MENSTRUAL à la carte!

"You must eat my own menses blood"! Clare shouted like a deranged being, sitting astride on top of Oge and trying to stuff her used menstrual pads into Oge's mouth. Several of Clare's neighbours in the compound she lives and from surrounding compounds tried to hold her back.
"Clare I know you to be a good Christian o! Leave vengeance for God"! one woman shouted, trying to pull out Clare from Oge, but Clare jerked free from her and pushed her away furiously with one hand and still stuffing one of the used menstrual pads into Oge's mouth who suspiciously was offering no resistance.

"This one is not Christian matter ma! She must eat these pads!" Clare fumed, trying to push one of the pads she had succeeded in stuffing inside Oge's mouth further down her throat.
A choking Oge started coughing and pleading for help. The pad in her mouth did not allow her speak coherently as she mumbled,
"Mudum furguuv mu. Ut's thu duvul"! ("Madam forgive me. It's the devil"

"Clare, you will commit murder o! Please don't take the laws into your hands"! Another woman shouted.
Other neighbours were more interested in videoing the whole pandemonium with their phones rather than salvaging the situation.

"I am here live at Hussell Street where one woman is feeding her house help with her used menstrual pads. People are trying to stop her but the woman strong like tiger. Follow my page for more updates..." one young man was saying, probably live on Facebook or some other social media. One elderly man sneered at him and said, "You youths of these days, social media will kill you"!

At that moment 4 armed policemen drove into the compound in a rickety Hilux van with the inscription "Nigerian lice". The "Po" part of the word "Police" was probably sprayed off during panel-beating repairs of the rickety vehicle. On sighting the armed policemen, some people disappeared from tbe scene, knowing the Nigerian Police common penchant for arresting anything arrestable even miles away from a crime scene.

"Madam do you want to kill that girl"! One of the policemen barked and dragged Clare brutally off Oge's body. Clare's chest was heaving up and down with suppressed rage as two of the police men held her on each side. Oge stood up feebly and spat off the pad in her mouth. She was coughing and spitting out her saliva repeatedly.

"Chi gị azọọ gị"! Clare said in Igbo,(meaning "your God has saved you" glaring murderously at Oge who continued to cough and spit.
"Shut up"! One of the policemen holding Clare shouted at her."We are taking two of you to the station."

Clare is a 35 year old registered nurse working at the Federal Teaching hospital in town. Her husband was promoted and transfered to another state about 12 hours away and hence was not resident with her and their 3 kids. Living apart from her husband after just 2 years of marriage has not been easy for Clare and her husband but like most career couples of the 21st century, they had to improvise. Their marriage was now 10years old and her husband always tries to visit her and the kids at least one every month. He had a very good paying job that was worth the trouble so Clare was not complaining, at least in the area of money. But taking care of 3 kids alone most times was not funny for Clare especially when she had to be on night duty and leave her kids with her next door neighbour.

Clare is a very hardworking and multi-tasking lady at the home front and has never been a fan of having a househelp. Unfortunately, at the hospital she works, she was posted to the wards she had been dreading which entails her doing night duties at least 5 times every month. Before now, she had been at the clinics where she only needed to work the normal Mondays to Fridays and hence had no worry of leaving the kids all alone throughout the night as they were still quite young. The oldest of her kids just turned 8.

During Clare's husband's last visit, he and Clare agreed and they got a househelp so that Clare would no longer need to be bothering their neighbour with leaving her kids there when she is on night duty. Their neighbour where she brings her kids to pass the night had 5 kids of their own and Clare recently started noticing that this-is-no-longer-easy for-me kind of look on her neighbour's wife's face each time she brought the kids to her.

So Clare and her husband got Oge as their househelp after a frantic search. Oge is a 19 year old lady who chose the option of being paid monthly and was placed on a salary of ₦35,000 every month. Clare felt it was too much for a young lady that she was feeding, sheltering, and providing her toiletries. But her husband would have none of it.
"If you make them happy they stay and also will take good care of your kids in your absence", her husband had said.
"Ok OOO! It's your money", Clare agreed.

Before Oge arrived, Clare's husband had brought in some hi-tech engineers that wired strategic areas of the house with an almost invisible solar-powered CCTV cameras which ensured they were on 24/7.

"Babe you like wasting money shaa"! Clare had protested."Money that you would have used to buy enough meat we would have stored up in the deep freezer that will even last us 3 months."

But Clare swallowed her words about 6 months later when the CCTV camera revealed to her and her husband a very ugly incident concerning Oge. In one of the CCTV footages Clare's husband had monitored remotely, he had seen Oge remove her panties in the kitchen while cooking. It was in the afternoon around 12 noon when the kids had gone to school and Clare was on morning duty. After Oge pulled down her panties, a blood-stained pad was clearly seen attached to the panties, meaning she was on her monthly menstrual cycle. Then she took a bowl of water and washed her menstruating private parts thoroughly into the water. Without any form of hesitation, she poured the blood-stained water into the freshly made pot of stew she had just finished preparing some moments ago. She stirred the stew well and covered the pot. She pulled up her panties and washed her hands with with soap and water in the hand sink.

***to be continued

© Chinedum Igwe (2023), https://www.facebook.com/dexteritymedia?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Note: The characters in this story are are a product of the author's imaginations and bear no resemblance whatsoever to individuals either living or dead. Any such resemblance is purely coincidental.