✨✨✨ DANIELLA🌠🌠
#EPISODE_18
💞💞💞💞💋💋💋
They both looked at me and snorted in a chuckle. I bent down and started packing up the clothes from the floor and stuffing them in the baggage I brou-ght from my room.
Once done, I thanked them once again for the clothes and struggled to carry the baggage as I made my way to my room. As soon as I got to my room, I locked the door and tried out all the clothes—dropping my preferences on the be-d and tossing the ones I didn’t like on the floor.
I eventually finished with ma-king my selection and I went to the kitchen to warm all the leftovers, do the dishes and tidy up the kitchen. By the time I finished, it was late and uncle Henry was alre-ady back from work.
The down section of the house was silent, but I could still hear muffled sounds from upstairs. I walked to the living room and checked the time. It was past nine o’clock. I switched off the light and made my way to my room. When I got to my room, I plopped faced down on the be-d, with my arms spre-ad ap@rt. What a day! I stayed in that position for long, enjoying the comfort the be-d gave me. Then memories of mama and papa began to pl@yout in my head. I couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing at the moment. If they were fairing well. It had been so long since I heard from those amazing souls and I was really missing them so much. I’m sure they missed me too.
⏪
Little me ran as fast as my little legs could carry me to meet papa, who was going out to get firewood. He wasn’t too far from our house, so I was able to catch up with him.
“Papa! Papa!” He turned around as he heard my squeaky voice.
“What is it Daniella?” He asked, looking worried.
“Papa!” I tugged on his shi-t, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Daniella, why are you crying? Talk to me nwam!” He crouched down to my level and held my chin.
“Our house is burning and mama is in there.” I said.
“Chinekeme! You don’t mean it!” He quic-kly ran back to the house, leaving me behind. I ran after him immediately.
Before I could get to the house, I saw papa coming back. “Daniella, I thought you said the house was burning?”
“April Fool papa!” I laughed and ran as he chased after me. It didn’t take long before he caught me. He sp@ñked my bu-tt and then hoisted me up. I screamed as he kept throwing me up and catching me- something he knew I was scared of- he did it to punish me.
I smiled at the moment. I had not been so happy in the city like I was in the village. Life was so happy then. Less drama. Positive vibes only. But here in the city, it was from one issue to the other. To think I would even love it more in the city than in the village!
⏪
Memories of mama and papa kept flooding in my head and the more I thought about them, the more I had the urge to speak to them. Heaven knows, I really did miss them. Aunty Caro hadn’t even allowed me to talk to them since I got to the city. This was unfair! I stood up from my be-d and made my way to aunt Caro’s room. I wanted to talk to my grandparents and I wanted to do it now! I knocked on the door to the room.
➡
“Who’s that?” Uncle Henry voice boomed from inside.
“It’s me.” I mumbled.
“The door’s open.” I heard him say and I cracked open the door and walked into the room. The white bulb was still switched on and uncle Henry and aunt Caro were both lying down on their be-d, with their duvet covering them.
“Oh so it’s you that want to break my door!” Aunty Caro immediately said, sitting up from her be-d.
“What do you want?” Uncle Henry said gently.
“Em aunty, I want to reach out to mama and papa. It’s been so long since I heard from or spoke to them. Since I c@m£ to the city, I have not even reached out to them to know how they’re doing. They’ll be thinking I have forgotten them just because I’m in Lagos.” I said rather confidently.
Aunty Caro exchanged looks with uncle Henry. “Are you okay?” She double hit her index f!nger on her temple sneeringly.
I ignored her.
“I’m not sure you’re okay. Because if you are, you wouldn’t have the gut to come to my room at this hour to spill this gibberish to me. Now before I open my eyes,” She said menacingly, shutting her eyes. “You must be out of this room.”
I hesitated before turning around to leave.
“Or on a second thought,” Uncle Henry’s voice made me halt in my tracks. “Come and scratch my back.”
Oh hell no! It took everything in me not to throw my hands up in the air. I frowned my face as I made my way to him.
“Eh, so why are you frowning your face?” He asked.
“I’m not frowning my face.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“That’s how my face is.”
He snorted, “If you like, frown your face till thy kingdom come, you’d still scratch my back today.”
His words got me more angry and I fought the urge to sl@p him. He was so annoying!
He turned his back for me to get to work and I eyed his back sneeringly before scratching it. Because of the anger in me, I scratched his back r0ûghly to the point where a fragment of his skin peeled off. He winced and sat up immediately and sl@pped me across my cheeks.
“Witch! Get out of this room!” He barked.
Although I wanted to cry that he sl@pped me, I also wanted to laugh by his reaction. So he was human enough to feel pain and he could inflict pain on others. Serves him right ! I left his room feeling fulfilled by what I did. It was an evil act, but for some reasons, I didn’t feel guilty about it. He got what he deserved. Simple!
I shut the door behind me and threw myself on the be-d. I chuckled as I remembered the scene that just took place before sleep slowly shrouded me.
“Daniella! Daniella!” I heard uncle Henry whisper my name in my dream, but when I felt a tap on my legs, I woke up to see uncle Henry on my be-d. AGAIN! I jo-lted up and withdrew backwards.
How did I forget to lock my room door again?
“Daniella, I’m so sorry for sl@pping you back there in my room. I did it on impulse and I’m really sorry.” He held up the palm of his hands together pleadingly.
“No nee-d to apologise sir.” I said, still withdrawing back till my back hit the wall. “Sir plea-se I’m scared of you coming into my room in the night. If aunty Caro sees you here now, she would think something else.”
“Don’t worry about your aunty. She would never see me. She’s a de-ep sleeper.” He said.
“Okay, so sir you can go now. I’m feeling sleepy.”
“How can you talk like that Daniella?” He said as he stood up from my be-d and moved closer to me.
“Talk like how sir?” I said, panicking. I didn’t like the fact that he was moving closer to me.
“You know I like you and I’ve been thinking about you since. I can’t get you off my mind. I think I’m in love with you Daniella.”
As he moved closer to me from the right side of the be-d, I stood up from the be-d and moved to the left side. “Sir, don’t start this again, unless I’d report you to your wife.”
“Don’t threaten me because it won’t work this time around. Do you really think your aunty would believe you if you told her that I tried to sleep with you?” He asked and then snorted in a chuckle. “Think again Daniella! She would never believe you because she thinks I hate you. And if you still wanna try your luck, I’d make sure she doesn’t believe you and I’d also make sure you suffer in this house. So better just keep quiet.”
I shook my head at how petty he was being, as tears trickled down my cheeks. “Why are you doing this uncle Henry?”
“I love you. That’s why.” He shrugged, “And I promise to relieve you of all the chores in this house, if you allow me make love to you just this ones.” The moved closer and beckoned on me at the same time.
I started for the door in order to escape, but he caught up with me and threw me on the be-d. My head ached.
“You think you can run away. It’s both of us tonight.” He loomed over me and tried to rip off my Sk-irt but I struggled with him- pinching his arm and hitting him f0rç£fully. Yet he didn’t bulge. He really was bent on getting la-id with me tonight. h0t tears ran down the side of my eyes and lingered in my ear.
“Honey!” We froze as aunty Caro’s voice boomed from a distance.
“$h!t!” Uncle Henry cussed as he quic-kly jumped out of my be-d and scrambled to the door. “That’s my wife. What am I going to do?”
“Just go.” I said in between quiet sobs. I had really lost every ounce of respect for uncle Henry. He didn’t deserve it. He was such a monster for trying to f0rç£fully sleep with me. Now I could only hope that aunty Caro wouldn’t find him in my room, unless I should consider myself dead.
Uncle Henry slowly and gently turned the door handle to open the door. He peeped outside the room to see if aunt Caro was close by.
Just then, aunty Caro’s voice was heard from a distance again. “Honey!”
“Love you.” Uncle Henry blew an invisible k!ssmy way before quic-kly exiting my room and shutting the door behind him gently.
I immediately stood up from my be-d, trotted to the door and locked it.
“Hey sweedy.” I st©pped to eavesdrop as I heard uncle Henry’s voice. “I’m here. Why are you up by this time?”
“Same question I should be asking you too.” Aunty Caro said.
“Oh me, I just wanted to get water from the kitchen. I was really thirsty.”
“Where’s the water?”
“This one you’re questioning me, are you sceptical? Do you think I’d be lying to you about coming downstairs to get water to drink?”
“Not that I doubt you or anything like that. It’s just that you said you wanted to get water from the kitchen and I don’t see any with you now, so it’s only normal for me to ask.”
“Well, I’ve drank it in the kitchen alre-ady.” Uncle Henry replied and from where I was, I shook my head and curve myl-ips downwards. He was such a pathological liar. “So you, why are you up by this time?” He asked.
“I had a terrible nightmare.” Her voice was fading away and I heard the sound of footsteps tre-ading the stairs.
“A nightmare?” Uncle Henry asked worriedly, his voice also fading away.
“Yes, I dreamt that…” I wasn’t able to get whatever she said next. They had probably gone upstairs to their room.
I sniffed, wiping the tears off my face as I made my way back to my be-d. I tried to get some sleep, but I couldn’t. The thought of what uncle Henry attem-pted to do to me kept repla-ying in my head. What if aunt Caro had not called him? He would have sle-pt with me. I would have lost my vir-ginity to my aunt husband! Appalling!
🎶 Mama… Where are you?… I nee-d someb©dy I can talk to… Mama, there’s no one around… Mama where are?🎶 I sang quietly as tears trickled down my eyes.
I sat up on the be-d, rested my back on the wall and folded my arms around my che-st. How can I put a st©p to uncle Henry’s act? I thought. There was no way aunt Caro was going to believe me if I told her what uncle Henry had tried to do to me on two nights now. Then what could I do? The answer is nothing. Nothing! I cried the more as the thought of not being able to do anything c@m£ to my mind.
I stayed up all night crying and singing that song,
mama where are you?
The minaret blared as the muezzin called for morning prayers, indicating that it was alre-ady five o’clock. It was usually the sound that woke me up everyday to get started with the chores before preparing for school.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks with my clothe as I got up from the be-d. I shuffled my way to the kitchen. Since I had wash the dishes the previous night, all that was left for me to do was to warm the leftovers, prepare breakfast for everyone to eat before leaving the house and sweep the kitchen and living room. I tried to do all of that in a jiffy.
Once done, I went straight to the bathroom and toilet, excreted, brushed my teeth and then had my bath. By the time I was done, it was alre-ady five minutes past seven. I hurriedly walked into my room and sli-pped into my school uniform.
“Hey Daniella.” Uncle Henry poked his head into my room as I was putting on my socks. My heart skipped a beat and I jo-lted. “Sorry to scare you. How was your night?” He asked, walking into my room completely. He was wearing a grey suit and holding a briefcase.
I frowned and looked away, ignoring him.
“Are you angry with me?” He made his way closer to me.
“Sir, this is not night o. Everyone is awake and I don’t want anyone seeing you here. It would rouse suspicion.” I said, not sparing him a glance.
“Okay, take this.” He handed me a two hundred naira note. “For your pocket money, in case your aunt doesn’t give you.”
I eyed the money and hesitantly took it from him. “Thank you sir.”
“Don’t mention. Take care of yourself.” He said and walked out of my room. I rolled my eyes as I hissed quietly and continued wearing my shoe and socks.
Few minutes later, I was all set for school and I walked out of the house without meeting aunt Caro to ask her for pocket money since uncle Henry had given me alre-ady.
un-der my school uniform was we-t from the sweat that kept dripping down my skin as I walked fast to school. When I got to the school gate, ahead of me I saw Mr Ambode, one of the school staffs, flogging some students one stro-ke of the cane each on their back, before they ran into the school building. I wondered if it was the late comers he was flogging or just some students that offended him.
As I moved closer to him, he glared at me, stro-king his cane with his hand. Judging from his action, I inferred that he was actually flogging the late comers. My heart started to pound in my che-st as I drew closer to him. Closer. Closer. Closer. And finally his cane landed on my back. I let out a skrie-k, placing my hand on the exact sp©t he hit me and running inside the school at the same time.
The instant I got inside the school, I composed myself and pretended like I wasn’t flogged. The school as-sembly was ongoing and the students were singing the national anthem, so I had to halt in my tracks and wait until they st©pped singing. I was the only one standing outside the students line, so a few students threw glances my way.
When the national pledge was recited, I quic-kly made my way to the ss2 female students line. I was surprised to see Gbemi standing in front of me and apparently, she didn’t know I was behind her. I pinched her bu-tt.
“Ow!” She exclaimed in a whisper and snapped her head back at me. I grinned as she met my face and a smile flashed on her face. “Daniella so it’s you. I swear, if it wasn’t you, I would have sl@pped whoever was behind me. That pinch was so painful.”
“Sorry.” I giggled, as she faced forward. “Lemme guess, you also c@m£ late.” I whispered.
“Yes o, that’s what we both know how to do best.” She also managed to whisper. She could not really whisper because her voice was de-ep and naturally loud.
“Did Mr Ambode flog you?” I asked her.
“That yeye man… yes he flogged me o. He’s very stupid.”
“That cane enter me, I swear.”
Gbemi chuckled, “That reminds me, what did Mr Nnamdi do to you yesterday?”
then, the principal’s voice boomed from the as-sembly podium. “Good morning students! As we must have been told, our first term exam starts next week Monday. So if you haven’t started studying, you’re on your own. One who fails to prepare, prepares to fail. If you’re a wise student, you’d do away with pl@yand focus solely on your books for now. Also, we’re in the yuletide month and as you all know, this is the month where we celebr@te the school’s Christmas Carol. So if you want to sing, dance, act or do any creative thing on that day to make it fun, sign your name up with Mrs Bunmi.” As he said that, Mrs Bunmi, a fair, plump and short woman, who was also standing before the as-sembly ground, indicated. “That said, as-sembly prefect give us a marching song.”
“Seven rivers in Africa! Seven rivers in Africa! ” The as-sembly prefect started and we joined in and marched into our various clas-ses.
⬛⬜◽
🌠Story_Continues⭐