Chapter 11

Mr. Matthew frowned as he looked at his mother, demanding an explanation. “You told me we would not listen to or accept Mrs. Lupita’s advice again mom, then what is she now doing here?” he asked angrily. Mrs. Lupita had come to their house that morning with four other people; two men and two women. Mrs. Grace had entertained them and told them to wait for her in the sitting room while she got her son, as he was still in his bedroom at that time.

She closed the door behind her and looked at her son who was sitting on his bed and reading a book. “Matt, you are going to dress up now and then come downstairs to meet us in the sitting room, we are going to give Mrs. Lupita one more chance, am I understood?” she said and folded her arms waiting for her son to respond to her instructions.

Mr. Matthew stood up from his bed and walked towards his wardrobe to pick a cloth he could change into as he was still wearing his pyjamas. He then went into his bathroom and washed his face. He had already brushed and bathed that morning. After washing his face, he combed his hair and stared at his reflection in the small mirror which was kept on the wall a little higher than the bathroom sink.

“Matt do not waste my time,” he heard his mother say from his room. He sighed and came out all dressed up.

“Why mom?” he asked as he stood in front of his bathroom door fixing his watch to his wrist.

“Well, I didn’t want to, but she said I should give her another chance, she even brought people that she wants you to meet, so we are going to hear what they have to say,” Mrs. Grace said and opened the door, gesturing for her son to go out before her.

Mr. Matthew gave a low grunt and walked out of the door. His mother closed the door behind her as she came out. “And Matt, I don’t want to see that frown on your face by the time we get downstairs,” his mother said and started walking down the stairs. Mr. Matthew stood still and watched his mother go by.

Mr. Matthew sighed as he looked at his mother. “Fifty-six years old and still hasn’t changed at all,” he thought as he looked at his mother. He walked closely behind her till they reached the sitting room. Mr. Matthew greeted Mrs. Lupita who greeted him in return and then exchanged pleasantries with the other four people, although he made sure that they greeted him first because they looked younger than him.

Mrs. Grace sat on a free sofa and gestured to her son to come and sit beside her. The four people had sat on Mr. Matthew’s favorite long sofa while Mrs. Lupita sat in the sofa adjacent to where they sat. Mr. Matthew faked a smile as he walked to his mother and sat beside her. He didn’t like it that other people were sitting on his favorite sofa. “They should have asked at least before sitting on my seat, I was the one who bought that sofa and I bought it for myself,” he thought to himself as he resisted the urge to frown. “Even Stacy knew not to sit on my chair,” he thought again.

“So Matthew, I want you to meet Joshua, Vanessa, Timothy and Paulina,” Mrs. Lupita said as she introduced the four people to Mr. Matthew. They smiled. Mr. Matthew just sat silently, looking at them blankly. His mother smiled and nudged him.

“I’m Matthew, Mr. Matthew. And I do not think there is any need for more introductions, so can we please just skip to the part where you tell me why you are here?” Mr. Matthew asked firmly as he readjusted himself on the sofa he sat. It was not as comfortable as his favorite long sofa.

Mrs. Lupita smiled. “Well, I brought them here to tell you their own side of the story. This will prove to you that my matchmaking skills are not dysfunctional as you thought, over to you folks,” she said as she gestured to Joshua to start speaking first. Mr. Matthew frowned.

Joshua cleared his throat as he started. “Uhm, so I met Mrs. Lupita about three months ago when I was just like you Matthew, single and unhappy,”

Mr. Matthew cut him short and gave him a harsh glare. “Please I would like to be referred to as Mr. Matthew,” he said and folded his arms. Joshua smiled.

“Oh, I thought you wouldn’t want the formalities since we’re on a friendly note here,” he said as he looked towards his wife, Vanessa, who sat close to him and smiled.

Mr. Matthew shook his head whilst frowning. “No, I want the formalities, and we are not friends,” he replied in a harsh tone.

Joshua smiled and cleared his throat. He was beginning to dislike Mr. Matthew. “Well, what I was just trying to say is Mrs. Lupita helped when I had almost given up hope of ever finding a partner,” he finally said as he looked at his wife and gave her a small peck on her lips.

Mr. Matthew frowned greatly. “Please can you keep your intimacies to your matrimonial bedroom, you didn’t come here to display romance,” he said angrily. His mother face palmed herself and wished he would stop countering them harshly.

Joshua’s smile faded. “Yeah sure, well, I’m just trying to say that Mrs. Lupita’s meet up in the library plan was what worked for I and Vanessa here, I bumped into her in the library, and from there we started talking and we just clicked you know,” he said as he looked at Mr. Matthew’s direction.

Mr. Matthew looked at him with a blank expression before fixing his gaze on Timothy. “So what’s your own story? Library meet up, right?” he asked scornfully.

Timothy smiled. “Well, we actually met at a party, she was alone, Mrs. Lupita directed me to her seat to talk with her, I gave her a rose, and from there we started hanging around together and now we’re married. I think ours was a more better experience, we....” he started to say but was interrupted by Mr. Matthew.

“Much better,” Mr. Matthew said, correcting him.

“Sorry, what?” Timothy asked as he did not quite understand what Mr. Matthew was trying to say.

“You said more better, it’s supposed to be much better, you can’t use more and better together, because they are both in the comparative form,” Mr. Matthew said, correcting him again. Mrs. Grace sighed as she looked over to where Mrs. Lupita sat. Mrs. Lupita looked frustrated.

“Oh, yes, that’s what I meant, much better,” Timothy started as he gave a low chuckle, “you know teachers, always going around correcting people, it’s in their blood,” he said jokingly as he, Paulina, Vanessa and Joshua laughed softly.

Mr. Matthew nodded. “Well we always try to help uneducated folks, somehow like you four,” he said which made them to stop laughing as their face turned sour.

“You can’t call us uneducated just because you have a higher understanding of English, Mr. teacher,” Joshua fired back defensively.

“I see, and Mr. Joshua, what work do you do?” Mr. Matthew asked.

Joshua fumbled with his words. “Uhm, well, I'm not currently in a job now, but I'm working towards getting one,” he said avoiding Mr. Matthew’s face.

Mr. Matthew nodded and looked at them wryly. “And the rest of you?” he asked but they started giving him excuses. Only Paulina had a job as a waitress in a restaurant.

Mr. Matthew smiled, “So, because you all do not have a current job, that was why you came over to my house to be thinking I would have the time for your chattering rubbish. So what if Mrs. Lupita’s plans worked for you? Go to your churches, give testimonies, I'm not your pastor, I'm not interested in your marital lives. I don’t even know you people,” he said as he stood up to leave.

“Please I wouldn’t mind if you all stood up from my sofa, which I bought with my money because I have a job,” Mr. Matthew said and walked over to them. They all stood up quickly as they didn’t want any further embarrassments.

“Thank you,” Mr. Matthew said as he began to drag the sofa towards the staircase. They all watched in horror as Mr. Matthew pulled the sofa up the stairs with great difficulties, trudging his way through.

They soon heard a door slam shut loudly which startled them, making them jump with fright.

“This was a bad idea,” Joshua hissed angrily and dragged his wife, Vanessa out of the house. They walked out into the street and boarded a bus in the nearest bus station.

Timothy stood for a while before giving Mrs. Lupita a mean look. “I was against this idea from the start Mrs. Lupita, please don’t call us again to use as examples for your clients,” he said as he and Paulina walked out the door. They entered their Volkswagen and drove off in a heap of smoke as their car was in great need of repairs.

Mrs. Lupita and Mrs. Grace stood silently looking at each other. Shortly after, Mr. Matthew came downstairs with two brown wooden chairs which he kept in the place where the large sofa had been. He smiled to the two women and headed back to his room.