Hushed Echoes

“Yes ma” Marco replied, scratching his head.

“Now I will show you where you will be staying, and when I get inside remind me to give you the key to the boys quarter”

“But how about my salary ma” Marco asked nervously.

“Let me land before you bury me” she snapped.

“Oh sorry ma” Marco apologized.

The woman ignored his apology and continued with her statement.

“Your salary will be five thousand cedis every month, if you damage any of my things I will make sure to deduct it from your salary”

“All right ma”

“Good, first of all Iam taking you inside the kitchen, I want you to tidy it up, you have to do the dishes, and mop the floor” in a jiffy, Marco followed her as she walked her way towards the kitchen.

“This is the kitchen, do as you were told and be very fast about it, I want to come in and cook dinner for my daughters” she concluded and went into the sitting room to Join her daughters.

Marco was left in the kitchen all alone, he stood for some time and survey the untidy kitchen, he became so confused because he did not know where to start the cleaning.

The pots were dirty and are as black as a charcoal, dirty and used plates littered every corner of the kitchen, nylon of breads, peels of fruits, plantain, potatoes and other dirty stuffs deposited every where, the kitchen looked as if it had not been swept for one month.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Marco could not understand why people could be so carefree about their situation, was it not the same kitchen she had been using day in and day out? And yet they were not bothered about it cleanliness, considering the fact that the woman had two daughters at home who could approximately be 15 and 17, Marco could not understand why the woman did not maintain a neat kitchen.

What If he was not employed at that point in time? So that was how the whole place would have been untidy? He kept wondering, opening a pot to see what was inside, he quickly covered his nose as the pungent smell from the decay food hit his nostril.

Apart from thinking of the steps to take in cleaning the messed up kitchen, another thing that bothered Marco to a great extent was why he had agreed with the woman when she mentioned four thousand cedis as salary, but he didn’t have the courage to disagree, because on the other hand he felt that the four thousand was still reasonable, considering the fact that he would not have to pay for the house rent, and at thesame time she would be feeding him.

When he realized that he had spent a lot of time thinking, he attempted to start from somewhere.

Marco started by washing the dishes before he proceeded to sweep the floor, when he was done, he looked for a clean rag to clean the wall stained, the entire cleaning took him less than thirty minutes, and by the time the woman came into the kitchen, she was extremely impressed, she complimented him by saying ” well done”

She brought out some foodstuffs and handed it over to Marco, she instructed him on how to prepare the item and asked him to come and inform her after he must have finished preparing them.

She immediately went back into the sitting room to continue watching the movie with her daughters while Marco remained in the kitchen to get the items ready, he was finding things difficult because he was not used to this kind of responsibility.

Marco had to put in more efforts to ensure that the ingredients were nicely prepared, he had to apply his initiative to get them ready, when he finally finished, he went and knocked at the door leading to the sitting room, the woman came out instantly and was ready to start cooking.

She brought out everything she needed for the cooking, including the ingredients which Marco had helped her to prepare and seasoned everything into the pot, she lit the gas-cooker and placed the pot on it, within a few minutes, it started to steam, she remembered that she needed some tin-tomatoes.