THERE WAS NO SALT IN THE HOUSE

Some months back, Queenola and I made a pact to send each other prompts to help us with our writing. Of course, me being me, I developed cold feet and days turned into weeks then months. But Queenola is kind and she has agreed that we continue from where we stopped! 😊 

The prompt from this story is that it starts with the sentence: THERE WAS NO SALT IN THE HOUSE. I hope you love what I did with it. Enjoy! And don't forget to share and post your comments. 🤗

*******************************

There was no salt in the house and Amanda was in a state of panic. "Why didn't I come with my own salt?" she asked herself. "Infact, why didn't I come with all the ingredients I needed to make the love potion as Baba directed?". Amanda was in such panic that she was on the verge of tears. She loved Jude, she really did, but Jude didn't love her back with the kind of intensity she wanted. And, to make matters worse, there was no salt or olive oil or BlackBerry seeds in his house.

Her subconscious was really active that day. "Babe, go out and get these things na. You'll be back in no time." But she considered the distance to the market. Jude lived in an estate on the outskirts of Lagos Island and the market were such things could be bought was quite far away. Besides, it was 6pm already and the possibility of getting back home on time was worrying. Jude hated late nights. And bad cooking too.
They fought because of her last cooking. "Amanda, what is this?", Jude asked her the night before as they are dinner together. "Spaghettini," she replied, trembling. He stood up angrily. "Can't you cook?! Look at how bad this tastes! Even my 15 year old cousin cooks better than you." And he walked out of the house in anger. She was certain that he went to a nearby diner to have his dinner.

She cried after he left. "Why doesn't he love me? What kind of situation is this? He could have managed my cooking, at least, for today. My cooking isn't always so bad. I had no one to teach me." In her grief, she called her camp roommate, Aisha. Aisha knew how to navigate these things. She was dating the rich guys in town. She had a long list of suitors chasing after her. And she had once boasted that, "Men are like puppets. Find their mumu button and you can have them eating from your palms." She said this with a wink.

Amanda loved Aisha's confident persona. At 22, an age considered old for Northern girls, she had quite a lot of suitors and she was still picky with them. They treated her like a Queen too. Spontaneous trips to Paris. Designer bags. Surprise 'I-love-you-so-much' monies, usually in hundreds of thousands, sent to her account on a regular basis by different men. Babe was balling.

As Amanda narrated the incidence with Jude to Aisha in between sobs, Aisha made a tsk tsk sound. Then she said, "Babe, tell me again, when and how did you meet this guy? And why doesn't he have a cook?". Amanda could answer the first question but not the second. "I met him at a church programme for singles, sometime last year." The laughter from the other end of the line, Aisha's line, was unnerving. Aisha then said, "Babe, first of all, I never take such guys seriously. Going to church to pray for a spouse is usually a female thing. Not a male thing. Besides, why would a man be praying for a spouse in church when he should be working his butt of to make enough money to spoil the girl in his life?" Anyway, I don't know why you like this Jude guy but, if you like him so much, then I'll help you. There's this Baba who makes my love potions for me...."

They both went to the Baba to get the ingredients to the potion. From his directive, she has to make it herself and must put it in any food she cooks for Jude. Also, she must give him this potion on the first day of every month for it to be potent. And it must be done latest a day after the instructions had been given.

The deadline was running out. Quickly. Jude was going to be home soon. Amanda didn't know what to do. In her state of worry, she slept off on the couch, portion unmade and forgotten. When she woke up the next morning, she was in bed, properly covered with the duvet. She turned to see Jude looking at her with admiration in his eyes. "You are so beautiful Amanda, heaven sent even. I wish you would take the time to learn how to cook. It's really not that hard. I registered you in a catering school. Can you go, at least for me? I want you to be my wife and it will be such a shame if you can't cook." Then, he gave her a kiss on her cheek and her forehead. And then brought her breakfast in bed.

Amanda started to cry again. She thought he was going to leave her. She had even considered using s love potion. But here was Jude, being sweet and nice, going out of his way to make her happy and make their relationship work. As they are and giggled at each other, him kissing her at intervals, she began to realize that you don't really need a love potion to make another person love you. That choice to love you has to be completely and totally theirs.