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Episode 26

David was on the verge of reading the message when I quickly thought of something, that could get his attention. ‘David’, I called, ‘Dayo called me today’, I lied , ‘what?’, he asked in anger, ‘why did he call you?’, he asked and forgot about reading Stella’s message, ‘he just wanted to apologize for all those times, he called continuously’, I said. My reply didn’t seem to calm David down. Then, he said, ‘please, give me your phone’, ‘what for?’, I asked, ‘If I call Dayo with my phone, he won’t pick up, I need to call him and warn him’, he said.
My heart beat increased uncontrollably, he wanted to call Dayo with my phone to warn him about a call he never made, which would implicate me seriously and expose the fib I told. If I refused to give the phone to him, he would accuse me of still having feelings for Dayo, thereby, inculcating anger in David. I was befuddled, that was the second biggest lie, I had told that day and covering it up wasn’t going smoothly for me. ‘Give me your phone’, David’s yell jolted me back to reality. ‘It’s in my bag, lemme bring it out’, I said softly. Dipping my hand to bring out my phone from my bag took like forever but luck was on my side that day, as soon as I brought out the phone and handed it over to David, my phone rang and it was Dayo, I couldn’t express enough the joy in my heart that day, he picked up the phone and began yelling at Dayo, I knew he didn’t have the right to do that with my phone but, that didn’t matter as I was just desperate to delete those messages I sent to Stella on his phone. I took his phone from his hands, signalling him that I would keep it for him while he kept on threatening Dayo over the phone. Without stopping to read Stella’s current message, I opened the conversation we had earlier and deleted all of them swiftly. ‘Take your phone’, David said after the vociferous call, ‘Let’s go home, he will never call you again’, he assured. I wasn’t happy with David trying to take control of my life but, if I ,wanted to avoid discord, I just had to play along. ‘Ehen, read that Stella’s message for me’, he said, ‘okay’, I replied and read it immediately. The main message was;

“David, I just wanted to check on you, I saw you and Uwa leaving the compound, I called out for you but, you didn’t hear me. Your messages this afternoon, really gave me relief, don’t forget to call me as promised”.

I knew, I couldn’t read all that and risk exposing my stupid deeds that afternoon so, I read something quite different;

“David, I just wanted to check on you, I saw, you and Uwa, leaving the compound, I called out for you but you didn’t hear me, take care of yourself and goodnight”.

After reading the message, I deleted it hurriedly.

‘Uwa, are you angry?’, he asked, the questioned seemed funny. ‘Why would I be angry?’, I asked, ‘you know?, because of Stella’s message’, he said.
This time, I couldn’t hold back the laughter, ‘why are you laughing?’, he questioned, ‘no, asking me if I’m angry at Stella’s message is funny, why should I get angry?’, I asked, ‘Uwa, because we have feelings for each other. I got jealous over Dayo, so I assumed, you’d get jealous over Stella’, he explained. I saw the seriousness in his face and I was baffled, the first question I asked myself was, ‘have I been giving him the impression that I would be jealous over Stella’, the second question was, ‘when did I tell him I had feelings for him?’. ‘David, I’m sorry but I didn’t say anything like that’, I replied, ‘No, you didn’t but it’s written all your face, I thought you didn’t have feelings for me until I noticed that you were just shy of expressing yourself to me’, he said. For a moment there, I actually thought David was going crazy, how could he make hasty conclusions about my feelings?, I certainly didn’t have any feelings for him so, I had to come clean, but I decided to be silent till we reached home, I didn’t want him to throw a tantrum on the road. We got home, after freshening up and having dinner. I sat David down to talk to him, which happened to be my third mistake for that day.

‘David, I’m sorry, but you have to understand that, I see you as an elder brother, you’ve always been there for me, I don’t have any feelings for you’, I explained. He stared at me for a while and busted out an uncontrollable guffaw, which was to supposedly make me look like a fool.

‘Come, Uwa, it’s like, you love playing a lot, so you want to tell me that you don’t have any feelings for me, then, why are you still living with me?’, he asked, ‘because, I have nowhere else to go’, I replied, ‘what do you mean by that?, were you not the one that told me that Mrs. Martins wanted you to stay in her house and these past few months, I’ve been taking care of you. You barely even touch your salary and with your daily income, the money in your bank account should be able to get you a room, so don’t you dare tell me, it’s because, you have nowhere else to go. It’s because you have feelings for me, just calm down and see it’, he yelled. I nodded my head in disapproval and said, ‘no, David, I don’t’, you have to understand, ‘I didn’t even know you had feelings for me all this while’, I said. ‘Don’t you dare, tell me that, if I didn’t have feelings for you, why did I welcome you into my home in the first place?’, he asked, ‘wait, David, I thought you took me in out of care, so, your intention was to make me your girlfriend?’, I yelled and feigned anger. ‘No, Uwa, I’m sorry, don’t get me wrong, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean it that way, I just don’t know what other way to show that I love you, sometimes, you make me feel like, I’m not doing enough and it gets me angry’, he explained, I gazed at him and said nothing. ‘Uwa, say something, okay is it that, I’m not doing enough, or is there something I’m doing, that you don’t like?, I will change Uwa, I promise, please just tell me’, he pleaded, ‘Nothing’, I replied, ‘then, Uwa, why can’t you just have feelings for me?, okay, even if, you still love Dayo, I’m fine with it, just be in a relationship with me, I’ll prove that I’m better’, he assured me. I was moved with compassion, that would have been a great time to accept him but, I didn’t, I was strong willed. ‘I’m leaving tomorrow’, that was what I uttered and it sent David on his knees, ‘Uwa, please, don’t leave, I won’t talk about having feelings for you again, I promise’, he begged, ‘David, please get up, there’s no use kneeling down, it will only make me angry and if you still have the belief that staying in your house would make me date you, I think it’s time for me to leave’, I said harshly. ‘No, Uwa, please don’t go, I promise, no more talk about feelings, we can just be friends, I’m okay with friends, please don’t just go’, he pleaded yet again. I was still bent on leaving but if I did, I would seem like an ingrate and a heartless person, I just knew that my days of staying at David’s house, were numbered but I didn’t say it outright. [b]‘I will think about it’, I said. ‘Okay, that’s not a problem, please let me know your decision later’, he said, ‘okay’, I replied. The rest of the night and going to work the next day was all about Dayo, doing everything in his might to please me, which only hardened my heart about leaving his house.

Mr. Martins was the first person, I saw at work, that day, he was sitted in the living room. My joy knew no bounds, I was contemplating earlier how to get his attention at work because, I was just a maid, there was no way, I could tell my boss, that I wanted to see him. ‘Good morning sir’, I greeted, ‘ehen, good morning errrm’, he stammered, ‘sir, I’m Uwanah’, I said, ‘oh, okay, good morning Uwanah’, he replied. I stared at him poignantly, I just didn’t know how to raise the topic of my mum being the Ekaite, he was talking about, I didn’t know how his reactions would be. ‘Any problem?’, he asked. I knew I had to tell him or else, he would go for another business trip that would take weeks again. I was about to say something when Mrs. Martins yelled, ‘Abi, something is wrong with this girl, why are you just standing there?, did you come here to stand?, come on, resume your duties jahre’. ‘Yes ma’, I said and walked to the kitchen, I didn’t want to start telling Mr. Martins anything in front of his wife to avoid interruption or accusation of me telling lies. I felt stupid for not telling Mr. Martins the moment I saw him. I didn’t know that was the only time, I’d get to talk to him that day, he went out later with his wife. I was so angry at myself.

Later that afternoon, David called my phone and made a complaint that Stella called and questioned his failure of not calling her as promised. ‘That girl is crazy oooo, when did I promise to call her?’, he asked, ‘I don’t know, maybe you did and you’ve forgotten’, I said when I knew the truth behind it, ‘I don’t remember doing that because she’s saying, she has had enough of my rubbish and that she would convince her mum to sack me’, he complained, ‘uhm, just play along for a while, maybe she just wants to use it to get attention from you’, I said, ‘okay ooo, take care of yourself’, he said and ended the call. My conscience pricked me, David had done a lot for me and I had done nothing for him. The only request he made was for me to love him which was very difficult for me. What I had managed to do was implicate him due to my juvenile actions the previous day.
Everything was going haywire in my life, I somehow, just missed my old life in Boma with Yemisi and my mum
When Mr. and Mrs. Martins didn’t return until later that evening, I learnt a lesson that I had to make use of every every chance, whenever it was given. I was determined to tell Mr. Martins, whether, he was with his wife or not. They just returned, so any minute from then, they would come in through the main door. I summoned courage, I stomped my feet and went straight to the door to wait for them and pour my heart out to Mr. Martins. However, My resolve changed when Mr. Martins opened the door and ushered his wife in. The look on Mrs. Martins’ face scared the crap out of me, I couldn’t tell Mr. Martins anything after greeting them and right in front of me, they both slipped away to their room, while I stood there dumbstruck. ‘Uwa, you are an idiot’, I cursed myself, ‘just tell him you know who Ekaete is, na so e hard you?, nawa oooo’, I asked myself. It was getting dark, the day was almost over, I had to do something fast, if I couldn’t talk to him in person , then I would try talking to him on phone but, there was a little problem, I didn’t have his cellphone number. The only people with his number were his wife and his daughter. There was no way, I would ask his wife but, I could ask Stella since I had curried favour from her the previous day. I thought of several ways to ask Stella for her father’s number. I mean, it’s not like I could just walk up to her and ask her for her daddy’s number, she would surely ask questions like, ‘Why?, what for?, are you okay?’, and those were questions, I didn’t have answers to. I made up my mind to nick the number from her phone by any means. I went to Stella’s room and gently knocked at her door. ‘Come in’, she said, ‘okay’, I answered, ‘Stella, your dad wants to see you’, I lied, extreme anxiety was written all over her face. I figured out that, she was probably scared of her father. ‘Eh, why na?, ooooh, mtcheeeeew’, she hissed, she stood up from the bed and headed towards the door, with her phone. That phone was the reason, I came to her room, I had to do something, ‘he seemed angry ooo’, I said, ‘really?’, she asked, ‘yes’, I answered. She dropped her phone on the bed and made use of her fingers to arrange the strands of her messy hair on her forehead, ‘I look responsible shey?’, she asked, ‘Yes’, I said and we both left the room.

After, she left, I knew I was going to be in big trouble when she discovers I lied but, it didn’t matter yet, all I wanted was her father’s number. I entered her room quickly and grabbed her phone giggling but, I was disappointed, when I saw, “input password”. I thought of what to do, then, I remembered I brought my phone too, I hurriedly removed her both SIMs and transferred them to my phone. Getting the contacts to appear on my phone lingered for a while. Finally, I saw her phone contacts. For the next few minutes, I searched for “Daddy” or “My dad”, on her phone, there was no name like that, I was sweating, I almost quit checking her phone but I went through the contacts once more and found “Mummy’s husband”, I was marveled, why would she store her father’s name like that?, there was no pen and paper in sight at the moment to copy the number and Stella would return soon, if, I didn’t leave. The only solution was to cram the number. After reading it repeatedly, four or five times, I put the SIMs into her phone and left her room right after.

I went to the kitchen and transferred my own SIM into my phone, I waited for a while and typed in the number quickly, I gave a satisfied smile. Ngozi just looked at me, like, I was crazy, while I just laughed, she didn’t understand what I had just done, moreover, the look on her face was funny.

My next plan was to leave the kitchen and call David that it was time to leave, I knew it was only a matter of time before Stella would confront me about the lie I told. I wasn’t ready for her complaints that night, ‘Abeg in the morning jahre’, I said to myself and yawned. I was about to bid Ngozi farewell when Stella stormed into the kitchen accompanied by her mother. ‘Why did you lie?’, Stella clamoured angrily. If Stella was alone, I might have outsmarted her but with her mother, whom I was scared of, what was I going to say?.


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