The Moment I Met You (Chapter 424)

 By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu

The year passed with Michael returning to Abuja with Felix, while the others decided to spend first of New Year with Louisa and her children before heading back the following day which was second.                            

January blew in cold and stayed that way. Louisa made sure that rags and newspaper had to be stuffed round windows and below the doors, and at night light from the candles often gave warm. Towards the end of the month, as it was getting close to Chioma receiving her paycheck, she received a letter of termination instead. Chioma was shocked and tears streamed down uncontrollably. She had thought of what to do with the money, but those dreams became shattered as she held onto the termination letter with trembling hands.     

 ‘I’m sorry. I wish I could do something but if I did that I’m afraid that this company will be shut down by the person who recommended you to me. I’m sorry.’                                                                                                 

Chioma turned to leave after gathering her stuff. She went back home, passing group of children playing football, making her way through the huddle of women snatching what fresh air they could outside their apartments. She reached home; stood at the door, putting her free hand into a pocket of the sleeveless jacket she wore, she muttered, ‘No matter how it hurts, I will never hate Sir Charlie Adekunle. I know he must have been threatened to do this.’                                     

Louisa had been washing clothes at the sink, and her face was flushed with heat, her hair wisping across her cheeks. She turned to see Chioma’s sad face. Immediately Louisa dried her hands on her apron. ‘Are you all right?’ Louisa asked.                                                                                     

‘I wanted my salary to buy the stuff that we need but instead of getting my paycheck I got fired.’ Chioma told Louisa thirty minutes later, getting the words out at last. ‘All my life I tried so hard not to make anyone feel bad. That’s why it hurts when my boss fired me today because Jessica told him to. Now, I’m beginning to think that I made the wrong decision to come here. Jessica always wants to possess people, always wanting to control them. If I had a choice I will never wish to cross path with Jessica, I will never pray to love the same man that she was already in love with. But it wasn’t my fault that Michael loves me. I don’t really know why my family keeps suffering like this.’                                  

  Louisa put her arm around Chioma’s shoulders. ‘This day will surely pass, paving way for the winds of new beginning.’ She hugged Chioma caressing her hair gently. ‘I have already discussed it with Andrew this morning; we have to go back to Abuja. We can’t continue to run away from our problems.’                                                                              

‘Mum, can I ask you a question?’                                                              

‘Sure.’                                                                                                                  

‘When you said that you didn’t want me to end like you, what did you mean?’                                                                                                                

‘I had a relationship that was leading to marriage but it was snatched away from me by someone else.’                                                             

It all started with Edward’s parents wanting their son to marry a beautiful girl from a rich family, now she came to think about it. Up until then it had been just Edward and Louisa deeply in love with each other. The two of them had met when they were still in secondary School. Even when Edward travelled abroad for his university education, they secretly wrote love letters to each other, promising to remain faithful to each other. Louisa didn’t further more after she graduated from secondary school instead she helped her mother in her fishing business.

Isabelle was close friends with Patricia and they often hung out together as friends from super-rich family. They just graduated from Columbia University when the first met Louisa and would be heading to Harvard University either the following year or next.

Louisa had met Patricia and Isabelle as a poor girl. Also, Edward and Nicholas had met her as a poor, slummy girl. None of them knew about her rich background as she never disclosed her past to any of them.

 ‘August it was, and sunny day,’ Louisa whispered. She was eighteen, Isabelle nineteen, Patricia was nineteen as well and she remembered returning from the market with her mother to buy some foodstuffs for dinner. Isabelle and Patricia were coming back from a friend’s party, and were about getting into their car, when from nowhere; a speeding car was coming straight to them. The girls lifted their head, but the light was so bright in their eyes that they couldn’t open it. Or maybe, they were too shocked to move, as they couldn’t think straight. They only thing they knew was that the Peugeot was coming towards them at a very high speed.

 ‘Get out of there!’ Louisa had yelled out.                                                     

Both Isabelle and Patricia didn’t have time to react; they just stood there as though they had been programmed to die by the speeding car. It didn’t occur to them that they were standing in the most dangerous spot, but just like magic in movies, Louisa suddenly bumped into them, pushing them away.                                                                 

‘Who are you?’Isabelle opened her eyes to see Louisa holding her with one hand, and the other hand, she held onto Patricia as they three of them laid on the road next to an electric pole. They were still frightened and a little stunned.                                                                       

‘Are you okay?’ Louisa asked instead.                                                

Isabelle stood up, dusted her dress and checked her body. ‘Other than hurting my ribs, I think I am absolutely fine.’ She looked at Louisa’s hand and saw that she had bruises. ‘You’re bleeding.’                     

Louisa smiled. ‘It’s nothing but a small scratch. I’m fine.’                       

‘We can bring you to the hospital,’Patricia offered, standing up. ‘We have a first-aid kit in the car, maybe our chauffeur would help wrap you up otherwise it will get infected.’                                                        

Louisa turned around and looked at her mother, who was helping an old lady cross the road. It was unclear what they were talking about, but there was a gentle smile on her mother’s face.                         

At this same moment, an old man carrying a small bag and wearing black-rimmed glasses came walking by, Maria also took the old man’s hand. She helped him cross the road as well. Then, they nodded their head to thank her when they were both on a safe side.                           

‘That must be your mum?” Patricia asked.                                                         

Louisa turned to them nodding with beautiful smile. ‘I will have my wounds treated at home,’ Louisa reassured them as she walked over to her mother after the three of them introduced themselves to one another, hoping to meet again.                                                              

That night after dinner Louisa lay in bed thinking of how successful her family had been. Before she was eleven years old, she had possessed the world’s purest form of happiness. She had a successful father who worked in one of the best oil companies in Bonny Island and a loving mother who was a happy housewife; because her husband provided her with everything and didn’t let her do any other job, except to take care of Louisa who was their only child.                                

But on the year Louisa turned eleven, she lost her happiness in one night. It was on a Sunday and her parents were going to a banquet being hosted in the company banquet hall.  Maria wore a lemon lace dress and matching jacket for the banquet while Edwin chose a dark suit. Before leaving, Maria had helped Louisa finish her homework. She had solved the most difficult question for her.                                                     

‘You’re the best mother in the whole world.’ Louisa held her mother’s face and kissed her on the forehead.                                                  

‘And you are the most adorable little thing, with the cutest dimples when you smile,’ Maria smiled at Louisa.                                                      

Blissfully, Louisa saw her parents to the door and told them to always stay safe. She looked adorable, that Edwin lifted her up and kissed her on her forehead before bringing her down. Louisa waved them goodbye as they drove off.                                                                              

‘Mum, Dad, please remember to come home early,’ Louisa muttered.                                                                                                             

That same day on their way home, a speeding truck crashed into their car. Edwin died on the spot while Maria was rushed to the hospital where she was treated and survived.                                                      

The following year, Maria was left with no choice than to move to Lagos State with Louisa. There was nothing left for Maria and her daughter because Edwin’s family took all the properties belonging to him and left nothing for Maria. Going to Lagos was going to be a new beginning for them, Maria had thought carefully before embarking on such lonely journey with her daughter.                                                                                    

With the little money Maria had with her, she started a small fishing business, secured a small house at Oko-Agbon. Hundreds of people lived in that area and with little privacy. Residents moved from one place to another on canoes, calling out to neighbours and friends. Louisa will always wrinkle her nose at the sight of the household rubbish, which included human faeces, suffocating smell of rotten fish hanging in the air. She would always hate the noise from the neighbours but learnt to live by it because that was her kind of life now, which wasn’t anything like their mansion in Rivers State.                          

The houses in the area were made of few planks of wood and plastic sheeting for a roof. The place was known by the people as floating slum. It was not conducive for training a child. Maria wished she could send Louisa away, to a better place. But there was no one she could turn to as she was the only surviving child of her parents.                           

One of the days, Maria decided to take Louisa to Victoria Island, just to give her daughter a fresh of breath air. Maria bought a pink collared dress for Louisa, and the both of them set out, for a mother and daughter day out.                                                                                             

Maria took Louisa to a restaurant for a cup of ice cream, but due to how costly everything was in the restaurant, Maria decided to give Louisa money to buy from a road side ice cream vendor. Sweetness spread across her heart as she thought of how proud her mother would be if she bought her a cup of ice cream from her savings. Maria wanted a cup just for Louisa, but Louisa was going to buy for her mother as well.                                                                                                                               

As she was returning with the ice cream, it started pouring. She tried to shield the ice cream from melting as she rushed towards the nearest shelter but it was full with people who had also come to shield themselves from the rain. A sudden bolt of lightening struck the sky, causing Louisa to be frightened, and just then, someone held up an umbrella to shield her from the rain. Out of curiosity, Louisa lifted her head, glancing towards the person. The Good Samaritan was a boy wearing a pure white dress shirt, black matching trousers and shoes. He had headphones and his pale blue bag slung over one shoulder.                               

The boy was tall, fair in complexion. He possessed the most beautiful face that she had ever seen.                                                                         

‘Where are you going?’ He asked gently.                                                 

‘There.’Louisa pointed with a sweet smile.                                                          

Then, he took her to where Maria was standing worrying about her. Maria thanked him.                                                                                              

‘I’m about to eat my ice cream which has already melted, would you like to join me?’ Louisa offered.                                                                         

‘Wouldn’t that be nice? But no, I have to leave.’ He glanced at his luxury wrist-watch. ‘I hope you have a good time with your mum.’          

‘Perhaps I could treat you to lunch at our house any day?’   

 ‘I’d like that very much indeed.’                                                                     

Louisa smiled. ‘Can I give you the address to our house…?’ Louisa knew better than anyone that she shouldn’t invite strangers to her house, but since she felt relaxed with this stranger she knew that he wasn’t going to hurt her. She completely trusted him.

Maria tried to stop Louisa from talking but Louisa was so happy not to have noticed her mother’s face. ‘Our area is described as the Venice of Africa.’                                                                                                 

He laughed, as if he were laughing with her not at her. ‘I’d like to visit the floating slums.’                                                                                        

Louisa lowered her head, feeling embarrassed.                                                 

‘I am Edward Njemanze. See you around.’ Then he turned to leave.                   

And so it began the friendship of Edward Njemanze and Louisa Ugo. That night, when Louisa was leaning on her desk studying, the name of Edward kept flashing in her mind. She couldn’t help but write those two words in her favourite book. Edward was not only engraved in her book but also in her heart.                                                                      

Louisa had thought that Edward wasn’t going to visit, however the following day, he visited her with baskets of fruit and vegetables. She was surprised to see him at her doorstep, beaming blissfully at her. Maria who was knitting sweater for Louisa turned around to welcome Edward inside, receiving the gifts with beaming smiles.

 Sometimes they met at the beach, picking seashells by the shore as they chatted happily. The sun would shine beautiful on them. Louisa had gifted Edward a colourful shell that she had spent time looking for. Edward smiled sweetly as he took the shell from her, promising to treasure it for the rest of his life. But he had lost the shell on his way home. When Edward told her about losing the shell, a vague premonition came to her, and Louisa suddenly sunk and felt chilly. Edward quickly consoled her, with the promise that he would find the shell.

 Edward had always worn branded clothes. Even his shoes were limited edition while Louisa often wore clothes that had started to turn white from constant washing. The two of them looked like they are from different worlds. But Edward couldn’t stand watching Louisa wear such over washed dresses, so he bought her clothes, which Louisa sometimes rejected. She never wanted him to think that she was with him because of his money.  

Sometimes, they went to the park, drinking milk tea as they lay on the grass. Michael knew how much she liked to drink milk tea, so he always brought it during his visit.

 Whenever they ran into each other, they would spend some time together. One sunny day, Louisa’s foot was sliced open by a few glass shards; he had carried her to the clinic nearby, made sure that she got the best treatment before he brought her back home. He hated to see her get hurt, but wanted to always see her happy.                                      

‘Louisa, I want to stay with you forever,’ Edward said a week later when they met at the beach.                                                                           

 Louisa blushed and replied with a smile, ‘I want that as well.’                 

Edward smiled, then leaned down and kissed her lips gently.

That was the first kiss they had shared, and the two love birds never seem to forget that beautiful day.