Who Will Bail Us Out?
(Curtains fall)
Scene 2
NNEKA
(Talking to herself) Where can I find my mother now? These women with their endless talkathons! They talk and talk and talk and they don’t ever get tired! I wonder what they are always talking about in their endless discussions day in day out. Na wa o!5
MA CHIEMEKA
Nneka! (Raising her voice) Nneka! Is that not Nneka?
(Nneka turns back and sees her mother behind her.)
NNEKA
Ha mama! Thank God o! I was beginning to wonder where I could locate you again.
MA CHIEMEKA
Find me? What for? Am I now like a lost little child that you have to be going about everywhere looking for me all the time? I saw you when you walked pass Ogadimma’s compound and you looked so absent-minded which is what prompted me to call your attention.
NNEKA
Hmm! Ogadimma’s house this early morning! That means you will still want to go back to that house and continue your endless gossip…?
MA CHIEMEKA
Shut up you bad-mouthed child! I say shut up, you hear me!
NNEKA
(Laughs) Maama! See, my mouth is already sealed!
MA CHIEMEKA
You said you were looking for me so I’m asking you again, why? What for? Why didn’t you call me on the phone?
NNEKA
Mama, it’s papa again o! I didn’t call any of you on the phone because none of you left the house with your phones which is very annoying!
MA CHIEMEKA
Shh, let me hear word! So what about him, I mean, your father? Have you not given him his breakfast? Don’t tell me you enjoy starving that man?
NNEKA
I have given him his food. It’s just that… the way I saw papa this morning… I’m afraid… Mama let’s just go home, please.
MA CHIEMEKA
What is it? I hope you did not tell him something bad? You know, for a girl, you have a very sharp tongue and I have warned you several times to do something about it? Or wait… now I see, it is because I left him to go and see my good friend that is making him agitated already! Hmm… hmm (chuckles) hey, I can’t believe it, don’t tell me he loves my company that much!
NNEKA
Mama, to tell you the truth, I think it is none of that. I don’t know why but I think Papa is deeply pained—and troubled. Remember, I have told you before I have this feeling he’s deeply troubled only that he’s just trying to conceal it. Now today, he called me this morning and clearly told me that there is something he wants to tell us, the whole family. He was trying to lighten the whole situation but I can still feel something is not just right with him. Well, anyway, he sent me out to go and summon all of you because he wants to say it in our presence.
MA CHIEMEKA
Then why all the fuss? If he wants to talk to us, then let him talk to us. This is not the first time and I’m so sure it will not be the last time he will want to talk to all of us, will it?
NNEKA
But mama I am deeply worried.
MA CHIEMEKA
Worried? Why?
NNEKA
Mama, I don’t think you've ever seen him the way I saw him this morning. To tell you the truth, I am so scared. I can’t remember the last time I saw him in that mood. Something is really eating him up!
MA CHIEMEKA
Come o Nneka, this thing is beginning to sound less like a joke to me! I hope you are not pulling my legs because I am not ready for such pranks this morning, okay? You and your father… you two will not kill me! If I may ask, you that saw him in whatever condition you said you saw him in, tell me, what could be this thing that is troubling him that I, his wife, didn’t even notice?
NNEKA
Mama you just have to see for yourself.
MA CHIEMEKA
See for myself…? Hmm… in that case let’s just start going home now fast because from the way you are beginning to sound now yourself, I am also getting scared right now! I think there is fire on the mountain! No, no, no, I don’t like the way this thing is beginning to sound now! No, come, let’s start going!
NNEKA
Mama, truly you surprise me. One moment you think I am playing pranks on you; the next moment you get the whole gist and you start acting like crazy…
MA CHIEMEKA
It’s you that is acting like crazy! You don’t know your father! Men! That’s how they are… I don’t know why they are always concealing things! Always keeping things to themselves! Did you say he told you to call your brothers too? Then you better go and find them!
NNEKA
Hmm. Me, I don’t even have any idea where I can find those my brothers… Did they tell you where they were going?
MA CHIEMEKA
(Scoffs) Have they ever told me where they are going? They didn’t but please you just go and find them. In fact, let me be going so that you can go and look for them.
NNEKA
Okay.
MA CHIEMEKA
Please go now and find them. You can start by going to that basketball court or stadium where they normally go for their early morning jogging. Also check that place they watch that em… em… what is it called again… champions…
NNEKA
You mean Champions League? How many times have I told you that they don't show Champions League in the morning?
MA CHIEMEKA
Whatever! Please just go and find them. Something in my mind tells me that your father is at his game again.
NNEKA
Mama you better take it easy o!
MA CHIEMEKA
Hmm! Take it easy?! Nneka please run along. Go and call your brothers. And don’t even think of wasting any time in that boy’s house.
NNEKA
Which boy mama?
MA CHIEMEKA
Seriously? Are you really asking me that question? Wonders shall never end! C’mon will you stop looking at me like that? Yes that your boy! You think we don’t know? Look at the way she’s looking at me! Ikenna, of course!
NNEKA
Hmm maama! I don’t like that o! I’ve told you several times there’s nothing between us…
MA CHIEMEKA
My dear, please leave that one. See my friend; let me tell you, we know these things…
NNEKA
Mama, seriously speaking, I don’t know how many times you want me to tell you that there’s nothing between me and Ikenna. I just don’t know why you keep on bringing up that issue.
MAMA CHIEMEKA
Yes, I know you don’t know. Truth is, I don’t even expect you to know that but what I expect you to know is that I will not stand the shame of seeing you getting pregnant in your father’s house.
NNEKA
Mama, I think you are taking this thing too far…
MA CHIEMEKA
Nneka please I am no longer feeling so fine again this morning. Just go and find your brothers, okay…?
NNEKA
Now mama wait, what if tell you it’s a lie… that I was only joking…?
MA CHIEMEKA
Nneka for your own sake you better don’t! Because it is only God in heaven that can save you from what I will do to you! You think you can just come out here, get me hypertensive and spoil the rest of my morning for me just like that, and then you turn around and tell me you were only joking, huh? Hmm! Don't just try it, you hear?
NNEKA
Hey maama it is not a lie! And it’s not a joke. Papa really wants to talk to all of us!
MA CHIEMEKA
See, Nneka, come, okay, come my dear. You know you are so close to him. Please my dear, if you have any idea of what your father wants to say, why don’t you just tell me now and save me from all these “it is a lie; it is not a lie” wahala6.
NNEKA
Why are getting so worked up? See between you and me I don’t have the slightest idea of what papa is going to say. In fact, let me start going. Let me go and see if I can locate those foolish boys who can never
stay in their own house even for one second!
(Nneka runs along.)
MA CHIEMEKA
(Sighs and starts soliloquizing) Hmmm… these kids with their father! They will not kill me. God in heaven knows they cannot not kill me! Oh yes! I am saying this very loud and with all determination because I want heaven and earth to hear it today! You people cannot kill me!
(She starts marching home frantically, muttering to herself, with so many conflicting thoughts on her mind.)