The Externals Reloaded - Chapter Eight

 Grounded😪😪😪

Prior to the time Mary told Quinn to come out for breakfast, she had let a bunch of real foul mouthed people into the house because they begged to see a white boy for the first time and even paid her for it. As if that wasn't enough, some of them had body odors and were quite unruly so before they could all get a feel of his skin or hair texture, they made him collapse. Thank God at least one of them knew how to restitute him, else something worse would have happened. Mary got grounded again but this time, she didn't care.

Despite the stress Mrs. Kunbi went through to make a burger breakfast for Quinn, he said it wasn't fit for consumption after taking a bite which he later spat back into his plate and dumped the rest in the waste bin. Mrs. Kunbi was angry but there was nothing she could do to him because he was her guest. She still offered to make him another food but he turned her down and gave Martha some dollars instead, to help him get a fine American meal from a foreign restaurant which was miles away. On a norm, Mrs. Kunbi wouldn't have allowed someone send her child an errand on the island but there was nothing she could do in this case. Her only succor was that Martha would get familiar with the classy side of Lagos.

When Martha came back, Mrs. Kunbi hoped he'd be satisfied with what she bought but he wasn't. He only forced himself to take one or two bits and threw the rest in the gabbage, not knowing some kids in the compound who were so curious to know it tastes like later came to carry it. Likewise for lunch, he had to send Martha to the same restaurant because he was afraid Mary might poison him but in the evening, he ordered for dinner since his phone was all ready to help him explore the Nigerian world.

In the evening, there was no power supply which made the apartment stuffy so they had to dine outside with the anopheles specie of mosquito and kids who wouldn't stop staring at their meals like they had stolen it from them. Quinn insisted on staying inside because he wasn't used to eating outside but barely five minutes later, he ran outside like a mad man, with only his boxers on. While others pitied his condition, Mary laughed like there was no tomorrow. Then again, she was tempted to develop a soft spot for him when he gave the remmant of his meal to a little malnourished boy but soon got over it.

After dinner and few more minutes, every other person went to their apartment. Quinn said he'd still stay outside for a bit because he wasn't ready to sleep. Mrs. Kunbi allowed him but made Martha stay behind as well for security reasons. She knew the bad boys in the area were capable of conniving to hurt him in order to get access to his dollars and Martha hadn't lost the taekwando skills she used in defending them when robbers came to their neighborhood the previous week.

Quinn expected Mart to feel sorry for him, having heard about the ordeals he's been going through since he arrived in his fatherland but instead of doing that, he made fun of him. He told him how lucky he was to be living with two cute ladies and how he'd kill for an opportunity to be in his shoes. Grudgingly, Quinn agreed that Martha be called pretty because she was nice to him but vowed never to see vicious Mary as anything other than ugly and would have taken more time to describe how despicable she was if his new Nigerian network didn't start messing up. He complained to Martha hoping she could do something about it but her response was, "Welcome To Nigeria".

On Sunday, which is number three of the days Quinn spent in the Adebamigbe's apartment, he was woken up by the megaphones of religious centers around their vicinity. Frustratingly, he asked Mrs. Kunbi if there was anything she could do about it though he already knew what her answer would be no. Well, she couldn't even control the giggling of her twins which kept him awake for about half of the night so what could she do about something that had to do with the general populace. Like the clueless Nigerian that he was, he also suggested reporting them to the police because the noise was really affecting his brain. Mrs. Kunbi shook her head in disagreement after hearing that, only Martha cared to explain the implication of doing so while Mary giggled on.

No one in the Kunbi household ate to church that morning because it was their tradition. Quinn would have loved to go against it if the restaurant he orders from was open and even Mary too would have glady gone to get the order for him because fasting wasn't her thing as well. He also wanted to stay but there was nothing in the house to keep him busy - the power supply wasn't back on and his phone was dead. However, he enjoyed watching people do all sorts of crazy things to praise God in the teenage church where he stayed with the twins. Though he didn't get the meaning of most of the songs they sang since they were local, he still enjoyed hearing them. He also enjoyed the attention people gave him but never agreed to take pictures with any of them.

"Queen! Queen!", Mrs. Kunbi's voice got Quinn out of bed the following day, which was Monday. It was the same day Khadijat Mohammed went to school after pissing off her mom.

"Hey, I've told you several times not to call me that!" Quinn was angry. Aside from the fact that his fellow Nigerians laugh whenever they hear his name, they also pronounce it wrongly.

"Oh..I'm so sorry, Queen", Mrs. Kunbi froze.

"Just keep talking", Quinn sighed, thinking staying mad at his host may not be good for him.

"Hmm..it's time for school", Mrs. Kunbi smiled.

"So early!" Quinn groaned.

"The early bird catches the worm, you know", Martha said to encourage him.

"I clearly don't have a beak, dummy", Quinn slammed his door and got into the bathroom to have his bath. One of the things he learnt from living with a woman is to always wash the face first so he applied soap on it. Unluckily for him, there was no water in the bathroom to wash it off!

Even after he had finished his bath and was eating a bowl of Kellogs frosted flakes he bought himself with milk and blueberries, he still felt the impact of the bits of soap that got into his eyes before Martha got him water. To apologize for what he said to her since he thought that could be the cause of his misfortune (You know that feeli something bad happened to you because you hurt someone), he allowed her eat from it and gave Mrs. Kunbi as well. Only Mary was left with no choice but to take pap with groundut and it didn't help that she kept salivating even when there was no food in her mouth.

For making her go through that kind of torture, Mary resolved to make Quinn suffer until he agrees she's boss. She was expecting to get a offer from him and then decline it even if it'll be very tempting or accept it under the pretence that she was considering whether to forgive him or not. Before the end of breakfast, the little boy Quinn gave part of his meal also came to tell him goodbye as he was going to school but he only gave him a displeased look which made him cry. He didn't appreciate malnourished children sticking to him like a pest.

"You guys have to behave yourselves at school oo. I don't want to hear any complain about either of you", Mrs. Kunbi turned on the ignition of her car. She resolved to give them a ride to school for Quinn's sake.

"Why do you Nigerians have to add oo at the end of every sentence you make", Quinn coughed because of the dust that was coming out from the car Mary was cleaning.

"It's part of the things that make our conversations fun", Martha said proudly and Quinn gave her a "fun my foot" look.

"Mom, this is unfair! You should have told me to clean this car yesterday. Now, my uniform has stains on it", Mary almost cried. She had "dressed to kill" just to pepper her classmates but Mrs. Kunbi killed her vibes.

"A grounded person doesn't complain so shut your mouth", Mrs. Kunbi opened the bonnet of her car to put water in the radiator while Quinn laughed.

"Mom, please let me assist her so we won't be late to school", Martha pitied her twin.

"There is still time so you better stay back or you'll be grounded with her for life", Mrs. Kunbi threatened.

"How long does it take to get to your school?" Quinn questioned Martha.

"Fifteen minutes by car", Martha said with an inaudible voice, she was still affected by her twin's state.

"I'm done", Mary finally threw away the cloth she was using to clean the car away with annoyance.

"There's no way I'm going to survive in this heat den for fifteen minutes", Quinn cringed, remembering the experience he had when they were coming from the airport.

"So?" They chorused.

"If you tell me there's nothing called Auber here, I'll relocate to heaven", Quinn grumbled.

"Then get ready to become a dead man", Mary smirked, eyeing the knife a bread seller was using to spread butter on the bread the most troublesome woman in their compound bought.

"Seriously?" Quinn searched for suitable answers in Martha's eyes.

"Don't mind her", Martha finally talked. "We have taxi drivers in abundance. Only that their car's ac might not work as much as you expect and they may not want to come to our area because of the bad road".

"Arrghh! Nothing works perfectly in this damn country", Quinn gave Mrs. Kunbi's car a punch and immediately regretted doing so.

"I'm so sorry, my dear. Things must have been so hard for you", A middle aged woman in the compound who liked Quinn said. 

"Do you mind getting a ride from me? My car's AC is working perfectly".

"That's so kind of you", Quinn said before Mrs. Kunbi could refuse her help. Everyone in the compound perceived her to be a child-devouring witch.

"Good morning, Mrs. Pat. Can I get a ride from you too", Martha faked a smile. She was willing to do anything to prevent her beloved from being far from her.

"Sorry, dear. There are lots of loads in the back seat. Only the front seat is available for him to sit", She opened the door of the car for Quinn to enter.

"Ah ah ah...", Mary laughed until they got to the gate of their school.

Mrs. Pat was the richest woman in the area the adebamigbes lived. Yet, people avoided associating with her because she had never been able to mother a child. They assumed she had miscarriages because she sacrificed her foetuses for wealth and things got worse when she lost her husband in the struggle. Since then, she had cut ties with her neighbors yet chose to remain in the apartment they started their marital journey because she hadn't gotten over him.

"How are you today mom?" Quinn cared about her swollen eye bags even though no one else did.

"I'd prefer you call me Pat. I'm not deserving of that title because I've never birthed one", she replied while struggling to fight the emotions being call that made her feel.

"Stop avoiding the question mom", Quinn didn't give up. His voice remained sober and caring.

"I've long forgotten how it feels like to have someone care for me", Mrs. Pat couldn't fight back her tears this time. She had to pack her car at a spot for the period her crying lasted.

"You better get used to it", Quinn patted her back.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Happy new month to you all😁😍 A big thank you to you all for your support the previous month and for what you'll do in this mont. I'm so sorry I couldn't publish last week (my brother had his wedding and it was lit🔥) I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please, don't forget to drop your comments. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Your dearest writer,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa🥰