HURDLES

Chapter Twelve

It was Sunday afternoon and the weekend hadn't gone well for Collins. He's been stuck in his room for the past two days only coming out to pick the food Cecilia usually kept at his doorstep. Even when she tried to persuade him to leave the room and follow them to church earlier, he had adamantly refused.

His expectations for the weekend was completely dashed when Mrs Williams had informed him of the tutorial class organized by his mother. Though he tried everything to stop the tutorial from happening, it was going to happen anyway.

He turned and tossed in the bed as his thoughts strayed to his mother. The woman got nerves. After ignoring him for two weeks, she went behind his back to organize a tutorial. Did he tell anyone he wouldn't be able to cope? He always found his way around his maths problem and this time wouldn't have been different.

Or maybe it would have been since his friends helped him then. He shook his head slightly to shake the thought away. That wasn't the point. The point been that his mother neither answered nor returned his calls.

He sat up and took his cellphone from the bed stand. He scrolled to Janet's number and dialled it. On the second ring, he changed his mind and disconnected the call. He stared down at the phone with twitching fingers hoping to get a call back from his mother. He waited patiently, drawing in slow breaths and holding it whenever his phone lit up.

Ten minutes later and no call from his mother. He was beyond upset. He was furious now. He flung his phone in anger which bounced and landed at the foot of the bed.

He couldn't wrap his mind around the situation. Why was this happening? He continuously questioned himself.

He was very close to his mother until recently when he was transferred to Enugu. What could have happened? Could he have done something wrong? Was it his fault? Why wasn't she picking his calls? Was she okay? This questions ran through his mind but he discarded them almost immediately. His mother would have told him if he was at fault. She never failed to voice her mind.

Calling his dad wasn't an option. For one, the middle-aged man won't pick up and the last thing Collins needed was another disappointed. He has had enough to keep him going for the first half of the year.

A growl from his empty stomach as he stretched to pick his phone stopped his choas mind in its track. As if on cue, every part of his body simultaneously started to remind him that they needed to be fed. He sighed and laid back on the bed after retrieving his phone. It was one of those times he was too lazy to attend to his nutritional needs.

Ten minutes later, he was on the stairs making his way down to the kitchen. The hunger was unbearable and he needed energy to curtail his mind from his parents.

He walked into the sitting room and was greeted immediately by Kelechi and Amanda who clustered at his legs requesting to be carried and thrown in the air as was his ritual with them. He bent down and picked up Amanda.

"Carry me too" Kelechi requested raising his two hands up.

"You are heavy." He sat down on one of the sofas with Amanda on his lap and joined them in their letter colouring assignment.

"Good morning" he greeted his aunt when she walked into the sitting room minutes later.

"It's afternoon Collins. You didn't even care to help me with clean up yesterday." She had a little frown on her powdered face. Collins couldn't care less though.

"I didn't feel like it" he replied as he watched Amanda who had abandoned her assignment and was now playing with his fingers.

"Don't you help your mum with chores?" She was surprised at the response. That was never an excuse during her childhood days. "Janet have spoilt you."

"I help her but not all the time. And she didn't spoil me" Collins didn't appreciate the topic of discussion. Her thoughts just had to follow him everywhere. "Is there food in the kitchen? I haven't had breakfast yet."

"Because you refused to come down. Go get your breakfast from the kitchen. More like lunch."

Collins left for the kitchen after putting Amanda down on the sofa. There was no escape from his mum, be it his thoughts or from his aunt. He was beginning to think that this was some kind of punishment for what he did.

"I wanted to talk to you about something" Collins started as he returned with two wraps of moi-moi in a plate.

"What is it? Hope there is no problem?" The concern in her voice couldn't be overlooked even if one tried. Collins wanting to speak to her was a new thing. And he looked serious.

"Why did you ask the proprietress to set a tutorial for me? I didn't ask you to."

"It was your mum that suggested it. You should be grateful that she cares." There was a distant look on her face. She was lost in her childhood memory and compared to hers, Collins' was a walk through the national park.

Collins tsked. "Go tell her I'm not grateful. That's so much help from a woman who hadn't bothered to check on her son for two weeks. Today makes it exactly two weeks I came here, she has neither called nor texted and she claims it's for my own good? That's bullshit" he swore.

"Talk to her not me. Just know that she cares for you no matter what" Cecilia said. She didn't know how to handle the situation. She didn't know how to handle her nephew as a whole. It didn't help that he rarely voiced his thoughts leaving her in the dark most times.

She was drawn away from her thoughts when Collins stood up with the plate of food. "Where are you going? You are not done eating."

"I'm taking it to my room. Thanks for the food" he said before walking up the stairs.

"Call your mom and talk to her" Cecilia suggested.

"I won't" Collins deadpanned before disappearing into his room.

He hissed as he dropped on the bed. No matter how much he tried, thoughts of his mum always resurfaced. It was indeed starting to look like a punishment. Once again, he checked his phone. Once again, there was no calls from either of his parents. He looked away and continued to slowly eat.

He was eventually rewarded as thoughts of the tutorial resurfaced instead. From the WhatsApp message he received yesterday, Benita had informed him that the tutorial was going to start tomorrow. He couldn't argue with the date. Benita was right, they had to start as soon as possible since the mid-term tests was in four weeks' time.

Though the reason for the tutorial was plausible, he still wasn't interested. He had to find a way to thwart it and he needed to come up with a plan before tomorrow afternoon.