What Mama Said: An Epic Drama

MOVEMENT TWO

MOVEMENT TWO (Like many other villagers, hunting for food, water, and other essential commodities, OMI and IMO have joined the crowd of waiting hustlers gathering to buy fuel and kerosene at the barred Fuel/Petrol station in the MarketSquare . As the long waiting and chattering continues, OMI displays some of the toilet rolls, soaps, and other household items she’s taken from the villa, and now shares them with her friend.) OMI: (Sharing the goods.) I’m back. See? IMO: Trouble . . . OMI: Call me lucky. IMO: OK, Lucky Trouble! (They laugh.) OMI: I told you I wasn’t born to suffer. My mother says to me always; “if you don’t see how to do it, then do as you see it.” IMO: Hmm . . .As they say “if you can’t beat them, join them.” (Pause.) Lucky your mother’s there to teach . . . You know my story. (Tearfully.) They killed . . . killed my father for this oil . . . And . . . and then, my mother? Gone. Gone! OMI: (Cuddling.) I know. So painful your mother, too, became a victim of that oil pipeline blast . . . IMO: Poor mother. Just died like that. And to know that she joined the oil poachers, just minutes before that girl brought the lantern?And then the explosion! Mother had got nothing. Nothing! Not even a drop of fuel. 33 But she was cooked . . . fried . . . fried in that sizzling . . . Aaaah . . . (Sobs.) OMI: Don’t cry, my dear. I feel your pain. We all do. But we can’t change that now. What has happened has happened and we will now have to look to the future. It will never happen again. Never! We won’t let them! IMO: But my parents are gone. OMI: Well . . . Not really. Your parents are resting in the arms of their creator. And they hear you . . . us now. (Pause.) You think they’re sleeping? No! I believe they’re all here . . . all our people slaughtered and butchered for asking to get a bite, just a slice of what belongs to them. No, dear. Our dead do not sleep. Neither will our God. So cheer up. Have faith. Resource control. That’s all we ask and yet they won’t let us. They shoot and kill us. IMO: So terrible! Took so many precious lives . . . (Stops.) And that greedy uncle who could have saved this whole community? Where was he? Where? OMI: Don’t mind the yeye Chief. He thinks we don’t know what he’s doing with those thieves? We’ll make them pay. All of them. IMO: Careful, though. Those people are callous. OMI: I know. (Excitedly dangling a bunch of keys.) Guess what? I got the key to . . . IMO: To his heart! OMI: Much like it. You know, I can enter anywhere in that villa. IMO: He gave them to you? OMI: How can? They’re so shrewd, those people. Make you turn in every key to them as you leave everyday. My response? I made myself copies. They really think we’re fools. (Pause.) Well, we’ll keep playing the fool to get what we want. Ha! They’ll see! Just who’s fooling whom? (They chuckle.) 34 W H A T M A M A S A I D IMO: The day they’ll catch you? Hmm . . . They’ll tear you open like they did those poor Odi-Choba women. They’ll make you sweat. OMI: In my anus. Ha! Ha! Ha! IMO: Just that? They’ll tear . . . rip you apart. Rape you right before your mother. OMI: Then rape my mother too and force me to watch. IMO: Ahaa! We all know. They think they’ll always do what they like and get away? OMI: No way! Never again. And that’s why we must deal with them. IMO: (Chuckling.) By stealing their soap and toilet paper? Well, they have too much. They won’t even notice. OMI: Until they’ve been shaved clean. (Pause.) Have you seen Ikpoba yet? IMO: (Saluting.) To lick him hot? Razor-girl! Ride on! OMI: (Strutting.) I’m Naija-Hot, you know? You think they call me that for nothing? IMO: That I see. Go ahead. Shave all the men clean. OMI: But not my Ikpoba. I want him. (Pause.) Have you seen him? IMO: No. That boy has so licked the fire into you that your bottom sweats, just to lose sight of him for one minute. OMI: Say what...