A strange noise woke me up and I was forced to open my eyes. I took a quick glance at the wall clock and realized it was just 1am.
"Who could this be? Where is this noise coming from at this time of the night?" I muttered, forcing myself out of the bed as the noise drew nearer.
"Could it be armed robbers?" I thought and was gripped with fear remembering stories of armed robbers attacking a female hostel.
I started shivering all of a sudden and immediately woke my roommates. I rushed to unplug my phone from the charger while they were still grumbling because I woke them up. I hid my phone beneath my bed and they all realized there was a noise outside.
"Are we under attack?" Moyosore voice trembled as she jumped out of bed too.
"How do I know? Do I have eyes outside?" I replied and changed from my pajamas pant to a pair of jean trouser.
My other roommates went to do the same and this time, the noise had gotten close enough to our room.
"Isn't that Mummy Basit's voice?" Moyosore asked again and we all paid attention to the voices.
"Yes, that's definitely her voice," Aminat replied.
"And her husband. I guess the landlord's son is there too," I said, carefully paying attention to the other voices.
"What could be the problem by this time of the day?" Aminat stuttered, and we couldn't tell because it wasn't the couple's first time disturbing other tenants' rest, but not at midnight.
"This is weird, I have never heard them at this time of the day," Moyosore said.
"There is always a first time for everything, and we should just expect more," I replied and went to change my trouser again.
I remembered the last time when they started fighting like that, we returned from lecture late in the evening and wanted to rest. We started hearing noises from outside and when we checked, it was this couple.
It was a very messy fight that lasted close to 30 minutes, and they fought, not even minding that they had kids who were watching these things. To worsen the situation, the fight started as a result of food.
The husband claimed to be very hungry, and when he complained about the little food the wife served him, she said it was because of the money he dropped before leaving for work, so he got angry. It took almost all the tenants to settle the issue and in less than two weeks, they were back at it again.
Present moment
They hurl curses at each other, not minding the time of day, and it's like a regular habit we can't get used to because they aren't putting any effort to stop. The noise and drama increases with every misunderstanding they have.
The noise didn't stop or subdue and other tenants started coming out of their rooms when they couldn't bear it anymore. We could hear their voices trying to settle whatever the case was, and I knew it would be a long night.
We hesitated because I was really angry; the couples were becoming a thorn in my flesh, and something had to be done about their disturbance.
"Should we go out too?" Aminat asked.
"If you want to but I am not coming. I am sick and tired of these people," I replied, and everyone went outside except me.
I paid attention to their conversation but couldn't pick any point because they were all talking at the same time.
After a few minutes, I decided to join them, too, because I couldn't wait for the gist.
Upon getting outside, I saw the couple children there. Four of them were still awake, and their parent's noise must have woke them up.
Poor kids! I thought and paid attention back to the conversation. It turned out that Daddy Basit demanded sex, and his wife refused him because the kids weren't sleeping deep. He kept shooting his shot and the continuous refusal made him angry. He started screaming at that time of the night and the wife took it personally.
"Really? You woke us up because of sex?" I stuttered, staring at the couples who were almost naked and the other tenants burst into laughter.
"Smallie, we didn't call you. Please stay out of this," The wife replied to me in Yoruba.
I moved closer to her and gave this bad stare because my body was shaking already. I felt like punching her face, but I would end up with the biggest pain because mummy Basit fights like a tigress.
Out of annoyance, I went back to my room with the intention of calling the landlord in the morning since his son couldn't do the necessary thing. My roommates returned inside the room and we couldn't sleep again until past 4am.
I woke up a few minutes before 7am and immediately I stepped outside the room, I saw Mummy Basit coming in my direction.
I looked in the other direction because I didn't want to greet her and to my surprise, she called my name.
"Miss Lara, good morning. Please don't be offended about what happened overnight," She said to me.
"No problem but that's not fair. We all have things to do this morning, but you interrupted our rest, causing us to wake up late this morning," I replied.
"It's my husband's fault," She replied.
"You guys need to learn to settle issues amicably," I replied and we went our separate ways.
I couldn't hold grudges against her because there is this sweet side of her whenever she's not fighting.
On my way out for lectures, I realized that she went knocking on every neighbor's door to apologize for disrupting their rest overnight.
