I Know My Mother👩🏽(IKMM)✅

Kitchen

The girl glanced at Nneka. Just like Nneka, she wore makeup. Her yellow teeth shone proudly from her bright pink lips as she sneered. "Kilode? What is it?" This girl was already annoying her. "I wasn't looking at you. Please face your front." Nneka thought that the girl looked very ugly in her bright pink Minnie Mouse crop top and her short faded jeans shorts. Her stomach was basically hanging over the shorts, which barely covered her repulsive dark patched thighs. She hissed and turned her head.

The groundnut seller swiftly shoveled some peanuts into a cut out the top of a plastic bottle, and then poured them into a small white plastic bag twice; the second time she scooped only half the original amount. "Take. Na me dey add am for you." She looked reluctant in giving Nneka extra. Nneka thanked the woman and collected the peanuts. As the last area she was in, there was an old wooden bench sitting outside. She ate the groundnuts quickly, making sure to put the empty shells in the plastic bag and throw it away afterward. When she looked back at the groundnut seller, the other girl had gone. She probably hadn't sold anything, like herself.

While eating the peanuts, her mind was on her grandmother. The night before Nneka saw her shuffling into her room and hurriedly stuffing a small brown glass bottle in some space in her cupboard. Nneka knew what it was instantly-it was Baba Jide's special poison. That white powder was made from animal bones, human blood, venom and excreta from cows-and only cows. It was one of the most potent and dangerous poisons you would ever see or hear of in your life. Since he started making the poisons thirty years ago, to date there were no known survivors of this lethal substance. Only he knew how he made them so potent and terrifying.

Two thoughts came to mind. Firstly, her grandmother was certainly harboring bad intentions towards somebody; she had to be very careful when dealing with her, if not she could lose her life. Secondly, she realized that her grandmother had been storing-or stealing money to pay for the bottle. One bottle cost fifteen-thousand naira; the same amount of money that could put her in school for at least five terms. Where did her grandmother get that money from?

She had been begging her grandmother to send her to school for the past three years. Resentment and doubt filled her heart. Nevertheless, she pushed those feelings down as she had to go sell. Making money for herself was what was most important.

She finally got to the road on the 3rd Mainland Bridge. The cars here zoomed past her, the breeze blowing her dress up. Balancing the basket on her head was a task she was all too used to. The sky was now cloudy, the atmosphere was cool and breezy, plus there was a long line of cars creeping slowly on the road. Business would be very good. People were bound to be thirsty in long traffic. She finally started walking along the line of cars, making sure to attract attention to herself so she could sell.

There was a loud honk in front of her. As she moved closer to the car, the tinted front seat window slowly came down. It was a blue Jeep owned by a tall dark man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He gestured for her to come closer to him. "Give me one Sprite. I hope it is chilled." He clenched his fist to emphasize the 'chilled'. She nodded and brought down the basket, then handed him a bottle of Sprite. He nodded slowly and shoved a dirty two hundred naira note in her hand, then hurriedly wound up the window.

They always look disgusted.

She saw that the end of the line was nowhere to be seen. It only meant that she would finish selling early. She would have gotten enough change to buy a biscuit later in the day.

For the next four hours, she ran to cars and bargained with the posh ladies and polished gentlemen who all had an arrogant air. The most annoying customer of the day was a fat middle-aged woman who was on her phone. The woman had clearly been bleaching-her hands were almost as black as charcoal while her face was very light. Her makeup on made things worse, as it was very flashy. Nneka hated the flecks of spit that landed on her face as the woman talked. She had tricked the lady into buying a bottle of Schweppes Lemon for four hundred naira. The rich ones were easily scammed.