✔ DANIELLA💞
By Daniel Adedayo
#Episode_1
“Daniella!” Mama called from the sitting room. That is my name and I was just a sixteen year old orphan, who had stayed in the village all her life. According to what mama told me, my parents died of food poison when I was just some months old and ever since then, mama took it upon herself to cater for me. And I must say, she had really been trying.
“Ma!” I hollered from my room. It wasn’t only my room actually. Mum also sle-pt in the room. We lived in a bungalow in the village and it had only three rooms— the living room and two be-drooms, one of which was where mama and I sle-pt and the other was where papa sle-pt.
From what I know, papa and mama were the parents of my late father. They had two children—my late father and his elder sister, aunt Carolina, who was still alive and kicking. I don’t know my late mother’s family. Mama said that my late mother was a maid, who knew nothing about her lineage. I’m still wondering who father paid mother’s bride price to before he got married to her.
“Mama, you called me.” I said as soon as I got to the living room where mama was. She was with Papa and aunt Carolina, who had just returned from the city yesterday. Judging from the look of things and the hours they had spent in the living room, it was apparent they had a serious discussion.
Aunt Caro was looking at me with her bulging eyes. I squirmed with her gaze. It wasn’t that I was shy around her or anything; I just didn’t like it when her bulging eyes were fixated on me. Her eyes were pretty intimid@t!ng. But that didn’t take away the fact that she was beautiful. Based on what I know, aunt Caro had two children—twins precisely, who I had never for once seen, but she was still looking as though she had not given birth. Her slim figure made her look like she was in her early twenties, whereas she should be in her late thirties or early forties.
“Yes I did call. Your papa and I have something to tell you.” Mama said with her de-ep and hoarse voice.
I turned to look at Papa who was staring at me. There was something about the way he looked at me that amused me. I couldn’t help but smile at him.
Although mama was very caring, I liked papa more. He was more nicer and jovial than mama. Whenever I was bored stiff, papa was the one I always run to because he usually told me a lot of funny and interesting stories and he was quite the pla-yful type too. Moreover, I can’t remember the last time papa flogged me. Whenever I goofed or offended him and he wanted to wh!pme, once I apologized and gave him the puppy face, he would forgive me easily. But mama, before I even uttered a word, a stro-ke would have landed on my back.
“Daniella, you know you’ve been disturbing me about wanting to go to the city with your aunt to have a glimpse of what city life is like,” Papa said, his faint voice cracking with his last statement. He cleared his throat and continued, “Well, we told aunt Caro about it and she’s agreed to take you with her to the city.”
A broad smile found its way on my face. That was literally the best news I had ever heard in my entire life. No exaggeration. I had always wished to go to the city. I wanted to know what life there was like. Life in the village was getting more boring for me as each day goes by. I mean, I had stayed in the village all my life. I nee-ded to explore. Whenever I heard about some of my village friends going to the city with their relatives, I usually got envious of them. And I had always wondered when it would ever be my turn. But finally, my dreams and wishes were coming true.
“Papa, are you serious?” I wi-de-ned my eyes in shock excitement.
“Yes,” Aunt Caro answered for him, a smile plastered on her face. “As a matter of fact, we’d be going to the city first thing tomorrow morning, so start packing your things.” There was a way the words rolled off her ton-gue. It was so nice and articulate. It was a far cry from the way people in the village spoke, including myself. At least, now that I was going to the city, I would make sure I take up the intonation.
“Okay aunt.” The news made me so elated. “Aunt thank you for—”
“No problem, no problem.” She cut me off with a smile on her face. “Just go pack your things and get re-ady for the trip tomorrow.”
I quic-kly ran to the room. Getting there, I started to jump and dance to no music. I was filled with utmost excitement and I couldn’t help but show it. I was finally going to the city. plea-se pinch me! I must be dreaming. But on a second thought, if this really was a dream, then I wasn’t re-ady to ever wake up to reality.
I was so excited that I didn’t even know how to start arranging my clothes.
💕💕
The day ended and gave birth to a new day. I woke up with a jo-lt. It was the day I was going to be travelling to the city. I was as happy as a lark. My feet coming in contact with the ground, I yawned as I stretched out my lim-bs. I looked back at the be-d and mama was still fast asleep. Wondering what the time was, I shuffled to a small table in the room where mama kept some of her things, including her Nokia torchlight phone. I wanted to know the time, so I pressed the centre bu-tton and the home screen appeared. The time was 6:53am. Whoa! Time was sure running slow and it felt as though I had sle-pt for long.
Throu-ghout the night, I had been dreaming about Lagos. Lagos was the city we were travelling to. I thought of how my life was going to transform there. The good food I was going to be eating there. The elegant people I was going to be meeting there. I really could not wait.
I went outside the house, snagged a broom and swept the compound. I had never been happier and invigorated sweeping the compound before, but because I knew very well that this was the last time I was going to be doing it, I did it with so much enthusiasm and verve.
Once done, I went straight to the bathroom to brush my teeth and have my bath. It didn’t take so long before I was done. When I walked back to the room, mama was no longer there. Perhaps she was in the kitchen or the front yard. I shrugged as I took a cream on the small table where mama’s phone was. I applied it on my skin, stro-king gently like a skin ambas-sador in a cream advert. Once done, I sli-pped into the dress I had planned on wearing for the journey. It was a white and wine floral dress, my best at the moment. Aunt Caro s£nt it to me from Lagos during the last Christmas.
As soon as I finished dressing up, I went outside the front yard and I saw mama and aunt Caro sitting on a long wooden chair, having a conversation.
“Good morning mama. Good morning aunt.” I greeted them and they snapped their heads at me. They both looked at me amusedly, especially aunt Caro.
“Ehen morning. How are you?” Mama asked.
“This one that you’re all dressed up, it seems you were dreaming about Lagos all throu-gh the night.” Aunt Caro said, smiling at me. She was actually right even though she was joking.
I didn’t know what to say to her so I smiled. Whenever I was around aunt Caro, I always felt intimid@t£d to speak. I didn’t want to speak any bad English that would earn me a jeer from her. Don’t get me wrong. Not like I couldn’t speak English, but I wasn’t so confident speaking it with the city people, especially those educated ones.
“Mama, let me also go and have my bath so that we can get re-ady to leave for Lagos. I don’t want to get there at night. Lagos traffic is usually slow at that time.” Aunt Caro said as she stood up to her feet.
“Okay nwam .” Mama replied.
Aunt Caro walked away, leaving only mama and me.
“Daniella come and sit down.” Mama adjusted a little and beckoned on me to sit beside her. I walked towards her and sat down. “Now that you’re going to the city, remember the child of whom you are and where you’re coming from. Always be obe-dient and respectful to everyone there in the city. The people in Lagos are not like the people here in the village. Stay on your own and like I would always say, any man that t©uçhes you, it is pregnancy.”
I chuckled, amused that mama still uses that cliché to keep me away from boys. “Haha mama, I’m no longer a baby to believe that now.”
She hit me slightly on my th!ghs. “Listen to me! Stay away from boys. They are all deceitful. They would promise you the world just to get in between your legs and later dump you like a piece of tag. What you’re going to do in the city is to focus on your education and make your papa and me proud. Don’t go and get pregnant in the city. Don’t bring shame to this family. I’m warning you. A word is enough for the wise.”
When mama was done with her admonition, I smiled at her reas-suringly and ru-bbe-d the back of her palms that were clasped together.
“Mama, I would make you proud.” I said, after which, a rain of sadness fell on me. Though I was happy that I was going to be leaving the village for the city, it saddened me that I was going to be leaving mama and Papa behind. I knew, for a fact, that I was going to miss them.
I couldn’t help but wonder who was going to as-sist them in the house chores if I left. Papa was actually fine without any as-sistance, but mama, she nee-ded it. I was the one always helping her in the kitchen, always accompanying her to the market, always following her to the farm, always keeping her company when she was bored. Now that I was leaving, who was going to do all of those things for her?
“Are you okay Daniella?” Mama asked, snapping me out of my trance.
“Mama when I leave, who is going to be helping you with the house chores?”
“Don’t worry about that one. I told Ngozi and she has agreed to as-sist me with the chores.”
“Ngozi from Umunobo village?”
“Yes, she’s the one.”
“Ah thank God.”
Minutes pas-sed and aunt Caro was re-ady to take me to the city in her Lexus car. At last! I was finally going to be entering her car. I didn’t have breakfast because aunt Caro had said she was going to buy me light food on the way to Lagos. According to her, heavy food shouldn’t be taken before one traveled, or else one would always feel the nee-d to visit the toilet and that wasn’t healthy for our trip.
With a lopsided gait, I carried our luggage to the alre-ady opened boot of her car and dropped them in the boot. I also struggled to carry the half bag of cas-sava flakes to the boot. I was p@n-ting like a p@n-ther when I was done carrying everything to the boot.
I walked to where aunt Caro was and she was bidding mama and Papa goodbye. Immediately, I ran and pu-ll-ed mama in a bone crushing embr@ce as tears trickled down my eyes. I couldn’t believe that I was leaving them. I was leaving the beautiful souls that took care of me while growing up since my parents died. It was so heartbreaking.
“I’ll miss you mama. I will miss you so much.” I said, still hvgging her.
“E nwam ! I would miss you too.”
I pu-ll-ed away from her and walked up to Papa. I smiled when I looked at him and the tears that welled up in his eyes trickled down his cheeks. This was my first time seeing him cry. There and then, I felt heartbroken. I felt as though I shouldn’t leave again. I hated to see them that sad.
“Daniella—” Before papa could say anything, I enclosed him in a warm hvg and tears pu-ll-ed down my eyes.
“I’ll miss you so much papa. Don’t cry. I’d always have you both in my heart.” I said and pu-ll-ed away from him. He took my palms and mumbled some incoherent words. When he was done, he blew air from his mouth to my palms. That was what he did whenever he wanted to bless anyone.
“Take care of yourself.” He said.
“I would. Take care of yourself too.”
“Okay, let’s go Daniella.” Aunt Caro said, ma-king her way to the car. “Mama and papa, I’ll call you when I get to Lagos. Take care.”
“Okay. Go well.” They both responded simultaneously.
“Bye mama and papa.” I waved at them.
“Bye. Ijeoma !” They waved back at us. Ijeoma means ‘safe journey’.
💞💞💞
Aunt Caro and I clambered into the car and I stayed in the pas-s£nger seat in front. It was so foreign and cool to me.
I looked outside the window and mama and papa were still waving at us. I grinned as I waved back at them.
“ti-ght£ñ your seatbelt Daniella.” Aunt Caro said. I almost forgot I was even with her in the car. For lack of un-derstanding of what she said, I sat up straight and looked forward. The way she looked at me, I knew that wasn’t what she meant.
She bur-st out laughing at me. I chuckled out of utter embarras-sment. Ignorance, they say, is a disease and now because of my ignorance, I had completely embarras-sed myself in front of aunt Caro, who I admired and was always trying to impress.
“When you don’t know something Daniella, you ask questions. It doesn’t kill not to know but what kills is when you remain silent even when you don’t know. Remember, a closed mouth is a closed destiny. Person wey dey ask question no dey miss road o .” I looked at her with amusement when she said the last statement. I had never heard aunt Caro speak pidgin before, so you could imagine how odd and amusing it sounded to me coming from her.
“Okay aunt, what do you mean by seatbelt?” I asked, still embarras-sed.
“Good. You see this,” She showed me something that looked to me like a big elastic band at the side of the car seat. “This is called a seatbelt. Now when I tell you to ti-ght£ñ your seatbelt, I mean you should move this across your front side and lock it by the other side of you. Like this,” She demonstrated what she meant. Oh! So that was what she meant. I mentally laughed at my own ignorance. “It is for safety reasons. You know, on our way to the city, the road could be very bad and there could be potholes anywhere on the road. So to avoid j£rking forward and hitting your head when the car jo-lts, your seatbelt nee-ds to be ti-ght£ñed. un-derstood?”
“Yes aunt.” I nodded my head in affirmation. To be honest, I didn’t really un-derstand what she said. Her English construction was a bit too complex for me. All I un-derstood was that the seatbelt helps to keep one safe from car accident.
I did as she demonstrated and looked outside the window to see if mama and papa were still standing outside. Sadly, they weren’t. I would really miss them.
Aunt Caro started driving and with admiration, I looked at the way she gr!pp£dand controlled the steering wheel. It was the way she controlled the wheel that determined how the car moved. Wonders of technology!
She drove silently, gospel music pla-ying in the background, until we plied on the road that linked the village to the rest of the world. Lagos here I come ! I thought to myself.
I was so happy as the thought of city life crossed my mind. But the happiness was short lived. The sweet memories of my village crept into my mind. I reminisced when I used to pl@ytinko tinko and other girls games with my best friends, Oguchi, Hannah and Nneka. I didn’t even tell them that I was going to be leaving the village. My bad! I would definitely miss them.
I also remembered when the village girls used to pl@yfootball with the village guys. For the girls’ team, I was always the goalkeeper because I su-cked at pla-ying football. Then, the guys’ team would always win us hands down. But we took solace in the fact that we were girls so their victory didn’t hurt us that much.
My mind also took me back to those days when I used to miss curfew and got back home very late in the night because I would pl@ytoo much to the point of forgetting to go home. I used to be so afraid to enter the house because of mama. And when I eventually take that bold step to enter, mama would pretend as though she was not mad at me at all, but when I’ve gone de-ep in sleep, that was when she took action. She would flog me mercilessly with her long and thin cane that she usually hid un-der her be-d.
I smiled at the memory. I could never forget those bittersweet experiences.
After long hours of driving and me constantly asking aunt Caro if we were close to Lagos, we finally got to Berger— the borders of Lagos. I was so excited and at the same time disappointed. I pictured Lagos as a wonderland of bright lights, paved roads, high-clas-s people in their posh cars and beautiful residential quarters but what I saw wasn’t a bit of what I had imagined.
I saw a crowd with their desperate unsmiling faces, filth everywhere and the deafening noise of traffic—probably because this was the borders. Maybe if we got to the heart of Lagos, things would be better.
➖💞💞➖
Things weren’t any better.
It was dark alre-ady and we were still on the road. Lagos traffic was damn slow. It didn’t feel like our car was moving at all. I looked at aunt Caro from time to time and she looked so tired and exhausted. I was also very tired. We had been on the car for long hours. The few times we st©pped were when we wanted to excrete or get something to eat. My bu-tt was hurting alre-ady.
After several minutes of being on the road, we finally reached aunt Caro’s house. It wasn’t as big as I had imagined. It was a duplex. Aunt Caro pu-ll-ed the car over in front of her gate. I wondered why she didn’t drive the car into the gate. We both got down from the car and she opened the boot.
“plea-se, carry the luggage and bag of garri into the house.” Aunt Caro’s voice was parched and hoarse. “I’m so tired.” She said and walked to her gate. I looked at her as she opened it and went in.
Was she really going to leave all of these for me to carry? I mean, I was also tired. She had better called her children to come and help me.
Reluctantly, I carried her luggage first into the house and believe me when I say the interior of the house was beautiful. What first caught my attention was the wall where the big plasma TV was hung. It was made of what looked like sedimentary rocks. My eyes shifted to the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. My mouth dropped open. I was so lost in its beauty that I didn’t realize that aunt Caro’s daughters were staring at me.
“Mum, who is she?” One of them asked with disdain
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Story_Continues..
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