Hushed Echoes

When he finished washing, he spread the shirts on the rope outside and stood for a while to examine them, he looked at them for a while and a feeling of fulfilment engrossed his mind because his shirt were sparkling clean.

Having accomplished his task, he bent down and picked up the remnants of the soap as well as the bucket and proceeded to the room, when he got to the door he was surprised to discover that it was ajar, a chill ran up his spine as something clicked in the back of his mind.

Marco became confused, he had to stand there for a while thinking wether he actually closed the door or not.

“But I closed it, I could remember vividly that I closed it, then who could have open it for goodness sake” he wondered.

He however decided that if he should stand there wondering, the much needed answer would never come, therefore he pushed the door wide open and made an attempt to enter.

“Who is there?”

That sonorous voice cut him shirt in his track as he stood there dumbfounded for a while, this time around Marco did not know what to say, instead he twitched his lip and suddenly the last emerged from the room and came in contact with hm, he could not easily find his voice until the lady spoke.

“Who are you?” Asked the lady.

“My name is Marco, Iam a friend to Fred”

“Okay!” Exclaimed the lady, ” Fred told me sometime ago that you would be coming..” she paused for a moment, raised her eyebrow and tapped her fingers on the edge of the table, then she continued.

“So, when did you finally arrived?”

“Last week” Marco replied, looking straight into her face, he scratched his head and continued, ” erm, excuse me, are you his wife?”

“Yes of course” replied the lady.

“So you are Carolyn? Fred had told me a lot about you” Marco remarked.

“Is that so? Anyways now tell me, what has he been telling you about me?” She asked pointedly, smiling to reveal her dentition.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Oh well, just like loverboy, he has been giving me good compliments about you” Marco said giggling, he quickly dropped the bucket he was holding in one corner and came back to sit in the chair.

“Lover boy indeed” Carolyn said, ” is he really a boy? Why don’t you call him loverman instead?” She chuckled and lay down on the chair next to marco.

“Oh!” Marco giggled hysterically over her jokes, ” that is true, your sweetheart has already started growing grey hair, besides the lover man would soon be back from work and you know he has missed you so much, so when he is back, guess what? Well I won’t tell you until you experience it yourself”

“Alright, I will wait until he comes back so that I can see it for myself, by the way how is he fairing?”

“He is as fine as a fine man” replied Marco.

Carolyn burst into laughter almost immediately, ” you are really a very funny person” she remarked.

“Really? But my name is not funny, Iam Marco by name”

Carolyn continued laughing, she used her right hand to pay her hair into shape, ” alright Mr Marco, I now know your name, sorry for the misplaced identity”

“Thank you very much ma” Marco replied jokingly.

He stood up, picked the bucket and went straight to drop it in the bathroom.

Meanwhile noticed his rather lacerated body and became anxious to know what must have caused it.

Immediately Marco came out of the room, she did not waste time In asking him what was responsible for his injuries, ” what happened to you? why do you have bruises all over your body?”

“It’s a long story, anyways not to worry, I will narrate everything to you when I’m relaxed”

Carolyn discovered a clear overtone of tragedy In his voice, she would have persuaded him to open up, but on a second thought she decided to let him until he had taken his lunch.

“Have you had lunch?”

“No, not yet, there is a little food left in the pot, you can as well eat it since you are just returning from a long journey”

“You don’t have to worry, Iam not hungry at all, moreover I bought some foodstuffs, I intend to prepare some delicious soup”.

Marco declined on the chair reading through the newspaper Carolyn brought, as he was reading his utmost concentration was not on the newspaper, but rather he was busy scanning any vacancy advertisement.

As he opened the pages, he did not bother to digest anything, rather he was flipping through in a quest for any job opportunity.