Charlotte: A Coming of Age Tale

By
Emiliene Alemkeng

        Chapter One

           Episode 4

Then came the shock from his brother who proudly insulted and reminded him how he told him Mama was a witch. For the first time, Papa punched non-stop. Tension aroused and people came to separate the fight. Papa’s hands were covered with blood from his brother’s face. At that point, a bottle of beer will do him some good but he remembered his wife’s dead bed words and resisted. Chris on the other hand did not wish to disappoint his mom even in dead.
Charlotte reminisced about the last few months as she robotically dressed up for school. When done, she came out to wait for her driver in the sitting room. The torn sofa and the scanty furniture was the indication of the hard times the family was living through, but the room was neat and filled with love as the wall brandished family photos filled with laughter. Soon, Charlotte realised that her taxi driver was running late, the thought of being stuck in the endless traffic revived her once more. She had no other choice but to wake Chris to find a solution.
‘Brother, Brother Chris’ she called
‘What is it this early a.m. Charlotte’ He asked while rubbing his eyes,
‘Brother the chauffeur is not yet here and I’m getting late. This your personal driver thing is beginning to cause trouble. I told you about it but you wouldn’t listen. See what is happening now. Brother, just give me transport fare so I can rush to school before it’s too late’ Charlotte grumbled
‘But Charlotte you know I have been broke since I lost my job. Ok, go and see papa and ask him to give you the money’. That nonsense driver will hear from me’ he murmured to himself.
‘Brother which papa are you talking about? Papa went to work long ago its only Brother Yan who is still there preparing to go to Campus’ She grumbled again ‘Tell him then to loan me 1000 FRS’ Chris said hissing.
Charlotte ran into Yan’s room without even knocking.
‘Charlotte what is it, why didn’t you knock, is the world coming to an end?’ He asked
‘Am sorry bro am running late already. The driver did not come to pick me up and Brother Chris said you should give me 1K so that I can go to school’
‘Hmmm this one brother is asking money from a poor year 3 student like this; “THINGS DON BAD”, any way pick up that one on the and don’t enter my room like that again’.
‘Thanks bro’ Charlotte exclaimed in joy.
Charlotte was very contented to run to school on her own without any chauffeur which meant she will be unchaperoned on her way back…

To be continued…