MY JOURNEY IN LIFE.
EPISODE 30
That’s all I spent the day doing. I was thinking about how to detach strings with Cynthia without hurting her feelings and breaking her heart. The kind of affection she had for me was too much that it frightened me. Was it even possible to leave her without creating enmity between us? As far as she was concerned, she had found herself the Nigerian man of her dreams. And no matter what ill displa-ys of character I put up, she won’t consider them flaws. She had settled in her heart that heaven s£nt me to her to make her life complete. She over rated me, and that was a major problem which required the council of Ahithophel to deal with. In case you don’t know about Ahithophel, he was King David’s adviser whose council King David likened to THE WORD OF GOD. There c@m£ a time when Ahithophel joined in the coup to overthrow Kind David and crown his son Absalom as King of Israel that David broke down and prayed to God saying; OH LORD, TURN THE COUNCIL OF AHITHOPHEL INTO FOOLISHNESS. God’s answer to King David’s prayer was what saved the King from being a victim of such council. Now that was the kind of council I nee-ded to handle Cynthia’s case. Too bad Ahithophel is long dead and gone, so I had to do what I’ve always done, which was consulting the brightest p@rt of my br@in for possible ways out. Perhaps I was the Ahithophel I nee-ded.
I freshened up for that day by 7pm. I had been on be-d since morning thinking of one person; Cynthia. After freshening up I went down to the bar of the h0tel to cool off a little. All work without pla-y, they say, makes Jack a dull boy. I considered those thoughts that pla-yed in my mind as work which I nee-ded to rest from by relaxing in a bar where various activities would serve as a distraction from it for the time being. It was definitely coming back afterwards. But the bar proved not to be the best place to cool off, as what was served there was a little more than I had expected. I had Cynthia and Ogechi to deal with, and didn’t nee-d another to add to them. So I quic-kly finished up my drink and returned to my room and thoughts. That was that for that day and before I knew it, it was morning. I brou-ght out my new cell phone and called Cynthia.
“Hello” Cynthia greeted.
“Hi Cynthia”
“Hi, who’s on the line plea-se?”
“You mean you’ve forgotten the sound of my voice alre-ady?” I said with a cold voice
“JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ!” Cynthia screamed. “Oh my goodness you got me worried. Where have you been? And why did it take you this long to call? And what the hell happened to your phone?”
“I’m sorry Cynthia. I lost my phone in a cinema where I went to entertain myself a little. You know how we do it right?”
“Yeahhh I do. But you should be more careful when out in such places. You got me worried sick that I almost cried my eyes out and blamed myself for letting you go out alone. That will never happen again”
“What? I’m a kid now huh? And why did you worry that much that you almost cried your eyes out? Because you didn’t get a call from me?
“Of course not. It all started when I called you and heard your phone ring from the pocket of a strange guy who took to his hills the moment he saw that he was discovered to be in possession of a cell phone that wasn’t his.”
“Wait a minute, you mean my cell phone found its way to Regina in just a matter of hours after I lost it? And in possession of a guy just close by you that you could even hear the phone ring from his pocket when you called? Are you sure you know what you are talking about?”
“Yes I am. I know what I’m talking about like the Pastor knows his word. He had you cell phone with him and absconded before I could confront him.” Cynthia affirmed.
“If what you’re saying is true, then someone is trying to pl@ysome prank on us. You may have to leave Regina for a while to avoid danger.” I said as though ignorant of what she’s saying.
“It didn’t happen in Regina.” She replied.
“Really?” Where did it happen?”
“Oklahoma”
“What?”
I exclaimed over exaggeratedly on hearing that. If Cynthia’s mind was not beclouded by L-O-V-E, she would have picked a thing or two from my exclamation that depicted more of an act than a reality. But she fell for it as usual and began telling me about her trip to, and encounter in Oklahoma. She told me why she went there, and also of her new acquaintance, Ogechi. Then she said she had good news for me but won’t break it to me on phone. I knew what she wanted to tell me; that same good news that almost brou-ght about a scandal at Ogechi’s p@rty. Nevertheless, I pretended not to know and promised to be home that same day. The kind of joy she expressed when I told her I was coming home made it seem like I had been away for years, and I wondered what she would do if she was Ogechi who had been away for years indeed. Our talk c@m£ to an end and she gave me a k!sson the phone. It was really going to be difficult ending things with Cynthia. Did I say difficult? IMPOSSIBLE!
I was in Regina before 6pm and found Cynthia alre-ady in the airport waiting to receive me as though I was a first timer at Regina. Smiles, smiles, and smiles took over her beautiful glowing face. I could see the joy in her heart finding expression throu-gh her smiles and actions. Indeed, if Ogechi had not found me in the VIP that night, I would have tied the nuts with Cynthia, not minding if she was five years older than me in age. After all, I never felt like I was with an older person during all my stay with her. Instead, she made me feel like a King whom she was working ha-rd to deserve, despite the fact that she literally catered for my nee-ds and expo-sed me to people that mattered. Breaking up with her was no way to repay her kind gesture. But my meeting with Ogechi and our little r0m@nç£session wasn’t something I only wanted to make a memory of. Our bond was strong, and if we ended up with different p@rtners, Adûlt€rywould be the sin that would d–n our souls. I could never resist her, neither could she resist me. Clearly, Cynthia had to know about Ogechi, and I was going to tell her on our arrival at home.
While we were still on our way home, she began singing about the good news she had for me. She told me to guess, and I guessed the wrong things on purpose. For whatever reason, I believed that if I kept guessing the wrong things I would get her to forget about the subject and get to something else. That didn’t happen, as we kept pla-ying the guess game until we got home. As soon as we got to the sitting room Cynthia sat me down and said; take a de-ep breath, which I did, and then she said; let it out, which I also did, after which she began her story.
I got a call from a guy I knew when I got to Regina newly. He was into music, but the music thing didn’t favor him, so he resorted to managing singers, and that fetched him quite a lot of money. He talked about hiring some models for a music video he wants to shoot for one of the singers he’s managing, and that made me embark on a trip to Oklahoma which is where he and the singer in question are based. We met and talked business, but then it happened to be that the said singer is Nigerian by name Ogechi, my fellow Igbo girl. Can you imagine that? She has been abroad for years now doing music and I didn’t even get to know. Well, I don’t blame myself for that since I’m not much of a music person. But the good news is that I talked to her about you and she’s willing to do a song with yoooouuuuuu. Isn’t that great!? We had a fair bargain on that. What’s left is for you to get re-ady to go over to Regina, this time not to try and recover from slee-ping sickness that never existed but to get famous! Your time has come darling. There’s no st©pping you now.
I’m sure by now you know how difficult the whole thing is going to be for Jesusboy. Yes you do. So what now? Well, I couldn’t break the news to Cynthia again the way I wanted to. I had to think of another way of breaking the news to her that won’t drive her nuts. Does such a way even exist? The next thing Cynthia wanted to do was to celebr@te her so called good news by ma-king love to me. D–n! Wahala don dey! Why would I do that to her when I was planning on leaving her for Ogechi? I had done a lot alre-ady by concealing some facts from her which had become a thing of concern to me, and was I going to add to that by ma-king love to her before leaving? That would be a very wicked thing to do. But how do I get her to un-derstand? And I dare not resist her this time, for that would spell out loud large question marks. As she was unto me with k!sses and cuddles I paused her in-between them and said;
“Cynthia, I nee-d to talk to you about something.”
“Oh’ dearie, whatever it is can wait for later. I’m not in the mood to listen to anything now”
“It’s very important. You have to hear me out”
“oooOOh’ what’s the problem again? Why are you like this? I’ve told you, I don’t want to talk. All I want to do is to ease up my tension. I’m sure you nee-d that too.”
“No I don’t” I replied gently. “I really nee-d to tell you something”
“Well I’m not re-ady to listen to anything now” she retorted. “What’s up with you J?” Why do you get like this whenever I give myself to you?” Do you have a problem or something? C’mon J, if you do, you can talk to me about it. We’ll find a solution together. I’m sick of always trying to get you to do something it seems you don’t want to do. Or don’t you want to do it for real? Are you g@y?”
“D–n it Cynthia!” I retorted. All I want to do is talk! If you don’t want to, fine! Just don’t call me names.”
“It didn’t call you g@y to get at you J! But from the way things have gone between you and I all these while, I couldn’t help but think you are. If you really aren’t g@y, then prove it!”
“Don’t push me Cynthia. You’re not going to like this.”
“Try me.” She challenged.
She left in anger after saying that, expecting that I was going to want to prove myself not to be g@y by coming after her to scre-w her. I went to my room instead and freshened up. Cynthia’s maid c@m£ to my room and called me to come down for dinner. Cynthia was there eating alre-ady. I joined her but we said nothing to each other until we finished our meal. She stood up and went to watch TV in the sitting room while I went back to my room. It appeared to the maids as though we were holding grudges against each other, something that had never happened before. By that time I had three months left to be done with My Masters’ degree program. I went up to my room afterwards and called Ogechi. Her manager picked up again but this time I asked him to let me speak with Ogechi. Still, he refused. I had to lie to him that it was something about the models Ogechi nee-ded for her video before he connected me to her. Even at that, I had to hang on for thirteen minutes before talking to Ogechi. Hmmm.
Ogechi finally c@m£ on the line and we got talking. I made her un-derstand how displea-sed I get whenever that manager of hers tells me I can’t speak with her. I told her to make him know who I was in order for him not to prevent me from taking to her whenever I call. She just laughed and said okay to that. “How about Cynthia?” she asked. “Have you told her yet?” I explained what happened to her. She didn’t have to instigate me to act fast and get done with it quic-kly. Of course she knew she had my heart, so she didn’t have to contend with it anyone for it. We st©pped talking Cynthia and began talking us. We confidently said all we used to be afraid to say to each other before. We soon got fed up with audio call and switched to Skype; that was her idea not mine.
She went into her room, shut the door, and we started talking. Our discussion was so enjoyable that I laughed out loud to her jokes. We were having such a good time; a kind we hadn’t had in years. Nothing in the world was going to come between us again. As soon as I was throu-gh with my program I was getting back with my Ogechi full time. Before then I must have found a way to deal with Cynthia; so I thought. I and Ogechi had been Skyping for nearly one hour and it felt like it was just ten minutes. Someone knocked on her door to inform her that she had a guest. She told the mess£nger she was coming and the mess£nger left. “This is where we end it for today” I said. But she objected, telling me she hadn’t had enough yet. “What about your visitor” I asked. I’m going to dismiss whoever it is soon enough and come back to you. There’s a lot to be talked about. There’s a lot to be watched too…..,. Don’t go anywhere. Stay on the line until I return. “Yes Ma” I replied. She grinned, gave me buzz and left. I was just smiling like those guys on the cabin biscuit packet after she left to attend to her visitor. Nawa o.
I was there waiting for her return so that we could continue our chat but she spent a lot of time out there. The Skype call was still running. Thank God it wasn’t those days when I had to subscribe to MTN’s 200MB for N1,000. I definitely would have ended the call before my MB was exhausted over nothing. Thanks to the unlimited internet access in Cynthia’s house. I could afford to Skype for three days and three nights without having any fear of MB being exhausted. But when I waited fifteen minutes without Ogechi’s return, I decided to leave my re-ading table where I usually kept my l@pt©p and l@yon the be-d to relax a little. I didn’t know when I dozed off. What woke me up was the loudest scream I had ever heard in my life. Even a dead man could be brou-ght back to life by such a scream. The scream brou-ght me back from dream land to the real world, and I saw that it was Cynthia who screamed with her both hands on her head and her eyes wi-de open in amazement. “Why was she screaming?” I noticed she had her eyes fixed on my l@pt©p computer and I turned to see what freaked her out. Hell no! It was Ogechi on the other end. She was slee-ping too. Obviously she had come back to continue the call only to see that I was slee-ping. Instead of hanging up the call, she left it running and positioned the device she Skyped with such that she could be seen lying on her be-d. She had rolled and rolled while slee-ping that her nightie gave way to her killer b©dy. That was what freaked Cynthia out.
“Cynthia” I called out with a shaky voice.
MY JOURNEY IN LIFE.
EPISODE 31
Cynthia stood still like a dead tree with her hands on her head as though she was surrendering to the cops, and her eyes wi-de open in utter amazement. She studied the image on my l@pt©p very well to be sure if it was really a live image or a wall paper. Her doubt was cleared when she saw a girl breathing in and out noticeably. She was shocked! She looked at me as though trying to figure out if it was really me or someone else, for she hadn’t expected me to be of such behavior, neither had she observed or noticed anything pointing to the fact that I was capable of doing what she thought I was doing. I, on the other hand had alre-ady wore the guilty look on my face, and that confirmed her suspicion, though her suspicion was wrong. She turned to me and screamed;
“Seriously?! You’re flir-ting with a pr©st!tût£on the internet!? Jesusboy is this what you do!? Wait a minute, is this really happening? Are you really flir-ting with a pr©st!tût£on the internet? All these while I thought of you to be the most noble and respectable man I’ve ever seen in my life and have held you in high regard, only to discover otherwise today? Answer me you b—–d! So you prefer a pr©st!tût£on the internet to me!? Oh MY GOSH! How pathetic! You are a b—–d! You b—–d! You coward! Son of a biitch! You are a per-vert! Bloody a-s-whole! I have had it up to my n£¢k this time. I can take anything from you but not this unimaginable cra-p” Cynthia said, pointing at my l@pt©p. “How did you even fool me into believing you’re more than the dung you really are?”” I wish the earth would just open up and swallow this corpse you call a b©dy.” “Why won’t God just withdraw his breath from you and d–n you dark soul? You devil’s incarnate!”
Cynthia screamed various unwholesome names at me, accusing me of flir-ting with a pr©st!tût£on the internet. Apparently, she didn’t recognize the Image on the other end or perhaps was too outraged to take a careful look. She was unto me with sl@ps, hits and punches. She threw whatever she found on me; pillow, hanger, creams and anything she la-id hands on. That wasn’t enough. She held onto the collar of my pajamas in tears and bitterness. If there was a gun close by, she would have sh0t me to death. As she jumped on me, I fell on the be-d with her on t©p of me, punching and attacking me by all means possible. The kind of strength she exhibited that night baffled me. I never knew she was that strong. She didn’t even look that strong. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t that strong. But I guess the beast in her was awoken by the night’s incident.
I didn’t do much to defend myself because I wanted her to displ@yall her anger on me until she cooled off. But instead of her rage diminishing, it was increasing by every pas-sing moment. She even pressed my head against the be-d with a pillow as though she wanted to kill me. That was when I knew she was out of control and pushed her off me. I got up from the be-d and she continued her attack on me. Her maids heard the sound of falling items in my room and rushed upstairs to see what was really happening. Cynthia’s eyes were blood cold. She looked like a serial killer who was bent on taking my life away in the cruelest way ever. She never st©pped coming after me to hurt me. Her maids intervened by holding fast to her to prevent her from continuing with the havoc. I voiced out sorry words as they held onto her but it wasn’t getting into her head. She had gone GAGA, and the only thing that could calm her down was perhaps my death.
Eventually her anger subsided, and she began to pay attention to my plea. I begged Cynthia with tears in my eyes to forgive all I had caused her. I told her I didn’t know it was going to get to that.
“It is not in my nature to hurt people my dear Cynthia” I said. “If I had known the future will pl@yout this way, I would have prevented the emotions that arou-sedlove between us. If there is any wonderful woman in this whole world, that is you Cynthia. You are the epitome of beauty that princesses envy. Kings will gladly share their kingdoms with you without fear of anything. And the young girls’ de-sire is to be like none other but you. I was also of the school of thoughts that angels only dwell in heaven with God and never come down to earth except on as-signment, but changed those believes when I got to know you. Even at that, calling you an angel would be an un-derstatement because angels are mess£ngers. You, my dear Cynthia, are more than a mess£nger. You are a queen in many kingdoms, and it will be to the honor of any man who is able to secure himself a place in your heart. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would, and undo all the wrongs I’ve done to you. Breaking your heart is one thing I would never do, even with a gun pointed to my head. But I’m afraid the situation on ground outweighs the dre-ad of gun point.
I said a whole lot of stuff that was way beyond mere apology for flir-ting with a girl on the internet, and she got confused. As I kept confessing nonst©p, Cynthia screamed at me to St©p! It was obvious to her that there was more to my words than mere apologies, and she wanted to be sure what it was. So she screamed “St©p!” and that finally woke Ogechi up on the other end since the call was still on while all these were happening. During my little wrestle with Cynthia, things had scattered in the room and we ended up at the edge of the room where Cynthia’s maids held her as I apologized. When Ogechi heard Cynthia’s scream and woke up, she looked to her device and saw that the call was still on. She could hear voices but couldn’t see anyone, as our location in the room was away from the l@pt©p’s cam. Out of curiosity she called out to me while I was still trying to explain things to Cynthia. Cynthia had thought all the while that she was a prostitute. Ogechi’s voice halted our conversation. Everyone paused and turned to the l@pt©p to see who was calling on me. Ogechi had called my name three times without any response from me, so she decided to switch from calling me by my default name to a name that might perhaps win her a response from me.
By this time Cynthia had ordered her maids to let go off her. She walked slowly confusingly towards the computer, probably to unleash the same hell on the supposed prostitute. Just then Ogechi’s voice echoed from the other end saying; “ARE YOU THERE Swe-tIEE?” Cynthia increa-sed her pace towards the computer on hearing that to do whatever she had in mind to do only to discover that the girl she saw wasn’t a pr©st!tût£after all; she was Ogechi.
There was a great shock on both ends. Cynthia couldn’t believe her eyes, and Ogechi could say a word. Immediately, tears began flowing freely from Cynthia’s eyes. She didn’t un-derstand what was really happening. As far as she knew, I was the guy who had been living with her for over two years now, and Ogechi was the girl she met ba-rely two nights ago at Oklahoma. How come we were now calling each other and she was even referring to me as “swe-tiee?” In a voice as that of a child pleading to be spared from stro-kes of cane, Cynthia said to me, “J, what’s going on? I beg you to tell me what’s going on plea-se.” She drew near to me, held me by the hand tenderly and begged me to tell her what was going on. I could re-ad from the tone of her voice and the countenance on her face that she wouldn’t mind whatever it was, as long as all it required was her forgiveness and the continuation of our relationsh!p. Yes, it indeed required her forgiveness, but not our relationsh!panymore.
There and then, I broke the whole news to Cynthia with tears in my eyes. Even Ogechi was also shedding tears. When Cynthia heard that I and Ogechi were in a relationsh!p, she retreated from holding me. She stared at me in utter amazement, then turned and looked at Ogechi from the computer. She repeated that a couple of times, and then she asked;
“FOR HOW LONG?”
“Over five years now” I replied.
On hearing that, Cynthia lost stamina and fell on the floor. She fainted. Hell no! Ogechi screamed from the other end and wished she could jump in from the l@pt©p to help out, but that was impossible. Hurry! Let’s take her to the hospital, I said to her maids. Ogechi wept profusely from the other end and I quic-kly bade her goodbye and proceeded to take Cynthia to a hospital. There was so much tension in the air. Cynthia’s maids couldn’t help but weep as I drove us to the hospital. At a point, the maid who carried Cynthia at the back seat of the car started screaming; “She’s not breathing anymore! plea-se drive fas-ter, she’s st©pped breathing.” I nearly ran over another car when I heard her say that. I quic-kly rebuked her, telling her not to make use of such negative words. “But she’s not breathing anymore” the maid kept saying.
We finally got to the hospital and were attended to immediately. Cynthia was taken in to be checked on while I and her maids waited at the reception. Those girls were soa-ked in their own tears. I tried to calm them down, as-suring them that it was nothing serious. They shook their heads and sat still. But I was very afraid, not because Cynthia fainted, but because of what one of the maids said about her not breathing again. She seemed to very sure of what she was saying. And I didn’t have the time to confirm that before Cynthia was taken inside because of the quic-k response of the nurses who c@m£ to get her on noticing it was a case of emergency. I was really bothered about what that maid said and had to fight that thought off my mind.
Several minutes later, the doctor who attended to her c@m£ out in search of those who brou-ght her. The maids jumped up immediately from their seats as soon as they saw the doctor. I also went after them to meet the doctor.
“Are you the ones who brou-ght in that young lady?” The doctor asked, pointing to the direction Cynthia was taken to.
“Yes,” the maids replied anxiously.
“Are you her sisters or something? “The doctor asked again.
“No, we are her maids.”
“What about you Mister? Are you her fiancé?”
“I’m a friend” I replied. “Is everything alright doctor?” I asked.
The doctor stared at me without saying a word for some moments, so I asked him again;
“Doc, is everything alright?”
The doctor moved towards me again with an apparent sad look on his face as he put his hand on my shoulder and said;
“Call upon all your strength, for what I’m about to say to you will hit you ha-rd .”
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 32