📙 DANIELLA
✒ BY Daniel Adedayo
#EPISODE_2
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.
_______________________________________
Embarras-sed, that was how I felt as all eyes turned to look at me. The twin that asked looked at me with contempt, like I was some dirty rag.
“She’s Daniella, your cousin. She’d be staying with us for now.” Aunt Caro informed, “Daniella, will you st©p standing there and get the remaining things from the boot!” She yelled at me.
I flin-ched in fear. “Okay aunt.” I carried her luggage to the centre of the living room and briskly made my way outside.
As I got outside, I st©pped when I heard the same twin voice from inside the house. I was curious to hear what she had to say, so I eavesdropped.
“Mum, I never knew we had a cousin like that.” The way she emphasized the last word was with so much disgust.
“Like how Amanda?” That was aunt Caro asking.
“Don’t you see mum, she doesn’t look like us. She looks so local.”
I suddenly felt hurt as I heard that. I couldn’t believe that aunt Caro’s child, my own cousin would call me local just because I was from the village. It was an affront to me.
I just got to the city and I alre-ady felt like going back to the village. Nothing about the city fascinated me at all. The way I had imagined the city wasn’t the way it was turning out to me. First was the angry looking people walking across the street of Lagos, then to the deafening noise of the ceaseless traffic and now, an unfriendly welcome from aunt Caro’s children. Could it just get any worse!
Angrily, I walked out of the gate to aunt Caro’s car and struggled with both hands to carry the remaining things we brou-ght from the village, including my own luggage, into the living room.
When I got into the house, I saw only one of the twins in the living room. I didn’t even know if she was the one that called me local earlier on because they were both so identical. For now, I couldn’t distinguish one from the other.
She was fiddling with a big phone. It was as big as the type aunt Caro used but it wasn’t exactly the same. This one had a pink pouch. I couldn’t help but wonder why a girl of her age was using such a phone. Did everyone in the city use such phones? I wondered.
I stood there looking at her and she didn’t bother to spare me a glance. She had her head buried in her phone. I wanted to know where I could drop the bag of garri and some of the other things we bought on our way to Lagos, but I was too scared to ask her. I didn’t want someone calling me a local girl again.
I took a de-ep breath and swallowed the lump in my throat as I mustered confidence to ask her anyway. What did aunt Caro call her name again? I tapped my index f!nger on the side of myl-ips, thoughtfully. Amanda, yes Amanda.
“Amanda, where can I drop all of these bags?”
Her head snapped at me and I could see her facial features more clearly. She was light skinned and very beautiful. Her eyes were bulging, just like her mum’s.
“Sorry, did you just call me Amanda?” She asked and her voice sounded a bit different. It wasn’t as high pitched as I remembered it. Perhaps she was the other twin and not Amanda. She smiled and said, “I’m not Amanda, that’s my twin sister. My name is Annabelle. And for those bags, you could drop them in the kitchen over there.” She pointed her hand in the direction of the kitchen.
“Okay thanks.” I smiled sheepishly at her. I was glad she didn’t answer me coldly like her twin sister did. I carried the bag of garri as I made my way to the direction she pointed.
“Wait, how did you know my twin sister name is Amanda?” Her voice made me st©p and I turned to look at her.
“I heard your mum call her that.”
“Oh Okay.”
When I found my way to the kitchen, I was in awe by the way it was. I had never entered any kitchen as beautiful and exquisite as this one, though I had seen more exquisite ones in movies.
I dropped the bag of garri before anyone saw me gaping and called me a local girl. I was going to walk out of the kitchen when one of the twins walked in. I could guess she was Amanda. Her eyes weren’t as bulgy as the other one— one way to distinguish them alre-ady.
“Hey you, my mum said you should wash the fruit she bought and take them to her room.” She said rudely and turned to leave.
“My name is Daniella and not you.” I said aloud so she could hear me and she did. She turned to look at me but I wasn’t looking at her. I was bending over to get out the fruits from the polythene bag.
“Duh! Do I look like I care? ru-bbish!” She hissed and strutted away.
Myl-ips curved downwards and I shook my head at her action. She was too saucy and I didn’t like her one bit. If she thought she was going to give me problems in this house, I wouldn’t allow her do that. I’d make sure I put her in her place. For all I know, we could be age mates. Just because she was a bit taller and I was a few feet shorter shouldn’t give her the right to talk to me anyhow. For the sake of mutual respect between both of us, she had to respect me.
I washed the apples and Mangoes in a blue bowl I found in the kitchen and took them upstairs, where I had seen Amanda headed. Upstairs, there were two doors facing opposite each other and I was confused on which one to knock on. I really didn’t want to knock on the door to Amanda’s room. I had had enough of her rudeness for one night.
I took a bold step and knocked on one of the doors. I mumbled silent prayers that it was aunt Caro’s room.
“Who’s there?” Aunt Caro’s voice boomed from inside. I heaved a sigh of relief, knowing it wasn’t Amanda’s room.
“It’s me.” I answered.
“Who?”
“Daniella.”
“What do you want?”
I frowned as I said. “I c@m£ to give you the fruit you said I should wash and bring to your room.”
“Oh come in. The door is not locked.”
She was dressing up when I got in. Her room was spacious and tidy. There wasn’t much in her room: just a big be-d, a plasma TV, a small couch by one side of the room and a glas-s table by the side of the couch. The room smelt of the perfume she used.
“Aunt where can I drop the fruit?”
As soon as I asked, the door to her room flung open noisily and our heads snapped to the direction of the noise. An angry looking man walked in and I recognized him immediately. It was Uncle Henry, aunt Caro’s husband. He had visited the village with aunt Caro a couple of times and never for once did I see him frown or get angry. He was always the happy and smiling type, but seeing the way he looked now made me surprise.
“Woman, how many times have I told you never to get back from a journey late in the night!” He shouted and I flin-ched.
Talk of a real pretender!
So all this while, he had been pretending to be so nice and calm when he c@m£ to the village just so that everyone would be endeared to him. To be honest, I, for one, was. Then, he usually gave me money when I asked him, so it was impossible for me not to like him. But now he looked so… unlikable.
“Calm down darling.” Aunt Caro said calmly. “It was the traffic. You know how Lagos traffic is now?”
“When you know how Lagos traffic is, why didn’t you leave the village very early in the morning so as to avoid it?”
“We did but—”
He cut her off immediately. “If really you did, then you’d have gotten home nothing later than five o’clock. By that time, the traffic isn’t so bad.”
“Okay I’m sorry darling. You didn’t have to shout.”
“Why wouldn’t I shout when you got me worried sick. I also tried calling you but you weren’t picking up the call.” He said more calmly this time and his eyes shifted to me. I averted my eyes from him immediately and suddenly felt so uncomfortable. “Who’s this one again in our room?” He asked.
“Daniella na! Don’t you recognize her again?” Aunt Caro asked.
“Oh, your niece! She c@m£ back with you?”
“As you can see, yes.”
He was silent for a while and I could feel his gaze boring at me.
“Can’t you greet?” He shouted at me.
I jo-lted in fear. “Good evening uncle.” My voice quivered. He was intimid@t!ngand that made me so uncomfortable. I just wanted to leave their room immediately.
“It’s good evening sir, not uncle.” He corrected, “Eh, what are you doing here?”
“I c@m£ to bring fruit for my aunt.” I said, still avoiding his gaze.
“Eh, drop it and get out na.”
“Where can I drop it?” The question c@m£ out a bit rude because I was alre-ady angry with the way he was talking to me.
“Drop it on my head.” He responded, rather caustic. I ignored him.
“Drop it on that table beside the couch.” Aunt Caro said and I walked towards the table and dropped it. After which, I walked away from their room briskly keeping in mind that I was in for something big in the city.
And now that I think about it, I wished I had just stayed back in the village. Things were a lot better there.
✏✏✏✏
💥Story_Continues📝