? MMESOMA’S
DILEMMA ?
Chapter 11
“Our parents are calling us, I think they sat together during ma-ss”, Ezinne informed Dara and I and we noticed that Dozie, who was playing with Dubem, was already with our parents. When we got to them, my mom was introducing the Arsenal to Dara’s parents, although of course she used their real names and made it seem that we wanted them to visit, though I could tell that Mrs. Shittu was not buying the act and she would definitely get the full gist later.
“I need to head off for women’s meeting and your father has a Harvest Committee meeting, I am taking Dubem, grandma and your aunts with me, so how do you four want to spend your time?”, my mother asked.
“We will chill, just call us when you are ready”, Dozie said.
“Or we would come home ourselves, you all can go home without us, we just might visit some friends too and we might take time”, Dara said immediately.
I tried ha-rd not to give her a funny look . Whatever her plan for today was, we were now a part of it and we could not ask any questions because the parents were still here. This was not the first time she would be dragging us all into one of her plans. One time after church she wanted to hang with one fine boy and she told our parents that we would find our way home.
. God punished us sha because the rain that fell ehn, there were no vehicles and we ended up trekking home, I wore heels that day and till date I like to know what’s up before going off with her.
“Okay then, take”, my mom said and handed me some money. I counted 5000 naira and smiled.
Mummy though, does she think we were going on a tour round the city? Sha, what is my own, there was at least some good in Dara’s stunt this time – we got money.
“Sha come home early o”, Dara’s mom said and they began to go where their meetings would be holding.
We went in the opposite direction and ensured they could not hear us before we began to attack her with our questions.
“We were not supposed to leave after or before them but at the same time with them, why did you tell them that we would go home ourselves?” Ezinne asked.
“I am sha not going to the market with you this time o, last time, I thought my feet would stop functioning and my nose does not like the smell of those clothes”, Dozie said, with such emphasis I burst into laughter as I remembered when she had dragged us after church to Lagos market because she wanted to buy some Bend Down Select clothes and restyle them. Yes, our Dara Shittu is a fashion designer and wonderful seamstress and she is always buying BDS clothes and restyling them and believe me, she makes them look so good, people really patronize her. I am her model, just in case you were wondering what my own talent is.
“You are sha dramatic o, you are making it sound like after I redesign and laundry the clothes you won’t still wear them”, she said as she eyed him.
“Ehen na that is after, everyone likes the end product, no one just wants to be part of the process”, he grumbled in response. She hissed and began to speak but we were interrupted by a squeaky high-pitched voice.
“Hey guys, what’s up? It has been forever! See, I was thinking we could hang out together while we wait for our parents and catch up. Dara how is your brother? Meso, I heard you and your boyfriend, Tobe are no longer an item, you guys were so cute you know and is it true that you guys had such a nasty breakup?”
Blood of Jesus! Well, world people, I present to you Mandy, one of those people you just want to beat up in the first 3 minutes of listening to her talk because she has such an annoying squeaky voice, an unnecessarily sunny smile, an amebo nature, believes everyone absolutely loves her, talks really fast all the time and switches from topic to topic at such a ridiculous pace that you just have no choice but to get angry.
I have heard of people telling her just what she wanted to hear because she simply talked till she drove them crazy. Yes, she is that bad.
And you want to know what makes her worse?
She has always had a huge crush on Lanre and has always wanted to steal my best friend from me, the audacity and the foolishness. So, yes, I really dislike (because hate is such a strong word) Mandy.
“Awwwn, sorry, we would have really loved to chill and play catch up with you but we are about to go somewhere else and we don’t want any extra company”, I said before anyone else would speak. She stared at me, her smile disappearing for like 3 heartbeats.
“Okay, I would have really loved to chill with you guys, but I guess there is always next time, Dara you still have my number, yeah?”
Dara nodded.
“Okay, we would talk later”, she said and hurried off to frustrate someone else.
“Meso, that was bitc-hy sha but it worked. Well, there is one person who can help us find out stuff about Afam that we can use to end this engagement”, she said in a whisper.
“Oh, okay. But who, he is a private person you know”, I said and the others nodded.
“Sweetie, it is the 21st century, nothing is private anymore”, she replied with a knowing sm-irk.
Holy hell
****
“Dara, what are you talking about? Did you go and hire a Private Detective?” Ezinne asked.
Good to know I am not the only one worried about Dara’s actions.
“See ehn, I know what you guys are thinking and I swear I am not crazy, this guy is not a private detective sha. He is one of the best sources for gist, he knows everyone’s gist, in fact I am sure that he already knows of your engagement drama sef, he is that good!” she explained.
“Basically a male Linda Ikeji without the blog”, Dozie said, raising a brow and folding his arms.
We all eyed her skeptically, Dara had a large number of friends, her bubbly personality, her job as a designer who managed to sew things just about everybody else liked and being Lanre Shittu’s only baby sister were enough to get her all the popularity . My own worry was not that this major gist knower was a guy, but the fact that he might be a terrible person to bring my siblings around. So I pulled her aside.
“This friend, is he one-kind?” I asked her in a whisper.
“Meso, calm down, he doesn’t do drugs or get drunk, at least not in public, he doesn’t even have weapons on him. His own is just to be getting people’s gist and occasionally breaking hearts
. I met him throu-ghLanre. Plus we are meeting at Domino’s sef, it is safe”, she said with a smile un-derstanding my worry.
We walked back to them and they looked at us expectantly.
“We are going with Dara to meet this mystery guy at Dominos”, I explained and Ezinne grinned.
“Pizza”, she whispered, looking crazy and excited.
. She loved pizza as if it was her life source.
“Yeah, we would be getting ice cream too and I heard that there might be free WiFi sef”, I added and Dozie was sold to the idea of meeting this Dara’s friend. The way he loved free WiFi was honestly funny and confusing.
“So where is the Domino’s?” I asked as we exited the church premises throu-ghthe gate that was far from wherever our parents would see us.
“In the next estate, he lives there and it is close to church just in case we have to hurry back”, she said, I knew she had planned this well. We began to walk to the estate’s main entrance since shuttles were nowhere to be found and Dara did not want to wait for one.
“This person better have mad information o, if not you will just pay me with food and new clothes for making me trek”, Ezinne said and we all laughed.
“Don’t worry joor I am so sure he does”, Dara insisted.
Her confidence in this guy though.
“See shuttle o, if you people will not enter, I will”, Dozie said and flagged down the small bus which only had 2 available seats. I ended up lapping Ezinne, who is not as light as she looks while Dara lapped Dozie because she says he is still a small boy and cannot carry her. The ride was pretty quiet until a pa-ssenger gave the conductor ₦500 for a ₦50 ride and wahala started.
Oga conductor said he did not have ₦50 so he would give the woman only ₦400 and she wanted to know whether someone from his village is making him unfortunate. It was really funny and I wanted to see whether the conductor would beat her as he kept threatening that he would or if she would beat him because she said she beats scrawny foolish agberos like him every day. But no o, a good Nigerian just had to intervene, the man paid her fare and told the conductor to give the woman back her money, he even apologized to both the conductor and the woman sef.
As if we sent him work.
We reached the estate gate and paid the conductor ₦100 because we did not want to experiment whether or not he could beat us. We boarded another bus, which thankfully had 4 empty seats to the next estate.
“Dara, what is his name? I just realized we are going to meet this guy and we don’t know his name”, Ezinne said and we all looked at Dara expectantly.
“Chill na, person no fit surprise una again?” she asked with a sm-irk.
“Aunty Daramola, if you are carrying us to for sacrifice just know that we serve a working God o and it will not work”, Dozie whispered, though all 4 of us heard him and we laughed.
“Foolish boy”, Dara said as she laughed.
We reached the estate soon enough, alighted from the bus and walked to the Domino’s which was basically the first building in the estate. As far as I am concerned the owners just want people to be spending their money anyhow. When you will just be buying pizza when you are going out and when you are coming in, how won’t you money finish?
We went in and followed Dara who went directly to a corner table at, a man was already seated there, and he did not seem like the gossiping type to me o. instead he reminded me of the guys who ran in Afam and Lanre’s circles, the Alpha male kinda guys.
I looked at Dara but she was smiling at him, I hope this girl was not about to make a mistake.
“Hey Yomi, these are the ones who need Afam’s gist”, she introduced as we all sat down.
“Well, Dara tells me you need something on Afam Chibueze that can end your engagement, well, get ready, the information I have would raise hell”, he said with a sm-irk.
Okay, this would be amazing.
Tbc ..