The Runaway Bride

Episode 5

Davis could not concentrate in class; his
thoughts kept wandering back to Chinwe and
her friend. They spoke briefly yesterday with
her, thanking him and Joseph for taking her
in. she sounded subdued on the phone as if
she cried the whole night. Davis could hardly
keep himself from going to see her, but
Joseph would not have any of it, saying she
needed time to sort whatever it was they were
both crying about.

As soon as the lecturer left the class, he stood up and went to Joseph’s café, which he runs beside the school campus; he saw his friend with a lady and they seemed to be lost in
conversation. He decided to seat away to allow them the privacy they seemed to need.

The café was opened two months ago and with the look of things closing the other café at the center of the state was the right decision His phone rang and he hoped it would be Chinwe, but no, it was his mother.

“Mum” he answered blandly.
“How are you Davis?”
“Fine ma”
“Ok and your friend?”
“He’s fine also, with a customer now”
“Ok o, since you decided to abandon me here in Lagos, I said I should call you and ask how you are”

“I am doing great” he replied without bothering to deny the abandonment allegation.

“Have you called your father since you left on Saturday?”

“No, is there any problem?”

“There is no problem and there does not have to be before you call him, he’s your father and he wishes the best for you”

“Hmm”

“Are you there?”

“I am with you ma”

“Will you at least tell me your friend’s address so we can be at peace that we know your whereabouts?”

“Okay, I will text it to you”

“I know you don’t want to associate with anyone now, but be sure we have your best interest at heart when we asked you to take a
Master’s degree in business management and
it should be in Lagos, leaving the way you did on Friday is what no parent would pray to see, and to make matters worse, you did not even
wait for me to return from that wedding on Saturday before taking off, even though…”

“My flight was for 12” Davis cut in
impatiently

“All the same I would have loved to drop you off”

“I managed on my own”

“Well, thank God for safe trip, your sister is also here, should I give the phone to her?”

“No, we will chat soon”
She talked some more and ended the call on a better note, praying for him. Davis loves the woman, but she should understand he’s grown and can make decisions for himself.

Joseph saw him and beckoned on him,

“How far with class, guy?”

“Good o” he replied as he shook his friend’s hand briefly.

“You can go home you know, I will still stay a while before I close up the café for the night”

“So what will I be doing at home?”

“Then come inside the admin lounge, you can monitor prohibited sites while I fix the second link that was not working well before you came in”

Joseph introduced him to two of his staff and led him to a table to monitor the customers.

At the end of the day, they closed the café
together and headed home in his car; they talked all the way to the house and arranged for how to get the extra computer systems that were due the following day.

Chinwe was indoor all through the day, she however volunteered to pick Henry from school while Clara worked, Henry, such an amiable boy, easy and cool headed, also mature than his 3 years. He had taken a look at the 2 of them again crying the night before and had gone to the room to get a tissue box,
which made both of them laugh and decided to stop crying.

She watched as he ate the yam and eggs she made for him, not a single mess on the floor,
he ate so neatly and she wondered if he had always been like that or was just welcoming her. She picked her phone and saw another message from Davis; he has not stopped texting since they dropped them off on Saturday night.

She quickly replied him that she would be
available to see him the following day, before she would go pick up Henry from school.

He seems like a nice guy and she really likes his persona, cool and caring, but she would not like to encourage him further than that.

She helped Henry with his home-work and
they watched cartoons together, when he fell asleep, Chinwe skipped to get the news update and was not surprised to hear that she was kidnapped. Trust her father to always choose the dramatic explanation of any scenario that would not make him appear
good to the populace.

As she listened to a fake narration of her
“kidnap”, “Chinwe, who was believed to have
been threatened to board a car without
raising alarm at the hotel was driven away
unnoticed by friends and staff some blocks away from her point of abduction”. Clara
came in with a bag of vegetables and she
caught the news.

“I am worried, Chinwe, I saw it in the
newspapers this morning” she said without any preamble.

“I did not see the papers, but I have heard it on the local news for more than 3 times today already”

“Henry is asleep right?”

“Yes, after eating and doing his home-work”

“Don’t you think you need to contact your parents at least to get them off the news?”

“Clara, if I do, my dad would just make a big noise out of it, he might say they are
demanding for ransom already and just cook up another story to make him win people’s
sympathy, election is just a few months
away.”

“But what do you want to do, staying here is not the problem, but I know what your father can do with anyone he finds you with”

“I know and I am somewhat scared too, but I really don’t know. I am yet to make up my mind about what the next step would be”

“What about traveling out of the country, you have enough money don’t you?”

“Money is not the problem, but any
application for a ticket in my name now
would attract my father and I can assure you he has people looking at that place already
“So what do we do?”

“I know I really need to think but I swear, I have not been able to”

“I am sorry I have caused you all this trouble,
I should have just kept quiet” Clara said sadly,

placing her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“And I would have been sorrier if I found out later than this, and I am sorry for the troubles I have caused you, four years ago and now”

“you know, I thank God for Henry every day,
his coming to my life might not have been
under the best circumstance but I could not have loved him less”

“I can imagine, and there’s not a day that goes by that I have not thought it differently,
how your life would have been better if not for my stupid lifestyle”

“Everything is for a reason; God has a reason for everything that happens to us” Clara replied, but Chinwe was in no mood to argue
with her about God.

“What would you like to eat, I made yam for Henry”

“Yam? Nope, I would go with soup and
something to swallow”

She followed her friend into the kitchen
where they forgot their problems and
concentrated on the meal they were
preparing.

Later that night, Davis called Chinwe while
she was in the bathroom and she asked Clara to answer the phone for her, she spoke with him like a lost friend and passed the phone to Chinwe when she came out of the bathroom.
He still thinks her name is Ebere, pity.