THE CHAT ROOM SEASON 2 : PART 1 – THE END

THE CHAT ROOM SEASON 2 : PART 1 – THE END

PART THREE

By Temi Akintade

“Amara is engaged,” Toriola told me. She was one of the first friends I made when I came to Ushafa. She was also a single mother with a child just like me but her story was different. She was rapped by her most trusted teachers at the age of nineteen which resulted in pregnancy.

And even though her parents helped her live through the whole thing, she has never stopped hating the child she gave birth to.

According to her, she says the child hindered and blocked her from marrying the eligible bachelors that came her way.

My fingers wobbled, my pen stopped working and my head snapped up from the former bent state.

I was scribbling down something in my note before Toriola arrived at my eatery that afternoon. “Wait I don’t understand.” I relaxed further into my swivel chair. “Amara is a single mother like us. A mother of three.

How did she see a fine single man to marry?” Amara attended our church and everyone knew her as the woman who had children for an irresponsible man outside wedlock.

So how come? Or was this the reason why Amara changed and became a committed worker in church? To attract brother Americana? I scoffed.

“See ehn. I think it’s the charm she used! I and brother Americana were close. So close that, he told me of how much he loved my vegetable soup the day he came visiting but the sudden change of how he got close to Amara and is even planning to marry her is what I don’t understand.” Toriola adjusted her leopard-skinned handbag and placed it on the pry chair beside her.

That was her business. She sold designer bags and shoes with two huge shops stationed permanently at the center of Abuja.

But her bag didn’t catch my attention. It was her false lashes and extra-long nails. I had no problem with them but then, I felt that they were a replica of how her life was.

Just then I felt a nudging by the Holy Spirit to stop speaking about Amara. And even though the gist was too sweet to stop, I stopped.

“It is well. God bless her union. Let’s keep praying for our own. The same God who did it for her, will do it for us.” I said.

She reached for her phone in her bag. “Amen oo! I am just thinking that brother Americana would have been the perfect match for me. He is tall, I am of average height. He is dark-skinned and broad chested, I am light-skinned and nicely shaped.

He has no kids and I have no kids too! Perfect combo! But he disappointed me by engaging that woman with an imperfect stomach.” She hissed.

I scoffed. “Really? Your perfect match? Brother Americana is Amara’s perfect match I want you to leave it at that. And face your own.”

She glared at me. “What does that mean please? Are you now mocking me? When did you begin to act like this Paulina? You had many suitors coming your way but you pushed them aside because you have one daughter somewhere.

Someone that you should have pushed away to relatives or a boarding school somewhere abroad and get married but you are here staying alone.

Please don’t infect me with your madness.” She slammed.

Somehow her last statement rattled my brain and tightened my fist. I was annoyed and I felt like plucking out her false lashes and teaching her a lesson. “Is your hair wig?” I pointed to her curly brown hair.

“Yes. It’s a wig. I bought it for four hundred thousand naira just last week. Do you need it?” She asked.

I smiled. I had more than enough. “No. Toriola I don’t want to live a fake life like you. Your lashes, nails, and wigs are false just like your life! Take off your false life and be real Toriola! That is why men run away from you!

You have a handsome 19-year-old son somewhere but you chose to live like a single lady who has had no kids? Where exactly is your conscience?” My nose was wide and tone hard.

“Since when did you begin to dislike hair wigs and false lashes and nails Paulina?” She threw nonchalantly as though my words have had no effect on her.

“Don’t you get it? I am not talking about the things you have decided to add to your body. I have no problem with them. I use them also. But I have a problem with your lifestyle as a whole.

Toriola you are living a fake life and you may not like the end of it by the time you are done with destroying your life!” I yelled.

“Oh, shut up! Mother Theresa. Always advising everyone on what and what not to do. You have crossed the line of our friendship Paulina and as from today, you cease to be my friend.

How dare you shove my lifestyle to my face! Did I ever ask for your opinion? Answer me!! You who have been truthful and not living a fake life, where has that got you?

Are you married now? No wonder our pastor’s wife hates you. Because you never keep shut.” She snapped, snatched her handbag from the seat, and stormed out of my office.

I rubbed my face with my palms and sighed. I had just loosed a friend. I shook my head.

‘If you must go up with me, some people need to walk out of your life otherwise, they will bring you down because they are around you.’

Immediately the Holy Spirit spoke, I felt at peace nevertheless I sent an apology text to Toriola who never replied. I was just about to continue with what I was doing, when the shrill tone of my iPhone sliced through the quiet room.

It was mama Judith. The woman has been more than a mother. She kept posing as Hadassah’s grandmother even when I thought that the responsibility might become too much for her.

“You should bring Hadassah for the holidays. You should come too. It’s been months since we last saw.” She cleared her throat.

“How did you know that your granddaughter will soon be rounding up her first term exams?”

“I called her myself. You know I won’t wait for you/before I speak to my grandchild.”

The way she pronounced the ‘grandchild’ brought smiles to my lips. “Thank you, mama Judith for all your love. We will be there by Friday afternoon. But I will be there for 3 days only because I have a business to run!”

She laughed. “Of course my daughter. I just feel you and Hadassah need to be relieved from your stress. That reminds me. I forgot to tell you that Frank and his wife are separated.”

My ears twitched and my curiosity resurfaced. “Wait, separated or divorced?”

“Divorced because he left her abroad.” She said.

My heart lurched. I tried to imagine how he must feel right now even though I haven’t seen him for years now. “I feel pity for him. How about their kids? What will he now be doing in Nigeria alone with the kids?”

She sighed. “Oh well. Frank is doing well for himself in Nigeria.

He has always had businesses running here. He has a thriving school in the heart of Abuja. I’ve forgotten the name now. But as for kids, he has had none with his ex-wife.”

My insides shivered and I began to wish that I had some kind of scarf covering my frigid ears. I rose to my feet to search for the remote controller for the air conditioner to put it off.

“I wonder what must have gone wrong.” I finally found it stashed away beneath some old files. I turned off the air conditioner and walked back to my seat.

“It is well with them. So I will be expecting you both on Friday. You are staying for the weekend at least.” She stressed.

“Yes, I know! That reminds me, remember what I told you about my God speaking to me to start a Mom’s prayer meeting for their teens?”

“Yes, you quit after your pastor’s wife told you that you are unfit to start one. What about it.”

I ignored her piercing statement. “Well, God gave me a go-ahead but with a stern warning! That I shouldn’t tell my pastor’s wife.

So I’m looking forward to renting a mini hall to start with then I would print flyers and banners and even run radio adverts to bring in women.

It would be so elaborate.” My lips tugged into a dreamy smile as I imagined a large hall decorated with floral curtains and graced with several women.

“Paulina, can you calm down? Remember what happened when you started your eatery business thirteen years ago? Remember how the shop got burnt and how you had to start from scratch?”

I nodded wondering where she was going with all this. “Yes, I remember.”

“Good. Start from scratch. Begin from your home. Tell some women in your church and neighborhood about it don’t use digital adverts yet. Learn to grow at the pace that God wants you to grow don’t outrun God.”

I sighed. “Thank you, mama Judith. I’m really grateful for all of this advice. You are really saying the truth but I just feel that since it has to do with the things of God I should give it my best.” I added.

“I know. Why don’t you pray about it?”

I agreed to pray about it. We exchanged pleasantries and then the call ended. I drove home and met Hadassah at home since I stopped her from going to our neighbour’s house to learn sewing.

I met her scrolling through her phone and giggling at whatever she found funny on the screen. The alarms in my head blared! This was how I started. Chatting with my phone and giggling nonstop to a stupid Tayo.

Instantly, I dropped my bag on the table to signify my arrival. She jolted out of her reverie and rose to her feet, dropping her phone on the table.

“Welcome mum. I didn’t know you were back.” She hugged my stiff body. I should have embraced her back but my only joy was to see her phone destroyed so that those stupid boys on Facebook would leave my teenage daughter alone!

“How will you know when you were busy chatting!” I snapped and sat on the sofa.

“Mum I wasn’t-”

“Save it! Get me some water.” I rolled my eyes while glaring at her phone.

“Drinking water mum?”

“No, bathing water.” I hissed. But she chuckled at my sarcasm and raced into the kitchen.

I quickly grabbed her phone to check through but the ‘input password’ stared right back at me. Annoyed and frustrated, I tossed the phone to the chair, picked my bag, and disappeared into my room.

THE CHAT ROOM SEASON 2 : PART 1 – THE END

After having my bath and resting briefly, I picked my Bible to read through. I stumbled on the scripture in 2 Samuel chapter 6. I read the whole story of how God struck Uzzah when he attempted to carry what fell off the ark. But my eyes stopped in verses 10 and 11;

‘So David would not remove the ark of the LORD unto him into the city of David: but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the LORD continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and the LORD blessed Obed-edom, and all his household.’

That was when it dawned on me. After several years of reading this particular verse, it was finally speaking to me in another light! The ark was rejected by David and it was taken to Obed-edom’s house! It means God wanted to dwell in my house first and wants me and my household to become a partaker of his presence and the blessings that comes with his presence.

That gave me an express answer to my previous question. I would start the fellowship God told me about in my house!

Just then, my phone rang. It was an unknown number. But I swiped to pick it just in case it was an important client.

“Hello, who is this please?”

“Paulina! It’s me ooh! How have you been?”

I hesitated, “I’ve been fine. Please who am I speaking to?”

The woman chuckled. “It’s me. Sis Dorcas. Please don’t end the call.”

My jaw dropped open

THE CHAT ROOM SEASON 2 : PART 1 – THE END

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