My meatloaf always tasted good especially when I added cinnamon nut meg.Mom and I would wash it down with a cup of coffee each while Jim, my cute little brother would go on with a bottle of coke. Dad wasn't always around. If he was, maybe the saturday routine would be cancelled. Saturday was the day we usually had our meatloaf. Kim,Jim's twin would take tea with her's instead (she was also cute)
One thing I loved after every meal was the compliment I got. I was only thirteen, yet my Mom would let me handle the kitchen affairs, only on Saturdays though, but at least I could boast of being perfect in meatloaf preparations. My other meals were like damn! My little siblings would complain about the quantity of salt and seasoning cubes. Mom would do same, but that didn't bother me because I knew I'll always get a high compliment for my meatloaf.
On a Monday, I noticed some dark sticky pellet like substance on the kitchen table. They were about 1.4 inches long. On normal days, I loved being inquisitive, and so I would have pressed the pellet like substance with my fingers and then smell the finger. I always love trying new things like mixing detergents and powders together, but I've not been able to contribute a law to Chemistry. On this day I would have done something similar but I didn't, I just used a nylon to cover my hand as I picked them and threw them into the dust him. I didn't give much attention to it, but one thing I didn't know was that I had just been saved from a viral disease.
Saturday came and I moved into the kitchen to begin my routine. I had joy all over me. I was busy slicing the meat while I engaged my vocal cords. All you could hear around the house was
"One step in front of the other
no looking back
no looking back............"

That was Mandissa's 'press on'. I didn't allow my vocal cords relax since I downloaded the song a day before. I really enjoyed the serenity of that afternoon. When it was ten more minutes for the meat loaf to be ready, I gently put water in separate kettles. One for tea and one for coffee. Thank God for the electric cooker Mom bought. It had four faces on it. I gently put the kettles on the cooker so that they could boil. It was raining outside and I was dressed in a jean trouser and a woolen shirt. I was about sitting down when Jim walked into the kitchen. He had in his hand a bottle of coke.
"Can help me warm it?"he pointed the coke at me. I stared at him in utmost confusion
"I should warm your coke?" I asked him expecting a no from him, but he gave me a yes.
"How is that possible?" I asked him. He said nothing but shook his small head.
"Have coffee if you're cold" I said on realising he might be cold, but he shook his head.
"Tea?" I said but he shook his head again.
"I should boil the coke?" I asked him and he nodded in approval. I collected the bottle and emptied it into a frying pan. I told him to leave and come back in few seconds. When he left, I didn't heat it, I simply allowed the coldness escape. He came back and was excited that the coke was no longer cold. If only he knew he would have rejected it as he rejected a coke in the freege.
I served the meal in few minutes. No sooner had we settled to eat that we heard a little noise.
"Stop that Jim" I and Mom said almost at the same time.
"I'm not the one" he defended himself. I was about saying a word when we heard another sound. I looked towards the area where the sound was coming from and I saw a movement.
"Mom that's a movement" I called my Mom's attention. Mom stood up and went towards the movement. I didn't know why I moved my eyes to my plate, but as I did, I felt a quick, irritating and unsatisfactory rush on my feet. I wasn't expecting it. Immediately I flew up and my knee hit the dinning table below causing my water in the cup to pour. I did hit a part of my body but I didn't feel the pain.All I could feel was that rush in my leg. As I was asking Mom what was that,Jim who has a bite of his meatloaf felt a similar rush from his foot up to his legs. He screamed, shook and used his spoon to bring the creature down from his knees without looking . The vibration of his body caused the other water on the table table to turn. I looked out for Kim only to find her ontop the dinning table. She was walking carefully as Mom spoke out;
"It's a snake" It was like that last part of the sentence seemed to sound like "see the snake". Jim didn't help matters as he shouted "Snake". On hearing the word 'snake' Kim who was walking carefully on the dinning table seemed to move faster than her thoughts. She missed a step and was about falling when when she pressed her hand on the closest surface for support. Lo and behold it was a plate of the meatloaf. The pressing nature of her hand made the plate fall down. The plate broke and the meatloaf laid on the floor. Jim was going to help his twin. As he ran to towards her, the meatloaf and water on the floor drew him and he fell on the floor. I made an attempt to pick him up. Unknown to me,Mom had accidentally hit a box that has a powder like substance on top of it. As i made to pick Jim up, the powder like substance poured in both of us.
In this same vein,Mom called me
"Jessica,it has passed again" In total fear,Kim who was on top, shook her legs and the cocoa powder and milk I opened earlier to prepare her tea fell on the ground alongside the hot water. Thank God no one was at that spot. Immediately they fell down,a brown liquid was formed. Everywhere was becoming untidy. I got up and pulled Him and Kim with me to move up to the parlour section. Mom just moved about with a stick in her hand. I didn't knew when I called her Mrs Leonard instead of Mom.
"Mrs Leonard what are you doing?" I blurted out. It seemed like she didn't hear me or was not interested in my statement. She moved into the kitchen and the next thing we saw heard was a
loud noise. I and the twins moved to the kitchen and we saw Mom moving things in order to get the 'snake'. I picked up a stick too and as I took my hand back the stick hit the frying pan in the cooker and it fell down. As the twins screamed holding my shirt like it would produce help for them, the 'snake' passed again but with a tail! This time we became quiet and quickly moved to the dining room where we saw the 'snake' having a large chunk of the meatloaves on the floor. We looked closely and saw the creature. It was a rat! In unity we raised our hands above our heads and when we brought it down we saw a dead rat. That was when I realised that we all held sticks and hit the rat together.
The whole house was............
I sat on the sofa and wondered how a rat had caused all this. My meat loaf was gone, the tea and coffee were all gone thhe house needed to be tidied,where would I start from. Mrs Leonard (as I called her earlier) just patted my back.
"Don't worry I'll pay someone to take care of everything" she said. I was happy at that but my special meatloaf was gone, oooooooh. Thank God it wasn't a snake I thought within and said out loud as I stood up. Kim and Jim just sat at a corner and sobbed quietly.
"So it's not a snake" Kim said.
"And our meatloaf is gone" Jim said and they continued sobbing. I rubbed their heads
"It's okay" I encouraged them and walked away. I too needed an encouragement. As I was moving away I realised that the sticky substance I had seen earlier was the rat feaces, and different viral infections are attributed to the inhaling of the feaces of a rat. I knelt down and raised my hands up and said loud
"God thank you. Thank you Jesus". They were all surprised.
© Amarachi