my heart and all.

When I was done. I took the globe out of my side hidden pocket and hid it in a box under my bed.  Satisfied, I climbed into bed and slept.

    The pounding on the door woke me up. I ignored the knocker for a while.
An hour later the knocker came back bothering my door.  Lazily, I dragged my self out of bed and made my way to the door. I didn't check to see who it was.

      Nkasi had been burning up my phone with  dozens of texts since Friday. I ignored them all. She lived two houses away and her knocks are rather persistent.

The door was barely open when she stormed into my apartment, her face a mask of anger. I watched her as she swayed from side to side.

A flowing yellow Ankara gown adorned her body and a flat sandals laced her feet. She was looking gorgeous with no make-up at all.

Locking the door, I quietly went back to bed ignoring her numerous angry complaints. With my back turned to her, I tuned out her yapping and misguided judgments.

        After she had exhausted herself blabbering, she went into the kitchen to make delicious rice and stew. The aroma made my tummy growl, still I made no effort to get up.
Nkasi brought our food in a tray and set it on the center table in the sitting room. The thumping sound on the floor signaled she was making her way to my room.
She stood there and watched me, her eyes full of pity.

       "Unique? She called, walking into the room. "Food is ready."
       "Not interested. "  I mumbled quietly.

       "But,  its your favorite." She said, beaming as though she won a lottery.
I didn't respond. She came over and shook me.
        "Not hungry!" I snapped.

She didn't give up, she went on to shake me for another minute, tickling me even.
      "Rice and palm oil stew with stock fish and serious pepper." She sang it into my ears, anticipating my excitement to show. My tummy rumbled louder.   
                      
      "You see, your tummy is willing but your flesh is weak." She giggled at her own joke.

     Lifting my hands to her, I signaled I needed her to help me up. We made our way to the sitting room, Nkasi behind me. The food called out my name, I quickly descended on it, delivering it from the plate into my tummy in an unusual speed.

Still I was not full. I made a known sign at Nkasi. She understood and got more food for us.
When we had demolished the entire pot of rice, we watched movies and gisted about my experience at the Generation Christian worship center.
  
       Nkasi, blown away by my experience, couldn't hide her excitement. The tone of her voice rose to a higher decibel as her mouth made the repeated  sounds of "hmm's and ah's". She moved from the couch to the floor directly opposite me. Her eyes followed the movement of my lips keenly.

Done with the version of what I wanted to tell her, I shut down.
         "Haba! The gist can not finish like that, there has to me more than this." She complained. Her eye brows raised.

I avoided her gaze and went to use the rest room. After hassling me to no end, she went home, leaving a big bang noise on the door.

When I heard the door close, I knew she was gone. I exited the bathroom and went straight to bed. I had barley touched the bed when I zoomed off to sleep.