It was not a Christmas tradition, but I wanted to do it. I took out my bags and began tossing clothes aside, dresses, jean trousers, small-fitting t-shirts, and blouses. I always had too many clothes. If my older sister was not passing down the ones she had outgrown, I was pausing at student markets to pick a nice pair of jeans or a chiffon blouse for lectures.
Source
I am not one to spend on impulse, but I have added some weight between when I first got into the university and now, so as I outgrow some clothes, I replace them. Only, I hadn't seen who to push the smaller ones to until I met Ella.
I didn't go out much when I arrived at Port Harcourt. Apart from gasping for breath when an asthmatic attack hit me, or shivering from the fever that came with malaria, I wanted to really take a break from the stress of school, so I stayed indoors, watching movies and playing board games with my family.
When I began getting better, I decided to go on a stroll with my younger brother, it was then I saw her.
She had a big bowl balanced on her head, with a small cloth just underneath it, wrapped neatly to support the weight on her head. I watched her sway her hips to a rhythm in her head, when she walked past me, she genuflected and said, “Good afternoon, Aunty”.
I turned back in surprise, and it was then I saw it; The holes that stood out in her blouse, and the slack of her skirt which her hands occasionally moved down to support.
“Who is that girl?” I asked my brother who had barely noticed what had just occurred. He had been on his phone fighting invisible wars.
“Who?” He turned back in time to see her retreating figure walk into the burglary that shielded their front door. “Oh, Ella” Then he turned his attention back to his phone.
I couldn't place my hands on why I was so perturbed but when I arrived home, I went over to my older sister who was giving my mom an unprofessional pedicure session and sat beside them.
“Big sis, who is Ella?”
She turned to give me a questioning look then turned back to my mom's leg.
“I think she's the help of that Igbo woman downstairs. What happened to her?” That was my mom.
I shrugged, not knowing how to tell them that I was so concerned because she had been putting on rags.
“Nothing much. I saw her when I was going out and she greeted me. I don't think I've seen her before, so I decided to ask”.
“Ella is a really nice girl….” My sister responded.
“And respectful too” my mom cut in again.
“So why is she in rags?”
My sister turned to look at me again before bursting into laughter. “This Treasure, you will not kill somebody. Have you forgotten that the default state of a house help in this Nigeria screams unkempt?”
“No, this one is too much. I don't know, I just felt bad seeing her in those rags. And I have clothes everywhere….” My mother cut me short at that point.
“So, what is your business? You want to go and give her clothes so that you can put her in trouble?”
“Besides, how many clothes do you have that you want to give out?” My sister cut in. I lifted a corner of my lips knowingly.
“Big sis, you and I know I have more than enough clothes. Besides mommy, I'm planning on dry cleaning the clothes I've left here for ages and going to knock on their house to give her madam myself. I'll tell her the clothes do not fit me anymore. The woman knows I don't stay here, she would not suspect anything.”
“What if she burns them? Or gives them to her own children to wear?”
Those were not options I had considered before but I still felt giving her the clothes was the right thing to do.
I went to the box I had stashed somewhere in my sister's wardrobe and began to sort the clothes, then sent my brother to the dry cleaner with them. Three days later, I was at Ella's doorstep.
“Thank you,” her aunt said, a grim smile on her face when I handed the bag to her. The next time Ella saw me, she was not just genuflecting, she ran into my arms.
“Thank you so much, I couldn't go to church for the Christmas service because I didn't have clothes, but now I have more than enough” There were tears in her eyes too. I simply brushed her hair, squeezed her back, and then went home.
The feeling of fulfillment was indescribable.