We cannot wait for Rumona to be broke!

For the last month or so, life for me has been good both at school and at home. Until Rumona, my sister-in-law, arrived from Shimo, where she was visiting her husband.

Because of her big mouth, Rumona is a destabilising figure at school and home. When she found out that I was married, I hear she laughed and declared our marriage would not last.

“Gosh, Dre, vile ni mchoyo na anapenda juice ataishi na bibi kweli?” she asked Yunia.

Rumona said Fiolina was a fool, as only a fool would get married to a miserable teacher. Although I suspect Yunia added some salt as she reported, I have no doubt in my mind that Rumona could say such things.

These reports reached Fiolina even before she met Rumona and, as a result, the two were a classic case of hate at first sight.

As my mother’s daughters-in-law, it had been expected they would share home chores and leave my mother to, deservedly, rest.

The problem is that Rumona is lazy. She pretended to be too busy or, when around, to be sick. This therefore left Yunia with most of the work.

Last week Yunia disappeared. We later heard she had gone back to her husband. Although we all pretended to be sad that she had left, this was good news.

With Yunia gone, it was expected that Rumona and Fiolina would take charge of house chores.

As a man I did not want to interfere, and left every evening, only returning very late when food was ready. But just a few days after Yunia’s departure, I started hearing complaints about Rumona.

All of a sudden, Rumona became very busy at school, and even started volunteering to teach Class Eight during evening preps, yet she had never been assigned to teach the candidates. She would arrive home late.

Arrived late

After doing the chores silently for three days, Fiolina could not stand it any more and, last Tuesday, she went on strike. As usual, Rumona arrived home late, expecting to find supper ready. There was none.

“My daughters, what are we eating today?” I heard my mother ask as darkness set in.

“Fionila, what have you cooked? You have been around all afternoon,” Rumona asked my First Lady.

“I was busy the whole afternoon,” Fiolina answered.

“Busy with what?”

“I was sewing,” Fiolina said.

I had bought her a second-hand Singer sewing machine as part of our plans to establish the biggest clothing line in Mwisho wa Lami.

“And what did you expect we would eat?” Rumona demanded.

“And you, where were you?” Fiolina fired back.

“Me, I am very busy with school and preps for Class Eight,” she said. “It is you, who comes early, who should ensure everything is ready. Me, I can only do the work on Sunday when I have time.”

“Rumona, mimi sio maid yako,” Fiolina answered rudely.

I was happy that Fiolina was standing up to Rumona but worried that she my also talk to me that way one day.

Had my mother not intervened, the quarrel would have escalated into something else. I thought the beef was over but, come the next day, I was shocked to hear Rumona bring it up in the staffroom.

As usual, she waited for tea time when everyone was around.

“Gosh, kuna watu hii dunia wanafikiria walioa bibi kumbe ni mashida walijiwekelea,” she started.

“Nani huyo?” asked Anita and Mrs Atika in unison.

“Bibi hata hajamaliza mwezi mmoja na anaogelesha watu ni kama amemaliza mika mbili!”

She refused to expound on this but, after I had left the staffroom for class, she told the teachers of their altercation with Fiolina.

Although she is younger than Fiolina and Ford is my younger brother, Rumona told everyone that she was the senior-most daughter-in-law in our family.

“Pius’ wife rarely comes home so I am the senior-most daughter-in-law in that miserable home. How can a girl who just got married the other day expect me to cook for her?”

From what I gathered, she went on to say many bad things about our family in general and Fiolina in particular.
“Mwalimu wa nursery ni bibi wa kuringia watu?” she wondered.

She had made a mistake. What she did not know was that Fiolina was Madam Anita’s distant cousin, and Madam Anita would not take that lying down.

“Fiolina is older than you and you must respect her,” Madam Anita told her. “Even then Dre is older than Ford and you are therefore the younger daughter-in-law!”

This, I am told, set Rumona and Madam Anita on the war path, and they waited until lunch time to square it out. As is becoming increasingly common, Rumona waited until everyone was seated before she brought up a story about someone else.

“Gosh, sikujua kama bwana wako ni jeshi. Watu wanakusikilia wivu,” she began. “No wonder when schools close they have no one to visit.”

Clearly, she was talking about Anita, whose husband works outside Mwisho wa Lami. Anita hit back.

“Who told you we are interested in Askari jela?” she asked. “Your husband lives in a grass-thatched house where four officers share a room.”

This would have continued had the Deputy not called a staff meeting.

“It has come to our notice that only one teacher is teaching the candidates during preps time,” he said. “Yet the pupils will be examined in five subjects.”

They refused

He ordered me to prepare a timetable for preps for the candidates to be followed until KCPE time.

That evening I sat down to prepare the timetable, which only had the Class Eight teachers. Rumona had none so she tried to get the other teachers to allow her to teach their subjects for them but they all refused.

Madam Anita was not apologetic. “Young girl,” she said, “I taught you here just the other day and we all know you cannot handle Class Eight”

Now Rumona had no excuse to get home late and help out with house chores. But she only did it once. Then she went to Mwisho wa Lami and bought a crate of soda and bread and biscuits. This is what she has been having for supper in her house.

Now, no one speaks to her at home or at school as we know how she behaves when she has the money. My brother must have given her a good sum.

But she will change when the money runs out. And we can’t wait for her to be broke!