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That morning, he got up and swung his legs out of bed. He stood up but
then sat down as if he had been pulled back. Then he put his hand on
his chest and listened. Nnam, lying next to the wall, propped her head
on her elbow and said,
‘What?’
‘I guess I’ve not woken up yet,’ he yawned,
‘Then come back to bed.’
But Kayita stood up and wrapped a towel around his waist. At the door
he turned to Nnam and said,
‘Go back to sleep: I’ll give the children their breakfast.’
Lumumba woke her up. He needed the bathroom but ‘Dad won’t come
out.’ Nnam got out of bed cursing the builders who put the bathroom
and the toilet in the same room. She knocked and opened the
bathroom door saying, ‘It’s only me.’
Kayita lay on the floor with his head near the heater, his stomach on
the bathroom mat, one end of the towel inside the toilet bowl, the
other on the floor, him totally naked save for the briefs around the
ankles.
Nnam did not scream. Perhaps she feared that Lumumba would come
in and see his father naked. Perhaps it was because Kayita’s eyes were
closed like he had only fainted. She closed the door and calling his
name, pulled his briefs up. She took the towel out of the toilet bowl and
threw it in the bath tub. Then she shouted,
LE PORTRAIT MAGAZINE
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