Amarachi The Beautiful Poor Child Chapter 1
Thank you for choosing Siri as your online beautiful sweet story reading partner. Today we have “Amarachi The Beautiful Poor Child Chapter 1 Of Amarachi The Beautiful Poor Child by Erasmus Ugochukwu Okafor Stories Or Novels To Read with Siri.”
🙎 Amarachi The Beautiful Poor Child CHAPTER ONE:
Waking up to the reality, Amarachi, popularly known as Amy, couldn’t
believe that she just dropped out of school. As she parked her loads into that
old Datsun truck that her dad left as a legacy, tears gained possession of her
eyes.
Standing by the gate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Amarachi
shook her head in dismay but in total surrender to fate, smiled sheepishly to
what poverty had caused, and entered the truck to find her way to Onitsha.
Hunched over the tattered steering wheel of the old truck, she muttered:
“Now, I must have to start using this truck for commercial purposes; for
carrying loads for people, so that I could save some money and come back to
school,” She absently nudged herself to the reality of her fate and smiled
Tearfully, “finally, I have dropped out,”
As Amy was about to leave, Osisioma, her closest friend and the daughter
of Ichie Agujiegbe (the lion with a gun) the well- known industrialist at Main
market Onitsha, waved at her to wait but the engine of the truck was already
steaming. The pretty d Iamsel quickly pulled over and stepped out of her 4Matic
Benz SUV; looking cool in that bodycon mini gown adorned with her six-inch
high-heeled shoes. Her golden human hair embellished her beauty.
You can also read: WRITTEN (predestination)
Osisioma’s lips that were full of smiles at first, curved into a deep frown
when she realised that her good friend was finally leaving the school as she
told her earlier in confident.
“Please, you can’t do this,” Osisioma shouted as she fought hard on her
high-heeled shoes; rushing to the truck and at the same time trying to gain a
balance in the shoes, “I’ve told you that I have to talk to daddy so that he can
take care of your schooling,”
Tears couldn’t stop raining down Amarachi’s cheek as her eyes remained
blurred and saggy. She fought hard to move her lips to a befitting reply but
numbness and sorrows overtook her emotions. She simply drove off even
before Osisioma could come close to her. She knew that no one could help her because she’d always lived a life of being no dependant to anyone except to
herself.
Even though Amarachi managed to drive as fast as she could away from
Osisioma, the old truck’s noise and unsteady movement made her be more
cautious on the road as she drove off and navigated along the expressway
leading to Onitsha where she believed she belonged to.
Osisioma already knew how steadfast and determined Amara could be
whenever she makes up her mind about something, so she couldn’t just rush
into her car to follow her or stop her. She simply stood there with tears in her
eyes watching her friend drive away in such an old vehicle that wasn’t even
road-worthy anymore.
As Osisoma was lost in thoughts and sorrows, the incessant horns from
the long queue of vehicles behind her honked and forced her back from that
world of absence.
“Sorry for the obstruction,” she mumbled tearfully and went into her car.
Sorrowfully, she drove away to her department-Economics.
Many calls that Osisioma made to Amarachi’s phone were left
unanswered. It dawned on the entire students in economics department that
they just lost their first-class material and there was nothing they could do to
bring back their ‘student-lecturer’ as she was known as.
**
It was an early morning that fateful day. The birds of the air chirping and
whistling, the crows cawing, and the voices of the street vendors being heard
from far and near but Amarachi was still sleeping since she didn’t sleep on
time. The light of the early morning sun flooded the cabin through the slit of
the shattered roof. Had it been it was raining, she would have been busy fixing
buckets at different locations to stop the rain from gaining possession of the
entire floor.
You can also read: EDGE OF A KNIFE
“Amarachi!” The deafening voice of Ego Oyibo forced Amara out of the
dreamless slumber, “What are you still doing on the bed by this time while your customers kept knocking on the door for Akara di ka Akwa! (bean cake
that is compared to an egg in taste)” Her mom howled.
As Amarachi tried to balance herself on that old mattress she fell off the
bed, but her hands were great support that made her not hit hard on the floor.
She then realised that she wasn’t on her school mattress anymore but an
elevated bed.
“Mom, I have told you to control the way you shout at me,” she said with a
hiss as she yawned away the sleepiness of her eyes, “must I sell Akara today?”
she grumbled and started removing the dry rheum in her eyes, “sometimes try
to understand that this body needs rest,” she added.
“Shhhhhh!” her strict mom shushed her but still came closer to her at the
bed and sat beside her, “this life isn’t always as easy as we want it to be,” she
continued as she pulled Amara to her side, “if I didn’t groom you this way, you
wouldn’t have been a better child by now,” she courteously said, “sometimes,
try to understand that these shouts and noise would always be resounding in
your head even when I’m not there to guide you,”
With a tear about to announce its presence in her eyes, Amara smiled and
snuggled into her mom’s bosom. “Ego oyibo, Nnem,” she called her in a petting
way, “you’re a wonderful mom. The only sin you ever committed that I
inherited is poverty. But believe this; God must surely forgive those sins and
make us rich someday,” she patted her mom gently on her back, used her clean
napkin and cleaned the tears on her mother’s eyes, “weep no more, Nne
(mom). The last thing you can deny a poor man is hope. I have hope, and I
hope you do too,”
Serenity took over the entire room at the end of her exhortative statement,
the sounds of silence flared between them, even though the usual shattering
footsteps in the ceiling as a result of the hungry rats continued to disperse the
silence with domestic noise.
“How can I stop weeping while my daughter remains a dropout from
school?” Ego Oyibo asked with tears as her sobs welcomed a loud weeping, “if I
could take care of you, why are you here sitting beside me, doing odd jobs that
only men do, as well as frying Akara on the streets just for you and me to survive. Why aren’t you in school like your mates?” she explanatorily said to
Amarachi who wept with her mom. “If we could afford a house rent, why are
we always occupying empty lands until the owner comes to build, and we are
forced to find another empty land to either raise a new cabin, thatched house
or a clay-house?”
At a point, Amarachi held back her tears, went into the shoes of her
unknown dad, to become a husband to her mom for the moment. She knew
that her mom would soon start recounting her ordeals and sordid past as she
fought to raise her as a kid and that would mean not going out for the Akara
business that morning. So she pulled herself up, looking smilingly on her mom
and said: “Ego oyibo, if you enjoy being poor, stay there while your mates
overtake you in this life’s race. As for me, I am off for my sweet Akara ooo,”
with that loud laugh, she said: “Let me join the rich people like me and leave
you poor widow here. Continue crying, Nne, and forget that your foodstuff
business is of perishable items and would all be useless if you don’t go out on
time”
Watching her pretty shapely tall daughter as she left the room, Ego Oyibo
shook her head in admiration. Looking up to the dilapidated ceiling, she smiled
and said: “God, I thank you for this wonderful grace you have given me in the
form of a daughter. Your grace made her bear that name, Amara, and that
grace will keep following me about in this life,”
She got up and started hitting at the ceiling to chase away the noisy rats.
After selling her Akara for the day, Amarachi dressed up for work,
checked on the time and realised it was almost her turn to load her truck at
Otu-onitsha Motor Park. Hurriedly, she rushed into her legacy and drove off
to Ose market, with the loud noise of the truck attracting public complaints.
Getting there, she realised that much loads were already waiting for her
attention, so she had to be hasty about it. Her customers always look forward
to when it’d be her turn because of how good she had been to them, most especially, because they couldn’t imagine such pretty young girl driving a
truck and not prostituting.
Obinna and Oji-isi-ebu-mgbo (one who uses the head to defend bullets)
were the porters that were Amy’s favourite. They always help her load her
truck whenever it’s her turn.
As compensation in addition to their payments, Amy always brings hot
Akara for them whenever she comes around.
“Oya, take your Akara,” she said and handed over two big balls of Akara
to Obinna, “Ngwa, take yours,” she said and handed over just one ball of it to
Oji isi ebu mgbo, “but Oji isi,” she added as she snorted, “you didn’t do well the
last time, so yours would be just one Akara.”
The stubborn but respectful Oji isi, the orphan was busy eyeing Obinna as
he kept munching the balls of Akara and digesting them with pure-water.
“Hey, Amara utu ocha chocolate,” Oji Isi called out with grin in a mocking
way, “if you marginalise me, then I will do what I did the last time,” he ran a
Bit away from her to avoid being hit on his bald head as usual, “don’t worry,
aunty. This time, I will give this Akwara of a man your…”
“Hey,” Amarachi shushed him with smiles on her face, “You gave out my
number to Okoro the last time and I’m yet to recover from his daily
disturbances. Now, you want to give to that Akwara that looks like a bouncer
with this his macho. Abeg, my hand no dey (please, my hands are off it),”
“He was just joking,” Obinna said to Amarachi as he continued munching
his Akara. Aunty, Amy. Oji Isi regretted it ooo. He even fought with Okoro
because he asked him to give him back the number he gave him, no wonder he
has bruises on his face for fighting an elderly person,”
“But I won the fight still,” Oji isi boasted, though he was bluffing.
“That serves you right for giving out my number,” Amarachi said with an
impish grin, even though she felt pity by that, then pulled Oji Isi close and
observed the bruises, “but I love this tattoo oo,” she added mockingly, making
the man whose loads were to be loaded into the truck to laugh while watching
the drama as he waited This Akara is so sweet ooo,” Obinna said and divided the second Akara
and wanted to hand over to Oji isi but Amarachi stopped him.
“Don’t worry about him,” Amara said and brought out Oji isi’s second
Akara and gave him, “this is a note of warning to you,” she warned, “next time,
you won’t even get any ball of Akara at all, in addition to what that bouncer
would do to your komkom head,”
They all started laughing. Other people at the park got hit by the
contagious laughter and they all continued chorusing the laughter at Oji isi.
“Utu ocha Chocolate(albinotic Chocolate),” Oji isi jeered at Amarachi as
he avoided her knock on his head, “now you acted like aunty Amara that I
used to know by completing my Akara,” He collected the Akara forcefully from
her and shifted away further.
Being that Oji isi was well known for carrying any size of a heavy load,
he got busy immediately and started loading the trucks while Obinna helped
out.
The owner of the loads that was meant to be angry about his time being
wasted was busy enjoying the jokes from Amarachi and her friends.
After loading the trucks, Amarachi entered the vehicle and drove off to
GRA Onitsha where the owner of the loads resides. The Oga happens to be the
chief driver to his boss but due to his trustworthiness, he was always the one
sent to buy stuff from the market.
Getting to the gate, Amarachi saw a group of classy girls driving out of
the compound. She quickly reversed to allow them to pass but instead of the
Girls to go about their daily business, they all started laughing at her for
driving an old truck and doing men’s kind of work.
Amarachi simply remained calm and unperturbed. She was busy
calculating the money for her services and had no time to think about the jeers
from the girls from a rich home.
TO BE CONTINUED
