A Story Of Deceit

Episode 22

‘Yes, you standing there, come up here now’, the woman ordered, I walked hurriedly and moved towards the staircase, ‘Yes, who are you and how can I help you?’, she asked, ‘Errrrm, ma, I’m the, I’m the person, David said he would bring, I replied stammering. ‘You mean, ‘maid’, right? and you’re re calling yourself a person, are you a stammerer because, if you’re, show yourself out and if you’re going to keep on walking like a pregnant elephant, you can’t work for me, are you deaf?, walk here faster jahre’, she yelled, I hadn’t even started working for her, she had already begun abusing me. ‘Yes ma, I’m coming’, I replied and increased my pace, ‘So, what is your name?, where do you stay’, she inquired, ‘I stay at Orile ma, my name is Uwanah’, I replied, ‘Something is wrong with your head, you stay in Orile, you don’t know your street name abi?’ because, you might be staying here till weekends, I don’t want what happened with the former maid to repeat itself, cus I’m gonna need you everytime’, she informed, ‘Yes ma’, I said and obviously, you’re going to wear the maid’s uniform’, ‘yes ma’, I replied, ‘and stop with the ma, my name is Titilayo, Titilayo Martins, so I’d prefer you call me by that, you can call me Mrs.
Martin’s, do you get that?’, she asked, ‘Yes ma, Mrs. Martins, I said.

I will call the chef to take you round the house and put you through your duties’, She brings out her cellphone from her purse, dials a number and a young lady about twenty five years of age comes running out, ‘Ngozi, show this new girl around, she’s the new maid, don’t forget to show her the store too’, she ordered. ‘And you, by the look of things, you don’t seem like, you have a phone, so you’ll be given a new phone, lemme say, next week, In case, I need you, I can call, as you can see, this house is gigantic’, she said, ‘what about Dami’s phone? ‘, Ngozi asked, ‘that useless maid abi?, okay, then just give her phone to uhm….., what’s your name?’, she asked me again, ‘Uwanah, I replied, ‘whatever, I’m going out, won’t be back till evening and this house is a mess, so do a good job, you’ll be paid on a daily bases, okay?’, I nodded my head in agreement and said, ‘Yes, Mrs. Martins’.

Ngozi was friendly, she showed me all the bedrooms in the house, the ones upstairs and downstairs, walking round the house was tiring, I imagined how cleaning the whole house would be if just walking round it was exhausting. The house was full, the whole eight rooms except two rooms in the house were occupied by various people including Mrs. Martins’ rude daughter, Ngozi and I met her coming out of the kitchen and she just paid deaf ears to our greetings. I also saw the very large garden and lots of gardeners in which David was included, with the way, things were done, it seemed like the Martins loved flowers or it was a family business. Ngozi gave me certain rules and regulations to follow if I didn’t want to be sacked, she also said, it wasn’t compulsory to clean all the rooms every day as they didn’t get dirty most of the time, but the living room, kitchen, the veranda, Mr. and Mrs. Martin’s room and Stella’s (Mr. Martin’s daughter) room, had to be cleaned daily. I got to cleaning after Ngozi showed me where to get the supplies, I cleaned with every fiber of my being to create a first good impression.
Thankfully, Mrs. Martins returned that day and didn’t complain about anything, she just asked me to do better. The money I was to earn daily, was given to me by Ngozi, it was a good amount of money compared to what I received at Yemisi’s house. I wasn’t given the phone, Ngozi had probably forgotten, I didn’t want to seem desperate so, I decided to wait and ask for it the next day.

‘So, how was your first day at work’, David asked when got home that day as we lay down to sleep, ‘it was fine, thank you’, I said, ‘so, how do you see Mrs. Martins?’, I laughed out loudly and replied, ‘I will try my best not to do anything that will make her angry’, I said.

He laughed about it too and told me how scared he was of her when he first got the job. ‘David’, I called, ‘thank you’, I said, ‘for what?’, he asked, ‘everything’, I responded , if it’s about living here or helping you with your job, forget about it, just be rest assured that I will even do more, so, there’s nothing to thank me for. I wondered how someone would be so kind, I was beginning to trust that he didn’t have ulterior motives. He asked me about my life before Lagos, this time, I didn’t lie about the things I said but I didn’t tell him anything about my mother or father, I just told him, I lived alone with my mum and I left out Dayo too. We talked about a few other things and decided to call it a night.

Three months passed and a lots of things changed in my life, Good things happened and bad things happened. I knew the nuke and cranes of Mrs. Martin’s house, I had become a familiar figure to every member of the Martin’s family except Mr. Martins who just returned from a business trip. I gained a little weight, being that Ngozi the chef became my friend, David and I grew closer, there were no much secrets between us, I changed my pattern of dressing because, I got new clothes, I opened a bank account, I was friends with some of the gardeners, the gateman and the pool guy. I spoke to my mum everyday by virtue of having a new phone which was given to me by the Martins, I even called Yemisi once, she was so happy to hear, I was in the city, she told me that her father didn’t allow them continue with the abortion and that she was still in Boma with her protuberant stomach. I felt guilty for her present condition. Bidemi (Mr. John’s wife’s daughter, was always throwing a tantrum yelling about the lie that I had taken her boyfriend, David away from her, she even accused me of seducing and sleeping with David, David would always defend me anytime she began her rant, which just increased the possibility that she might have been telling the truth, hence, I asked him to stop defending me and for David, I had begun to notice, he was having feelings for me, I felt pity for him because, I didn’t feel the same way. I knew this because, I caught him staring at me severally, his kind gestures were off the hook, he bought clothes and shoes for me, he made sure I didn’t go hungry, he would hold my hands tightly just to cross the road, I would wake up in the morning often times and see him staring at me which was scary by the way but I decided to ignore all these signs.

Work was fine until the day Stella (Mrs. Martins’ daughter), decided to focus on me.
Her father had just returned the previous week from his business trip after three months, they decided to celebrate a home coming for him on the nineteenth, which was a Sunday. That day was a Saturday, so, the whole place was rowdy due to preparations for the homecoming. She was mean, when it was time for me to do the laundry, she would ask me not to use the washing machine for her clothes, even when most of them needed the machine and most of the clothes she gave me were usually clean, she would make sure I swept her large room twice or thrice daily, she would beep my phone every minute for unreasonable errands, I began to wonder, if I worked for her mother or her. Normally, I knew Stella didn’t like me, I just didn’t know to what extent and I found out the reason on that Saturday. Her mother called the attention of all the workers outside that day including the event planner she hired, ‘I’m going to get a cake for tomorrow, I’m leaving Stella in charge, she’ll tell you what to do’, she announced. Stella was a girl around my age, if not younger than I was, how could she keep her in charge when Ngozi was there?, ‘am I understood?’, Mrs. Martins asked, ‘yes, ma’, we chorused, ‘errm, madam abeg, no vex, who be Stella’, asked one of the middle aged Gardners, ‘You must be very stupid, how could you ask such a silly question, you’re lucky, I’m happy, if not, I’d have fired you, open this gate for me jahre’, she said and walked towards her car. No one said anything to each other till Stella came out and started ordering everyone around.

I didn’t stop to rest even for a minute, She gave me duties, that wasn’t meant for me, she embarrassed me in front of the workers, she called me, ‘lazy, insolent and disrespectful. I thought that’d be all till she called me into her room and slapped me because i got her a glass of water instead of a glass of orange juice. All hell broke lose, there was a limit to what I could endure, I slapped her back and we got into a serious fight such that Ngozi had to intervene. ‘Uwanah, what is it?’, she questioned, Stella was sobbing profusely vowing to get me sacked when her mother returned, ‘Sack who?’, Ngozi asked, ‘are you deaf?, who else but Uwanah?, Stella lewdly replied, ‘okay, sack her, thank God, your father is back, he’ll just have to hear about the numerous guys that visit you when he’s away and don’t think it’s just a threat, I also have evidence to back up my allegations’, Ngozi informed her. I sensed the fright in Stella, she didn’t say a word, she just kept on staring at me in a spiteful way. Ngozi dragged me by my hand and pulled to the kitchen to help her, I thought, she’d ask me for details of what sprung up the contention between Stella and I, but, she didn’t.

At long last, the worst day at work so far since I began working at the Martins residence, was finally over, we were dismissed that day by Mrs. Martins after she returned with a giant cake, with instructions to arrive early at work the next day, because of the party. While David and I walked towards the gate, I started gisting him about how terrible my day was, he laughed at me and he was about to say something when Stella called his attention from her room’s balcony upstairs which faced the gate and threw down a sheet of paper that contained her cellphone number, I got to know this, because, David showed it to me. That’s when it dawned on me that Stella had probably always been watching David and I go home together, she had a crush on Dayo and she felt, she was in a competition with me. I was really bothered about the new discovery of Stella’s feelings for David, how was I going to convince her that I didn’t feel anything for David and get her off my neck?. It wasn’t just Bidemi anymore but Stella also had a crush on David, which left me, the closest girl to David in big trouble.

David wanted to do away with the sheet of paper but I persuaded him not to, that it was wrong to do it. We ended Stella’s topic when we boarded a bus home. ‘Ehem, a very good friend is coming to see me tomorrow, he left Lagos for a while and went to visit his parents because, his uncle could not afford to take care of him but he’s back now and he has gotten a room, two streets away, just want to know, if it’ll be comfortable by you’, he explained, ‘why not?’, ‘okay, what time is he coming?’, I inquired, ‘hmmmm, that’ll be after we return from the homecoming’, he said, ‘okay, no problem’, I replied, ‘Uwanah, don’t worry, I’ll make sure, he doesn’t stay too long, I promise’, he said, I let out a loud laugh and said, ‘okay, David’.

The next day, after church, the martins returned and the homecoming was held, Mr. Martin’s inquisitive gaze at me that day was so glaring that I had to watch my every step, I just had this impression that he probably didn’t like me, therefore, I avoided getting close to him. At about 8:00pm, it was over. David and I hurriedly headed home afterwards, it seemed like it was going to rain. When we got to the compound, I asked David if his friend would still show up, ‘yes, this is the only day, he is free from work’, he replied. After an hour, when we had dinner and had fully settled down to watch T.V, we heard a knock on the door, ‘That must be him’, David said, I stood up and sat on the sofa with a professional look, ‘who is that?’, David questioned, ‘it’s me joor, open door ode’, the voice answered, ‘eh, that voice be like that idiot own ooo’, I said in my thoughts, That was when I analysed David’s explanation of his friend earlier, especially the part where he said his friend left the city for the village. David laughed and unbolted the hook of the door. His friend and I got the biggest shock of our lives as we couldn’t take our eyes off each other, ‘So, Dayo is your very good friend?’, I questioned David.