?Protected ?
Episode 7
MAGIC.
I feel tears rush down my face, ugh, I can’t believe am crying over some silly words a stupid human being said.
Ugh.
He is an … An…an…
A-HOLE!
There I said, I don’t curse but this warrants for cussing. I rush to the room Mr Justin said is mine and get changed quic-kly into my blood stained clothes.
Am leaving.
I get my purse and I match to the door, I fling it open and come face to face with Mr Justin.
“Ha, there you are, I was about to, ….are you ok?”
I match pas-s him, I have st©pped crying but that does notean I won’t leave this house.
I walk downstairs and toward a door that looks like it might lead outside.
” Hey, magic where are you going?”
I don’t answer, it’s not in my character to be rude but right now am as pissed off as Medusa’s snakes.
I open the door with my all my strength, gosh it’s heavy.
“That’s the laundry room, little one”
Oh heavens, am so embarras-sed.
I don’t let it deter me though, I match pas-s him and I pas-s a dinning room, I enter and I finally I see a door leadt out.
Am held back.
I turn, Justin is holding my hand and looking at me imploringly.
“What happened little one?”
I break down, and cry, he hvgs me to his che-st.
“Shh, it’s alright”
I can’t believe am crying like a baby, where’s Emilia? Where has she gone to? Emilia never cries, never.
“Tell me what happened?”
I explain and he tenses.
“Am so sorry that happened to you little one”
He says this while stro-king my hair, that feels good, too good, I take a de-ep breath and his scent feels my nose.
I like this man, I blus-h, he is my saviour.
I go to take another breath but a clearing of throat pu-lls me away from him and I look over his shoulder.
I see a man and a woman eating, or it seems they were.
The woman is currently sitting on the man’s l@p.
The man is glaring at both Mr Justin and I .
I guess we interrupted something.
Opps.
“Magic, meet my sister, julliet, and her fiance, Sage”
“Good morning ma, sir”
She looks at me from my head to my toe and I get a feeling she is not plea-sed to see me in Mr Justin’s arms.
God I hope she is not like the man upstairs.
She glances away from me and turn her attention to Mr Justin, she just dismissed me. Witch.
“Who is this J?”
I can see the man called Sage stro-king her back and I see him perusing me also from head to toe, but this time there is no emotion in his eyes, he is looking at me the way he will look a ceiling fan.
Jesus, are all rich people like this, well my Justin isn’t.
I blus-h at my thought.
“This sister kin is magic, she is a stray.”
I might not have gone to the university but I know what stray mean, that hurt.
My hurt disperse when I see him wi-nk at me, he was just joking.
“Where did you get her from?”
I am tired of being talked about like I wasn’t there.
“Her–is standing right here, you know”.
I almost sl@p my mouth, this is a wrong time to be mouthing off.
I panic at what she will do, but she smiles and stands up from Mr Sage’s b©dy and walks to me.
“I like her Justin, she doesn’t scare easily”
I am shocked
. What?
“Hi, am julliet, that’s my soon to be husband Sage”
She says this while putting her hand out for a shake, I glance at Mr sage and I see him watching me with still no emotions.
I guess that’s how he treats everyb©dy, I instantly feel better, they are not snobs, Amen..
I shake her hand.
“My name is magic”
“Beautiful name”.
she pu-lls me into a hvg.
“Go on, you can tell me all your secrets, you can cry, am here for you”
Am shocked, I glance at Mr Justin for guidance and he wi-nks.
I don’t know what to say, I nee-dn’t have bothered because my stomach growls.
Ugh, embarras-s me much?
“Ha, you must be hungry, come let’s eat”
The woman julliet leads me to the dinning table, I can see some rice, I want.
My stomach growls, I blus-h.
“You can’t eat the rice chit, my little bird is everything but a cook, have some toast and coffee”
I glance at Mr sage at his words, he speaks?
He must have seen the question on my face because he wi-nks.
Holy God, all the men in this house are handsome, even the bastard upstairs.
I get some toast, no a lot of toast, I spre-ad some jam and I devour.
I haven’t had anything to eat since the day before yesterday.
When I become full I slow down and I glance up to see them watching me, i blus-h.
“It’s ok magic, we all get hungry sometimes”
I smile and sip some coffee, oh it’s so sweet, bittersweet, like a walnut.
It turns so-re in my stomach when I hear his voice and words.
“So tell me brother, where did you get this animal from?”
“Justice!….”
This comes from julliet, The man upstairs, his name is justice, it suits him, his eyes are so black and painfilled.
What happened to him?
“Good morning July”
Am shocked because he says that so softly, and I know he loves this woman called julliet.
He fist bu-mps Mr Sage and he takes his seat at the head of the table.
Am compelled to call him master.
“So Justin, still waiting, what is that gutter trash doing in dinning room?”
“I would appreciate if you tune down the animosity a lot , brother.”
Mr Justin says and am surprised to see he looks angry on my behalf.
Le sigh.
Mr Justice lifts a single eyebrow, he looks so intimid@t!ng.
“Am listening”
Mr Justin explains my situation, everything, I mean everything, my coming to Lagos, everything, he explains that I will be working as the new house keeper since it seems the other one left.
Am beyond embarras-sed.
Miss julliet had tears in her eyes after listening to my story, but master justice is not impressed.
At All.
“So, let me get this straight, she is the new, house slave……sorry, maid?”
He asks and Mr Justin nods.
He picks up the carafe of coffee and pours some in a mug, he takes a sip of the black coffee and I almost die.
He is handsome, albeit a big bastard.
He see me watching him and he lifts a single eyebrow again.
He picks up the carafe and lifts his hands and leaves it, it shatters and black coffee spre-ad everywhere.
“What the hell justice?”
That was miss julliet, Mr sage chuckles, Mr Justin sighs.
Master justice does not respond to them but he speaks to me.
“Go on girl, clean up this mess, this is a warning to you”
I just stare.
“You are the hired help and soon you will be gone, you do not bloody dine with us, you eat in the kitchen like a rat, you get it?”
He says this calmly and I am f0rç£d to nod.
He looks away and gr-abs a newspaper and starts re-ading, he does this like there isn’t coffee spre-ading everywhere on the marble tile. Like he didn’t cause it.
A-shole.
?Protected?
Episode 8
MAGIC.
It’s been five days since I got to this house, I found out that that there is a system to how. N things work, I have gotten used to it.
After feeling sorry for myself that I have had no contact with kelechi because of my phone, I got myself together.
After one failed breakfast, forgetting to wake up early, and almost burning the kitchen because i don’t know how to use the g@s, i think I have gotten the hang of it.
I met miss julliet’s son, Alec, he is cute as can be, am sorry cool, he is cool.
Am currently cleaning the kitchen, this place is sp©tless, I don’t even know why they nee-d an house keeper.
I stand when I hear the door open, its Alec.
“Yo, magic, watcha doing”
I found out that Alec and his mother just c@m£ from the states not too long ago.
I love the way he speaks, his accent is like an oyibo man own.
“Alec, as you can see i was cleaning.”
He nods.
“what can I do for you?”
“I want cookies, some of my friends will be coming over, I want chocolate ch!pcookies”
Okay…….
“What are cookies.?”
He looks at me like??
“Are you joking?”
I shake my head no, way to go magic, show the boy you are as dumb as they come.
“Magic, cookies are like the best thing ever”
I nod.
“But what is it exactly”
He shakes his head.
“Wait here”
He leaves, I countinue with my cleaning, in a while he returns.
He has a phone with him, Jesus the phone is so flat, and it has an Apple on the back.
I want one.
“Here see, re-ad this, this is a cookie, and how to make one”..
I re-ad the screen and I see a cookie is an American version of biscuit, it’s a lot bigger.
I nod.
I can bake, but not very well, I can try to replicate what i see.
I get the nee-ded ingredients and I begin with Alec standing beside me.
As I knead the Dough I feel at peace, I begin to an-alyse how far I have come in the previous days.
I ran away from home, I witness a murder, am more or less in withness protec-tion right now.
I know I have nothing to be happy about but at least I am alive.
I haven’t been sold to any person now .
Even though living in this house is not ideal, at least I have a roof, a job, some money and food.
I can ask for nothing better.
If I can just get kelechi’s number, everything will be perfect in my world.
I and Alec cut the dough into different shapes and sizes, I catch him eating it sometimes but I don’t say anything, just warn him that he should be careful of stomach ache.
He smiles, I do too.
“Magic, you have flour on your nose”
“I do?, Am just going to clean it ok…..”
I st©p talking when the door opens, I glance up and my stomach ti-ght£ñs when justice enters.
What now? Cue Rihanna’s voice.
“What are you doing”?
“Am sure it’s obvious…..”
I close my mouth when his face darkens.
“Yo, uncle justice”.
“Yo, Alec.”
He looks away from me to Alec and back.
“Come”.
He exits and I follow after throwing a wi-nk at Alec.
I walk upstairs and enter his room, he is standing by his be-d shi-tless.
I gulp. Uhh?
He looks up and I believe the word I would use to describe him is smoldering.
“These are some of my sleeves, I want them back before tomorrow”
I finally notice the pile of clothes at his feet.
I nod, I can do that.
“They are dry clean only, am sure you can manage to get this done right?”
I nod. No nee-d to insult me.
He walks to his bathroom, dismissing me.
I gr-ab the pile of clothes, they are not even dirty.
I walk to the laundry room and I see a big washing machine.
How do I use this stuff?
“Whatcha doing?”
I turn to see Alec enter.
“Am trying to figure out how to use this stuff”
“Cool, I think you just have to press this bu-tton.”
He presses it and the machine whirs, wow, magic.
I put all the clothes, white, black, gray, blue and all, I add some detergent and bleach and water and I close it.
“I think we have to time it”
I nod and we time it for 30 minutes, we go to the kitchen and the cookies has ris£n, we place it in the oven and we wait.
15 minutes later when the timer goes off, I bring out the cookies, we leave it to cool before putting it in a jar.
I take a bite of one and , hmm, yummy.
Alec takes one and I remember I have clothes in the machine, I look at the time, it’s been one hour.
Sweet jesu.
I run to the laundry room, Alec at my feet, i open the machine and i bring out the sleeves.
O my God.
This is not right.
There are no longer whites in the soaking pile.
They are either black or shades of Gray.
O my God.
“I think we shouldn’t have added that bleach”
I nod my head.
Am dead, justice will kill me.
What do I do?