??ONCE UPON A GIRL?♀️
??SHE’S JINXED (CURSED)??
(Cursed and Alone)
©GIFT OKORIE✍️
?CHAPTER 2?
I carried her bridal style.
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“plea-se put me down, people are staring” she said as we got to a T junction after walking for what seemed like ages, i put her down there’s a sign post on each side of the paths. The right one says ‘EXIT’ while the path by the left says ‘LANE 2’.
I’ve never been to this side of the estate before. It looks the same, beautiful, big but lonely and very quiet, only few people were walking by and some were probably coming back from jogging, and some kids that were pla-ying hide and seek in their driveway.
“this way” she said and followed the left path which says LANE 2. I followed her like a b©dyguard.
As we were walking, it got lonelier and quieter, although there were clean houses there, but I don’t think anyone lives in any of the houses or probably they all travelled. Which is definitely not possible. So, I concluded that no one lives around here, or perhaps not anymore.
“no one lives here, it’s a lonely place” she said immediately as if she re-ad my thoughts.
“hey, how did you know what I was thinking” I asked in dismay.
“I didn’t, I just guessed from the look on your face” she replied.
I nodded.
As we were walking, I heard her g@sped loudly and I turned to know what the problem is, damn a bird pooped on her head. I tried so ha-rd to hold back a laugh, but I didn’t succeed, I let it all out, she looked like ice cream sundae.
“disrespectful bird” she screamed at the bird that was alre-ady far from us.
“yea, go ahead, laugh at me, I was born to be laughed at anyway”. She said while trying to clean the bird poop. My laughter died immediately she said that, I wasn’t expecting to hear her say that. I felt guilty.
“I’m so sorry” I apologised.
“hey, its ok, you don’t have to apologise, I’m fine” she replied. We went dead silent as we continued walking. Few blocks away she st©pped.
“so, this is me, this is where I live” she said pointing her right f!nger to a house that stood alone as if it was rejected by its family of houses.
I looked at the house, not bad, it looked like an old fashioned breakfast shop that is fast approaching its end, but still it managed to f0rç£ itself to keep standing in its glory like the Buckingham palace, but I know that it will just be a matter of time before it goes crashing like the great Titanic.
As we were walking in the walkway to the door, I saw a beautiful rose garden mixed with tuli-ps, it was so fresh and blooming, the scent of the flowers filled the walkway.
“wow, you are a good gardener” I complemented.
“thanks, glad I can actually be useful with something after being cursed”. She said.
“you are not cursed” I said to her. She swiftly turned, she stared at me, the same look she gave me at the court when I offered to help her.
“what…” I asked her.
“why do you think so” she asked.
“because there is no such thing as a curse, it’s just what people use to cover up their bad luck”
“and what is bad luck in other words” she asked looking straight into my eyes, searching for what I can’t really tell.
“there are no other words for bad luck, it’s just bad luck” we were now facing each other and I can feel her breath on my face. She finally shook her head and turned away from me.
She t©uçhed the rim of her t©p and wanted to pu-ll it up, what the hell, is she trying to s£dûç£me or what.
“hey plea-se put your t©p back on” I screamed at her with my eyes sh0t.
“like I re-moved it in the first place” she said with amusement in her voice. I open my eyes and looked at her.
“then why did you t©uçh it”
“I wanted to bring out my key” she said pointing at a white rope on her w@!st which has a bunch of keys knotted to it.
This girl is crazy, tying key to her w@!st, who does that. She untied the first knot, untied the second knot, the third, the fourth, the fifth, I bec@m£ curious.
“how many knots are they” I asked.
“fifteen”
“what”! what the hell, fifteen knots for what.
“each knot signifies how many times I’ve lost my keys”
“so, you’ve lost your keys 15 times”
“yes, if I lose it today, and I buy another one tomorrow, I’ll increase the knots”
“girl you’ve gone ‘knots’” I said and we laughed at my joke. It felt as if we’ve known each other for a long time, and I was really enjoying her company.
She finally untied the whole knots, brou-ght out the key and slid one into the key whole and turned it twice, the door made a crack sound signifying that it has opened.
She held the door knob and pushed the door inwards with f0rç£ but the door didn’t open, instead she hit her head on it.
“damn bit-chy door” she cried, regaining herself again, she pushed the door, yanked it, shook it vigorously but the door didn’t open.
“no, no plea-se door, not today, I really nee-d to use the bathroom.” She cried.
“let me do it”
“its useless, you can’t open it”
“why not” I asked in surprise.
“because I am CURSED” she almost screamed the cursed path. “ok? whether you believe it or not, I AM CURSED” she screamed out as h0t tears rolled down her cheeks, she slid down to the floor like a dying koala.
I turned to the door, pushed and pushed with all my might, but it didn’t make any attempt to open, I wondered where all my workouts went to, cause as long I’m concerned, this girl and everyone else are just bluffing about her being cursed.
“let it be, it will open in few minutes, that’s how it works when it wants to punish me” she said calmly. I sat down with her, we sat in silence until I remembered that I knew nothing about her, not even her name.
“so, tell me about yourself” I asked.
“I’m a cursed girl” she replied and I couldn’t hold back the laugh that crept to myl-ips, so I let it out.
“funny, I mean your name and other stuff” I explained.
She looked at me for a while.
“why are you even here Dave, why are you helping me” she asked.
“wow, you know my name”
“who doesn’t know you in Beverly hills and even beyond, you are famous” she said dryly.
“well then since you know me, it will only be fair if I know you too”
“you haven’t answered my question” she asked looking at me, and for the first time, I noticed her beauty, her glas-sy brown eyes that could pas-s for a brown diamond fixed perfectly in her almond-shaped eye lids, her lashes were really long and separate from each other, her nose pointed like pencil’s mouth, herl-ips full and pink, her heart-shaped face was pale but looking dee-per, I saw how beautiful it is. Her slender b©dy was like an hour glas-s and her br£@st stood firm like a loaded pistol re-ady to go off, her brunette hair if not for the chocolate and bird poop on it, would have flown to her h!ps in perfect harmony. She was a good definition of beauty. It took all my will power to restrain myself from k!ss!ngher.
“and neither have you answered mine” I said to her with my eyes fixed on hers.
She stared at me for a while as if calculating whether to tell me or not. Then finally she said.
“marichuiy”
“Ma..ri.. how do you pronounce it” I asked in confusion, that’s a rare name, in fact I don’t think I’ve heard it before, but coming from her perfectl-ips and belonging to a beauty like her, I’ve fallen in love with the name just like I’m falling for the owner.
“it’s pronounced, ma..ri..chu..wi, it’s a Mexican name” she said.
“are you a Mexican, you don’t look like a Mexican” I asked her.
“my maternal grandmother was a Mexican, and Marichuiy was her name, she died few days before my birth. So, my mum named me after her”. She explained.
“ok, cool” I said, we went silent. It was now getting dark but I still wanted to be with her and also make sure the door opens before I leave.
She stood up and walked to the left wall near the door, she reached her hand up and fli-pped on the light switch I hadn’t noticed was there, illuminating the whole green carpet gras-s yard and beyond with blue and white light. The white light c@m£ from un-derneath the ground lighting the gras-ses up coupled with the sprinkles of water that c@m£ with it, watering the gras-ses and the roses. While the blue light c@m£ from the rooft©p shimmering throu-gh the drive way towards the tiled road.
“it’s beautiful” I breathed out while she chuckled.
“I know, I did it myself” she replied. Is she serious, how was she able to do such a thing? This is amazing, she is amazing.
“are you an electrician?” I found myself asking.
“what! No, haha. I haven’t even finished high school yet” she chuckled.
“then how were you able to do this?” I asked sheepishly.
“the internet…” of course, stupid me, how could I not think of that.
“well, when this whole cursed thing bec@m£ out of hand, most people st©pped helping me, so I had to learn how to take care of my self and do things my own way…” she trailed off. “I had to survive”.
I wanted to tell her again that she is not jinxed or cursed, which ever one it is, but I didn’t want to argue with her so I just leaned in and hvgged her. A ting of electricity flowed throu-gh my veins immediately I made b©dy contact with her, and I think she felt it too cause she j£rked away from me immediately. I stared at her while she stared anywhere else but me, I couldn’t really tell but I think I saw her blus-h. She suddenly looked up at me and asked.
“what’s the time plea-se?” I looked at my watch to check, that was a hvge distraction that st©pped me from k!ss!ngher. Wow it’s alre-ady late.
“7 pm” I replied but she didn’t seem to look satisfied.
“7 pm what?” she asked again.
“oh, um 7:00 pm” I replied. She took a de-ep breath with a sad expression and slowly turned to the door. She fixed the key in the key hole and turned and the door made the same crack sound it made before. She took another de-ep breath and whispered a little loudly. “here goes nothing” then she turned the door knob and pushed it inside and the door paved way slowly like the gate of doom. She took a sigh of relief and turned to me.
“wanna come in” she asked with a little smile.
“just for few minutes” I said, I couldn’t say no, not after seeing that cute smile.
She walked in and held the door for me as if the door was gonna close on my face if she didn’t hold it. I chuckled a little as I walked in. I was expecting to see an oldfashioned sitting room or perhaps a bizarre thrashed sitting room, with things scattered everywhere since everything around her always end up in disastrous state.
But I was shocked and surprised at the interior of this kind of old-fashioned house.
The blue, gold and a t©uçh of red coloured interior design hit my eyes as soon as I walked in. The two smaller cushions, which could only contain one person, which stood by the left were blue in colour, the other two cushions, the same size which stood by the right were gold in colour, while the 6’1 couch which stood majestically and directly opposite the door 12 feet away, was gold in colour. In the centre of this majestic cushions and couch stood a very proud 16 thick, 20 inch glas-s table, which had a hvge gold rose flower carved on it, its four legs were painted in blue colour with one red str!p on each of the legs, a bowl of ru-bber fruits sat on the table.
un-derneath the proud table la-id a thick blue and red rug with tiny gold roses on it, the rug stretched out towards the cushions and couch but didn’t get beyond them for beyond them la-id blinding white marble tiles. Few feet away from the blue cushions, right on the flowered designed wall la-id a 10-inch coloured television with a remote control on t©p of it. un-derneath it stood a medium sized fireplace with woods in it but no fire. I was finally done with my admiration and I breathed out a “wow” she chuckled a little.
“what were you expecting?” she asked as she handed me a glas-s of water which I didn’t realize she had left the sitting room to get.
“something different” I answered as I took a sip from the glas-s.
“in what way” she asked again.
“I really can’t explain” I answered as I dropped the glas-s on the glas-s table. I looked around the walls and noticed pictures of her and her mother in parks, school, gymnastic centres, and a lot more, when she was a little younger, probably at the age of 5-14, she was a gorgeous child. I guess she and her mum are pretty close. I noticed there was only 1 picture she took with her dad, in a gymnastic game centre together with another little girl which looks extremely familiar but I couldn’t place where I’ve seen her before.
I guess she and her dad weren’t close. But then I remembered I hadn’t even asked about her parents, I just thought it throu-gh, she said something about surviving and no one helping her, that could only mean…
“where are your parents?” I asked as if it’s the most important thing in the world right now. I had to mutter an apology for raising my voice a little too high. But she didn’t say anything, she just stared at me with dark expression but de-ep into her eyes, I could see nothing but sadness.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, she still fixed her eyes on me without blinking, I figured she didn’t wanna talk about it and that she was fighting not to kill me right now for asking her that. If I don’t do something, she might have a nervous breakdown.
“um, it’s ok if you don’t wanna tell…” she caught me off with her eyes still fixed on me.
“my dad left my mum for a total p@rty bit-ch of a friend she once had” she breathed out with tremblingl-ips, her face turning h0t red from both anger and tears which streamed down from where they’ve been hiding for two hours now.
With her legs curled in the couch and her once diamond brown eyes now looking like dark brown night mare, she looked like she was determined to kill her father anywhere she sees him.
“and your mum” I asked. And I regretted it immediately the question c@m£ out of my mouth. Her dark brown nightmare eyes soften immediately only for them to change to complete black, invisible fire filled in them, anger and a little hatred.
She stared directly into my eyes and for a moment I shivered.
“she brou-ght that book, she brou-ght that box, she gave me those things that cursed my life. And then she left me” she spat out with venom in her voice and I almost jumped out of my skin.
TBC……
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