The Swirl

Ep. 2

Somebody was shaking Mabea awake and she stirred slightly, groaning because her body was telling her that it was in the wee hours of the morning. She cracked open one only to see her mother peering into her face.

"Whaaat?" she groaned as she turned away.

"Wake up before you miss the bus back to the city." Her mother stood up straight. "I have already boiled water for you and I have ironed that shirt that you love. The grey one."

Mabea sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Her whole body felt stiff and sore and she tried to stretch it out a bit.

It had been almost 2 whole weeks since she had arrived home and her mother acted like money grew on trees all that while, giving people things from the house, bragging about how her daughter is a university student and will one day become rich, throwing parties whereby Mabea always had to dig into her pockets to cater for the guests. At this rate that her mother was going, acting like a rich village woman, Mabea would drain her meagre savings that she had managed to scrounge up from her internship.

She was a part-timer at a big production company in the city and a Master's Degree student at one prestigious university, having been awarded a scholarship after she published a paper that caused quite the debate among professionals that dealt in the social sciences. She was the only student being sponsored by some Australian man and she didn't even know any details about her sponsor. All she knew was that her tuition fee, accommodation and living expenses were being paid every month through a sponsorship agency. She was being given more money than she could use every single month including her salary and she always sent some home to help pay for her brother's school fees but now...what was the use of paying if Oratile was not going to school anymore? Mama refused to talk about it or even acknowledge him as her son which left Mabea to deal with him on her own.

She had managed to corner him one time and she had dragged him all the way back to the house while mama was out at some funeral. Oratile had been stubborn but he respected her because she was his older sister and she was practically the breadwinner of the house.

She locked the door and windows, watching him as he paced up and down in the small kitchen like a caged animal.

"Talk!" she commanded, arms folded and a pissed expression on her face.

"If mama finds me here you will get into trouble-"

"Oratile, I will slap you!" she said through gritted teeth. "I don't care if you're some gang member or what! Talk!"

Her brother sat down and stared at the floor stubbornly. She went to the kitchen and came back later with her mother's whip that was kept behind the coal stove.

Upon seeing it, he quickly stood from his chair and backed away. Mabea flexed it and it cracked loudly.

"Oratile, one last chance, talk. Or so help me-"

"Mama has a boyfriend!" he blurted. He knew that even though he should be scared of his mother, he was more afraid of his sister especially when she was mad. She had a very flexible hand when it came to him and he could never fight back. Not even when he had his trusted knife on him. She could whip him raw and he knew it because she had done it before.

"What does mother having a boyfriend have to do with this?"

"He was beating me!"

Mabea raised an eyebrow. "Why were you kicked out of the house?"

"One Day her boyfriend was hitting me and I got fed up and fought back. Mama got in between us and I accidentally hit her in the face. She asked the man to whip me but I ran out and stood at the gate, calling her all the rotten names I could think of but she snapped when I..." he looked down at the floor. "I called her a whore and a witch that killed my father."