Chapter Five: The One Who Truly Cared
1080 Words
Isaac lay on the ground beneath the mango tree, clutching his leg and screaming in pain.
“My leg! My leg! Somebody help me! Please!”
Tears filled his eyes as pain shot through his body.
But instead of helping him, Malika folded her arms and stared at him with annoyance.
“Stop pretending, Isaac,” she said coldly. “Nothing happened to your leg. You're just trying to get my attention, I know you too well.”
Isaac groaned in agony.
“Malika, please... I think it's broken.”
“Enough of your drama,” she replied dismissively. “I'm not ready for this nonsense.”
With that, she turned around and walked into her compound and entered her hut.
A few moments later, she brought out a plate of food and began eating as if nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, Isaac continued crying for help.
“My leg! Somebody help me!”
Fortunately, two young men who were passing nearby heard his cries.
“What was that?” one of them asked.
“It sounded like someone was hurt,” the other replied.
They immediately followed the sound and soon arrived at Malika's compound.
To their shock, they found Isaac lying on the ground, sweating and groaning in pain.
“Are you alright, what happened to you?” one of the young men asked. I fell down from the tree Isaac replied.
At that moment, Malika heard their voices and quickly rushed outside, pretending she had just discovered the situation.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed dramatically. “Isaac! What happened to you?”
The two young men exchanged suspicious glances.
“Malika, do you know him?” one asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “He's my boyfriend.”
Isaac looked at her painfully.
“Please... take me home.”
Malika immediately shook her head.
“I can't. I don't want to deal with your troublesome mother again.”
The two young men frowned.
“Don't worry,” one of them said. “We'll take you home.”
Seeing that complete strangers were willing to help Isaac while she was refusing, Malika reluctantly decided to follow them.
Together, the young men carefully lifted Isaac onto their shoulders and began carrying him toward his compound.
Back at Isaac's house, his mother was preparing food over a fire.
She was turning the contents of a pot when she suddenly heard a familiar voice crying out in pain.
“Mother! My leg!”
Her heart skipped. She said Isaac!
Dropping everything, she rushed outside.
The moment she stepped into the compound, she froze.
Two young men were carrying Isaac home while Malika walked behind them.
“My son!” she cried. “What happened?”
The young men gently lowered Isaac onto a wooden bench.
Isaac groaned.
“Mama... I broke my leg.”
His mother's eyes widened in horror.
“How did that happen?” she asked. “You left this house only a short while ago!”
Then her gaze shifted toward Malika.
Suspicion immediately filled her eyes.
“What did you do to my son?”
Malika quickly raised her hands.
“I didn't do anything, Mama.”
“Then explain what happened.”
Malika hesitated before speaking.
“He was plucking mangoes for me and fell from the tree.”
Isaac's mother stared at her in disbelief.
“You are my son's biggest problem.”
Malika frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“You are selfish and inconsiderate,” Isaac's mother snapped. “Look at what your demands have caused.”
Malika's eyes flashed with anger.
“Don't speak to me like that, old woman!”
Isaac's mother gasped.
Malika continued.
“You're the reason this happened to your son in the first place. If you hadn't chased us out of your house earlier, none of this would have happened.”
For a moment, silence filled the compound.
Isaac's mother was too shocked to respond.
Finally, she knelt beside her son.
“Let me see your leg.”
But the moment her fingers touched him, Isaac cried out.
“Ahh! Don't touch it, Mama! It hurts!”
His mother immediately withdrew her hand.
Tears filled her eyes as she watched her son suffer. I told you to stay away from this girl Isaac but you don't listen to me. Isaac mother said ".
Meanwhile, in Nadia's compound, Nadia was carefully serving food into a flask.
She couldn't stop thinking about Isaac's mother.
The older woman had seemed upset earlier, and Nadia wanted to make sure she had something to eat.
Just as she finished packing the food, her friend Amaka burst into the compound, breathing heavily.
“Nadia!”
Nadia turned quickly.
“Amaka? What's wrong, what happen?”
Amaka struggled to catch her breath.
“Isaac... Isaac fell from a tree!”
Nadia's eyes widened.
“What?”
“He broke his leg!” Amaka added.
The flask nearly slipped from Nadia's hands.
Without another word, she grabbed it and ran toward the entrance of their compound.
“Nadia!” her mother shouted behind her. “Come back here!”
But Nadia was already sprinting down the road.
Her mother sighed helplessly.
“God, what am I going to do with this girl?”
A short while later, Nadia arrived at Isaac's compound.
The moment she saw him lying there in pain, her heart sank.
The flask slipped slightly in her trembling hands.
“Isaac!”
She hurried toward him.
“Oh my God... what happened to you?”
Concern filled her eyes as she knelt beside him.
“You're badly hurt.”
Isaac looked up weakly and met her worried gaze.
Before he could answer, Malika stepped forward.
Her face darkened immediately.
“Don't talk to him.”
Nadia looked up.
“What?”
“I said don't talk to him,” Malika repeated coldly. “I don't want to hear your voice around Isaac, all this happened because you have bewitched and brainwashed Isaac mother against me.”
Nadia stood slowly, staring at Malika.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
The atmosphere in the compound became tense.
Isaac's mother watched silently.
The two young men exchanged nervous glances and excuse themselves, they wish Isaac quick recovery and left.
Isaac who is lying there in pain, suddenly found himself caught between the girl who claimed to love him...
...and the girl who had rushed across the village the moment she heard he was hurt.
- Writer
