Episode 12

Last updated on March 8th, 2023 at 12:52 pm

It was two days to my anniversary. Today, I felt a bit restless with almost nothing to do in the house. After about an hour of me rolling around on the bed, I got up and decided to clean the windows. Dimeji just fell asleep and I was certain he wouldn’t be awake for the next two hours.

***

It was almost noon and I had just finished cleaning the window when my phone rang, it was an unknown number. 

“Hello.” I said.

“Good afternoon ma, I have a package for you from the Loyalty Printing Firm.”

Oh! Sarah has sent the work.

“Oh! Thank you. Where are you now?”

“I am outside the gate, ma.”

“Please hold on, I am coming.” I ended the call and got up, rushing to the entrance.

***

I heard a baby crying. I woke up and slowly sat up as my shoulder protested from being put in an uncomfortable position for a while. I had slept off on the chair. I heard Dimeji cry from the room. That’s what woke me. Stretching my body, I got up and went in.

In the room, I saw that he had gotten down from the bed and was probably looking for me. “My baby.” I said as I carried him and kissed him. “Do you want to eat?” I asked as we entered the sitting room. He looked at me and put his head on my shoulder. 

I dropped him on the chair to go and make his food and he started crying. “Hmm, someone is fussy this afternoon.” I lifted him and went into the kitchen with him. 

***

I was on the chair and an empty plate was beside me. I felt too tired to get up, thankfully Dimeji had decided to play on his own. I looked at him and he was so engrossed with his toys, his black hair thick and full. I should cut his hair soon. I picked my phone and opened Facebook and the first thing Mark showed me was a reminder of my six years friendversary with Vic. Coming from my kind of house, I did not use a phone until the second year in university and the phone was not even a smartphone. Mummy had a lot of theories in her head about why a young girl should not be exposed to certain things, like the internet yet. 

After saving for a while, I got my first smartphone with Vic adding some money to it. I hid the phone from home until I finished university. I remembered the day I eventually got the phone and how I was awake all night, finally able to be online as much as I wanted. The next few months, a huge portion of my feeding allowance went into my subscription and I had to start lying so I could get some extra money from home.

I joined Facebook the same day I got my phone, even though Vic had been on the application for about four years at the time. Vic also sent me a friend request the same day. I remembered us laughing as she jokingly casted the demon of disobedience to my parents out of me. I don’t know how Sam got to know that I had a phone, but at some point, in final year, he started sending enough airtime to cover for subscription also. Bless his sweet soul.

It had been six years of friendship on social media, but about eight years in real life. Thinking about this twisted my heart a little. Was I truly losing my friend? I had built many things over the years, but only my friendship with her had stood the test of time. I think she was my twin flame or was it my soulmate? I didn’t know, but she was like the sister I never had. I shared the event on Facebook and dialed her number, holding my breath as the phone rang. 

“Hello.”

“Vic, good afternoon.” I said, almost whispering.

“Good afternoon, Lape. How are you?” She sounded cold. Trying to ignore it, I continued, sounding excited, “Don’t tell me you have forgotten my birthday.”

Maintaining her tone, she replied, “No, I haven’t forgotten.”

“Oh, okay. Better,” I was almost discouraged, but I still tried. “Where are you self?

“I am at mummy’s place.” 

“Wait, mummy’s place? Which mummy?”

“My mum.”

“You are at mummy Abound’s place?”

I referred to Vic’s mum as ‘Mummy Abound.’ She moved to Osogbo about three years ago and she had about three fabric stores within Osogbo. Just as I barely had time to see Sarah, I barely had time to see mummy Abound. A fact that I should be ashamed of, seeing as she was like a mother and friend to me during our university days, even though she was in Abuja then. Twice, I went with Vic to see her in Abuja and she paid for my flight. Whenever we were in Abuja, she would clear her schedule and show us around Abuja—although Vic had been to many of those places, we went because of me.

Now Vic was in Osogbo and I wondered how long she had been around. It also made me feel bad that I probably wouldn’t have known that she came to Osogbo had I not called.

“Yes.”

“Vic, since when?”

“For about three days now. I am on leave.”

“Okay, I just wanted to hear from you.”

“Alright.” I was about to talk, but I noticed she had ended the call. Was Vic being a bit rash? I didn’t even know how to feel.