MARRIED TO A STRANGER
By: Mister Allen
Episode 27
can’t let you go home by yourself” Franklin insisted when Jeff attempted to leave at the close of work, “I’m fine” Jeff assured, “I’ve not done anything but sit here and watch you stare at me like I was some unidentified Flying object that landed from space ” Jeff replied.“All the same, we need to report what happened to the police” Franklin suggested, “really? So they’ll make a fool of me like you did when I told you I was being followed earlier?” Jeff replied sarcastically,“well you never know, they might be able to do something about it” Franklin replied, “something like what?” Jeff asked, “extort money from me and assign some hungry officers who will flee at the slightest sign of danger to watch my back?”“Don’t talk like that, the police is your friend” Franklin added jokingly.
“You know I keep thinking about how strange it is thatI couldn’t remember anything immediatelyafter the accident until after a while.” Jeff added, “it was a really weird feeling…waking up, lying by the roadside with a crowd of strangers staring at me and not knowing how I ended up there.” He added pondering over the incident. “Yeah that must’ve felt really weird” Franklin nodded, “but you know what’s even weirder?” He began, “Something similar happened to someone on a medical tv show I watched last week and the doctor explained what caused it”. “Really? what did he say was the cause?”Jeff asked paying full attention to what Franklin had to say, “if I remember correctly, he called it transient global amnesia or something like that” he began, “he explained that it was a temporary episode of memory loss that occurred suddenly during which the person suffering the condition cannot recall recent events like where they are or how they got there and may keep repeating the same questions because they don’t remember the answers they’ve been given.
People with this condition usually remember who they are and recognize people they know and the condition usually does not last for more than 24 hours at the maximum but is generally shorter” he narrated as Jeff listened intently.“What I found even more interesting were the things he mentioned that could cause it” Franklin added, “I remember him say it could be caused by mild head trauma just like in your case, sudden emotional distress such as when a person receives bad news, sudden immersion in cold or hot water, strenuous physical activity and even sexual intercourse.
Don’t ask me how” he added sticking his tongue out with a mischievous grin. “I was just about to ask” Jeff replied laughing hard, “on a more serious note” he added pausing his laughter, “I think I need to go to the hospital to get checked. The information you just gave is freaking me out and I don’t want to take things for granted.” he said.“That’s a good idea, but like I said earlier, you can’t go anywhere on your own, at least until the doctor confirms you’re okay” Franklin replied. . “I’ll take that from you now” he added snatching Jeff’s car keys from him as they made their way to the parking lot.***
Lola was having lunch at an outdoor campus canteen with one of her colleagues from “the ice cream parlour” who also happened to be a student on campus; she hadn’t been to work with them in ages and they had been worried about her, “it’s been 3 weeks since we last saw you at work, what exactly is going on?” Bimbo her colleague asked. She was popularly known as Banana split at the icecream parlour and was the next best stripper after Lola; some customers often requested both of them at once in a package called “the double delight” where they were made to pay as much as ten times the usual amount.
Bimbo usually enjoyed it when customers requested the package because it meant she would earn ten times more than her usual daily earnings with much less stress. Unlike Lola who had a sister that was paying her bills, Bimbo had no one to care for her, shewas the definition of a hustler. From the tender age of ten, she had learnt to fend for herself since she was an orphan, her parents had died in a car accident on the way back from her grandmother’s burial, leaving her behind with nothing, so it was no surprise that she felt hit by Lola’s absence the most.“Nothing’s going on, I’ve just not been really up to it” Lola replied sipping her drink, “you’ve just not been really up to it?”Bimbo repeated, “that’s flimsiest excuse I’ve heard all year”. “Well you can call it what you like” Lola replied swallowing a spoonful of food, “all I know is that I’m not coming anytime soon”. “Babe you can’t do this Bimbo insisted, “what exactly is the problem?”“There’s no problem” Lola snapped, “I’m just tired of being violated by all sorts of disgusting men. I can’t stand the thought of it anymore” she explained, “Oh! I see” Bimbo replied nodding slowly with arms folded across her chest, “you’ve started seeing someone new right?” She asked studying Lola’s body language, “no, I haven’t” Lola denied shaking her head, “why would you think that? you know I’m seeing number 1” she whispered referring to Deji, her cultist boyfriend who she had been avoiding for a while.
She knew Bimbo would understand what she meant by number 1 since she was dating someone from the same cult herself. “WellI hardly see you two together these days” Bimbo countered “people are starting to wag their tongues”,“that’s because we’ve been busy with exams” Lola retorted, “people should learnto mind their business” she added getting up to walk away when she suddenly spotted two of Deji’s messengers coming towards the canteen, “Oh! My Gosh! the messengers are coming” she said hurriedly picking up her bag and preparing to run, “the messengers?” Bimbo asked, “what are they doing here?”, “I don’t know” Lola replied, “but I’m not waiting to find out” she said hurrying off and leaving Bimbo behind.
The messengers were a bad omen, they were usually the ones sent to carry out the dirty work and they hardly visited anyone without harming them or at least leaving ascar to remember; at other times they weren’t sent to kill.Lola knew Deji had probably sent them to her because she had been ignoring his calls and messages and avoiding him on campus. Since she fell in love with Jeff, she had made up her mind to stop seeing Deji and change her scandalous lifestyle, that was why she stopped going to the ice cream parlour. She didn’t know how to break up with Deji because he never accepted “no” for an answer and it was anoffense for any girl he was dating to be theone to end things with him; she had strongly considered changing schools once but that was impossible since she was in her final year.
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