23/24
HE SAID NO.
EPISODE 23
“Ahn Ahn, see who we have here!” Mrs. Roberts remarked, she had just finished attending to a customer who c@m£ to buy some foodstuffs and she was doing recording her sales when Mrs. Balogun walked into her sto-re.
Her shop was a fairly big one with bags of different food items ranging from rice, beans, Semovita and others, neatly stacked upon each other with little spaces in between.
“My friend that has abandoned me,” Mrs. Balogun tea-sed.
“Ah, it’s not like that, I have been seriously busy for a while now, I ba-rely have time for myself even,” Mrs. Robert said as she drew her closer for a hvg.
“No problem, if Moses refuses to go the mountain, the mountain itself would come and meet Moses,” she said as they both laughed.
“You are just glowing anyhow, how have you been, my friend?” Mrs. Robert said, dragging an extra chair from a corner of the shop for her to sit. A table was placed at the center of the shop and ap@rt from the one directly in front of the table, a number of plastic chairs were at different points.
“Is this what you call glow?” she asked looking down at herself, while sitting directly in front of her.
“My dear, if this is not what it means to glow, I don’t know what is,” Mrs. Robert tea-sed as they both laughed.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you, “she smiled, “You are not looking bad either,” she complimented.
“Thank you, my friend, what do I offer you?”
“Don’t stress yourself, I’m okay, ”
“No now, or are you leaving soon?” Mrs. Robert asked.
“I actually c@m£ to make some orders from one of our distributors close by, so I decided to seize the opportunity to say hi, I’ll be here for a while, let’s say…” She paused for a while to glance at the time on her phone, it was 14 minutes past 2 ” 4 pm, ” she concluded.
“Then let me get you some light refreshment, ” Mrs. Robert said before she dashed out of the shop, she got back some minutes later with a pack of cold 5 alive fruit jui-ce and some expensive cookies which she tabled before her friend alongside a neat glas-s cu-p.
“How is Daddy Amifel? it’s been ages since I saw him, ” Mrs. Balogun asked as she gulped down her jui-ce.
“My husband is fine, he was home last weekend but as usual he has traveled again, ”
“Nawa! Mr. Roberts and traveling are 5 and 6! You are trying oh, ”
“My sister, what would I do now, I am used to it, ”
“It is well, how far with Amifel?”
“My daughter is fine too, ” she said.
“Any upd@t£?”
“Upd@t£?”
“Ehn, she and her prince charming, when are we wra-pping this thing up?”
Mrs. Robert was slightly irritated by her constant naggings and unsolicited counsels, ”
“Very soon, ” she said as she tried to change the t©pic, “so how are your daughter and her family?”
“They are fine oh, only that a small accident happened but we thank God they are getting over it,”
“An accident? When? Hope it wasn’t serious?”
“Ehn… Not really, she had a miscarriage, ”
“Eiiiiiii! Ah, how come na that pregnancy was far gone, ”
“My sister, she sli-pped in the bathroom while bathing oh, that was all, ” Mrs. Baloghn cl@pped as she explained.
“Ah! That must be a great fall! Hope she’s fine now?” She said with a note of sarcasm.
“She is much better, we bless God, the devil is a liar, they will give birth to another one, egg does not finish in the belly of a fertile woman… At least, she is married, that is why I am shouting that you should do fast with Amifel,” she dragged, Women don’t have too much time, ” she said while wi-dening the cookie pack for her to take more cookies.
“At least it is better to be single than getting married to a man beater, ” Mrs. Robert said, her friend was taken aback by her response but Mrs. Robert wasn’t done yet, “It is better to stay unmarried than have a man flog out children from your belly, some people rushed in and now, they have left their husband’s houses, plea-se let Amifel take her time, ‘dem no dey do first to finish for marriage’ ” she defended bluntly.
“Ah, ‘shey na fight?’ I was just being concerned, ” Mrs. Balogun said, the cookies felt tasteless all of a sudden.
“I appreciate your concern but I won’t like to risk mortgaging my daughter’s life all in the name of marriage, I know some mothers do it, oh but I am not one of them, ”
“It is well, ” Mrs. Balogun said, she was short of words as she wondered if her friend knew about her daughter’s problems and that made her feel uneasy.
“Amen oh!”
Mrs. Balogun gr-unted as she took a sip of the jui-ce while standing up to her feet, “I think I would be on my way now, ”
“Ahn Ahn, this is some minutes to three, I thought you said you would be here till 4?”
“Yes, ” she said as she adjusted her headgear, “Actually, I just remembered that the man said that I should try to come before 4,”
“Ehn ehn, okay, maybe when you are coming back then, ”
“I don’t know when I would be leaving so that I won’t waste your time, ” Mrs. Balogun said, she had started walking towards the door.
“I thought you said the man would be going out by four, ”
“Oh, yes, yes, I’ll be seeing someone else afterward, I’ll call you however way it is, ” Mrs. Balogun hurried out.
Mrs. Robert laughed hysterically after she left, she knew that her comment made her uncomfortable and she did it on purpose. Amifel alre-ady told her about Grace and she just pretended like she knew nothing.
“At least, this will silence her for a while, ” she said with a light hiss as she packed the remaining jui-ce and cookies aside before sitting down.
EPISODE 24
Grace was feeling weak and dehydrated, so she was excused from work to go home before noon. She had been stooling and feeling funny days before then but she thought the diarrhea would wear out but she was wrong.
She boarded a taxi that took her straight home, on her way home, she s£nt a text to Mike to tell him she was indisposed, just in case he doesn’t get to reach her, afterward, she switched off her phone. She was glad that her neighbors won’t be home as she wasn’t re-ady to entertain any question.
The house they lived in had two floors and she was staying on the ground floor, they had 5 other neighbors. As soon as she entered the compound, she first went to the backyard to pick her clothes which she left on the dryer so that she won’t have any reason to go back outside before evening when everyone would have gotten back.
She was surprised to meet her door open, at first, she was scared and all the feverish feeling that she had earlier disappeared momentarily.
“What is going on here,” she thought to herself as she peeped in. She heaved a sigh of relief as soon as she saw Blessing. She was on the phone and she was talking in low tones, she did not know that anyone had entered.
“There is no way I am going to bake that cake, certainly not on my big day “she chuckled over the phone, “What happened to hiring a baker? “
“What big day? Blessing is at it again,” Grace thought to herself with a sigh, she wanted to go in to meet her, but on second thought, she decided to wait outside for her to be done with her call.
“Yes baby, that’s better. I’ll be back soon,” she said while walking her hands throu-gh her hair, “Muaaah!” she concluded before hanging up.
“Ehn Ehn!” Grace said as she ban-ged the door behind her, Blessing was rattled, she looked back instantly with shock written all over her face.
“Grace! I thought you would be at work, what are you doing at home?” she asked, trying to mask her surprise.
“I should be asking you that question,” Grace said, folding her arms around her che-st.
“You are funny, it’s like you have forgotten that I live here, ”
“Sorry, you live here? Oh, I didn’t know that, I have been the only one living year for over a month now, I used to have a roommate but she left without prior notice,” Grace said weakly as she flung her handbag towards the be-d before she followed suit.
“I didn’t know that I now have an elder sister oh, so I now have to report myself to you ehn?”
“Don’t I deserve to know, where have you been? ” she asked, lying face down on the be-d, her fever had resumed duty.
“Its work oh, Grace… “
“Is this about cake or some other work I don’t know of,”
“Ahn Ahn, what other work do I do?”
“I don’t know, maybe keeping secrets,”
“Wait first, what are you doing at home by this time,” she asked, cleverly changing the subject of discussion.
“I am here to see my lost but found roommate after weeks of silence from her end, ”
“Talk jor, “
“Isn’t it obvious, I am a little indisposed,” she dragged as she covered herself with a blanket.
“Yeah, I noticed you look thinner and pale, what’s wrong, hope you are not pregnant?” Blessing chuckled as she moved from one end of the room to another. She seemed to be looking for something really important.
“My name is not Mary, Its diarrhea,” Grace seemed not to be in the mood for jokes.
“Where did you get it from?” Blessing asked as Grace laughed lightly.
“See question, I collected it from where they are sharing it,” she hissed before turning her back to her.
“Why won’t you purge, your bad mouth na follow come,” Blessing ranted as she ransacked her bag, it was obvious that she had come to pick some more of her things.
“Who were you b!owing k!sses to over the phone?” Grace asked.
“So, you were eavesdropping, how long have you been at the door?” Blessing said while glancing briefly at her.
“That’s what you do when you want to dodge questions, ”
“How about ‘the ancient Bro Mike’?” Blessing asked amidst laughter, expecting her to retaliate as she would normally do but she got silence instead.
“You will not answer now,” She said while hitting Grace with the Sk-irt she was holding but Grace did not budge one bit.
“She has even sle-pt,”
Blessing packed the rest of the things she nee-ded into a box that she brou-ght along with her, she tidied up the room, she was re-ady to leave after a few minutes, she deliberated on whether to wake Grace or just let her be, she felt her b©dy temperature, it was high. She decided to let her rest.
Grace woke up a couple of hours later with an urgent nee-d to empty her bowels, while in the toilet she remembered that she saw Blessing before she sle-pt. As soon as she entered the room, she glanced around and noticed that Blessing’s bag which was formerly hung on the wall had disappeared alongside some other things.
“This girl has left again,” she said as she un-bu-ttoned her shi-t, she was too tired to undress when she got home initially, coupled with Blessing’s pres£nce. She sank back into be-d almost immediately and while deliberating on what to eat, her mind drifted back to Blessing.
“Blessing and her drama, I just hope she won’t get into any more trouble,” she said with a sigh as she closed her eyes yet again.
To be continued
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