#TENDER_BEAUTY
EPISODE 1
I knelt down by my be-d on Thursday morning to pray but nothing seemed to come out of my mouth. I placed my head on the be-d and closed my eyes but I didn’t have the enthusiasm to offer any prayer.
Confusion, worry and anger has become the order of the day since my mother died two years ago. Everything just seemed to go wrong at the same time. I lost my job two months after her death and my plans to get my own ap@rtment was truncated. My plan to get another job with my First Clas-s Certificate in Applied Psychology was also fruitless but the latest development seemed to be taking a great deal of my patience and self control.
‘Lord, I thank you for today, plea-se Father, make it a good day’ I said and got up when there was nothing else to say. I washed up my face, brushed my teeth and went about the house chores.
Breakfast was alre-ady prepared before seven, I placed it on the table for my father and went to take my bath. I went back to the sitting room dressed and met dad eating. I mumbled a low ‘good morning sir’ and just as I was about to eat, I heard a knock.
‘Who is that?’ I asked pondering on the same question as I opened the door. Standing before me was the very person who made my life a living hell.
****
Prisca woke up to the ringing of her phone and from the ‘I just wanna say I love you’ tone, she knew who was calling. She smiled and picked up the phone. “Morning baby boy”, she said.
“Hey honey”, Tony said over the receiver.
“Mmmm, it is nice hearing your voice early in the morning”, she responded.
“How was your night dear?”
“I dreamt of you” she said smiling foolishly.
He laughed and said, “hey baby, before you make me get late for work, I nee-d to tell you something.”
“Anything for me?” she asked.
He feigned seriousness and coughed, “Well, tell your friend, what is her name, yes, Belina, that she should come to our hospital on Monday to start work”
“What are you saying” she practically screamed, sitting up instantly.
Tony laughed heartily, “yes baby, she got the job.”
*********
I stared at Tunji coldly,”what are you doing here?”
He shook his head, ” Is that the way you greet your future husband? let me in”, he ordered.
I laughed mockingly, “you are crazy. I have always known that, but I didn’t know it was this serious”. He scoffed.
“Belina”, dad yelled and I stiffened. “let him in now”. I stood with my arms akimbo blocking the doorway.
“BELINA” I eyed Tunji and reluctantly stepped aside. I slammed the door after him with so much f0rç£ that the house shook. Dad glared at me but turned towards Tunji and grinned.
“Good morning Mr Badmus”, Tunji said.
“Morning my son. Sorry for her rude behaviour, she is just being childish”, dad said. I rolled my eyes in disgust. Amazing what people would do for wealth and power. ‘why can’t this idiot take ‘no’ for an answer?” i wondered.
“I am throu-gh with the arrangements sir”, Tunji was saying smiling at me. Dad nearly jumped out of his skin in excitement.
“oh, oh Tunji, you are God s£nt, God bless you a million times, ah…”
Puzzled, I asked, “what arrangement?” Before he could answer, my phone rang, noticing that it was Prisca, I went to the room to answer it. Unlike our usually long chats, the call ended within two minutes. Unable to conceal my joy, I practically danced round my room after letting out a loud scream of joy. Dad and Tunji ran into my room.
“What are you doing here?” I asked unable to hide my happiness.
“What do you mean by that? what is all the fuss about?” Tunji asked.
“Well, I just got a job, and not just a job, a very good one”, I said grinning proudly. Dad and Tunji stared at each other.
“well, you are not taking the job”, Dad said.
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, we would be travelling to London on Saturday. The arrangements have been made, so start preparing cos the wedding would be done immediately we get there”. Dad said. I blanched.
The alarm that went off in my head would have definitely woken the dead. I wanted to tell dad to repeat what he just said but I knew that I was not having problem with my ears. I turned cold eyes at Tunji and said quietly but firmly, “leave”.
“What?” He asked looking like a fool. I moved towards him slowly and before he could count one to three, what he heard was ‘kpa’; even though my hand still ached from the h0t sl@p I gave him, I forgot all about it and dad who was busy saying all sorts of ru-bbish as I push Tunji out of the house.
After slamming the door f0rç£fully, I turned around to face my mistake of a father but I was greeted with a h0t sl@p. The sl@p was so ha-rd that I practically started seeing things but I steeled myself against crying. ‘Never let them see your tears, it makes you vulnerable’, I remembered the words of my mum.
“You this little br@t, you are so stupid. How dare you sl@p Tunji? You better go after him now and beg him”. Dad growled.
“God forbid. You have no right whatsoever to think you can control my life. Who do you think you are? I am not going anywhere with you and that son of a nob©dy but you can go if you want to. I am 22 for God’s sake and I have the right to make my own decisions”, I yelled.
“Not while you are un-der my roof. You have to do what I tell you”. He sh0t back.
I almost said something but I bit it back. I looked at my dad and as quietly as I could, I said emphatically, “like I said, you can go with him but as for me, you better think again ‘sir’”. I stormed out of the house.
As I walked on our ever quiet street, my blood flow started normalizing and the incident that I had been trying to keep at bay started pushing itself back to my memory. The sl@p that dad gave me seemed to also sl@p back that memory.
Throu-ghout my secondary school, I succeeded in keeping men at arm’s length and didn’t have a b©yfri£ndthrou-ghout, despite my numerous admirers. I finished with a remarkable grade and gained admission immediately into UNILAG and also focused on my studies not glancing twice at any guy but my charade was cut short in my third year when I discovered that there are some guys that your eyes can’t finish as-sessing with one glance.
I sat on the open field one afternoon re-ading, when one of my annoying toasters c@m£.
“Oh baby”, he drolled, “you too dey re-ad sef”.
I ignored him “Abeli”, he called in his usual way but I ignored him again.
He yanked the book out of my hands and my head j£rked up as my eyes drilled holes into him.
“Give me back my book”, I demanded.
“Why didn’t you answer me?”
I stretched forth my hand, “Hand it over now”.
He smiled, “A k!ssand I would give you”, he said pouting hisl-ips like a demented beast. I wanted to sl@p him ha-rd but . . .
“Give the lady her book”, a voice said. That voice chilled me to the bones and I could almost feel the ground shake at the sound but surely, I was hallucinating. That was the voice that shook my world both positively and negatively.
“Enough of all this ru-bbish”, I thought. I nee-d to solve this problem. After thinking for some minutes, I fished out my phone from my pocket and dialed the only person I could. She picked on the third ring.
“Sweetheart mi”, Prisca said over the receiver.
“Pric, I nee-d your help”.
**************************
Tunji sat furiously at the owner’s side of the car on his way home. He was busy clenching his fist like someone who was re-ady to box the life out of Bashali.
“No woman has ever sl@pped me”, he thought. He still couldn’t believe that he had actually been sl@pped. And by a woman? “No matter how beautiful she is, she won’t get away with this”, he thought as he picked up his phone to dial a number.
“Omo deputy governor mi, your excellency sir”, a voice said
“plea-se shut up Tolu, I nee-d you to do something for me. Someone had the nerve to raise her hands against me”. Tunji said.
“Ehn… A she? She must be dealt with”
“Alright, here is what I want you to do …”
WATCH OUT FOR EPISODE 2