A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo

Author:Ayobami Adebayo [Adebayo, Ayobami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

part III

Waiting for an Angel

As I turned and surveyed the gate and the fences beside it, I saw the fences suddenly transform into thick walls, standing tall, top-tufted with barbed wire and broken bottles, arms widespread to restrain and contain and limit. I wanted no more limits; only those I set for myself.

—Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila

· 13 ·

Ẹniọlá did not want to do it, but according to his mother, there were no alternatives. Every relative within reach had been begged to contribute the little they had. And now, as his mother counted the money that had been gathered so far, Ẹniọlá wished it would all add up and somehow be enough. For school fees, for food that week, for what was left of rent. He would even settle for just rent and school fees. He’d gone for days without food before and would gladly do so this week to avoid begging in the streets again.

“Three thousand two hundred and ninety,” Ẹniọlá’s mother said. “We made 3,290 naira yesterday.”

It had been almost nine p.m. by the time they all got home the previous evening, and Ẹniọlá’s mother had refused to count money in the dark. They’d been on the street twice since Ẹniọlá’s mother suggested it. Last Sunday and yesterday. Today would be the third day.

“Today will be better than yesterday,” Ẹniọlá’s mother said, folding the bills she’d just counted. “People are more generous on Sundays. Remember last Sunday? Six thousand o, almost six thousand in total.”

His mother also believed people were more generous on Fridays. That, fresh from Jummat, most people were eager to do good deeds. After their first outing last Sunday, she had suggested they all go and beg in front of the central mosque that Friday, but Ẹniọlá’s father found his voice and insisted that the children should be in school instead. When his mother did not argue, Ẹniọlá had wondered if she was simply too surprised by his father sounding as if he cared about something for the first time in a while. Ẹniọlá assumed that she went to the mosque while he was at school but did not ask her about it. He’d noticed crayfish in the soup that night and tried to enjoy it without thinking about how wasteful it was for them to eat like that, since the landlord’s rent was not completely paid off and not a naira of his or Bùsọ́lá’s school fees had been paid.

“So, 10,000 naira deposit to keep us in school, and 25,000 balance for the landlord. That’s 35,000 naira. Minus this 3,290, you have 31,710 naira. We have 31,710 naira to go,” Bùsọ́lá said, flipping a page and scribbling in her notebook. She was intent on completing all her homework before leaving the house that morning.

“It’s not that much.” Ẹniọlá’s mother gave the money she just counted to his father. “We paid the landlord five thousand naira on Friday.”

Although Ẹniọlá’s father never went begging with the rest of his family, all the money they got was always handed over to him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.