"Adanna I'm going to the shop, i will be back in the evening please help me clean the house" Mama screamed from the passage before closing the door behind her.
"Okay mama." Adanna quickly responded as she gave all her focus to the movie she was previously watching. She had barely slept a wink since the evening of the previous day. She started this new series and it kept her awake all through the night. It's 9am in the morning and Adanna was still on her clothes from yesterday. Her mum didn't pay much attention to her because she felt she needed to relax after all the hardwork she had put in the other day.
All hell broke lose when it was 8:27pm and Mama Adanna opened the entrance door and found the house the same way she left it in the morning. The only difference was that Adanna used the kitchen a few times and sat on the same spot watching her movie.
Adanna, so you want to tell me that since i left this house in the morning, you haven't done anything reasonable with your life. Is this how you are going to be a mother and a wife? See, i am going to Mama Janet's house to give her the shoe she purchased from me today, the plates are still in the kitchen and house unkept, before i come back home, don't sweep or clean the kitchen. Leave them like this, let me come back and meet them.
Then she angrily left the house muttering words under her breathe. Adanna had really done the unthinkable. In mama Adanna's mind she was creating different scenarios in which Adanna was still watching her movie or better still she won't make the house sparkling clean before she comes back. "She will meet her ancestors today" she mutrered.
African mothers will tell you one thing but the mean another thing. For example, Mama Adanna told Adanna to leave the house the same way it was this morning but deep down she meant another thing.
Nobody teaches African kids how to act when they hear those statements. They just know their life is suddenly at stake.
Adanna proved to her mother that she was a hostage to her addictions. This wasn't the first time she had done this.
Mama Adanna quickly rushed back home because she really wanted to teach Adanna a big lesson. When she walked into her house Adanna had already swept the whole house and was just cleaning the sink because she had just washed the plates.
Adanna looked at her mum and knew that she had just escaped death. From today being the 22nd of october till December 22nd i don't want to see that television on again. If you are bored and don't know what to do, open your books and read. This attitude i will be the one to exorcise you of it, because i don't know why a young girl like you will spend her 24 hours in front of a television watching people who are millionaires. You sit there broke as ever and you don't even have anything doing to improve your mindset. Let me catch that television on again, you will see why they call me Mopol woman.
She had gained that name when she embarrassed a man who had been harrassing another market woman who happened to be her neighbour. The man folded his hands in a fist to bully and extort them and Mama Adanna interferred and the man found himself on the floor. It was a really funny sight because the man started crying. Since that day everyone respected her and their market line was never harassed because they feared her.
Adanna sneaked into the sitting room by 1am in the morning when her mum was fast asleep. She turned on the television and reduced the volume because the movie had subtitles. Adanna was a hostage to her own desires.
Mama Adanna woke up by 5am and by that time Adanna had already gone back to bed, pretending that she had been there since the previous night.
Like a wise African mother, Mama Adanna went straight to the sitting room immediately and touch the television and observed that it was hot meaning someone had turned it on.
"Adanna, come here osiso (quickly)"
Adanna staggered out of her bed and rushed to the sitting room and immediately she was jerked up with a heavy response from her mum. The same response she had given the bully at the market.
'You think I'm a fool, Adanna anything trick you will use and the one you want to use, i have already used all of them. Before Abraham, Jesus was.
Adanna fell flat on the flog with both of her hands of her right cheek. Mopol woman just gave her a taste of it.
Till the 31st of December Adanna never turned on the Television. Even when her mum asked her to come see a movie with her, she felt it was a trap and ran to her room. A slap freed her from being a hostage to her addictions. A waking up call to reality.