Medium passage. Medium door. Medium room. Medium bed. Medium shoes. Medium pot by the side with medium water boiling on a medium stove.

Some Landlords are enemies with house plans and constructions. It was like after creating zigzag-buildings on his land, this particular spot was left and he still wanted to build something just to cover up the whole land.

He then built a medium room. Not small. Not big, right in the middle of the compound.

Amanda, a medium woman lived there too. Not fat, not slim. Not tall, not short. Not stupid, not educated.

For years, Amanda and her three kids occupied the house in the middle of the compound, it was like an isolation within a circumference.

“Peter carry the stove and the pot outside for me. The smoke is too much. Then go and call your brothers”

Peter the eldest of her little boys did as he was told and ran out to fetch his brothers.

“Anything I do people must see. Anything I cook they must know. No money in my hand, what can I cook now?”

She sluggishly placed her hand on her head and stepped out to watch the empty water boiling on the stove.

“This one is simply waste of kerosene o. Hei! What will my children eat this night? God!”

The boys trouped in.

“Peter bring that my purse for me” she said.

Peter shouted from inside. “Mummy you don’t have money today. Just 150.” He handed the money to his mother.

“Mummy let’s buy one one one gala for us” Kenneth the third son said jumping happily about his suggestion. They surrounded her.

“One one one gala for us. The 150 will finish. So what will Mummy eat. Big head” Peter cautioned.

Amanda laughed and rubbed the three little heads around her. “Jesus Christ our saviour fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes.”

“Just five loaves? When me and Peter and Kenneth can finish six big bread” Henry the second bragged.

“I know the story in the bible. It’s a miracle.” Peter remarked.

“Haha this children, let me go and buy something from Ngozi. Peter tell them the story”

Amanda said and slid her feet into her slippers.

The boys were still arguing inside when she left them shouting, “Peter don’t let them go out, tell them stories”

She walked passed about six apartments adjacent to her house and turned left to a narrow road which led her to a kiosk at the front of the compound.

Ngozi was measuring the rice.

“Two cups? E go do ona?” Ngozi asked her matter of factly.

“Yes na. Your rice dey rise well well o. Give me 50 naira crayfish too. Nothing dey there, na just to cook am well”

“My sister you dey try o”

“Na God, These boys too dey chop and as them dey grow. Them wan chop me dry o”

They laughed.

Amanda returned to her home and prepared the meal.

It was 8pm and the boys were ready to eat and zoom off to the bed. Amanda usually lay on the floor in comfort of her wrapper every night.

As she served them the meal, she placed three cups of water filled to the rim by their side.

The boys ate and drank or rather drank and ate while she finished the little half burnt mold of rice in the pot.

Later, when they were asleep......

Cotinue:
http://egbechofaith.com/amanda-mother-new-storyyourlibraryforreals/