MY JOURNEY IN LIFE.
EPISODE 23
Yes he did it. He walked close to me with a smile of accomplishment, held my both hands and got to his knees. Oh my gosh! I knew exactly what he was going to do, but what was I supposed to do to st©p hi?. I just stood still like a stature and watched him as he went on his knees and popped the big question; WILL YOU MARRY ME? There was no st©pping him. I didn’t have to think on whether or not I wanted to marry him, even though seeing a guy on his knees for me had a way of softening my whole being in every way possible. But then my answer to CK’s proposal was a big NO. Ck tried to convince me to change my mind, but that choice of mine wasn’t made amidst confusion. I wasn’t indecisive at all. And I didn’t try to get him to un-derstand the reason for my choice because he wasn’t going give thoughts to it anyway. That night ended with me demanding that he opened the door for me to go to my room and retire for the day. He did and I got to my room. At that point, I knew I had to get back together with Prince Charming ASAP.
We returned the next day. It happened to be that Ck had informed everyone about his intention to propose to me at the Bahamas. So the news of my turning down his proposal couldn’t help but itch the ears of all who had expected to hear what would have seemed good news to them. Because of that, their treatment towards me changed. They all felt disappointed at me and considered me heartless for turning down a marriage proposal from the very guy who helped bring me to where I was. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I decided to go back to Nigeria to be with my Prince. I didn’t mind what was at stake. I had always wanted a perfect life, and to the best of my knowledge, that was only obtainable with my Prince.
After my contract with the label expired, I refused to renew it because of my plans of going back to Nigeria. Everyone then saw me as bewitched. They said they thought the whole witch craft thing said about Africa was a myth until my actions proved otherwise to them. They all thought I was un-der a spell. Only I knew where I c@m£ from and where I was going. They didn’t know, so I didn’t blame them for anything they said about me. I took the trip to Nigeria only to coincidentally meet my Prince at the airport on his way to America. Gosh!! I couldn’t believe it!
He said he had everything in place to come over and continue his studies in America. I found myself in a state of dilemma as I didn’t know whether to st©p him from going for his studies which was very important, or allowing him to leave. But then, it was definitely because him I c@m£ back. How could I let him go just like that and subject myself to loneliness again? If that happened and my folks abroad got to know about it, it wouldn’t be good for me. I earnestly tried to persuade him to stay, but for some really good reasons, he had to leave. Even though I knew the impact staying back would have had on him, I still wanted him to stay back. I begged him and cried my eyes out but to no avail. He definitely would have stayed back anyway. In fact, he had changed him mind alre-ady. My prince charming couldn’t resist me that much. He can even take a bullet for me, but I wouldn’t let him do that. Just when he changed his mind to stay, the guy he was to travel with rushed to where we were and screamed at him for delaying and nearly missing his flight. He didn’t pay attention to him until the guy made a striking statement; DO YOU WANT TO DISAPPOINT MY COUSIN? It was then my Prince retreated himself from the warms of my hvg and bade me goodbye as he followed the guy. How I wish he was there alone.
Even at that, he st©pped at several intervals as though he had changed his mind again. I really prayed he did. The only problem there was that guy he was to travel together with. He was the only f0rç£ contending with the will of my Prince. Finally, they both went on board the flight with the guy holding onto my Prince’s hand and pu-lling him in. The flight to America took off and my tears flooded the earth like the waters did in the time of Noah. If not that God had promised not to destroy the earth again with water, my tears would have served that purpose that day.
I went home afterwards all sad and disappointed. It felt like my world had crumbled. I couldn’t go to the US anymore because they might mock me and say that the guy I c@m£ back for had dumped me. Coupled with the fact that the press were pres£nt on my arrival at the airport and witnessed all that happened, it didn’t take them 48 hours to do¢v-ment the story on the papers. The rumor so spre-ad that the superstar Oge got dumped by a common man at the Abuja International Airport. I was so afraid the story would find its way to my folks in America, especially Ck. But after three months without a call of mockery from any of them, I concluded that the rumor was limited to Nigeria. I was wrong.
Prince Charming called me afterwards, probably when he arrived at his destination. I was angry and bitter that I could have voiced out some disgusting words if I had picked up his call. He tried and tried but I didn’t pick up. He had always known me to be a kind, sweet, gentle, loving, caring, and tender being. I loved that impression he had of me. In fact, I am indeed all that to him, even if not to anyone else and I didn’t want that to change. But it indeed would if I had picked up his calls that day because of all the things that were running in my mind. My thoughts were like; THERE IS SOMETHING HE VALUES MORE THAN YOU AFTER ALL, PROBABLY SOMEONE. CK IS GONNA LAUGH HIS HEART OUT WHEN HE FINDS OUT. YOUR PRINCE IS HEARTLESS! HOW COULD HE FORSAKE YOU LIKE THAT, NOT EVEN CARING AT ALL THAT YOU c@m£ BACK FOR HIM. Those thoughts and the likes flooded my mind and I hated my Prince temporarily. Of course I couldn’t hate him forever.
Like the bible says; after the rain comes the sun, and sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, so was it with me. Waking up the next morning in my h0tel room, my mind, spirit and soul was so refreshed. It seemed like nothing happened at all. I picked up my phone and put a call across to my Prince but got a prompt to leave a voice message. I didn’t. I wanted to talk with him for real. As I made my way for Enugu, it seemed like the whole of Nigeria had known I was back home. The crowd that waited to see me at the h0tel in Abuja was mind b!owing. Even the h0tel manager c@m£ to me and urged me to stay a little longer, as my pres£nce there attra-cted more customers. He was taking advantage of my pres£nce to make money. I however cons£nted and agreed to stay a day longer and attend to the people and the press. It was indeed a lovely feeling and it made me forget all my worries. But then, the press started talking about the airport scene, how I got dumped by my Prince and suddenly, all the anger and bitterness returned. I told them it was personal and that I didn’t want to talk about it, after which I spent just a little time with them and left to my room.
The next day I was at Enugu. It also happened there like it did at Abuja. I had to sign autogra-phs and attend to the press with their questions. The press at Enugu however, did not bring up the Prince Charming dumping me issue like I thought they would. Instead they kept talking about how proud they were to have a star like me hail from Enugu, where most of the press people also hailed from. The next thing I got was calls from the various singers in Nigeria, both famous and upcoming, asking me to feature them in their songs. At that point, I had no manager anymore and there was no one to refer them to. Nevertheless, I told them to talk to my manager.
My manager over there at the US was getting numerous calls from Nigerian musicians asking to feature me in their songs. He was so plea-sed I still acknowledged him as my manager and continued with the normal arrangements as though he was still my manager. He then called me and we talked about a whole lot of things including my Prince’s issue. Amazingly, that was of no interest to him anymore as all he saw and could think about was the money he could make from the singers that wanted to feature me in their songs. When he saw that my fame continued all the more in Nigeria, he kept aside our differences and urged the other folks to do same as we were all humans and entitled to our opinion and choices. He didn’t say that because he meant it but because he sought for an occasion to keep ma-king cool money throu-gh me. He later told me that no one over at America still held a grudge against me anymore and that my label was re-ady to renew my contract if I returned to America. I told him I was going to think about and give him a reply.
One day I got a call while in the bathroom having my bath. My Ipad was just there in the bathroom. My face was covered with foam from the soup I used so I couldn’t see who the caller was. I ignored the call with intentions of calling back when I was done bathing but the caller just wouldn’t quit calling back. I got pissed off by such a disturbing call and reached out for my Ipad to turn it off until I was done bathing. As soon as I t©uçhed a bu-tton on the Ipad, it st©pped ringing. I wasn’t sure if had turned it off because my eyes were closed while trying to do so to prevent soup from entering into my eyes. But after waiting two munities without hearing it ring again, I was sure I had turned it off. I continued bathing until about two minutes later, when I suddenly heard someone’s voice say’ Hiiiii. Where in the world did that come from? I asked myself. I stilled my movement and listened carefully to be sure I actually heard something. When I didn’t, I thought of suspending my bath temporarily to check if there was someone around but there was no nee-d for that because no one shared the house with me. So I continued with my bath. But again, I heard that same voice say; Hiii in like manner as the former. At that point I was frightened. Was there a ghost in here? I washed off the soup on my face immediately and checked around if I was going to see anything but saw nothing. It wasn’t until my eyes strayed to my Ipad that I found I hadn’t turned it off but picked up the call that c@m£ in when I tried to turn it off. I was shocked! So this call had been on all the while??? Gosh! I couldn’t believe that just happened. Guess who called; Ck of course. Oh my gosh! It was Ck on the line. What in the world just happened? It wasn’t just an ordinary call. It was a Skype call. JEEZ!!!!!!!
Tbc