Advertisement

advertisements


Episode 38

‘I think, she should just stop school’, Stella’s mum said. ‘No, let her explain herself’, Ngozi said. ‘Is this one okay?’, Stella asked. ‘My mummy is talking, you’re talking’, she added. ‘Stella shut up your mouth, you don’t have a say in this matter’, my uncle notified her. ‘But you said everyone can talk’, she murmured. ‘Okay, Ekaete, do you have something to say about Uwanah’s behaviour?’, my uncle asked. She looked at me, then at him and nodded in disapproval. It was a surprise, I doubted if that was truly my mum because, the woman, I knew always had a say in every discussion. I took her silence as great dissapointment in me. ‘Uwanah, explain what happened, is it that your room in school was not big enough?, please explain to us’, my uncle said. ‘And, don’t you dare lie’, he said angrily. It was the first time, he got angry at me.

‘I
.I
. left the uhm
 the school’s dorm because
. Uhm’, I stuttered. ‘The room was uncomfortable, so I’m staying with a friend’, I said. ‘Did you tell me you were uncomfortable in your room?’, my uncle asked. ‘And who is this friend?’, my uncle asked. ‘Errrm, sir, it’s the person, I was living with when I first came to Lagos, the person really took care of me, so it’s the person I’m staying with’, I explained. My uncle didn’t say a word, he looked at me like I had just spoken in an unknown language. ‘Uwanah, don’t tell me, you are gone to live with David’, my mother said. ‘So, the person, you’re talking about is not even a girl but a boy?’, my uncle asked. ‘Yes, sir’, I said very softly. Ngozi, my uncle and my mum had disappointment written all over their faces.
Stella and her mum were really glad I messed up. Although, I didn’t see it as messing up, I saw it as everyone judging me insensitively. I felt they should have understood that living with a guy didn’t make me an irresponsible person.

‘So, Uwa, here’s what we’ll do but, first has your mum told you that she wants to go back to Boma?’, my uncle questioned. ‘No, she hasn’t’, I said looking at my mum astonished. ‘Okay, well in two or three days, she’ll go back, I don’t know her reason, she just said, she’s tired of Lagos’, he explained. Stella and her mum were elated. ‘Now, Uwa, the issue of staying with a boy or a girl is none of my business, by the time, you get back to school, move back to your dorm, am I understood?’, he asked. I hesitated for a while because, there was no way, I would ever leave David’s house but at the moment, I didn’t want to incure the wrath of my uncle. ‘Yes sir’, I replied. ‘Then, that settles it, everyone can go back to their rooms’, my uncle said and stood up. ‘Uwanah’, my mum called and signalled me to go with her. I knew there’d be trouble. I had barely closed my mum’s room door when she adorned my face with a dazzling slap.

I was expecting that slap, hence, it wasn’t a surprise. ‘Uwa’, she called and sat on her bed. ‘When I asking you to making money in Boma, you say you cannot prostitute on men, what was you does now?’, she asked. ‘Why are you go and stayed on David house?, you wanted pregnant?’, you’re crazy in your head ooo, your uncle are angry when he discovering you leaved the dorsemitory, she informed. ‘you are almost a twenty years old person now, I isn’t tell you what to does but use your brains’, she admonished. ‘I’m going back in Boma’, she said. ‘Why ma?’, I asked. ‘I will renting house in Boma express town, I not going to our former house, your uncle is promised to sent money for me, every month’, she said. ‘Then, just rent house in Lagos na’, I told my mum. ‘No, Lagos are too noisy and this house couldn’t contained Stella mum and me, one person in us are killed ourselves’, she elaborated. ‘Okay ma, when are you leaving?’, I inquired. ‘Monday or in Tuesday’, she said. ‘But, Uwa, listened to your uncles ooo, leave that boy house and come back to your dorsemitory’, she pleaded. ‘Don’t dissapointed your uncle’, she admonished. While she spoke, I just kept on nodding my head. On my part, I thought they all didn’t understand me, I was going to make them proud as long as I was concerned.

After all said and done, I ignored everyone’s advice. My intention was to leave the house on Tuesday but, the awful stares from everyone was making me very uncomfortable. I persuaded my uncle that there was a better fashion store for internship close to my school accompanied by the lie, that, I’d stop living with David. I headed for David’s home on Monday morning as early as 7:00am. I didn’t call him, afterall, I had told him I would arrive Monday or Tuesday, I didn’t see the need to call him, besides I lived with him, so, in essence, it was my house too. When I arrived at David’s house, I knocked endlessly, David didn’t open the door. I thought he’d be awake because of work. I was about calling him when the door opened, ‘I’ve been knocking’, I said thinking it was David that opened the door. ‘Yes, who are you looking for?’, it was the same girl I saw in David’s house the other day whom he said was a friend.

‘What am I doing in my own house?’, I asked. ‘David’, she yelled. ‘Yes, Tope, I’m coming’, David yelled from inside. Few minutes later, David came to the door. ‘Uwa!’, he exclaimed. ‘I was expecting you in the afternoon’, he said. ‘Well, is that really important?, what’s she doing here?’, I asked angrily. ‘Oh, she will leave soon, come inside na’, David said like nothing happened. ‘Go where?’, Tope said. ‘We’ve talked about this’, David said. ‘Uwa, come inside na’, he said dragging my hands inside. I couldn’t even fight the girl or say anything but, I was considering going back to my uncle’s house or the school’s dorm. A while later, the girl left. ‘Uwa, what is it?’, David asked.
I looked at him in awe, I actually thought David was going crazy, why would he ask me what was wrong?. ‘Did you just ask me that question?’, I asked him. ‘Yes, what is it?’, he asked again. ‘Okay, maybe it has slipped your memory that I saw another girl here few minutes ago and please don’t tell me, she’s your friend’, I said angrily. ‘She is not my friend, she’s a close friend’, he said. ‘Close friend?, it’s obvious that something is going on, see David, I’m not trying to boast but I’m better than that girl’, I said. ‘I agree but there’s something she’s better at’, he informed. I was hurt by that statement. ‘What could she possibly know how to do better than me?’, I asked. ‘See, Uwa, you don’t understand that, I’m a guy and just because I don’t ask you to sleep with me doesn’t mean other girls are not willing to’, he said. ‘But, I thought you wanted to wait till we are married, we’ve been living together since I arrived in Lagos, you never asked.
I thought you wanted to wait’, I said. ‘No, Uwa, you wanted to wait, not me’, he said. ‘I respect you a lot, so I’m just not asking you’, he said. That would have been the right time for me to end the topic and flee for my dignity but, I didn’t. I felt I wasn’t doing enough for David. ‘So, if I sleep with you, that girl will stop coming here?’, I asked. David’s eyes lit up with excitement. ‘Of course, she’ll stop coming here’, he replied. I didn’t see anything wrong with it, I had lost my chastity to Dayo and I thought, David was a better person and I didn’t want him to look at any other girl so, I dived in.

Soon enough, I became too attached to David, nothing else mattered, he promised to take care of me, no matter what happened. Two weeks after we got intimate, I came back from internship one day and found a girl in the house, this time, it wasn’t Tope, it was another girl. Though, she was clad in proper clothes, I wanted to know why there was a girl in the house without me getting informed and why her hands were placed around David’s neck while he operated his laptop. David didn’t even deem it fit to notice my presence. I had gone too far in the relationship, it was too late for me to turn back. My anger was off limits, yet, I didn’t say anything, I went straight to the kitchen, took the sharpest knife and went back to the living room. ‘My God, Uwa, please drop the knife’, David begged and got up immediately. The girl stood up too and hid behind David. ‘If you don’t get out of here, I will design your face with this knife’, I threatened and with the way I was infuriated, I was dead serious about it, I didn’t care about prison, had she not left the house, I would have severally injured her. David pleaded and pleaded, ‘Please drop the knife Uwa, Abeg, let me explain’. The main reason I carried the knife was the girl and she had left, so, I dropped it, I didn’t want to talk to David with a knife in my hand, so I returned the knife to the kitchen not because of his pleas. I returned to the parlor only to find David looking very angry. ‘Wait, you are angry, who’s supposed to be angry?’, I asked. ‘Uwa, you’re very stupid’, he cursed. ‘Eh, what do you mean by that?’, I asked. ‘Do you know who that girl was?, I was introducing her to a business and she was about depositing money, then you came and showed her a knife’, he yelled coming closer. ‘How was I supposed to know, her hands were around your
..’, David didn’t wait for me to finish my statement before he slapped me. It was a like a rebirth and a new awakening for me, I realized how stupid, naive and foolish, I had been. It was time to run away.


MORE STORIES FOR YOU đŸ”„


Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*