? MMESOMA’S
DILEMMA ?
Chapter 14
“Hello”, he said when he picked.
I do not want to do this but it has to be done. Lord Jesus, where is my voice na?
“Hey Afam, it’s Mmesoma and I am calling because I have something really important to tell you”, I began; my voice was just too squeaky.
God, I sound so damn cliché.
“Oh Meso, it’s only you”, he sounded so bored.
Who were you expecting, the Queen of England?
I wanted to respond but apparently, he was not done talking.
“Interesting that you have my number, I believe you are calling to tell me that you accept the proposal. I am not surprised that your grandma managed to pressure you into saying yes . Or wait, you did not need to be pressured, you instead realized how so blessed you were to have a respectable person like myself want to marry you?”
Wait, what?! How had we gotten to this point in the conversation?
I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, to tell him to shut up but he was talking fast and not giving me a chance to interrupt him, I could not believe that one man could possibly sound so smug and condescending.
“That foolish baby brother of mine really thinks he knows women so well, he actually presumed he stood a chance against me, but would you look out how interesting everything has turned out? Anyways, why don’t you have your mom call mine so they can finalize the marriage proceedings”, he said.
Wawuuu! World people see me see wahala o! The fool I am trying to pity is feeling like a boss. Well, someone is going to have to teach him a lesson.
All feelings of pity for him flew out of the window as my inner bitc-h woke up.
“Please shut up you stupid moron! Do you even think before you speak?” I asked and I could hear Dara and my siblings gasp.
“Do you really think it would be that easy to convince me to change my mind? I really advise that you lose the stupid notion that I would want to be your wife at any point in time.
. God knows how much I hate your brother but he is a far better husband material than you would ever be. You are simply foolish rude, smug and entirely worthless, apparently only good at generating drama for himself”, I said, he began to speak but I had heard enough from him.
“Oh please shut up! Anyway, I did not call you to trade words with you. I wanted to inform you of new developments. Firstly, your darling Nnenna is pregnant…” I began but he interrupted me.
“Mmesoma, if this is a joke; stop it, it is not funny.
. Nnenna is not pregnant because if she was then I would know. Also, what do you know about her, how do you even know about her, why are you spreading such stories?” he didn’t sound so smug anymore, he manages to sound cool but I could sense his confusion.
He never expected this. Well, now let us make matters worse by adding the Irene factor.
“See, better believe it, she is pregnant and Irene, your ex from hell is set to make your life and Nnenna’s life a living hell using the pregnancy. I just didn’t want you to be blindsided later when I bring my family into this because I would, I need it to end this engagement, I do not want to marry you and have to deal with all your drama. Have a great day”, I said and hung up before he could respond.
“Wow, that was intense, how did he take it?” Dara asked immediately I put the phone down, my siblings looked at me expectantly.
“Well, he is way more annoying than we initially thought so it was easy to pa-ss my message across. The guy was sha in shock o, he never expected this, and he was even asking me how I knew about her. Clearly, this was supposed to be their secret, he forgot that in this Lagos nothing I hidden un-der the sun”, I explained.
“Well, we have done that; it is left for him to figure out what he wants to do next. However, our next plan is to get the parents of Nnenna to learn of this dishonour that has befallen their daughter”, Ezinne said with a sm-irk.
“Well, this is my call to make literally, now where is that my mother’s private line?” she said to no one in particular as she scrolled throu-ghher contact list. I giggled as I watched her, Dara knew what she was doing by calling her mum, if you wanted information to get to the right person without generating too much drama then Mrs Solape Tinuola Shittu would do the job well, she had everyone in her contact list, she knew the right people to break a particular news to and how to tell them that would cause them to tell another. She is everyone’s friend and no one’s enemy, she never had to look for gist, it just always found her.
So if anyone would be able to inform the Duru’s that their baby girl was pregnant (that is if she is not yet told them) then Dara’s mom was the woman for the job.
Right now though she was not picking her calls, but persistence is something that Dara has in abundance because even though she knew her mom would be at a women’s meeting, she still did not stop calling and eventually after leaving 10 missed calls in succession, her persistence paid off and her mom picked. She put the phone on loudspeaker, slightly reduced the volume and we crowded in.
This would be fun.
****
“Daramola, are you okay? Don’t you know I am in a meeting, why all the calls, why can’t you kukuma text what you have to say abi have you gotten yourself and the others into trouble again? This child you won’t kill me, what foolish things have you done again ehn?”
My siblings and I tried not to laugh while listening to Dara’s mom complain about her, she had a point though, every time Dara called relentlessly like this she had gotten into trouble, usually dragging us into it with her. The woman had gotten the two most stubborn children in the world, no winder she did not want to have more children.
“Mummy, all this one you are speaking is English, see ehn drop everything you are doing, the matter at hand is very hot and you just have to hear this o”, Dara said and her mom didn’t say anything at first but the noise around her was reducing so we knew she was going where there are fewer people.
“Oya talk and it had better be worth it”, she said after a while.
“Okay, so you know the Duru’s na, remember that daughter that have that plenty people have never seen but everyone talks about?” Dara asked.
“Yes na, the one they said is a rumour ba?”
“Yes, she is real o and in fact ehn, she is pregnant”, Dara said in a whisper.
Thank God we were at a corner table; anyone could have been listening to us or wondering why we were so huddled together . I looked up occasionally to ensure no one was paying unnecessary attention to us because this Lagos is filled with people that thrive on amebo.
Dara went on to tell her mom how Afam was responsible for Nnenna’s pregnancy then she mentioned the Irene factor and how Yomi had told us everything.
“Ah! I am so sure Sopuru knows nothing about this o, don’t you think she should be made aware that such is being done to her daughter?” Mrs
. Shittu asked and we smiled at each other.
“Yes o, and I was thinking maybe you should tell her, I believe it would end that stupid engagement fas-ter than we can get daddy to wake up when you cook amala”, Dara said and we just had to laugh.
“Okay o, don’t worry, I will not just let her know, I would also ensure they come over, we need to clear this case so you all can start preparing for school, now I want to return back to my meeting, all the interesting things will happen and pa-ss”, she said and hung up.
“I wonder what could be so interesting about those meetings, I have attended several and I nearly died of boredom at them”, Dozie mused.
“Well, you were not paying attention, all the hot gist happens at those meetings. Throw a couple of women who ba-rely tolerate each other into a room for at least an hour and watch the drama go down”, Dara explained with a grin. The girl thrived on drama; she was indeed her mother’s daughter.
“What next?” I asked, looking around.
“Well, I think we should go home and tell grandma of this new development, of course she will not believe us but we have done our part, we won’t tell her we were placing calls sha, just let her know that Afam has a baby mama in a girl called Nnenna, I don’t think we should tell her the surname sef, let us see her reaction when she realizes it’s the Duru’s daughter, who knows we might get lucky and she would have a heart attack”, Ezinne said, grinning mischievously.
“Ah! You are wicked sha, but good point o, let us all get going, they are still at church but in less than a hour all the meetings would end and I actually don’t want to be jumping bus”, Dara responded.
“Let us take Uber then, my mom gave us money na”, I added.
“Ah! No o, let us share the money instead and hitch a free ride with our parents and if you want to avoid the Arsenal you can come in our car, there is plenty of space and Meso, I have gist for you o”, she said as she put her things together. We all did same and prepared to leave the place.
As we left the place to get a bus back to church, my phone began to ring, it was a call from an unknown number.
“Hello”, I said when I picked.
“Hi Mmesoma, It is Nnenna and now that you know of me, let us work together to end this drama”, the caller said and I stopped walking. The others realized something was up and hurried back to where I was standing in the middle of the aisle. Dara guided me to a nearby table.
I was speechless; I had not expected her to be directly involved in this.
“Please say something, Afam gave me your number, he is afraid of what Irene would do and though I would love to ignore her, so am I, she is mentally unstable if you ask me, but that is beside the point. I called to know how exactly you would use my pregnancy to get out of your impending marriage, I have heard of your grandma from him and she does not give up easily, so what is the plan?” she asked.
Finally I found my voice and responded.
“Well, I intended to use your family name; you are not any pregnant girl, you are a Duru”,
“Interesting, so I am a pawn in this grand game”,
“Well, aren’t we all, it is all about perspective”, I said.
“Good one, I look forward to working with you”, she said and hung up.
Okay, what just happened?
Tbc…