By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu
At Moon Corporation, Michael finished an emergency meeting and returned back to his office. It was already six thirty in the evening. He looked dazed and listless. Even when Robert presented him with a cup of coffee, he didn't take the coffee.
Robert looked at him and said worriedly, ‘Sir, you haven’t eaten since Chioma disappeared. You might get sick if you continue like this. I’m sure that Chioma will feel sad to know that you’re starving for her sake.’
Michael walked to the window, and Robert followed him. Michael turned to Robert and said, ‘I want to be alone. It’s late, you should go home.’
‘How can I leave you like this? We
should go together. You’re my boss so it’s my duty to look out for you.’
Michael frowned and found him annoying, so he went to the sofa and sat down as he didn’t want to be bothered by Robert. He knew that Robert was feeling concerned for him, but then, he wasn’t in the mood to play sob story with him.
Robert followed and sat next to him, urging him to eat his afternoon tea as well as the coffee he had prepared for him.
‘She might change her mind and come
back for you.’ Robert tried to pacify his boss.
Michael miserably forced a smile and
murmured, ‘She told me to move on…but I must find her and move on with her.’ He
was optimistic even though he was deeply hurt as if his heart had been torn open
and put ice in it, thereby causing him to feel so cold.
‘But you need to eat to have the strength to find her,’ Robert said gently. Michael shook his head and looked up at the ceiling, trying to hold back the threatening tears. ‘You should go home already.’ Michael slowly stood up and walked back to the French window and looked out. It had already gotten dark. A tear fell from his eyes as he watched the endless stream of cars and neon lights in the city. The scenery was beautiful and he wished Chioma was standing beside him right now.
After a while, he turned his gaze towards Robert who was still waiting for him. ‘I told you to go home.’
‘I
won’t move unless you leave first.’ Michael stared at
Robert, seeing that he was serious with his words; he took his phone on the table
and headed out. Robert smiled and hurriedly followed him out.
Louisa and her children had stayed a day in a friend’s house that lives in the slums of Ajegunle, and so the following day, she decided to look for accommodation to avoid being a burden to Bisi Femi who lives with her three little grandchildren.
After breakfast of cereal, Bisi took them to an empty house not quite far from where she lives.
‘Although my house might seem small but it’s the grandest I have ever lived in,’ Bisi cheerfully said to them as they walked to the empty house. ‘My dream had been to have a garden, and a front door that opened on to a path, instead of smelly slums found around here.’
‘I pray your wish be granted,’ Louisa said softly to Bisi.
‘How can my wish be granted if I sell bottles to feed on? How can it be better when all my life I’ve only lived in the slums? When I was living at Otodo Gbama we were violently evicted in 2017 after a neighbouring community who wanted their land, ask the police to oust us out. We were moved bit by bit, thinking that we might reach an agreement with the police, but we ended up being foolish to think that way. No compensation was given to us since being evicted and because of that my son left his three children and headed to heaven knows where, in search of greener pasture. I have three grandchildren of school age, but I can’t afford their fees and I can’t afford to feed them well…I still want to hope that their father would come home soon with bags of money.’
‘Bisi I have known you for a very long time…I know that you’re someone that never gives up.’
‘I wish you married Edward, I know that your life will have been perfect,’Bisi smiled. Louisa smiled but didn’t say anything. She seemed not ready to remember her past.
A middle aged man came whistling down the road towards them, the man had visited Bisi yesterday to give her some bottles to sell. Bisi smiled when she saw the man.
‘Has anybody taken that your empty house, Mr Taiwo?’Bisi asked, smiling. She had a round face, short dark hair. Her print dress was voluminous.
‘Not at all,’ he said, staring at Louisa and her children. ‘You are looking for a house?’
His rolling accent was far more pleasant than his appearance. He was wearing old khaki shorts with white T-shirt that has started to brown.
‘We recently moved to Lagos,’Louisa said. ‘Would you please take us to the house, please?’
He smiled, showing two blackened stumps of teeth. ‘After me.’ He turned around, and they followed him.
When they reached the building, Chioma held her nose with one hand and her phone with the other. The building was small, sad and neglected.
The outer wall, facing onto the street, looked dirty, and when they entered inside, a large brown spider weaving a web from one of the beams to a crack in the door swung past Chioma’s right cheek.
Chioma screamed, causing everyone to turn towards her. When they saw why she screamed, Andrew laughed.
‘Why are you screaming? Aren’t you the one that told me that you consider all living creatures as friends, even the less attractive ones?’ Andrew teased her.
‘Stop teasing me, please,’ Chioma said in nasal tones, because she had to hold onto her nose. ‘You are forgetting that I am your little princess.’
The paint work on the door of the house was faded and scratched, the wood itself furrowed with deep ravines as a result of the termites that had feasted on it.
‘The entire house smell of damp and stale food and too many years of human habitation,’ Bisi pulled back and whispered to Louisa. ‘Can you deal with this rotten smell?’
‘We don’t have
a choice,’Louisa smiled.
‘I didn’t know that this house was so smelly like this. Look, if you stay in this house, you could catch just as many flies as possible.’
‘This place is Ajegunle. I knew about the slums before we came here. We have no choice, Bisi. Anyway, if we start doing something, we would move to a better house. But for now, I think we will make-do with this smelly place.’
Taiwo turned towards Louisa and said, ‘If you are willing to take the house, then I will give you the key.’
Louisa smiled.’Where is the bedroom?’Louisa asked instead.
Taiwo pushed the door before them to reveal
cobwebbed shelves, only a few inches in depth. The bedroom door had to be
pushed hard before it creaked open. Chioma wished they found a better place
instead of this gloomy place. The
bedroom was small. Chioma walked towards the only window in the bedroom,
feeling that the gloom before her matched her own pain. She reached to pull the
dingy curtain stretched across the window.
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