The Wife ESCAPED!

Caro sat for her second term exams with the confidence that she was very well prepared and would easily come out on top. And she wasn’t proven wrong when the results finally came out, but the only problem was that someone was also on top of her! She came second in the exams. The margin in marks was very slim, but the sight of that ‘2’ brought tears to her eyes. It meant that not only had she failed to keep her own end of the bargain (to come first) in order to continue working, she had also let herself and her generous guardian down. To her, neither of them deserved anything less than 1st position.

She folded or rather, squeezed the ‘disappointing’ report card, stuffed it into her bag and left for home, ignoring calls from her classmates and friends.

Caro walked like someone in a trance into the parlour of her guardian’s residence. She had not noticed Madam Mary sitting at the shop-front and it was at the second call of her name that made Caro realise that she had been detached from reality.

“Ma!”, she answered as she ran outside to meet her guardian.

“Ah ah, Caro. Wetin happen to your ear? You mean you did not hear when I called you as you were passing here?”

“Sorry ma,” Caro apologized, curtsying. “I swear, I did not hear.”

“So how was school today?”

“Fine ma.”

Mary then turned her attention straight ahead and Caro thought it her cue to leave.

“Where’s your report card na? Won’t you show me?”, the woman suddenly asked, shocking her.

“Eh? Ehh… re… report card?”, Caro stuttered, slowly turning round to face her.

“Yes na. Amaka has collected her own. Abi they did not give you your own?”

“Em… ye… yes, they gave me.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“Then bring it let me see. I’m sure you passed everybody,” Mary said, smiling proudly.

But Caro could not return the smile. She was sweating and fumbling around in her school bag with her shaking hands. At first, she could not find the report card and she was beginning to feel better. How glad she would be if that accursed thing were to get lost forever! But fate did not grant her wish. Her fingers soon made contact with it and she slowly pulled it out of the bag as if it was a bomb or some hazardous material.

“Why did you fold it like this na?”, Mary remarked as she received the paper from her ward. She unfolded it and began to scrutinize the contents, oblivious to the abnormal heartrate of Caro.

“Hmm. English, A. Maths, A. Chemistry, A. Everything, A A A. You tried, my dear. Come and give me a hug.”

“But it’s… it’s second o,” Caro confessed, refusing to move an inch.

“What is second?”

“I took second.” “Really? I did not see it o. Ah, I will buy you a new shoe, very fine one.”

“Eh?”, Caro blurted in surprise. “New shoe?”

“Or you want another thing?”

“No no. I… I like it.”

“Oya, come and give me a hug.”

This time, Caro leaned into her open arms and allowed her fold her into a warm embrace. She could not help but recognize how differently her biological parents would have treated her. As he always did after seeing her report card, her father would have berated her for not taking after him in academic brilliance. According to him, he always came first in his school days, even though he never got anywhere near the four walls of a classroom. But who could dare remind him of that?

The days after the receiving her report card, Caro continued to go to work, which really surprised her. She had expected her guardian to hold her to her end of the bargain, but instead, she had gone ahead to fulfill her promise by buying her a set of trendy shoes and football boots which gave her immense joy and made her the envy of her friends and colleagues. Mary had not once mentioned the agreement they had entered and Caro was forced to put it down to her kind and motherly nature, knowing fully well that she was not one to forget such things. She thanked her stars for having met such a woman and could not help but wish that she was the one who had given birth to her.

With Millicent now on good terms with her, Caro continued working as a tailor, making money and gaining more experience at the same time. She had no care in the world and was bent on nothing but finishing secondary school and getting into university. She only cared what she hoped to do for herself, while being totally oblivious of what others were thinking of doing for or rather, to her.

One fateful afternoon, she was hard at work on a set of school sweaters for children when the human silence and her concentration was broken by a sudden shout of her name. It was the boss’ voice and it emanated from the ‘material room’. Caro quickly left her station and hurried over to the room. She found the boss talking to an apprentice while her son sat close by.

“I’m here, ma,” Caro said.

“Ehen,” the woman turned her attention to her. “You, how many yards did I say you should take from this material?”, she asked, pointing to folds of a thick cloth placed on the table in front of her.

“Five yards, ma,” Caro answered.

“Then how come it looks like they have taken ten yards from it? And who did all this useless cutting?”

“Ah! Ma, I swear…”

“Swear for yourself! You this thief! So this is how you have been stealing my materials to go and sell, abi? I gave you access to this material only once and you have sold more than one quarter of it. You know what? Just pack your bag and get out of this place before I change my mind and call the police.”

“But ma, allow me explain. I did not…”

“I said, get out! Don’t you understand English? Pack your bag and go! Don’t come back to this place again, you hear me?”

“Ma, I swear in the name…”

But the woman didn’t let her complete the statement. She roughly pushed her out of the room, almost making her trip.

“Pack your bag and get out!”, she ordered one last time before marching back to the room.

Caro turned to have a final glimpse of this heartless creature that was once her boss, that was when she caught sight of her son, Michael, smiling at her and sticking out his tongue in mockery. Aha! Now she knew the source of her predicament.

“You are still here, abi? You want me to strip you naked and call the police?”, the woman threatened as she sighted Caro exchanging bitter glances with her son.

To avoid further worsening her current quagmire, the girl picked up her bag and walked out of the building amid stares from apprentices and her fellow workers. Millicent had gone on an errand hours before, so there was no one to stop her and ask what happened. Alone, but not forlorn, she trekked back home.

When Caro arrived home, Madam Mary was seated at the verandah with her phone on her lap. One look at her and Caro knew she had heard the news, so she simply walked past her into the parlour.

“Caro, come back here,” Mary ordered.

The girl shuffled back outside and stood beside her with a glum face.

“Wetin happen?”

“Nothing ma.”

“Come and sit down,” she instructed, patting the space beside her on the bench.

Caro sat down, grumbling, “I did not steal any material o.”

“I know you did not steal. But what really happened? Talk to me.”

“It’s that woman’s son, Michael. He was toasting me, but I refused. Then he said he would deal with me.”

“Hmm,” Mary sighed. “You see why I told you it’s a bad idea to work like this? Abeg, go inside and bathe. There’s food in the kitchen. Don’t worry yourself, dear. We don’t need them for anything. How much are they even paying you?”, she hissed.

Caro wanted to say ‘more than enough for a girl my age’, but she respectfully kept her mouth shut. She was angry, but Mary was certainly not the right person to turn her anger on. The right person was that idiot, Michael. She would teach him a lesson; she surely would.