Bring Food to the Table

She takes a quick glance at the reflection on her sliced mirror standing next to her only bed. Her cheap hair extension glitters to her satisfaction but she almost forgot to moisturize her ever dry lips thanks to smoking. She dips her index finger in a bowl sitting pretty on a crippled stool next to the bed and runs it delicately on her cracked lips.

Satisfied, she puts the bowl back on the 'kitchen' table with the remaining cooking oil for future use.

Her eldest turns and covers her younger brothers while still half asleep and she feels tears sting her eyes. She must've mastered doing so in her sleep and though she detests the idea of having her daughter adult at such a young age, life has them by the neck.

They look so innocent sprawled on their newly acquired mattress -something they thanked her endlessly for earlier- unaware how it was acquired. She felt they didn't deserve to know, what mattered was that they were no longer sleeping on that thin crap they used to call a mattress.

She had finally agreed to venture into something she never thought she'd ever agreed to... just to get them off the cold floor. Something that made it easier to get the rent she needed for them to live in that mud shanty and enable her three muses to stay in class in a nearby public school.

The death of her polygamous husband earned her a spot in some hellish revolving misery which left her at the heart of Majengo Slums in the capital city. His elder wives and children chased her from her matrimonial house and even though much wasn't happening there, they made her children homeless. She opted for the city when she had rumors she being inherited by his brother as it is custom with some African communities traditions.

After months of nothing and severely hungry mouths, here she was getting ready to go sell soul to drunks and sadists just to bring food to the table. She heads for the door.

Pixabay.

This piece was inspired by the beautiful @wandrnrose7 hosted by the ever amazing @mariannewest at the five-minute freewrite here.

Thank you for coming.