15/16
HE SAID NO
EPISODE 15
“Hmmm, sounds like a sequel to mine, when did this happen?” Grace said while Amifel threw some chin-chin into her mouth before she answered her,
“I had the dream on the night after my last d@t£ with George, that should be about ten days now, ”
“Wow, were you thinking about George or what?”
“I wouldn’t say I was thinking about him, I was so tired of the whole thing that I sincerely poured my heart out to God when I got home that night and that was what followed,”
“Wow, that was powerful,”
“Believe me Grace, for the first time in months, I felt lighter when I woke up, “ Amifel said,
“That is really amazing, I know how it feels to have my burdens lifted. I’m really happy to hear this, so what’s the action plan now? “
“Well, God told me that he would fix this. So, I think my action plan is to be still and watch God work it out,”
“Hmmm, don’t you think you are trying to shy away from what you ought to do,” Grace asked as she la-id on her side,
“You know, at first I felt that way too until George started pu-lling some funny stunts,” Grace seemed a bit puzzled as Amifel took a sip from her malt before she continued, ‘George has started acting funny,”
“What do you mean by funny?”
“He has been acting weird of late, at first I thought it was because of the argument we had the last time, ”
“You guys fought?”
“Not exactly, it was nothing serious, He has st©pped calling, and the last time I called him, he sounded like he didn’t want to talk to me. Even when I s£nt him a text some days later, he responded with syllables,”
“Do you want him back?” Grace asked, looking intently at her,
“Of course not,” Amifel shrugged, “But even if I am backing out of this relationsh!p, it’s not out of hate and I still want him to be fine and that was why I tried to reach him, more so, we have not had a formal break up and I don’t want him to hold me responsible for this,”
“Oh-oh, If I get you well, you are trying to pl@ythe victim, ”
“Don’t talk like that Grace, I owe him an apology or at least an explanation,”
“That God said no is enough explanation to pu-ll the trigger and let this go,” Grace said as she gave a light cl@p, alre-ady getting pissed,
“You are too blunt Grace, it’s not that easy, I still care about him,”
“Amifel, in my own opinion, I would advise that you leave him alone, you said it yourself that God told you he would help you out and it is glaring that help has come now, “ she paused a bit to look at Amifel’s countenance, “Let him be, “
“Okay,” Amifel said, “It’s not that I want him back anyway, I want this done with soon but I just don’t want him to think I am jilting him,”
“Since you don’t want to tell him upfront, its better you let him think what he wants. You have you head to save here girl and don’t even talk about being selfish, ”
“Okay Grace, I totally get you, thank you.”
“And if for any reason, you call him again or you guys get back together, plea-se don’t tell me about it, “Grace said as she stood up,
“I won’t ma, ” Amifel said with a sm-irk,
“You won’t, to which one?” Grace said, raising her arms akimbo,
“I don’t get you, ” Amifel was baffled,
“You won’t call him or you won’t tell me?” Amifel laughed heartily before she answered her, “I won’t call him, ”
“Better, do you care for rice? I’m starving,” Grace said, drawing a curtain on the conversation.
“What stew did you make?”
“Chicken,”
“I’m in abeg, “Amifel said as Grace headed for the kitchen to start cooking, the petite kitchen was neatly arranged, as most of the kitchen items were kept in the kitchen cabinets, only the plate rack and a bunch of plantains could be seen on one side of the cabinet,
“Ami, I even met one pregnant woman at the bank earlier this week,” Grace said, as she stretched to bring out a medium-sized pot from one of the cabinets,
“Ehn ehn, like you haven’t seen a pregnant woman before, ”
“I knew you would say that, ” Grace said, as she headed to the door, flinging a small plastic seive at Amifel who narrowly dodged it, ” but seriously, I couldn’t ignore her, ”
” Why? Was her glow that lit?”
“I wish, ” Grace chuckled, “On the contrary, she was tattered, and she looked like she was tired of life. As a nice girl that I am, I couldn’t bear to see a pregnant woman queue up behind so many people, so I was compelled out of pity to help her out with what she c@m£ to do,” she said, Amifel who could ba-rely hear her found her way to the kitchen to get the best of the gist,
“Surprisingly, before she left, she gave me money for lunch, guess how much?”
“How much?” Amifel asked while opening the pot of stew not too far from where she stood, fat chunks of chicken filled the medium-sized pot,
“10,000 naira!” she said wi-dening her eyes,
“Wow, #10,000 for lunch? She must be a big woman oh,” said Amifel, still savoring the aroma of the eye-appealing stew in front of her,
“That is the funny p@rt of the whole thing, she didn’t look it one kobo. In fact, I could have bet with my Nike Airf0rç£ sneaker that all the money in her account could not be more than #10,000,” she said, as Amifel chuckled. Grace was talking about the white Nike Airf0rç£ sneaker that she loved so much.
“If that sleek sneak was my size, I would have stolen it,”
“Thank God we don’t use the same shoe size oh, isn’t God a good God,” Grace laughed, “I even got her contact,”
“Ahn Ahn, on t©p ‘we-tin’, you want her to dash you more money,”
“The amount of the money is not the big deal, it is the fact that it is coming from someb©dy like her, ”
“I get, I’m just joking,” Amifel tapped her pla-yfully as she washed the rice into h0t water,
“I felt so drawn to her and I don’t know why, and I have been saying I would call her oh, let me even do it now before I forget,” she continued, mopping her hands with a napkin, as she went for her phone on the wooden table, Amifel followed suit as she also headed back to the be-d, Grace scrolled throu-gh her phone for her number,
“I just hope I saved it, ” she sad to herself, “Yeah, got it, ” Grace dialed her number the first time, no response. She was on the second one and just when she was about to give up, someone picked up,
“Hello ma, ” she said, smiling as if she could see her,
“She is not available, call her back, ” a man said with a hostile voice,
“Oh, okay, plea-se tell…” She was about to say something else before the man on the other end hung up on her, she stared at her phone as she debated on whether she should call her again or let things slide,
“What happened to you, what did she say, ” she said, glancing briefly at Grace’s gloomy face
“She wasn’t the one who picked up, or did she give me a wrong number? No, that can’t be, ” Grace asked no one in p@rticular, then almost immediately she stood
up,
“It must be him!” She announced,
“Who?” Amifel asked, she was busy surfing the web and didn’t seem to be interested much,
“Her husband!”
EPISODE 16
Mrs. Grace la-id on her side on the hospital be-d and turned her face to the white-coated hospital wall, although no visible tears could be seen on her face, she had cried a drum-full de-ep down inside, her insides rumbled and her lower tummy ached at the same time, Akinwale was seated on an iron chair beside her, he had been waiting for her to wake up all night.
Akinwale had rushed his wife, Grace to Solid Rock pri-vate hospital the last night when she fainted after he beat the daylight out of her, what happened?
He c@m£ home very late at around 11 pm, and when he could not find his bunch of house keys, he resorted to knocking, Grace who had waited for a couple of hours had alre-ady gone to be-d with her son, after all, he had his keys and would find his way in whenever he got home,
Akinwale had been knocking for almost 30 minutes before his wife woke up, she was tired after washing a big heap of all their dirty clothes and her entire b©dy ached severely, she slightly felt the b©dy aches again as she dragged herself to the door,
“Didn’t you take your keys?” asked a tired Grace, her white nightgo-wn was alre-ady far above her knee as her protruded stomach got bigger every day,
“You are mad!” Akinwale said, pointing at his head, “Yes, you must be very mad for asking such a stupid question, if I had the keys, would I stand here knocking for almost 1 hour? move away from the door old woman!”
“I am not mad oh, I am not, it is not my fault that you misplaced or forgot your key so don’t transfer your aggression on me,” and that was it,
“Are you talking to me?” Akinwale asked, locking the door securely behind him, as he moved closer to Grace, who was alre-ady scared, she knew that was definitely in for another drama, only that she didn’t know that it was going to be fatal,
“Are you freaking talking to me?” He barked, he didn’t wait for an answer before he pounced on Grace who was alre-ady shaking, as he punched her and practiced all the forms of acrobatic skills he knew on her, she kept shouting and begging for mercy but he didn’t listen. The last straw that broke the c@m£l’s back was when she hit her head ha-rd on the wall, that was all she remembered.
Grace did not want him to know that she was alre-ady awake, but a sneeze gave her out,
“Grace, Grace! You are awake, thank God!” Akinwale said standing up quic-kly, as he rested his arms on her b©dy, “I was so scared,”
Grace shrugged as she harshly flung his hands away from her b©dy, “Don’t t©uçh me, Wale!” she said calmly still facing the wall,
“I am sorry Grace, I don’t know what c@m£ over me, don’t worry we will have more babies. I promise…”
“I said, don’t t©uçh me!” she yelled as she turned her bloodsh0t eyes to him at the same instant,” “You are a mistake that I would regret as long as I live, you killed my baby, are you happy now? “ she laughed hysterically, as Akinwale kept pleading with her to lower her voice, “ You disgust me, I wish I had died instead of my poor baby, in fact, I don’t want to see you, get out!” she yelled, Akinwale must have thought that it was a joke until she sat up and re-moved the nee-dle that was inser-ted in the fore-flesh of her left hand,
“Get out!!” she yelled again, 2 nurses ran into her room and ushered Akinwale out,
“plea-se sir, you nee-d to leave. She is in a really critical state right now, as she has alre-ady lost a lot of blood and putting her in this kind of condition might wors£n her case,” one of the nurses said as she ushered him out, the other nurse tried to pacify Grace who had alre-ady broken down into tears, the back of her left hand was bleeding slightly,
“I hate him! I hate him! I don’t want to see him ever again,” she kept saying as the nurses helped her to the be-d and she la-id on her side again, turning her back to the world. One of the nurses stayed back in case of an emergency.
“I just want to die,” she whispered amidst sobs,
“No madam, you can’t die. You won’t die. plea-se don’t talk like this,” The nurse said with sympathy,
“plea-se don’t allow him to come close to me again, plea-se, ”
“I will make sure he doesn’t, I promise. plea-se just calm down,” she continued, as she cleaned her up and adjusted the nee-dle,
“If you nee-d anything, plea-se use the intercom, so that someone will come and attend to you,” the nurse said,
“plea-se can I get my phone?” she asked,
“I’m sorry but I don’t think we have it here, let me see if your husband is still around, I will get back to you,” the nurse said as she walked out, she c@m£ back some minutes later to tell her that her husband had left,
“But I will tell the doctor so he can reach your husband but if you nee-d to call someone in the meantime, you can use my phone,” she offered,
“plea-se can you help me talk to my mum, tell her I’m in the hospital, ” She pleaded,
“That’s fine ma, ” the nurse said, handing her an Itel android phone to dial her mum’s number,
“Hello, ma, ”
“Hello, plea-se who am I talking to?” Mrs. Balogun asked she was having her afternoon siesta after church,
“My name is nurse Titi and I am calling you from Solid Rock pri-vate Hospital, ”
“Solid rock hospital, ” she repeated, “Ahn Ahn, is that not my daughter’s family hospital?”
“Yes ma, and I am ma-king this call on behalf of your daughter, ”
“My daughter? Ki lo see? Hope she is fine?” A perplexed Mrs. Balogun asked as she sat up,
“Erhm, we are doing everything to ensure that she is fine ma, ”
“What do you mean, I asked you a straight question, give me a straight answer o jare!” She said,
“Actually, she just lost her baby and…”
“Which baby? What baby are you talking about? Are you sure you are not calling the wrong number? because I still spoke to my daughter yesterday, ”
“Yes ma, I am talking about Mrs. Grace Akinwale. She asked me to put this call throu-gh to you and…”
“Yeeh! Ori mi, eleda mi o! My daughter!” Mrs. Balogun yelled as she stood up from her be-d and adjusted her wra-pper,
“What happened? How come? When did this happen? Where is her husband?” she asked simultaneously, she could hear her daughter crying un-derneath,
“I am alre-ady on my way, I will be there right away,” she said, hanging up hurriedly, without listening to what Nurse Titi had to say, she picked a mismatched headgear that was lying loosely on the be-d, and sli-pped into a casual footwear before heading to her navy-blue Toyota Corolla, although the last time she went to the hospital was when Grace birthed Tobi which was 2 years ago, she still remembered the place vividly,
“Eleda mi saanu mi o! plea-se Lord, don’t allow anything to happen to my daughter,” she prayed as she zoomed out of her compound.
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