THE EVIL THOUGHT
(Flash fiction by Michael Okoro Kalu)
Despite the Jay Z's "Empire State of Mind" banging at full volume on my Beats By Dre headphone, the shout startled me.
It was a brief super shriek and I didn't mind my new Tecno Camon C9 on the floor as I rushed into my mum's room.
She was quiet now, stationary, standing and vibrating, her right hand still holding her phone to her ear and the left in her mouth, the nails obviously suffering between the sets of gnashing teeth.
I was transfixed, unable to move forward to hold her as the sets of feet rushed up the stairs.
Dad was the first to burst in with the girls, my two kid sisters shouting Mummy and following. She let him hold her for the first time in 10 years as the phone dropped from her hand, murmuring Ifeoma, Ifeoma.
In tens of seconds, she managed to pass the intelligence to us that Aunty Ifeoma was involved in an accident and is at the accident and emergency unit of FMC. 'I must go see her' she said, pushing Daddy away like a leper.
'I will drive you', Daddy said, 'put yourself together. Now girls, mummy is fine, let's go to the parlour. Junior, go get your sisters' bags, I think they dropped them on the stairs.' 'Are we not going for the weekend again', enquired little Emily. 'Of course you are', I heard Daddy say as I moved down the steps.
As I returned with the girls' packed bags, Mum emerged from her room in an orange T-shirt over a pair of blue Jean and black slippers.
'Junior, take care of your sisters let me drive Mummy to the hospital. We'll be back soon.'
Mum eyed him suspiciously before moving fast ahead of him diwnstairs.
From the window, as we watched Daddy's G-Wagon crawl into the main road, the evil thought emerged from my belly like some filthy gas. Wouldn't it be nice if Aunty Ifeoma were actually dead and not just critically injured? She was not really an Aunty but mum's best Friend and - I so much believe - the reason my parents are no longer together even though they never fought. I wondered if her death will make Mummy let Daddy back in, or any other man at all.