Bitch

Episode 34

Taofeek, the ideal model. Average height, that
kind of height that makes one not to be able
to say for sure if the person in question is tall
or short. He was originally fair in complexion
but due to excessive tanning he now had a
mexican light brown skin. His accent was
purely American, the only thing Nigerian about
him was his name and probably he way of
thinking, apart from that, one would easily
guess he was a foreigner.
When Zainab had decided to migrate to
Nigeria, he had been the only one who had
supported her, all her friends had begged she
stayed, get a good job, husband and start a
family of hers in Canada, even her parent had
once suggested she went to do a sanity test
to know if she was okay mentally.

“Zainab, you want to leave all off these?” Her
father said to her on the last day of her stay
in Canada, spreading his hands out wide and
moving it round to signify the magnitude of
his house and Canada as a whole. “You really
want to leave all off these for a country where
there isn’t even stable power supply?”

“Daddy, I’ve made up my mind. I’m Nigerian,
and not can change that no matter how many
years I stay here in Canada.” Zainab replied
with a tone of finality and watched as her
father left her room disappointed. The truth
behind the whole migration was the fact that
Zainab wanted to be taste independence and
see how far she can go all by herself, staying
in Canada meant that she would end up in one
of family’s company as a Manager, in her
words, “that was too easy.”

Her dad instructed the drivers not to take her
to the airport, so she had wanted to call a cab
when Taofeek stepped in and offered to drive
her to the airport, through out the journey, he
had asked her just one question. “Zainab, are
you sure about this?” And of course, Zainab
had replied in the affirmative, that ended their
conversation.

Zainab had gotten to the airport fifteen
minutes later and after thirty long minutes of
queuing, she was on the plane.

Looking back all of these, Taofeek smiled at
how well his junior sister had progressed, she
had become such a popular actress and tv
personality that her shows and movies were
aired all over the world, Canada included.

A sudden, but continuous knock at his room
door snapped him back to reality.

“Come on in,” he said directly since he was
more than certain it was Zainab and he was
right.

“T-Maze, what’s up na?” Zainab said with a
wide grin, T-Maze was a nickname she coined
for her brother with the “T” meaning for
Taofeek and the “Maze” meaning how
complicated and never straightforward her
brother could be.

“I’m fine, how your life dey?” Taofeek said in his admirable American accent, Zainab
chuckled at how funny he sounded, mixing
pidgin and queen’s english in one sentence, he joined her in laughter.

Zainab then walked closer to him and sat by
the bedside. “So, seriously, what’s up?”

She asked with a straight face.

“I’ve answered you before, I said I’m fine,”

Taofeek replied, still smiling.

Zainab wasn’t surprised by his reply, she knew he was never straightforward, “okay, so to what do I owe this august visit?”
“Actually its October, not August and do I
really have to have a reason to stop by my
sister’s house?”

“I don’t know what you people at Canada call
‘stop by’ but here in Nigeria, you don’t call
traveling from Canada to Nigeria a stop by, its
called a journey.”

“Yea yea, whatever.” Taofeek replied and la!d on his bed.

“Taofeek, I’m serious here. I’m elated to see you here but what exactly are you doing here,
don’t you have a company to run or
something like that?”

Taofeek kept quiet.

“Taofeek na! You are killing me with suspense
here, how can you just show up at my house
by this time of the night without informing me
and with such a small suit case like that,”
Zainab said, pointing to the trolley bag which
leaned on the wall comfortably, “I deserve to
know.” She concluded.

Taofeek turned to face Zainab and replied,
“nothing is wrong Zainab, just like you, I want
to taste independence, I’m tired of father
looking over my shoulder and patiently waiting
for me to do something wrong so he can scold
me. For crying out loud! I’m a man! A fully
grown man and dad still treats me like a
twelve years old all because I’m solely
dependent on him.”

Zainab sighed, she now knew her decision of
leaving Canada few years back was the right
decision, “so you just packed up your things
and left?” She asked.

“Not really, I told a few friends, and I’ll call
mum later on, to tell her about my
whereabouts because I’m sure she would be
dead worried by now.”

Zainab didn’t know what exactly to say, she
knew her brother was complicated but this his
action had given ‘complicated’ a new
meaning. She started weighing all her options
mentally, checking the loose ends and
precacautions, after a long period of silence,
she finally broke the silence, “so what do you
plan on doing now?”

Taofeek sighed, “I guess I’ll look for a job, I
have a really heavy and hard to resist C.V so I
don’t think that would be a problem and I’ll
be out of you hair in no time,” he said with a
warm smile.

“Nah, I don’t mind you staying,” Zainab said and her brother gave her an inquisitive look,
“as long as you do some little chores of
course.” She added and they both laughed out
loud, Taofeek had expected her to say
something like that, they sure knew their
selves well, if they weren’t siblings, they would have made the perfect couple.
“So what’s up with that your friend, Jumoke?”

Taofeek asked, “she looked like a kid who her
mum had just seized her favorite toy.” He
added.

“Oh! That? She just had some men issues, she
has gone now anyway.”

“Okay.” Taofeek started grinning widely and
winking at Zainab.

Zainab smiled back, “what is it now?”

“So who is Henry to you?” He asked in a
mocking tone grinning widely than before.

Zainab giggled and stood up from his bed,
“I’ve got to rest, I’ll need to wake up early
tomorrow morning.” She said avoiding the
question and walked out of the room as
Taofeek laughed out his a-s, and rolling on
the floor.

---

8:00AM, FRIDAY.

It took Jummy several tossing and turning
before she finally decided to stand up from her
bed. With one glance at the wall clock, she
knew she was late for work already and no
charm can change that so she mentally
decided not to rush, after all, what was the
point of being an assistant manager if she
can’t go late to work at times?

She went straight to the sink at the bathroom
and pasted her toothbrush, she looked at the
mirror at the front of her and saw her eyes
were both swollen already due to excessive
crying the previous day, she paused for a bit
but almost immediately continued with
brushing her teeth..

When she was done, she removed her pajamas
and dropped it on the floor before sliding
under the shower. In no time she was done
with freshening up and here came the trick
part, she realized she was hungry.

She put on a black jean and red top, then
picked up her car keys and walked out of the
house, she need to go and get her breakfast
since there was nothing cooked in the kitchen
and cooking that morning wasn’t even an
option considering her current emotional
state.

She drove to the third avenue from hers and
cruised into the road, she stopped at the front
of an ‘akara and bread joint’. They air in the
environment was distinctively different thanks
to the appetizing aroma of Iya Uche wonderful
akara.

Jummy stepped out of her car and wasn’t
really surprised by the small crowd that
seemed to be increasing by the second.

She walked past the people who were already
there straight to Iya Uche and leaned closer to
her, “abeg give me two hundred naira akara
and eighty naira bread.” Iya Uche turned to
see who was talking and saw it was her long
time customer, she smiled and nodded as
Jummy went back to her car to wait for the
akara to fry well. She had sliced bread at
home, but there was something about the
agege bread Iya Uche sold, it was as if it was
baked specifically for the akara she fried and
until you eat the two together, you won’t get
the complete satisfaction it gave.

As Jummy waited, an unexpected but familiar
figure jogged passed her car. She opened her
door immediately to make sure it was who it
was.

Wearing a short and arm less top with an
electronic device that was probably meant to
calculate the distance he jogged strapped to
his waist, Taofeek looked more like the ideal
kind of model sugar mommies would pay
anything for.

“Taofeek!” Jummy called out to him as he
passed by.

He didn’t reply until the third call, he stopped
abruptly and turned back to see Jummy
waving furiously at him.

He smiled and jogged back to the car, “hi,
what are you doing here?” He asked.
Jummy just pointed at the Iya Uche’s joint
across the road in response and smiled, “I’m
sure Zainab didn’t cook before she left for
work so I insist you join me.” Jummy said.

“Errr… You don’t have to worry, there are some eggs and more than enough bread at home,”
he replied.

“Did you miss the part I said I insist?” Jummy
smiled, “you are my friend’s brother and I
think it would be only right to host you
properly, and trust me when I say this bread
and akara is more that proper. Wait a
minute.” Jummy said and walked to Iya Uche,
she instructed the woman to double the order
and Iya Uche did as instructed, she packaged
it and gave it to Jummy. Jummy handed over
a thousand naira note to Iya Uche and asked
she kept the change, Iya Uche was more than
excited, the change was more than twice the
original price.

Jummy just smiled and walked back to her
car, “hop in, we are going to my place to eat. I
think you’ve had more than enough exercise
this morning.”

Taofeek just smiled and hopped into the car,
he needed the company and from Jummy’s
description of the meal, he was curious to
taste it.

In less that five minutes, they were in
Jummy’s house and ready to eat, Jummy had
brought a full pack of an orange juice and two
glass cups.

The both sat on the dining table and went
down to business, devouring the meal. Taofeek
was more than impressed with the akara, he
hadn’t tasted akara in years and for a first
time in a long while, this was surely nice.

“So how long are you staying?” Jummy asked,
trying to start some petite conversation.

“Errr… I’m based here now.” He replied.

“Oh! You are tired of Canada too just like
Zainab?”

“Not that, I just want to try other options,” he
replied, for some strange reason, he was free
while talking to Jummy.

“Hmmm.. All this ajebor children, you people
left yanky to come and suffer with us in Naija,
so stupid.” Jummy replied with a grin.

Taofeek was sure about what to say next so
he just smiled and changed the topic, “how
about you, do you have to go to work this
morning?”

Jummy became alarmed, she had forgotten
she still had to go to work that morning, “oh
shoot!” She exclaimed and ran to the bedroom
to prepare, “when you done eating you can
leave, don’t worry about the mess, I’ll take
care of that.” She screamed from the room.

Taofeek laughed at how weird Jummy was,
how was it possible she forgot about work?

He thought and just sighed. He packed half of
the remaining akara and poured it into the
bread nylon. He intended on continuing his
meal when he got home.

“I’m going!” He screamed before he left the house and boarded a bike to his house.

One thing was sure, he definitely like Jummy’s
character.

---

Jummy finally got to work by 10:00AM, which
was earlier than she had imagined, she had
thought it would be around 12 or maybe 11 at
least.

She walked straight to her office grinning for
no reason, the day had started quite well and
she was optimistic about the rest of the day,
but that was all about to change as she
walked into her office.

She was confronted with the one person she
didn’t want to see.

He sat on her seat crossed his legs, he had a
wide smile on his face and Jummy could
believe she had once thought that smile was
warm and nice.

“What are you doing here?!” She literally
yelled.

“Hello sweety,” he replied sounding
threatening calm.

It was John.