The Light in your Eyes

Chapter five.

CHAPTER FIVE.

The day couldn't get any more boring to James as he lay on a bench in front of his shop watching people going to and fro as they went about their own businesses. It was a very hot Monday afternoon and with nothing better to do, he started commenting about everything he sees to himself.

"That woman owes me money for the last furniture I made for her. She couldn't afford to pay me my balance but she could afford buying ice cream for her child? How selfish and annoying." He said to himself. Then he saw a fat young lady rush past him. "That lady is too fat she should start dieting or no man will like her for her outer beauty." He thought.

"Well everyone is caring about inner beauty these days. As long as she is slim on the inside she should be fine." He said out loud as he killed an unfortunate insect that happened to sting him on the right cheek. May the soul of the gentle insect rest in peace. Just then he saw a lady in white and black buying groceries from the shop just across his own shop and hissed.

"That girl is just slim on the outside but very fat on the inside. What inner beauty, it doesn't apply to her at all. She should just maintain that outer beauty; maybe one married man will take her in as his last wife." He said gesticulating with his right while his left hand served as a pillow to support his head as he thought back to an incident that happened a week ago with his face squeezed like someone forced to drink lime for the first time.

A week ago.

James was the only carpenter in the neighbourhood so whenever any family had problems with their household furniture, they would usually call upon him to fix their furniture. About a week ago, he had gone to do a job three streets away from his shop; an old customer had requested him to help repair a faulty wardrobe. Upon getting to the doorstep he had knocked on the door for more than ten minutes before a very sluggish person opened the door. At first he had thought no one was home but he had heard some slight movements and held on for ten minutes. Infuriated, he wanted to give the person a piece of his mind when he noticed the person was a total stranger. James knew the occupants of this house or save to say he was extremely familiar with the entire family that lived here and the person with the lazy expression doesn't look like any of the occupants he was familiar with.

"Who is it?" the girl said as she yawned loudly and quite unladylike. She was wearing a black long shirt that reached her knees and looked like someone who has been sleeping for God knows how many days.

"Where's Scarlett …" he was yet to complete his question when the girl suddenly sat down on the floor like a puppet without strings. "Wow! This person must have a degree in laziness." He had thought. Unfortunately, he detested this kind of lazy people the most, this kind of people don't get things and yet believe they are entitled to what others are entitled to.

"Ah James you are here already. How convenient, I was just about to send one of my kids to your shop to call you over." A joyful voice said. It was one he was very familiar with.

"Scarlett 's Mom, welcome back, how are you doing?" He greeted the newcomer with a respectful tone.

"I am fine, and what are you doing standing at the doorstep isn't the door open." She said walking closer to where he was. Upon seeing the girl sitting on the floor she didn't look surprised like it was an everyday thing to see an adult sit on the floor while chatting with a visitor at the doorstep.

"Jade, you are finally willing to get up from the bed. I thought you said you will be sleeping for a month straight without waking up except to eat. It's only been a week Na." She said jokingly while dragging the girl on the floor to her room.

"Who said I was going to get up in the first place, if not for this senseless man doesn't he know that if one knocks on a door for a few minutes and no one answers he should have realised that no one welcomes him. Yet he went on to knock for ten minutes straight. What a stupid man." He heard the girl called Jade mumble. Although the word mumble should not apply in this instance since it seems she meant for everyone to hear what she was saying. James wanted to rebuke the shameless girl but saw the elder woman signalling him to calm down so he decided to pretend to hear nothing. Hear no evil and peace shall reign. For the sake of his upbringing and peace of mind, he decided to let things slide but he was still feeling offended.

The girl was finally dragged into the room and with a bang the door was closed. The older woman turned to look at James with an indulging smile on her face which quickly turned to one of apologies.

"I am so sorry you had to see that, please don't mind her. A lot of unhappy things happened recently, so don't blame her." She said feeling sorry.

"Ahn ahn Scarlett 's Mom is this the first day we have known each other, you don't have to be sorry I am not angry." He had said. Since he had decided to hear no evil he will also erase the short encounter with the irksome girl from his memory.

"So where's Scarlett ? I haven't seen her the past week or so and who's that girl anyway." He asked perfunctorily, he had never liked the girl called Scarlett , she is snobbish and doesn't seem to like his job very much though he never knew why but he didn't care. The older woman gave a heavy sigh before saying.

"Lots of bad stuff happened to our household recently, maybe some other time I will tell you about them. Just help me fix my daughter's wardrobe."

"Okay, no problem, please lead the way." He quickly finished his job and left just as he finished his job to avoid seeing some evil spirit with a bad mouth. Though, he later got to know that the wardrobe was in Jade's room and she had been under the covers and didn't stir till he finished despite all the ruckus. But he was sure the girl hadn't been sleeping all along, she just couldn't be bothered to do anything.

"What an easy life she's living, she just got here so this people probably dotes on her very much." He had mumbled with a sigh.

"If returning to my family is bad stuff to her, then you can say I live a fulfilling life. You should just mind your own business and quickly finish your work… Disturbing others rest yet still saying nonsense, you are really full of nonsense." Jade said spitefully. She did not open her eyes to see his reaction and instead turned her back to him.

James was beyond furious but kept his cool and decided that responding to an evil spirit was a waste of time. He finished his work faster than usual and walked out of the room, with the speed he used with everything he did one would think a ghost was trying to kill him.

"Scarlett 's mom, I am done." He said as soon as he saw the woman sitting on a couch.

"That was quite fast." Came the reply with a hint of surprise mixed in the tone.

"Yeah, I kind of have stuff to finish at the shop." He replied.

"Then I won't keep you waiting. I will send someone to your shop tomorrow."

"Okay then I will be on my way. My regards to the rest of the family." He said moving towards the door.

"I am very sorry about the unpleasant encounter with Jade earlier, she is not always that way. As I said earlier we are going through some unpleasant things in the family recently. So please don't take that to heart." She said, He wasn't so sure about her sincerity because her tone was way too calm for someone trying to apologise on another person's behalf. But okay, he wasn't bothered. It was their family problems not his.

Flashback ends

It sure was an unpleasant day for him that day, he was furious the rest of that day and anytime he remembered the girl he felt like he should have choked her the moment she opened the door. However upon further thought, going to jail because of an evil spirit was not a good deal. James had almost forgotten about the unpleasant encounter with Jade but seeing her again was another story. He watched as she asked those from the other shop some questions and could see someone pointing at his shop to her. He couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about.

"I just hope we don't have to cross paths today o, I would rather eat my least favourite food than talk to her." He thought to himself. However, it seems like the universe was bound to be against him that day because the girl crossed over to his shop.

"Hi." She waved at him. She was standing and he was still laying on the bench. The position looked awkward.

"Hi, how can I help you?" He replied. Although he was yearning to ignore her but home training he got was inbuilt.

"You are James right, the carpenter that was at our place a week ago?"

"Yes I am?" He answered, quite confused.

"So, the old lady asked me to give this to you." She said while stretching out her right hand with an envelope.

"Oh okay, thank you." The reply was so dull the atmosphere became even more awkward.

He collected the envelope and made to lie on the bench again. He was totally done with her.

"Are you not going to count the money in it?" Jade asked, quite puzzled. "Sure enough an irresponsible and nosy man will not be bothered with anything, he is not even going to confirm if the amount is complete. What a stupid man." She mocked him silently.

"This evil spirit, you've already delivered the money and it's mine now. Why are you bothered about what I do with it? To count it or not is my business. Just go." James was getting irritated by her presence.

"Are you still bothered by our last meeting? My mum already apologised so why are you still here sulking?" Jade was also starting to get irritated.

"Your mom?" he asked, feeling very confused.

"She is your mom?" he asked again in shock after comprehending what shrug meant.

"What is the meaning of that expression, why are you so shocked? She is my mom okay so stop with Scarlett 's mom you keep calling her." Jade couldn't understand his shocked expression and was vexed.

"Wow! How unfortunate for them, they have someone like you as their daughter?" He said. The couple are really nice people being teachers and all that made him even respect them the most. Apart from that Scarlett girl, the rest of the family are good and hardworking people and he really admires them. To think they have a lazy daughter like her.

"What do you mean?" At this point Jade is really furious. "You irresponsible, lazy, nosy and uneducated gangster like you dared to say that to me. Who do you think you are?" She hollered at him with imaginary smoke coming out of her ear. If she was Azula from the last air bender, she would be spitting out fire from her mouth from how pissed she was.

James realised arguing with her does him no good. Moreover they have really digressed from the real issue entirely.

"If you are their daughter, what about Scarlett ? Whose daughter is she then?"

"Why should I tell you? Based on what relationship, we are not familiar with each other." Jade said feeling like a winner while picking the bag that had been innocently abandoned at whatever point the argument was going on. James's heart felt itchy, he wasn't interested to hear the nitty-gritty of the issue the last time he was at their place. Jade made him curious to know what happened. So he did something he would never have done if he was in the right mind. He snatched her bag.

"On top of being irresponsible and a nosy person, you appear to be a childish old man too. It is really my bad luck to meet a stupid man like you this hot afternoon." She said with a disgusted tone and a deep frown.

"I don't care, just tell me what I want to know and you can be on your way." James replied stubbornly, choosing to ignore the insults and degrading comments about him.

What is going on here and what are you two doing?" Loveth was on her way to buy something from the general market and James's shop happened to be on same way so she decided to branch at his shop and inquire about the errand she had sent Jade. Loveth was quite surprised when she just happened to see James snatch Jade's bag.

"Do you two not understand my questions?" She asked them again as they both looked quietly at her like dummies.

"Mom, he started it." Jade mumbled quietly with her eyes looking around to avoid making eye contact with Loveth.

"Good afternoon Scarlett 's mom." James greeted while bending his waist in the typical Yoruba fashion of males greeting their elders, the females are expected to bend their knees.

"Afternoon o James, how's your day going? So care to enlighten me on the reason why you are holding Jade's bag. I don't understand why you both will be arguing nonsense under this hot weather when you should be doing something tangible. James I thought you are a big man, why are you arguing with a girl younger than you. And you Jade, don't you know you should always respect your elders. James is clearly older than you, yet you kept berating him like that." Loveth reprimanded both of them.

"Who cares if he is older?" Jade mumbled

"What did you say?" Loveth said glaring at her

"I am sorry ma." Jade quickly apologised to avoid another long lecture. Within the few weeks she had been staying with the Shawn s family she discovered that everyone else in the house tended to avoid doing anything that would warrant a long scolding from their mother. She could really spend an entire day scolding someone's misdemeanour.

"Now Jade, apologise to James."

"I am sorry James." Jade said quietly and unwillingly.

"Louder and apologise to James with respect, he is older than you." Loveth said quite sternly.

"I am sorry James." Jade apologised solemnly

"It is okay, I am sorry too." James said awkward with the plot development.

"Now James, return her bag and Jade you can go home. If I ever catch the both of you arguing in the middle of the street again, you will both be sorry. Look at how everyone here is looking at you guys like clowns. Aren't you guys ashamed of yourselves?"

It was only at that moment they both realised that some other vendors were watching them and only God knows how long these people have been watching them. Jade felt ashamed and lifted her bag to cover her face. "Oh my God! This is so embarrassing and it is the fault of that shameless guy." She thought to herself as she quickly hailed a taxi to take her home.

James also realised they had spectators but wasn't as flustered as Jade. He was just about to lay on his bench again when caught the gaze of Loveth.

"Scarlett 's mom, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

Loveth opened her mouth to say something but decided not to. She invited James to dinner at their place to which the other rejected on the grounds that he will be busy the rest of the evening.

"Then make sure you rest and eat well okay, and when you need anything our door is always open okay." She quite like James and would often try to get closer to him as he seem to have no one in his family, although she couldn't be so sure of that fact.

"Yes ma, thank you very much ma." James replied with respect and a hint of alienation in his tone. His willingness to remain distant was very obvious.

They all went their separate ways and went about their own businesses.