Must Read: Despite All Odds - Season 1 - Episode 17

7 years ago

Must Read: Despite All Odds - Season 1 - Episode 17

The news didn’t sink into my head for couple of minutes, it was like my ears kept repeating and processing the news before sending it to my brain, after a while when I really comprehended what the caller just told md, I screamed like a mad woman, I kept on screaming until Mama came to where my room. It took a while before I could finally break the news to her. She started screaming immediately, we both were, so much that it a alerted the whole neighbourhood, they tried to console and hold us from crying but their efforts proved abortive, nothing can stop an old woman from crying when she has just lost her only child at a very old age, her son didn’t die when she had the time to bore a new one but he died just when she was way way above menopause, I on the other hand couldn’t be stopped from crying because I lost both my dad n mum at a time that I will be needing them the most. The memories of what happened yesterday at the surprise party kept on playing in my head, the jokes, the advice, the dance, the meal we had together at the table with Desmond and Sandra, immediately I remembered Desmond and Sandra, I picked up my phone to call them.

“Hello madam village” Desmond said jokingly and Sandra too was saying some funny things, obviously they were together.

“Guys, my parents are dead” I managed to mutter.
“Excuse me? Dead, who, how,

when? “Desmond…. I couldn’t even reply any of the questions because the tears are now back in full force, one of the neighbours came to grab the phone from me.
“Hello, her parents had an accident on their way back to the city” She said to them in Queens english as she activated the speaker of the phone
“Nooooooo” Sandra screamed “Please send us the address of your village from ilorin, I hope you know how to there from ilorin?”
“Yeah, it’s no problem I know it very well” she replied and the call was terminated, she looked at me to confirm if she should send the address and I nodded in affirmation. She came to seat beside ne after sending the message and held me like a true friend, I looked at her face and it was full if smiles, a contagious one which infected me, I also smiled back. By that time Mama was too tired to cry anymore “Poor old woman, who will be bringing her foodstuffs and pocket money every month end, who will she call if she is in an emergency, all she has now is me, me that I am even useless to myself” I kept on thinking and thinking to myself.
The next day, some family members from my paternal and maternal sides were delegated to go and get the corpse, good thing both of them were from the same village, the families decided to bury them right here in the village immediately their bodies get here. Not long after the ambulance and the family delegates left, Desmond and Sandra arrived to the village, immediately I saw them I don’t know what happened but the memories of my parents flooded my mind again and I started crying profusely again, we held each other again like we did the day I was leaving ilorin, this further more reminded me of Dad’s jokes and Mum’s special smile, the three of us cried and sobbed like kids.
“You guys and Mama are all I have now” I said to them after we were now seated in my room. “We will be with you till the very end” Desmond said with paleness written all over his face. “You are not alone in this Juliet” Said Sandra. At that moment, I was so glad I met with the two of them in school, it was one my best decisions in life that I chose them as my best friends, what would I have done without them, what if I didn’t choose to forgive Desmond just because he asked me out and all I did was just to prove to myself that I was meant for Gbenga alone, the thought of Gbenga brought tears to my eyes again ‘I will never forgive him’ I said to myself. A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts, come in I said.
“Come in”… The girl that helped me send the address to Sandra and Desmond came in with bottles of soft drinks and cups in her hands and placed it in front of Sandra and Desmond.
“Thank you” they chorused.
“Thank you very much errrm”
“Ifeoluwa” she cuts in when she noticed I had probably forgotten her name again.
“Ohh you were the one that spoke to us on phone yesterday yeah?” Sandra asked and Ife nodded her head to confirm.
“Excuse me for this but you look too beautiful and you also speak fluent English to be a village girl” Desmond
“Desmond” I and Sandra snapped at him while Ife just laughed.
“Come on, it’s not only city boys and girls that speak good English, anyways I was a student of unilorin until last year” Ife.
“What do you mean by that” Sandra inquired.
“I dropped out” she replied.
“Why” I probed further.
“My dad lost his job, he practically lost everything so we all had to move back to the village here” She explained. We all felt sad for her and I prayed that my story doesn’t be like hers, at least I want to graduate in school just like I promised Dad and Mum. Desmond was about to ask her another question and it was starting to look like we were interrogating or interviewing her but he was distracted by a noise outside the compound, it was the siren noise from the ambulance that went to bring my parent’s bodies, I started crying again as we all marched outside, they didn’t allow Mama come outside because it was forbidden for a mother to See her child’s grave **