LIVE ON

Hildah stood in haste as the chair she sat on made a deafening sound, everyone seemed to notice her action except the two girls she had her eyes on. Hildah in her long buggy dress and male like black shoes walked to the two girls who kept chatting noisily. One of them had a phone in her hands showing the other whatever she saw, the other girl exclaimed, ‘‘he is so cute! Look at those eyes and those juicy lips, he even has tattoos.’’ The girl with the phone blushed, ‘‘I told you he is so dreamy, only if he could notice me.’’ At that moment, Hildah cleared her throat, the two girls became silent as they looked at her with one visibly becoming nervous while the one with the phone rolled her eyes. Hildah Took in all the reactions and she warned in a stern tone looking at their name tags, ‘‘Carol and Liz, the library is for reading quietly not rambling about little boys, keep quiet or I will cancel your subscription, is that clear?’’ The two nodded their heads meekly and Hildah left back to her desk. From that moment on, the library was quiet as everyone focused on the book and gadgets they had in hand.

Hildah sat at her desk then arranged the books back in order, when everyone left. It was 5PM as she came out of the library with two books in her hands. She proceeded to the bus stop to get on a bus but most were full as everyone was knocking off from work, she waited for another thirty minutes standing in the cold until she got on a bus paid the fare and squeezed in. Another thirty minutes later, as soon as Hildah arrived at home she found the house as she usually did. The toys of the kids were scattered around the living room mixed with some of their uniforms and shoes thrown in different places. As she walked in three of her kids rushed to her and hugged her, the other three were a bit older as they prepared supper. After Hildah was welcomed home, she headed to the kitchen and checked on what her older children were preparing, she helped out on where they needed help. Soon, 39 year old Hildah and her six children sat beside each other on the woven mat in a circle, they all looked at the timetable and that particular day, the fourth born Joe was supposed to pray. The seven then held hands as Joe began to pray, ‘‘our father in heaven, we thank you for the life and this lovely family, we thank you for the food and ask you to bless it and remember those who do not have some, it’s in Jesus’s name we pray, amen.’’ The seven then began to eat in the same noise and chatter as always, there was never a dull moment in living with six children, four of which were below twelve years of age. After the meal, Hildah led the little ones to bed and read them all a bedtime story from the two books she brought from the library, as they sat in their banker beds, they easily dozed off. Hildah tucked them in and then checked on the older kids, they too were in bed but as expected on their phones. Hildah then spoke to the two, ‘‘you need to get your eyes off your phones, I can get you some books you can be reading every time before going to bed.’’ The oldest one in her late teens then spoke, ‘‘mum, we are not babies anymore to red bedtime stories, besides don’t worry rest assured I am not seeing any porn or violence.’’ Hildah nodded her head, ‘‘I am glad you know that, anyways goodnight and don’t forget to pray.’’ Hildah then went through the house to make sure everything was in order, she switched off the bulbs and checked all appliances that could potentially be harmful to confirm if they were off. After which, she headed to her small room and fell on the bed, she looked at the clock and it was already 11pm, her eyes gave way as she slept right after she lay down.

The next day, 05:30 AM, Hildah’s alarm rang, she groaned as she woke up and began to get ready for the day, by 6:10 AM she was already dressed in another of her long dresses and manly shoes as usual, and her hair was loosely tied in a bun and her face left bear with no make-up whatsoever. She proceeded to get half of her kids ready while the rest were capable of doing so by themselves. After she was done she dropped them off at school and headed for work. At 7:45 AM, Hildah was at her work place giving her a fifteen minutes to settle before work began. Hildah as usual checked through the books and made sure everything was in order and then she sat at her little desk waiting for work to begin. As usual there were people who went as early as 8 AM to collect books hence she could not afford to be late. That day proceeded as usual with Hildah coming across both obedient and I don’t care type of kids but all knew her to be a no nonsense type of person. That next Friday, Hildah left the library and headed to the school’s exit, at that same time one of the most expensive latest cars entered the premises. Hildah did not pay much attention to it and proceeded on until out of the car came a woman dressed in expensive body hugging clothes paired with expensive jewelry. The woman called out to Hildah who looked behind and saw a woman she had seen many times, the woman walked towards her and held her mouth in shock, ‘‘Hildah, is that you?’’ Hildah kept her stoic expression and nodded her head, the woman then introduced herself, ‘‘I hope you remember me, I am Edna, Ken’s wife, Ken was a friend to your husband Willy, we met a few times.’’ Hildah did not forget Edna hence she stretched out her hand, Edna hesitated to shake Hildah’s hand that now looked rough. As Hildah’s hand was still outstretched, a girl ran to Edna and hugged her as she spoke in a low tone, ‘‘mum, don’t shake her hand, this is the mean librarian I told you about.’’ Hildah could hear what the pupil said and simply took her hand back and nodded at Edna, ‘‘it was nice meeting you, good day.’’ That was how she left, and stood at the bus stop as she waited for a bus, her memories took her back to when her husband invited her to one of his work parties. She was dressed in a tight blue dress and black heels. Willy kept on placing kisses on her hand and on her cheeks with every opportunity he got that seemed to upset other couples who did not have that much affection for each other. Hildah was the envy of many women, as she was seen to have to it all. Edna must have been happy to see Hildah in her current state, well many would be.

Hildah arrived home past 5 PM as usual the same routine ensured as she once again only managed to sleep at 11 PM, thankfully the next day was Saturday and she was off. Early Saturday morning after having breakfast, everyone already bathed by 10 AM and they left. Every last weekend of the month, Hildah and her kids went to the supermarket to get some groceries, this particular one was no different. Even though Hildah asked three of her kids to remain home, they refused as usual and she carried all the six. As the family walked into the bus and later into the supermarket, people could not help but look at Hildah, those that knew her knew she was a single mother, some wondered why she had so many kids when she was not financially stable? And when she had no partner? She was one of those women side-lined in her community ever since she moved there, but she got used to having no peers to hand out with, her life revolved around her kids. An hour later, Hildah and her family were done and headed home with three boxes of large Pizza, it was the weekend hence fun and a little laziness was allowed. They arrived home, packed the groceries and all sat in the living room to watch movies, they chose a family comedy and laughed throughout, Hildah looked at her kids all bundled up around her even though they could sometimes drain her they were also the reason she never gave up.

The weekend was over and it was Monday, the school where Hildah worked held a story telling competition every first Monday of the month, the winning story won $100. The title for that Monday was, ‘‘Live On,’’ for any story below the word count of 600. Hildah sat in her desk after making sure everything was okay. She looked at the library filled with kids, teachers, workers, all coming up with stories for the contest, it was funny how people turned up on every first Monday of the Month. A thought then came to Hilda’s mind, ‘‘if everyone seems to be doing this, why can’t I join them? I can earn some money to buy a gift for my babies.’’ Hildah nodded her head and got a notepad, she began to write from her heart, she did not have much belief in her story, but what was the harm in trying. Wednesday morning, everyone sat in the school hall, by everyone I mean everyone and the hall was literary full. The head in the literature department walked upfront with his laptop in hand, he stood on the podium and went straight to the point, ‘‘good morning everyone, so we have deliberated on the winner of the contest as usual I will read the story of the winner and then ask the owner to come up front, silence everyone.’’ Everyone became silent as he began to read the winning story,

‘‘I was an only child born out of wedlock, my parents then got married, we lived an average life until both my parents died one after the other, in two years I lost them both. At seventeen, I took on a job and lived in small dirty house all alone, then I met him, the love of my life, I moved from what they call rags to riches. He was doing fairly well when I met him, but with me by his side he achieved so much gaining a company worth millions. We lived in lavishes, in riches, in splendor, he loved me and I loved him. We got married, and I being an ambitious woman wanted to do something in my life, for my life, and by myself. But, my husband and I could not resist and fell in pits of our passion that burned us both time and time again, we agreed to have two kids, but before I knew it we had six kids. Well, we were rich so what might go wrong, in my head nothing? Funny right, everything went wrong. When my last child was 5months, my husband was found resting in his office chair little did I know he was resting for life. He died, well most likely I and his kids would keep his wealth, yaay! Wealthy widow in town but, wolves were all around us. Before burying him, the court sent a legal document stating the closure of my husband’s company due to corruption, ‘wait what?’ I thought, but well so it was, we hired lawyer after lawyer to help out but we got drained out. In no time, our lives turned upside down and I relocated, I could not stand the look of pity, the look of joy, the look of distain in people’s eyes to my downfall. Thinking I would be happier in a new place, I was wrong, with six kids and no man, I could hear the assumptions from people’s mouths: did she get married four times? Did she sleep around? Is she a widow? Or a home wrecker? Does she not know the family planning methods? All this pierced my heart and at some point I blamed my husband but he is dead what can I do? I went from rags to riches then back to rags, but well all I can say is no matter what I will keep on living on, I live on for myself and for my kids. Just like I, they did not wish for the life they lead, they did not even request to be born so who am I to give up on what I literally brought into this world? To everyone who has lost hope, I say live on.’’

Not many people knew about Hilda’s full story, hence even though some teachers had suspicions, they were not clear, the owner of the story was called upfront under the name, ‘‘Donna.’’ A petite girl with big goggles and a big uniform walked to the stage to claim her prize, people concluded that if she wrote that story, then it was definitely fictional. Everyone clapped for her. After which everyone headed to their usual posts as Hildah returned to the library, she sat at her desk and saw Donna in front of her, Donna smiled at Hildah and signed on the register then she gave Hildah a little paper and walked to sit silently in the corner. Hildah opened the paper and it read, ‘‘thank you for letting me submit your story, I will send the money to you, at least now everyone thinks I am a good writer, people actually said hi to me, thanks.’’ Hildah smiled to herself, and remembered how she chose to give the little girl her story to submit, at least she put a smile on the girls face and won some money for her weekend with her kids, with that she was content.