I sit inside the shop on the two-armed red plastic seat like my butt has been glued to it. The monsters inside my head began playing dangerous games since the past five days despite my warnings and threats.
As of three days ago, Mum had pleaded with me to go to the nearest chemist to get some drugs... She even opted to help me buy, " Mana Mummy, okwa i ma na-adiro'm anu ogwu?" I asked her in her native language.
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"Ngwanu, nolunu ebeanwa kwube n'idiro anu ogwu."
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I hardly fell sick and mother thought it was one of my jokes until she watched me for over two hours without my hands reaching for my phone even when it rang.
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"Amara, jee n'nke Doc. Noel k'igote ogwu, ana'm agukwa ya ka egwu kita.
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My name is Mbagwu Amarachi KanyiraluChukwu Ijeoma Fransisca Chilaka. I am not the drug type. I don't believe in drugs(I'm not being religious).
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As I still lay down inside the shop helplessly hoping for good health, the thoughts of my grandmother began to play in my head and in my mind, not that she is too nice but because of what she taught me sometime 9-to 10 years ago in Mbaise, my village. Then, my father had a car. I had fallen ill that day and was driven to the St. Peter's Hospital in Eke-Eziagbigu to be given medications. Before we left, I was deceived into believing that we were going to buy a satchet of lucozade boost and the peanut burger.
I remember vividly how loud I screamed when I discovered that I had been tricked. I was a very stubborn child then and I showed them what I was good at.
Finally I won and was then driven to a store to buy the purposed mouth consolings that I had told we were coming out to buy.
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"Ijeoma nwam, " my grandmother called me as she took me into her arms, "Asi na-ikweghi agba ogwu mowu nunaa nke ana'eji anu-anu? She asked me in her native language.
I nodded my head in affirmation. She gave me a pat on the head, carried me down and left the room.
She returned with some fresh 'nchuanwu' leaves, washed them, put them inside a clean kettle, poured a full-tea cup of water into it and allowed it to boil.
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She served me the hot juice to drink.
I didn't pour it into my mouth immediately, I slid my tongue out into the cup to have a taste first but ouch!, my tongue burned, and I quickly pulled my tongue out.
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"Ijeoma nwam, nunaa ihee ugbua ogala di oku..." My grandmother tried pleading with me.
I listened.
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It was not up to two hours when perspires began running down my head, face and neck into my body.
When I woke up the next day, I hardly remembered I could hardly move on my own the previous days.
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I stuck to what my grandmother had taught me and has since then fallen sick twice, and now, thrice since then.
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Some weeks ago, two of my customers came to the shop telling me how sick they had fallen and I passed to them what I had learnt and it worked on them, though they missed the juice with juices from the 'onugbo' leaves.
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So, yesterday, I rose from my sick bed at the shop to ease my self when I noticed some liquids pouring down on my panties and sloving moving down the part of my thigh when the pant I wore had covered. I was sure it wasn't .my urine, and immediately, my weak mind drove to what it could be.
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"Ah! Its she again. The rude maiden attached to every non-protruded female on earth once their clock of age clocks thirteen or thereabout. The rude maiden who never at all knocks at the door and wait to be welcomed in before pushing the door open.
----Isn't there any way else to get rid of this?----
It was almost evening already and so I did something about it and closed the shop for the day.
As I was walking home; pass Mama Nzubechi's shop, she called me in and begged me to take some drugs...
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"Nani ogwu-igbo k'i n'anu?
Ngwanu, adi 'onugbo na nchuanwu mforo afo m' na-eji any mgbe owula mnuru the oke shuga di. Mpatara nu gi ya k'inuo?"
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"Mba o!" I shouted shouted as I tried to rise from the seat she had served me but couldn't. "O bukwa soso mmiri nchuanwu ka'm na-anu, biko."
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"Adi onu n'itirilia, baa n'imulo jee vutere'm mmiri ahu no na-uko stainlesswaghi."
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Silence!
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I was still seated when my 'Sedative Doctor' came out and called me "Aunty Amaya."
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"Meditive mu!" I hailed him... I told him it was time to show me how truly a great 'Meditive Doctor' he would be in the nearest future.
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"Hmmm. Aunty Amaya, ashi'm na-aga'm awu meditive doctor but oge erubeghi mgbe mga eji bido gwowa ndi mmadu oria." Those words of his forced out laughs from my mouth. As I was still laughing when the cup of the mixed juice was brought to me...
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Finally, I lost the battle over taking it and was forced to gulp down until over half the liquid in the cup. It tasted a bit bitter anyway but afterwards, okay.
I thanked her and bid her a good night.
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When I got home, I took the normal drug I swallowed every month just to do away with that maiden but everything worsened.
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So, at the shop today, I realized that the sickness had shown a sign on my lips and while I was attending to a customer today, he ashed, "What happened to your lips?"
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"Fever."
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"Hah! Are you sure?"
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--- Then you bit of a skin from my lip.--- I said within me as my lips were too scared and weak to let those words escape into the thin air.
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I have been sitting on my plastic seat since morning and the headache and all seems to be growing more serious. The monsters won't stop, the maiden won't have a pity on me. I can't think well anymore and smiles had not dared to visit my face since this evening. I can feel my strengths leaving me, my heart beating slowly inside my chest. I have now grown so slim that I even noticed I have. My Mother did too. My eyes are now red, my face swollen and my voice weak that almost every customer that had/has come to patronize me asked and are still asking if I am sick and will ask if I have taken any medication and add a sorry afterwards.
Despite the pains and all, I won't give in to drugs. Tomorrow, I will go to drink from Mama Nzubechi's juice again. I'm hopeful about tomorrow. Very positive about it that I believe I will see the next 81 years to come.