Chapter Nine

Few days had gone by after the incident with Lamee. Farida tried her best to stay invisible, surviving on leftover food she finds in the kitchen every morning when she went to clear the day's ashes. She hoped and prayed that a new supervisor would be assigned to her. But it all seems to be in vain because today Lamee was already awake and now walking to the servants side of the household with a grim face set in determination as if she was walking into an evil forest to fight off evil spirits. 

A cold shiver ran down Farida's spine as her eyes fell on the woman that had occupied her thought for days. 

'I cannot be coming here every morning to tell you what to do, you are to come to my hut every morning after doing all the necessary morning chores and if there is any other work to do I will let you know.' 

'Okay Lamee. I was thinking to start the chores when you came.,' Farida said, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, hoping the older woman would not bring up the issue of her tripping her.     

'you are not supposed to stand and be thinking rather start making use of your hands and feet before I lose my temper.'            

'of course, I'll just start.' Farida said, walking swiftly from Lamee to avoid any form of confrontation. 

'make sure you do every single thing well.' Lamee called out. 

'of course supervisor, I'll do every single thing to your taste to avoid being at the receiving end of your wrath.' She Murmured under her breath, rolling her eyes as she walked away to do as Lamee suggested. 

****** 

Regardless of the bone chilling harmattan cold, Farida did all the morning chores she was expected to do without muttering a single complaint to the still quiet household. 

Dragging her feet, she proceeded to the next thing on her to do list which was to go report herself to her short tempered supervisor. But for the life of her, she couldn't identify which of the huts was Lamee's hut as the huts look all the same with the exception of the huts in the servants side of the household and three other big huts in the big household. 

Feeling stupid for not asking the woman for the direction to her hut earlier, she stood contemplating on which hut to go to. Farida almost jumped out of her skin when someone cleared their throat to get her attention. Turning to get a better look at the person who almost scared her to death, she released a breath she never knew she was holding when she saw the old man from days back. 

'we need to stop meeting like this!' she screamed in her head while she offered a smile to the old man. 

'Why are you always up so early when the rest of the household are still asleep? Hope you are not up to another mischief.' The old man said with a teasing smile gracing his own thin lips.      

'Not at all wise one,' she said, going down on her knees to greet the old man in a proper manner. 'And sorry for my manners, good morning wise one.'       

'Morning my dear. How are you doing?' 

'I am fine thank you.' She answered still on her knees.      

'I hope so, because the last time I saw you, you were boiling with so much anger that I thought you were going to bust into tiny flames and perhaps with a bit of fear and shock for seeing old, fragile me.' He said in one whole breath. 

A throaty laugh was all Farida gave as a response and when he received no further response from the young lady kneeling in front of him, he decided to let her stand to her feet. 'you didn't answer my question young lady. Why are you up so early?'    

'I…I'm looking for my supervisor's hut,' she was nervous under the old man's watchful eyes that tend to look through her very soul.    

'Supervisor?' A frown creased his forehead as he asked the question. 'oh! Do not tell me that woman I saw you last time with was your supervisor?' 

'Yes she is and I think they call her Lamee. I will be glad if you please direct me to her hut wise one.' Farida said dusting an invisible dirt from her wrapper. 

'Lamee? Someone else's supervisor?' the old man asked in disbelief. 

'That is what it seems wise one,' she said, now a little impatient. 

'I see, this boy has turned out to be a complete fool,' he muttered to himself, the crease on his forehead deepening a little more than before. 'Ah! Stop calling me wise one it makes me feel older than I am my dear.' Once again the smile graced his lips. 

'May the gods of our land help me. What is wrong with the old people in this village? Everyone feels older than their age when I address them properly,' she thought. 'maybe I should stop and start calling them…' 

'If I may ask, what is the name of this beautiful young maiden?' he asked, interrupting her thought. 

'Farida' she answered shyly. 

'Strange but it sounds quite pleasant to my ears. Lamee's hut is over there, turn right then left. you will surely not miss it, the hut has two black feathers hanging in front of the entrance.' 

'Thank you wise…grandpa.' She said in a rush before turning and leaving the old man. 

'That sounds better even though I am not yet a grandfather,' the old man thought laughing quietly to himself before walking in the opposite direction from the young maiden with the strange name. 

****** 

Farida sat down tiredly as she entered the hut she considers to be hers by now, with a bowl of cassava foofoo and bitter leaf soup in hand. Touching her chin that was still very tender from where a goat she tried milking gave her an unexpected kick, reminded her of the tedious work she did after rushing through her morning chores.

It was as clear as day that Lamee still resented her as she made sure she was kept occupied all day long. From milking goats to washing bitter leaves and finally the dehulling and separating of locust beans which led to the other pain she was feeling in her upper arms. 

Dehulling and separating the hull of locust beans was the hardest task she regarded to have done in her entire life so far. For one who only enjoys eating the end product and never participating in any activity of producing Opehe was sure to find it hard to do, which she absolutely did. It took Farida a lot of effort to not crush the seeds by imitating the other servants' movement of their pestles but it was pointless as the overseer of the activity took notice of her futile attempt.

'you do it this way,' said the overseer, an older woman that barely reached Farida's waist with an air of authority which comes only with years of successful practice as she collected the pestle from her. Demonstrating to Farida the force she's supposed to put behind the pestle to remove the hull from the seeds without turning the whole thing into a mess inside the mortar. Pounding the beans properly as she was shown took time, energy and patience. But by the end of the afternoon, she herself was proud of her progress.

'you all can take a break now. You've done a great job today, especially you, the new girl.' The woman said loudly for everyone of the servants to hear and acknowledged Farida with a slight nod in her direction, making those around look at her. 'Start moving to the kitchen area to collect your meal for the afternoon but I want to see all of you here after eating. We aren't done for today yet.'

For Farida not to have received any mouth lash from the overseer Lamee sent her to that morning  and having to eat some food, made her smile genuinely.

Not wanting to show up late, she ate her share of Apkulu and pepper sauce quickly as she saw some servants doing as well. And lucky for her that paid well as she was later assigned to fetching water from the stream with those servants she saw rushing their food earlier. She learned from one of the boy servants that tried talking to her on their way to the stream that the water was to be used to sort out the dehulled beans by washing in water.

The two trips to the stream weren't boring at all as Uti the servant boy wasn't tired of talking to Farida all through and likewise she was not tired of listening to him and laughing at his silly jokes. 

Uti talked about nearly everything in the village to the gossip he heard about her and the nickname the servants named her; The fearless lady, 'how ironic to what I felt this morning,' she snorted, making him look at her funny before they both burst out laughing. And that was how she ended her day happily but back to her sleeping space utterly exhausted to the bones.