Nneka was in her room when she perceived a burning smell. She quickly ran out and sniffed around. From all indications, it seemed that the smell was emanating from her neighbours room.
She banged on the door vigorously but there was no response. Then it occured to her that Sandra might not be inside the room.
She quickly ran inside , picked her phone and started dialling Sandra’s phone number. It rang many times but there was no response.
Meanwhile, Sandra went out. She placed water in her electric kettle to make eba. The water was already boiling when she discovered that her garri had finished. She quickly rushed to buy garri and forgot to switch off the electric kettle.
She has already bought the garri and was coming back when she met Ngozi.
“NG baby, what’s up kwanu?” she hailed her in a mixture of English and Igbo slang.
“Nwanne adigodim okay,” Ngozi answered . Meaning that she is fine.
“Where are you going to?”
” My aunty told me that she has cash. I want to go and collect some from her. I will transfer the money to her,” Ngozi explained.
“NG please let me go with you, I need cash too, I hope the place is not far?” Sandra pleaded.
” It’s the next street. If you want to go with me, there is no problem. It’s just that we have to wait for her. She is coming from her shop. ”
“It does not matter. Even if she is coming back tomorrow, I will wait”
They were there when Nneka was calling Sandra’s phone.
“Sanda, is it not your phone that is ringing. Why not attend to it,” Ngozi told Sandra.
“Don’t worry yourself. It is not important.”
“Why not take the call first, don’t assume that it is not important,”Ngozi cautioned.
“Is it not Nneka, my neighbour? Her only reason for the call is to beg for maggi, pepper or salt. I don’t have time for her disturbance today.”
Meanwhile the smell was becoming severe that Nneka could not endure. She tried to break the door but she couldn’t. Other neighbours were not around.
Nneka had to run to the street to beg people to help her break the door. After much pleading, a man and some women followed her into the compound. Unfortunately before they came, the room has caught fire.
They succeeded in breaking the door and tried to put out the fire. It was not easy to extinguish the fire. The good news was that the fire did not affect other room but Ngozi’s properties, including all her certificates, were razed.
When Ngozi was on her way coming, she heard people talking of how fire burnt someone’s property. She really pitied whoever owns the property. She never knew that she was the one.
When she got home and answering Nneka’s phone call would have averted the calamity, she fainted.
