The Godmother

Episode 40

‘Honey, wake up.’ She turned him on his back and his
deathly face remained unmoved. He was very still. At that
moment, Rita let out a scream.

The house maid was the first to hear her scream. She
rushed to the master bedroom. There, she saw her madam
holding her husband, shaking him and calling his name
amidst sobs.

‘I’ll like to take my bath now,’ Rita said as she moved to the
bathroom.

He only nodded. He was still dazed and was still thinking he
was in nightmare. He could hear her close the door of the
bathroom. He stood up from the bed and walked around the
large bedroom. Was all this real? She had told him it was
real, and he was beginning to fell so. He went to the
window and looked through. It was day time now and the
street was getting busy. From his view from the first floor
two-bedroom flat, every other thing looked normal, except him.

He went to the mirror to check the new look again. It was
the face of a handsome young man of about thirty years.

Amazing! This must be a fantasy. So, Tope was no more.

But wait a minute, what if Tope was alive and this person
standing before the mirror happened to be a split
personality? What if …?

There were many other questions. He was unsettled. This
was the kind of mystery he had read in a fantasy story
years ago. How could this practically be happening to him?

He moved from the bedroom to the sitting-room. It was
the way he had known her sitting-room to be. He could
hear the horning of a bike from the adjoining street.

Everything seemed real. He returned to the bed-room.

She had finished her bath and was back inside.
‘I’m off today, and I will not be going to work,’ she
announced.

‘You still work in that hospital?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’

She brought out a body cream and started applying it on
her body.

‘So, if I’m not Tope, who am I?’ he asked.
She smiled at him. ‘You can decide what name you want.’

He chuckled to himself. This was fantastic and fabulous.

‘But if you ask me, I will choose Dave,’ she put in.

That was not far from his surname, his former surname,
Davies.

‘Let us assume this is real, Dave is not a bad name.’

‘So, let’s settle for Dave, darling.’
He nodded.

By ten o’clock that morning, the news break finally went on
air on many radio and television stations. It was with shock
and sadness to announce the death of Tope Davies, Minister
of State for Mass Media. The young ebullient and energetic
young man died in his sleep. A post mortem examination
would be conducted to ascertain the cause of death. He was
such a lively and committed young man who wanted to do
his best for his fatherland….

Tope, now Dave, watched the news in Rita’s sitting-room
on a local television station. She was perched by his side
and held his hand. He sighed deeply, still wondering if he
was in a dreamland. So that was it. That was the end of his
wealth and power. He had achieved a lot in a short while
and suddenly, he had come to the end. This was pathetic.
He sighed.

‘You can still live with me for years,’ she was saying. ‘You
can still live for years.’

He turned to stare at her. ‘Just who are you?’ he asked.

‘You should know by now. I’m from the spirit world, and
you’re my man.’

He shook his head. Maybe he was, indeed, in a dreamland.

Maybe he would soon wake up from the slumber and come
back to reality.

Maybe.

The End.