Goldfish Bowl

Chapter 6

Wednesdays were grocery shopping days for the Boye family and unfortunately for Alisha, Pastor Bright had given all the volunteers a day off for their 'dedicated work' and it meant that Alisha would be cooped all day in the house while also trying to avoid the same mother that lived with her, she had tried to leave the house in search of something to do but all her friends were occupied, Pami was hanging out with a bunch of ex classmates outside the estate, Gideon was too busy reading a book and Benito was at work.

She might have hung out with Benito but there was a certain rule among circles of friendships where one was closest to a bunch of people and hanging out with the other without the others would prove awkward, and Benito and her were the ones suffering this rule. She just didn't have much in common with the Igbo boy and hanging out with him would only be painful, he might not even have time to chat with her when he was working. And now she was stuck doing the weekly grocery shopping with her mother.

A few weeks ago when the scandal came to light, Alisha's mother had shunned all social functions in disgrace, choosing to hide her face and stay indoors but little by little, she was slowly retreating from that shell because she was bored, now she was determined to cling to the bastard child she bore, no doubt it earned them many glances at the supermarket.

"Am I the first woman to cheat on her husband?" Alisha's mother muttered under her breath to the chagrin of her daughter, she somehow managed to make her whispers sound like booms over the music playing lowly in the background speakers, she cast her daughter sly gazes, communicating something in them. "All of them are staring as if they are saints."

Alisha sighed, wishing she could lose her nagging mother in the row of aisles. In fact, from the moment they had stepped foot into the bright and cool interior of the supermarket, the darn woman had begun her chattering, even before the stares of the other shoppers drew to them.

Perhaps only the first woman to cheat and remain nonchalant about it, She mumbled under her breath.

Their shopping basket was still empty because she was busy dodging the now rising whispers to pay any attention to the list that dangled on her hand. Alisha suppressed a grimace as she snuck a glance at her mother, the woman she was nothing like. Her mother was a stunning beauty who could have passed for a woman in her forties, long black hair as a result of all the expensive hair treatments and not a single hair out of place unlike Alisha's that was a floppy mess. She had a sharp face that was reminiscent of a fox with narrowed eyes, and well, also of the popular Hollywood actress; Angelina Jolie, except that she wasn't as tall, she barely reached Alisha's shoulders.

Her mother was also a curvy beauty and it was the only thing that Alisha envied about her mother.

"Mother, wait in the car," Alisha said sharply, sighing as her mother widened her eyes in an almost child-like gaze. "I can handle the shopping." Since you cannot.

"You are a sweetheart," She threw over her shoulder, dashing out the door like her nonexistent tail was on fire. Alisha couldn't stop the sardonic curling of her lips as all stares returned to her, waiting to see what she would do.

She ignored them, moving further down the aisle of disinfectants, soaps and cleaning agents, she picked up three sachets of Klin and dumped them into the red basket dangling from her arm like a bag. She sang softly to the Fireboy DML song crooning from the speakers, she was the one of the few Nigerian artists of her generation that he could stand, others were just a product of nonsense rambling and catchy beats, but Fireboy was a lyricist, he was who she had hoped to be as an artist.

Except now, her dreams of ever becoming a musician had been put on halt until the scandal passed over.

She brushed past the aisle, occasionally glancing at the list in her hand to pick items off them. Alisha turned left at the end of the aisle and ran smack into someone, she looked up to apologize and her eyes lit up in recognition.