BY NISSI ADEOLA
****EPISODE 24****
As I stared at my salary, I could not believe my eyes. When I did the interview, I was asked how much I would like as my monthly salary and I had said, 100,000 Naira. The place where I worked b4, I was being paid the sum of 70, 000 Naira but here I was staring at the whooping sum of 150, 000 Naira. I closed my eyes and opened it again but the figures hadn’t flown away.
I closed my eyes and thanked God. I saw
Prisca smiling down at me. I jumped on her and hugged her so tight and I guess she felt uncomfortable.
“Thank you darling, God has been using you to make my life a blessing”, I said truthfully.
“I am sure I would not be anywhere if not for God, you and your family
“Oh, come on now, firstly, I did not do anything, at least, I am sure you would have done the same for me. Secondly, stop
referring to my parents as my family now they are your family
members too so they are our family, ok?
“Yeah, Yeah, I have heard you…” I
stopped when I heard a car horn.
“That’s dad” she said and we both made our way outside to open the gate for him. He drove in and we happily hugged him
like little infant children and collected his suit case. Even though he was the owner of his company, he always kept late at
work saying that ‘if you want something done properly u must monitor it yourself
Dad tuned on the TV to listen to the news, we headed to our room.
We had just taken a few steps when I heard a name and I froze.
I turned around like a robot and what I saw on the screen was more than I could fathom. I stared at my father’s picture being labeled
as a murderer. They displayed him on TV without even a singlet.
All he wore was a torn trouser as his face looked beaten and battered
I expected myself to feel sorry for him or even feel sad or even
angry at him but I did not feel anything. I just stared at d TV at first in shock seeing him there and then; I did not feel anything again.
I wanted to hate him the more but I couldn’t, I wanted to pity his condition because he is
my father but I just could not. I finally felt Prisca’s hand on my back as a sign of comfort but all I could do was stare blankly at the TV. Mr & Mrs Jegas were busy expressing their views about the matter and none of them noticed that they had anyone in the
house who knew the murderer much less his daughter. Mum turned and seeing our
expression was striken. I immediately turned and headed towards the room but I was too
late, dad had already turned in my direction
“Belina”, his bass voice rang out in the house and I turned.
He looked from me to the TV and b4 I knew what was happening, they were all by my
side consoling me like I needed consolation. I laughed slightly and said, “I am ok, I am just fine.
I should be crying but I cant bring myself to doing that” I said
with a smile and dad said something about it being bad to cry over someone who did no
other thing but bring me pain and I smiled. I thanked everyone and left to the safety of the room.
As I laid on the bed,the reality of the news dawned on me as I imagined myself as a murderer’s daughter and my heart did a
summersault. I pulled myself together and was determined to get over it the way I had gotten
over every other challenge I had passed through in life, besides, I did not want to be a pain in d ass in this peaceful family.
A week passed and everything had been going on well. During
the past week, I had seen almost everyone in the hospital and was surprised that they were all young people within the age of 35years and below. Patients were coming for me on a daily basis and I particularly enjoyed my sessions with Deji. He hadn’t fully recovered his memory but be had remembered three names, though he did not know who those names belonged to, he mentioned the names and when I asked his parents, I found out that there were people in his life with such names.
His improvement was a great thing to me and I always looked forward to our sessions together because he is a very interesting
person to have around.
I had just finished my session with Deji and was back to my office when my secretary called over the intercom.
With my observation, I should be within
the same age with Joke, my secretary and I took her as a friend.
“Miss Belina, there is someone here to see you but he won’t give his name”, she said
“Hmmm, is he with a gun?” I asked half jokingly and half serious.
Her voice held a smile when she said, “God forbid bad thing”
“Alright, once you are sure there is no cause for alarm, send him in”, I said and hung up. Few
seconds later, I heard a knock and I said a low but firm, “come in”, the door opened and for one second I thought I would be seeing the guy from last week but I couldn’t have been more
wrong.
I sprang up from my seat, “What are you doing here Kelvin?
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