Page 52 of Cursed Daughters
“Mo, I think you’ve had enough.”
“Do you now?”
“Mo.”
“Kalu.”
They stared at each other, and then he leant back and crossed his arms. Mo ordered her drink and spent the rest of the hangout silently comparing herself to Amara.
Then there was the awkwardness at the end of the date. She had taken for granted that Golden Boy would drop her home. She did not expect that he would also be dropping Amara home. And it turned out Amara’s home was closer to his, so they stopped at Mo’s house first, with her half stumbling out of the car. He didn’t get out to help her or to say goodbye; he simply drove off with the other woman.
XIII
She threw up in the toilet bowl.
Ebun sat on the bathtub, rubbing her back. Mo didn’t want to be touched, but didn’t have the energy to shrug off her cousin. Her head was spinning and her stomach churning. Sango was watching from the doorway, whining. She threw up again.
“Kí ló n ??l?`?!”
Her mother and her aunt had joined Sango at the door. She groaned. She did not want to have to deal with them.
“Ebun, what is the matter with your ?`gb?´n?”
“She just…she just doesn’t feel too well.”
“Why? What did you eat?”
“Please, just…” and then she was throwing up again. She heard Ebun shoo them away, promising an explanation later. The door mercifully closed.
Her cousin helped her clean up. She provided the bottled water Mo used to rinse her mouth. She brought Mo a change of clothes, because Mo had taken a moment too long to get to the toilet bowl; and she gave her some mints to disguise the smell of the alcohol.
When Mo had gathered herself, she followed her cousin to the living room, because the mothers would want to know what was happening. And also because she needed them. She could feel Golden Boy slipping through her fingers, and she suspected she would not be able to fight the curse alone.
They sat and she unburdened herself. Her mother listened in silence, and even Aunty Kemi managed not to interrupt. Monifebroke down the first meeting with Golden Boy’s mother, the introduction of Amara, the impromptu lunch with Mrs. K and meeting the girl she now considered a threat. But how could she make Golden Boy see, without sounding jealous and unreasonable? What control did she have?
“Hmm,” said her mum.
“Hmm,” echoed Aunty Kemi.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, Monife. But this one is a matter for Mama G.”
She sighed. “Mum, I am not going to resort to juju.”
“Okay o.” Her mum crossed her arms, and then a minute later uncrossed them. “Listen to good advice. Your aunty and I have been through all of this. This is not a simple matter. Now, if you don’t want this guy, then there is no problem. But if you want him to stay, you have to address the curse.”
“Your mummy is telling you the truth.”
Ebun shook her head. “You people purport to be Christians, but—”
“Who are you calling ‘you people,’ Ebunoluwa?!”
“Aunty, I don’t believe in all this…juju stuff,” Mo added.
“Okay, no problem. Then nothing will happen, abi? But if something does happen, it will be in your favour. Or would you rather wait for everything to scatter around you?”
XIV
Mama G had moved again. She was still on the island, but this time she had taken up behind a block of flats, on soon-to-be-developed land that had a No Squatting sign on its concrete walls. Mo walked right past the corrugated-tin hut a couple of times before she realised that this was the metal house her mother had described. She wondered if tin was an upgrade or a downgrade from the wooden shack. How easy would it be for a big, bad wolf to blow it away? She knocked on the door and the hut trembled—pretty easy, then.
