It had been a thing of great shame for Ruth when all the mess of Thomas and Reyona started circulating.
When Reyona's scandal started, she had been very vocal in telling anyone who would listen that such a shameless woman had deceived her son.
She became a mini-celebrity in the new club, where she had hardly gained any recognition since she joined.
Then, when the tide turned, those who had started getting close to her because of her fabricated lies quietly distanced themselves from her.
Her neighbours remembered how she had raised her nose at them and they all decided that if she could say all those horrible lies about her good daughter-in-law, who was always bringing things for her, then she could say anything about them.
The book club declared that someone like her was no good to their pristine gathering.
They kicked her out without remorse or a refund of the $5, 000 membership fee she had paid.
Looking back on that exorbitant amount of money and what it could have done for her in her present predicament, Ruth Lanoth felt like crying.
Things had gone from better to worse for her in the past few months.
Her shame in the neighbourhood had doubled when her son, whom she had always bragged would change her status, now came to live with her in the two-bedroom bungalow her husband had married her into.
Ruth had been a full-time housewife, and her son had taken over her care since her husband died.
Now that nobody was willing to hire Thomas whenever he made the half-assed effort to face the humiliation out there to seek a new job, their situation had worsened.
The child had suddenly developed a money-sucking illness and no money was coming from anywhere.
Reyona, who always gets her foodstuffs every two weeks, was no longer doing it.
Ruth lamented her terrible situation as her hand tightened on the paper she still held in her hand.
She couldn't even bear to look at herself in the mirror these days because of the way she knew she looked.
Gone was the plump woman who was well on the way to her life of luxury.
Her gauntness had made her choose clothes like the big-sized boubou as her favourite these days.
Now she counted every penny she could lay her hands on, living on coupons and discounts while she haggled prices at the food market.
Her credit cards were maxed out while she was trying to support her son and three grandchildren.
She could remember how she had been given a stern warning two days before when she had tried to get a new credit card with the name of her late mom.
"What would I do now?" Ruth muttered to herself as she got overwhelmed with everything happening around her.
"Grandma!" Allysyn's sudden voice as she rushed out of the room they shared with their father jolted Ruth out of her troubled thoughts. "Grandma, Le…"
"What? What is it? Can't you all give me a break? Go disturb your mother for once!" Ruth snapped at her in frustration.
Allysyn shrank back at the way Ruth shouted at her.
"Just leave me alone, will you?" Ruth said it in a gentler tone. "Go, I will..."
Allysyn shook her head gently as she said, "It's Leah, Gra..."
"Now, she is vomiting, Ally!" Junior's frightened voice rang through the house.
"What? I…" Ruth quickly straightened herself up from where she was.
"She is shaking, Grandma," Allysyn said as she ran ahead of Ruth. Tears ran down her face as she said, "I came to call you because she was shaking; now she is vomiting."
They met Junior, trying to wipe the vomit off Leah's mouth.
The young girl was shaking violently on the bed and the vomit could have blocked her nose if not for her brother's attempt.
"Sweet Jesus," Ruth said as she scooped the child off the bed.
She tripped over the syrup bottle she knocked over in haste and almost dropped the child.
Allysyn quickly supported Leah with her hand and Ruth righted herself.
"Alysyn, find the phone and call your dad. Tell him to meet me at the hospital." Ruth shouted as she hurried out.
It only dawned on her when she got out that there was no car to use.
She looked at both sides and saw that the porches were all empty.
Tears of regret streaked down her face as she finally realised what she had done to herself.
Once upon a time, it wouldn't have been difficult for her to rush up to any of them for help.
That time was past.
"Please, Leah. Hold on, baby," she whispered to the child as she started hurrying down the street with the hope that she would find a taxi that came to drop someone off.
She had not taken more than three steps before she turned around.
"Cliff! Cliff!" she started yelling even before she got close to their house.
"What did I do now?" Ample-sized stomach gaping beneath his spotted singlet, Cliff opened the screen door.
"Cliff, help me. Please help me!" Ruth Lanoth cried. "I am so sorry; please help my grandbaby," she begged unashamedly.
"Mary, get me my keys," Cliff was already saying as he came out and quickly put on his sandals.
His wife ran out with the key as he said, "Come, bring her to the truck."
More neighbours came out and they could all see the way the baby was shivering and vomiting all over Ruth.
Some of them were already saying prayers for the poor kid as Ruth quickly got into the truck.
A neighbour quickly threw a wrapper in through the window as she said, "Wrap her up."
Ruth nodded and did so as Cliff started the car.
Allysyn ran out of the house and screamed, "He is not picking! Daddy is not picking!"
"Keep calling him!" Ruth shouted back before Cliff gave the old truck all the speed it could take.
The curious kids left the road and there was neither hooting nor hollering this time.
They automatically knew something was wrong.
They had never seen Old Cliff drive his truck that fast before.
The neighbours gathered out of curiosity and concern.
"That kid looked very sick; did you know she was unwell?" a woman asked her friend.
"When was the last time I knew anything about Ruth?" The other woman answered.
As everyone sent them off with their prayers and hope, a 7-year-old girl kept on calling her father's number over and over again.
He didn't pick.