A Story Of Deceit

Episode 25

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David returned some minutes after 11:00pm, I opened the door, he came in and went straight to the bed, leaving me on the mattress, which was something David, would normally not do. I lay on the mattress that night thinking of what would happen next, the mattress wasn’t as comfy as the bed but, it wasn’t bad either. At midnight, I was awoken by David’s gentle tap on my arm, ‘Uwanah, Uwa’, he called, ‘what?’, I said, stretching and yawning, ‘Uwanah, please get up, we need to talk, he begged, I stood up grumbling because, I really needed to sleep. ‘What is it?’, I asked as I got up from the mattress and sat on the chair. ‘I want to apologize for my behaviour earlier, I’m sorry, I was just angry’, he apologized, ‘angry about Dayo, I know but, you should have waited to talk to me about it’, I said, ‘talk about what?,that you were hiding Dayo’s messages from me?’, he yelled, ‘I thought, you wanted to talk, why would you yell, don’t you know, we have neighbours?’, I asked, ‘Why won’t I yell?’, he said angrily. ‘David, calm down’, I said frightened, his anger issues were becoming awkward. ‘I thought you knew about the messages, that day, I came out from the bathroom and saw you with my phone’, I said, ‘no, I didn’t see anything, I just held your phone’, he explained. ‘Then why were you angry, that day?’, I questioned, ‘because, Uwa, see uhm, uhm’, he said stammering, ‘what, David?’, I asked, ‘You take me for granted, even when you know I love you’,he said, I just stared at him in awe, I knew he was in love with me, I just didn’t expect him to say it that way. I was short of words. ‘Uwa, say something, just tell me what you feel’, he said. His words sounded juvenile to me. I didn’t want to tell him, ‘no’, instantly, I decided to push the issue to another day, ‘Hmmm, David, I didn’t know about your feelings’, I lied, ‘David, uhm, allow me to think about it’, I said. He stood up from the bed, came to the chair and sat close to me, ‘Uwa, what’s there to think about?’, he asked calmly, ‘Uhm, it’s too soon’, I said.
He stood up from the chair, with a hand on his waist while he yelled, ‘What’s too soon?, is it that you don’t know me enough or it’s because of Dayo abi?, you still like him, he dumped you, I won’t’, he said. ‘David, calm down, it’s not about Dayo, it’s just that you have to give me time’, I said and went back to the mattress. ‘Uwa, go and lie on the bed’, he ordered, though, it was an order, I know, I wasn’t mandated to obey, but, I was tired of laying in the the mattress, so, I stood up and went to the bed.

All through the following days, I started avoiding David like a plague, I didn’t really respond to his questions, I would just sleep off, when we returned from work and refuse to eat dinner, sometimes, I even allowed him to leave for work before me. His clinging attitude was becoming unbearable, I started thinking of whether to accept Mrs. Martins offer of staying in their house. I knew, David began to notice my recent attitude towards him but, it still didn’t stop him from trying to convince me of his feelings . David reminded me of Bola in Boma, I just had pity on him because, there was no way, I would ever feel the same for him and I didn’t want to seem like an ungrateful person either. I had really saved a lot of money in my bank account because of David. David was someone, who took me into his house, fed me, got me a new job and still bought things for me, despite the fact that I was also receiving my salary, this enabled me to keep almost all my money. It wasn’t really awful for him to be in love with me, he would be the perfect person for any girl but, I just couldn’t bring myself to love him. Just to prove that he really loved me, he stopped talking to Stella completely, which put me at a disadvantage with her again, he began preparing meals and tidying up the house. I won’t deny that I wasn’t enjoying being treated as a princess but, I cautioned him to cease from his actions, if not, it would create the impression, that I was going to accept him.

I got tired of waiting. Mr. Martin’s still hadn’t returned from his trip, it was taking like forever and curiosity was killing me, I would pace up and down all day at work after I finished my chores, waiting for Mr. Martins to drive his ten billion dollars car into the compound. I considered calling my mum to inform her of my discovery that Mr. Martins might be my uncle. I changed my mind because, I didn’t want to raise her hopes, I wanted to be sure first. I had it in mind to ask Ngozi, if she knew when he’d return and, I asked her, she was just as ignorant of his return as I was. Then, I remembered Stella and I knew that David was just the perfect way to get information from her. I ran to the garden as fast as I could, I begged David for his cellphone with the excuse that, I was bored since, I had finished all my chores. ‘Uwanah, don’t run my battery down’, he warned jokingly, ‘yes, I have heard you’, I said smiling, ‘but do you have airtime?’, I asked, ‘yes, I have enough airtime, what do you need it for?’, he inquired, ‘I want to call my friend, Yemisi’, I replied. Yemisi was someone, David had pity on based on her ordeals with David, so he wasn’t hesitant in saying, ‘okay, no problem’, ‘thank you’, I said, ‘you’re welcome’, he replied and off I went. I went into the store, sat comfortably on one of the stools and began searching for Stella’s phone number on David’s phone. It didn’t take long for find it, it was the number with the most frequent calls on his call log. I gave an unabated smile and started texting Stella.

Me: “Hello, Stella, I’m really sorry for my behaviour towards you recently, I have been busy and really stressed out”.

I paused for a while before I pressed send. In less than five seconds, she sent a reply.

Stella: “It’s okay, it’s fine, you should have told me, you were stressed out, but, you’re in the garden now, how are you managing to text me?”.

I didn’t panic, I knew exactly what to type.

Me:”Our leader allowed me to rest for a while, I told him I was having a little headache, I’m at the back of the garden resting”.

I giggled and pressed send and I got a reply right after.

Stella: “Okay, so, uhm, David, I’m really glad you opened up to me about your present condition, can I do anything to help?”

I hummed a traditional song we used to sing in Boma and typed back.

Me: “No, dear, I will be fine. I didn’t really know I was treating you badly, it was Uwanah that told me that not picking your calls would only hurt you, she said, because she’s a girl too, she understands how you’d feel, I’m really sorry Stella”

I clicked send with a mischievous smile on my face.

She sent a text afterwards.

Stella: “Really?, Uwanah did that for me?, I didn’t know. Wow, are you guys that close that she even knows you don’t pick my call?”.

I decided to be smart and conjure pity from her towards me.

Me: “Yes, we are very close, Uwanah doesn’t have anyone in Lagos, I’ve been taking care of her like a younger sister”.
I sent it after I finished laughing at the previous messages before I got a reply.

Stella: “Wow, I didn’t know all this, since she’s like a sister to you, then she is like my sister too. David, you know, you’re really important to me so, anyone important to you, is important to me, can I call you? “.
I thought for a while before my next reply.

Me: “No, dear, you know?, I will soon go back to work. We won’t talk for long and I really need to speak to you, so I will call you when I get home”.

I clenched my teeth because, I had no idea of how I would make David call her. She responded after a little while.

Stella: “Okay, no problem”.

I stood up from the stool and raised my hands up in a funny way, I had succeeded in making Stella stop her backwards attitude towards me. I knew what I did was bad, playing with Stella’s feelings under the guise of David but I wasn’t really guilty, I felt she deserved it because of her insolent and disrespectful behaviour towards elders. The main reason of my guilt was using David’s phone. When David stopped answering her calls, he managed to keep her at bay so, texting her again, would only make her assume that David cared, which would make her resume calling David again and constant calls from her would only make David frustrated. I had already done the deed and it was necessary, if I wanted to be updated about Mr. Martins whereabouts. I looked at the time on my phone it was time for lunch, I ran straight to the kitchen and asked Ngozi for Stella’s lunch. She persuaded me not to bother myself, she said, ‘Abeg, joor, let her come and take it herself or you want to get into a fight with her again?’, ‘No, but she called me to bring her food and you know how she gets”, I said. She was persistent for a while, then she said, ‘Don’t say, I didn’t warn you ooo’, she said and asked me to dish out Stella’s lunch.

I got to the door of her room, I was about to knock when she opened the door and exclaimed, ‘wow!’, when she saw the way I arranged the meal, the glass of water and the fruit juice on a tray. ‘Thank you Uwah, I was just about to come and get my lunch, you shouldn’t have’, she said politely, I wasn’t surprised at her being nice, I was expecting it, if not, nothing would make me take lunch to her, ‘it’s not a problem, it was getting late, you didn’t come to the kitchen and since, I wasn’t doing anything, I just decided to bring it’, I said, ‘Thank you, that’s very thoughtful, come inside’, she said. ‘Okay, thanks’, I said, I went in and dropped the food on the bed, I was about leaving when she asked me to sit for a while. My plan was working and it felt good. She talked about nothing else or no one else but David. She asked questions about him, like his favourite food, colour, hobbies, likes and dislikes, even the kind of person, he’d like to marry and some other naive questions, I gave answers to all of them even the ones I wasn’t sure of. I knew she didn’t like me, she was just tolerating me, because of David, I didn’t like her either, I was just tolerating her, because of her father so, I didn’t care.

I managed to stop the topic of David for a while and asked, ‘I haven’t seen your mum all day, I don’t mean to be rude but I just wanted to know where she went’. My intention was to ask about her mum, then drift to her dad. ‘Oh, my mum?’, she asked chewing her food, ‘No, your brother’, I teased in my thoughts, ‘Yes, your mum’, I replied smiling. ‘She went to the salon, then she’ll go to the airport later on, to wait for my dad, he’ll be back from USA tonight, by lemme say, uhm, 10:00pm’, she informed. ‘This night?’, I asked surprised. ‘Yes, tonight, any problem?’, she questioned, ‘No, it’s good, I’m just happy that you’ll get to see your dad, you know?, it’s been long”, I said. Indeed, I was happy he was coming back but, I felt very foolish due to my actions earlier. They were all in vain, using David’s phone to play tricks on Stella was unnecessary as her father would return that night, I wasn’t patient enough and I blamed myself for it. I spent the rest of the day, with Stella listening to her annoying banters.

While we walked home after work, I had no idea why David seemed extremely happy and he had no idea why I was extremely sad. I was not happy because not having to wait till Mr. Martins returned was eating me up but on second thought, there was no harm in waiting till the next day. ‘Ehen, Uwanah, give me my phone please’, David said smiling, “okay, take”, I said and I brought it out from my bag, I heard a beep on his phone and said, it’s like, you have a message. ‘Oooooooh’, he groaned, ‘what did I do to this girl, why is she texting me?’, he queried, ‘who?’, I asked, ‘Stella na!’, he exclaimed, ‘lemme even see the message’ . It wasn’t until I heard the name Stella from David, that I realized, I hadn’t deleted all those messages from Stella. How was I going to collect the phone from David when he was eager to open Stella’s message?