Daniella
???
?Episode_23
???????
It was two days to Christmas and there were no Christmas vibes in the city like there used to be in the village.
A week before Christmas in the village was all exciting and fun. Schools would have vacated. Many children would have been outside throwing knock out. Families would be running after various fowls on the street to kill for Christmas. There would be new faces of people that c@m£ from the city to spend their Christmas with their relatives in the village. I always made sure to make those city people my friends before they left. Also, children br@gging about the Christmas clothes their parents bought for them.
It was all festive when it’s close to Christmas in the village. But here in the city, it didn’t look like Christmas was around the corner. If anything, the atmosphere was even drier than normal days.
Oh how I missed village!
I had missed mama and papa so much. I wondered how they were fairing in the village. If I had known better, I wouldn’t have moved to Lagos with aunt Caro. She had literally denied me of all forms of communication with my grandparents. But come to think of it, were mama and papa missing me as much as I was missing them? If they were, they would have called and insisted aunt Caro gave me the phone in order to speak to me. Who knows, maybe they did, but aunt Caro lied to them that I wasn’t around or I was slee-ping or something of that sort. There’s nothing that wicked woman can’t do to achieve what she wants.
Daniella you have a phone now. My subconscious reminded me. That’s right. I did have a phone. But how to get mama and papa’s phone number from aunt Caro’s phone book was the big deal. I nee-ded to think of a plan to do that. Maybe I should sneak into aunt Caro’s room when she wasn’t there and get the phone number from her phone. That would be a bit dicey, I don’t nee-d anyone to tell me that, but I was re-ady to do it nonetheless. I just had to wait for the ideal time.
I was pres£ntly in my room. Or maybe I should put it this way: the room where I sle-pt. I was lonely and bored, so I decided to come online on social media. I tapped on my chat with Peter, but he wasn’t online.
?
I dropped a message with him nonetheless.
Hey boo! Come online. I’m really bored and I miss you.
I checked throu-gh my other friends to see who was online. Adam and Gbemi were. Thank goodness!
?I tapped on my chat with Adam and dropped a message.
✏Hey bestie!
He replied almost immediately.
?
✏Hey sweetheart! How are you doing? I’ve missed you o.
I’ve missed you too. Everything’s just boring here. How are things over there?
Well, not as boring as yours might be, but it isn’t all that fun here too. Hope your guardians are not still treating you badly.
Hmm, they are. In fact, it’s worse o. I’m tired of this house. Anyways, is it just me or there’s no vibe for this Christmas.
So you’re still looking for Christmas vibe? You think you’re still a child?
Is it only children that vibe with Christmas?
What vibe exactly are you talking about?
As I was going to reply, someone barged in the room and I quic-kly hid my phone un-der the pillow.
It was Annabelle and Amanda. They looked like they were re-ady for war.
“Hey bit-ch! Return all the clothes we gave to you!” Amanda snarled, folding her arms around her che-st.
I looked at both of them standing in front of me, surprised with what Amanda just said.
?
“You heard her! Return our clothes!” Annabelle scrunched her face as she said.
“Why should I return it. It’s now mine.” I said with a frown marred on my face.
“See this thief o!” Annabelle pointed at me, looking at Amanda who was laughing. “When did you suddenly gain possession of our things. Better just give us back our clothes now before I go crazy.”
“I didn’t ask you people for the clothes. You gave it to me of your own accord, so it’s now mine.”
“St©p saying it’s yours. You’re getting me angry and I can sl@p you.” Amanda narrowed her eyes as she thun-dered.
“You won’t dare. Unless you want to die.” I sh0t back.
Both of them k!$$£d their teeth and made their way to my luggage. I immediately jumped out of the be-d and hurried towards my luggage.
“Leave my luggage alone!” I cried out.
I struggled to get my luggage from them but they succeeded in opening it and some of my clothes fell off to the floor.
Mustering all the energy I had, I pushed both of them away from my luggage and they t©ppled backwards. quic-kly, I struggled to get my luggage closed, but before I could, a resounding sl@p landed on my back, pushing me forward and I lost my balance and fell.
The pain on my back was excruciating, but still I managed to get up on my feet and hurried towards Amanda and Annabelle who had scattered all my clothes on the floor. I was angry. So angry that I went out of control. Out of rage, I sl@pped Amanda ha-rd across her n£¢k as she was bending over to take the clothes that they gave to me.
“Ah my n£¢k!” She wailed.
“Are you mad?” Annabelle fumed. “How dare you hit her!” She lunged forward at me and landed a sl@p on my cheeks.
Angrily, I yanked her legs, causing her to floun-der and she eventually fell on her back on the floor. I sat on her stomach and squee-zed the t©p she was putting on around her n£¢k as I beat her mercilessly.
Amanda, from behind, pushed me off Annabelle’s b©dy and helped her up. Annabelle wanted to come at me again, but Amanda st©pped her.
“No leave me alone Amanda! Lemme show this fool who I am!” Annabelle barked.
“Let’s just go.” Amanda walked her out of the room.
Before they left, Annabelle scowled and snapped her f!ngersmenacingly at me.
As they ban-ged the door closed, I rolled my eyes and reached for my luggage. I was p@n-ting as I arranged my own clothes in my luggage and put away the clothes they gave me. I was going to return it to them eventually.
“Daniella! Daniella!” I heard aunt Caro bark.
“They’ve gone to report to their barking mother.” I muttered and rolled my eyes.
The door to my room yanked open and I jo-lted backwards.
Aunt Caro barged in the room like a ravenous wild animal looking for who to devour. She was holding a cane in her hand.
Amanda and Annabelle were standing behind her.
“Daniella, Iwu onyara? Are you mad? Didn’t you hear me calling you? Eh?” Aunt Caro hit me with her cane as she asked.
I frowned as I held the sp©t in my arm where she hit me.
“My daughters just told me that you took their clothes and when they asked you to return it, you refused and started to fight them. Is that true?” Aunt Caro asked.
“The clothes are mine now. They gave it to me.” I said rudely.
“Shut up you thief! How will you say our clothes are yours?” Annabelle yelled from behind aunt Caro.
“Thief! Onyoshi! Barawo! ” Amanda jeered.
“Return their clothes back to them now!” Aunt Caro ordered.
“But which cloth will I wear for Christmas?” I protested.
Aunt Caro hit me with her cane again. “You’re very stupid for asking me that question.”
“Me, I’m not stupid.” I murmured un-der my breath.
“What did you say?” Aunt Caro shouted.
“Nothing.” I answered in a low tone.
“So you now have the guts to talk back at me, right?” Aunt Caro narrowed her eyes as she asked with venom in her voice. “Don’t worry, I’d deal with you in this house. Just return my daughters clothes back to them.”
“That’s your clothes on the floor.” I said, indicating the clothes.
Annabelle and Amanda crouched down to pack the clothes.
“I’d rather burn it and use some as rag than see her wear my beautiful clothes. ru-bbish!” Annabelle said rather pettily and all three of them walked out of the room.
I threw myself on the be-d and buried my face in my hands as I wept profusely. I was tired of all the suffering that they were ma-king me go throu-gh in this house. I missed my grandparents. I missed my village. I missed home.
I kept crying until I sle-pt off.
✏✏✏
✨✨✨✨
I lifted up my head in a jo-lt when I felt my phone vibr@te on the be-d and I retrieved it from the pillow to check it. My chat with Adam displa-yed on the screen as I put the phone on.
✏You were typing…
??
Aren’t you gonna say anything?
Hullo! Don’t leave me hanging!
Daniella, are you there?
I checked the time on my phone and it was 5:59pm. Time had really gone. I ru-bbe-d my eyes with my fist before replying to Adam’s text.
?
✏I’m so sorry. I had to handle some things here.
I s£nt the text and I noticed he had gone offline. I left his message board and checked to see if Peter was online. He was. He had even s£nt me a message.
I’m here now. I’ve missed you too. Sorry that I’m just coming online.
Oh now I’m the one craving for you to come online.
A smile pla-yed on my face as I re-ad the text.
Hey!
Immediately I dropped the message, he re-ad it and started typing.
Finally she c@m£ online!
Were you waiting for me?
Don’t blus-h too much, but yes I was.
Aw, why weren’t you online throu-ghout today though?
I was busy pla-ying soccer with my friends.
So that’s why you left me bored here?
I’m sorry baby boo.
You’re forgiven, but don’t try it next time.
Yes ma’am! How are you anyway?
I’m not fine!
Why?
I miss you. I really really do miss you.
✨?
Minutes after I s£nt the message, Peter still hadn’t replied and he had re-ad it. Worst of all, he was still online. I couldn’t help but wonder why he ignored it. I re-ad our chat again to see if I had said something to offend him, but I couldn’t identify anything I said that could have hurt him.
Why aren’t you saying anything?
It took some time for Peter to re-ad and reply my message.
Come outside now and give me a hvg.
When I re-ad his message, I blu-shed ha-rd that my cheeks hurt. So while he was silent, he was on his way to come and see me. Could I have asked for a better b©yfri£nd?
quic-kly, I hid my phone un-der my pillow and went out of the room. I looked around to see if anyone was near, but nob©dy was. At least not one that I could see.
I quietly made my way outside the front of the gate, but Peter was nowhere in view. I walked a bit far from the gate and searched around but I didn’t see him. It was evening alre-ady, so the sky was getting dark.
Suddenly someone hvgged me from behind, startling me.
“Hey.” I didn’t have to turn back to know that was Peter’s voice.
“Dude, you scared me!”
He chuckled, bringing his head down to my shoulder. “I’m sorry baby boo!”
“You c@m£ around. Thanks.”
Peter turned me around and placed both of his hands on my shoulder. He was wearing a black round n£¢k shi-t un-der a denim jean jacket and a black skin ti-ght jeans. “I couldn’t stand the fact that you were missing me so much. Are you all right? You don’t look so fine. You look like you’ve been—”
“slee-ping, yeah.” I spoke up before Peter could complete his statement, even though that might not have been what he was going to say. Not like I wasn’t actually slee-ping, but I just didn’t want him to suspect that I cried. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel bad for me. “I was slee-ping throu-ghout cuz I was bored.”
“Now you’re ma-king me feel guilty.” He pu-ll-ed me closer to him in a ti-ght hvg.
“Okay enough hvgging for today.” I pu-ll-ed out from him a bit.
“Did you bring anything for me?”
“Oh, uh…” Peter scratched his head. “I didn’t remember to. I was in a hurry to come here to see you. But yeah, I have some change with me.” He dug his hand in his pocket and brou-ght out a five hundred naira note. “You can have it.”
I took the money from him and thanked him.
“So what are your plans for Christmas? Are you going anywhere?” Peter asked.
“I’m not so sure. But I don’t think I am.”
“What do you say we go out together?” Peter suggested.
“You happen to be forgetting that I’m staying un-der someone’s roof.”
“Yes you both happen to be forgetting that!” Someone said from behind us.
Peter and I snapped our heads towards the direction of the voice and believe me, nothing in this world prepared me for the one I saw standing few steps away from us.
I was so shocked to see uncle Henry standing before us. He usually never c@m£ back from work this early and he always c@m£ back from work with his car, so you can imagine how surprised I was to see him.
“So this is what you do at the evening hours when everyone is inside the house, right? You sneak out to come and see a boy.” Uncle Henry said, glaring at both of us.
I gnawed at my f!ngernails in trepidation and nodded my head in disagreement. I was so scared of what uncle Henry would do to me now that he had caught Peter and me together. If anyone was to catch us, not uncle Henry at least. His wh!plash were unbearable. Aunt Caro’s had nothing on his.
“Who’s he?” Uncle Henry asked, gesturing at Peter.
“He’s my clas-smate.” I said, nervously.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Peter give me a surprised look. He might have been offended that I referred to him as just a clas-smate, but I was only trying to avert trouble with uncle Henry. I couldn’t possibly tell uncle Henry that Peter was my b©yfri£nd. This was not some Hollywood movie. This was reality. Reality where if I told uncle Henry such, that would be the death of me. I believe Peter should un-derstand that.
“So your clas-smate doesn’t have a name?” Uncle Henry asked frostily.
Peter and I spoke up simultaneously.
“His name is Peter.”
“I’m Peter sir.”
“And what is he doing here by this time of the day?” Uncle Henry asked me and looked down at his wristwatch. “The time is past six.”
“Em, he just c@m£ to…” I couldn’t come up with a plausible lie. My mind was void of any. “To…”
“Since the holiday started, I had been paying all my clas-smates a visit and since Daniella also happens to be my clas-smate, I couldn’t exclude her, so that’s why I c@m£ around.” Peter spoke up, rather too boldly for a situation like this.
“Young man, do you have any home training at all? When an elderly person ask a question and he or she isn’t throwing the question at you, you shut the hell up. Didn’t your parents teach you that?” Uncle Henry said spitefully.
“My parents might not have given me the best home training ever, but I know for a fact that they can’t stand there to be talking about others home training, when they should be seeing to it that their child get some good home training. And I think you should also do that.”
“Peter!” I gave him a warning look.
“Daniella tell your clas-smate to get out of here now before the count of three, unless he wouldn’t like what I’d do to him.” Uncle Henry warned menacingly.
“Peter plea-se go.” I begged Peter, but he didn’t budge.
“One…” Uncle Henry started to count.
“Peter plea-se, for my sake.” I begged, holding his hand.
“Two…” Uncle Henry continued counting.
“Okay, I’m leaving just because of you o.” Peter said and strutted off.
When Peter had walked away from us, Uncle Henry lunged at me, sma-cked my head and pu-ll-ed my ear. “Let me not see that animal here again. If I do, just consider yourself dead. Am I clear?”
“Yes sir.” I said in a whimper as uncle Henry twisted my ear.
“So you now have a b©yfri£ndand you’re lying to me he’s your clas-smate.” Uncle Henry said in a low sinister voice. As I was going to speak, he shouted. “If I hear any word from your mouth, I’d sl@p you. Now get inside the house!” He shouted, drawing my ear in such a way that made me t©pple forward before I eventually got to the gate.
I held my ear to ease the pain as I walked into the house.
?
“Ah honey, you’re back quite early today. How was work?” Aunt Caro asked as she tre-aded down the staircase.
“We bless God.” c@m£ uncle Henry response.
“Daniella, what’s in the kitchen for my husband?” Aunt Caro asked me as I was walking to the kitchen.
“The remaining semo I made for you.” I uttered in a grumble.
“Madam, you won’t believe what I’m about to tell you.” Uncle Henry said. I didn’t nee-d to be told that he was going to report me to aunt Caro.
“What is it honey?” Aunt Caro asked curiously. “Don’t tell me you’ve been sacked at your workplace.”
While they spoke, I entered the kitchen but made sure my ears were fl@pping.
“Far from it. Can you believe that when everyb©dy is in the room, this your niece Daniella would leave this house to meet with her b©yfri£ndoutside.” Uncle Henry said.
I let out a sharp intake of breath and rolled my eyes from where I was.
“You don’t say!” c@m£ aunt Caro’s response.
“Wait, you knew about it?” Uncle Henry asked.
“No, no. But I’m not surprised she does that. I mean, Amanda and Annabelle had alre-ady told me she has a b©yfri£nd. There was even a day I went out with the girls and when we got back from from our outing, I didn’t see Daniella at home. She had gone out.”
“You mean it?”
Aunt Caro let out a snort. “I’m telling you my dear.”
“And did you find out where she went to that day?” Uncle Henry asked.
“Yes, I made sure I wh!pped her until she admitted to me that she went to her b©yfri£nd’s house.”
“Really, so all these have been going on in my house and nob©dy told me.”
“Darling, we just didn’t want to disturb you with such trivial things.” Aunt Caro said with an apologetic tone.
“It’s trivial now abi? Until you hear Daniella is pregnant or that she has run away, that’s when you’d know things like that are meant to be handled with seriousness.”
Run away? That had never even crossed my mind. Even if it had, where would I run to? Village? I ba-rely knew anywhere in Lagos to even travel back to the village. And if I knew, where would I get money from to embark on the journey? Running away wasn’t an option. It was best I stayed here in the city and endure the suffering and ha-rd sh!p. It was a pas-sing phase of my life—one that was only temporary.
??????
➡To_Be_Continued?