I was more angry than sad when we left his office…
“Why should I have to pay to get what I earned?See why I hate men? They are all the sameUsers, opportunists, mean cold-blooded bastards”
I went on and on as I poured out my anger.
Deola didn’t say anything until we got to our room…she later promised to help me raise some money so we could get it to Mr. Sesan as soon as possible.
I couldn’t let her do that; I told her I would try to get the money.
In my mind, I had planned how much I was going to get from each of my working siblings and since I had not really bothered them for money in a while, they should be able to raise the money for me or at least most of it. I was going to tell them it was for a school project.
So I called Sister Grace that same day to kind of prepare her mind and get her to talk to my brothers for me. She wasn’t responding well and I had to ask what was happening. She said all was well but I could sense from her voice that something was wrong. She then told me she had to go and would call me later. At this time I already had one of Deola’s old phones…she gave it to me when she bought a flip phone.
Because of the way Sister Grace was responding, I didn’t even get to tell her what I called about…I waited for her call that evening but she didn’t call. I started to “flash” her from my phone to remind her but she did not call back.
I did not have enough credit on my phone to make the call…Deola gave me her phone and I called my sister but she still did not pick up. I tried my brother’s line but it was switched off. My mum did not have a phone at that time…she saw it as a money drainer.
I was mad at my sister for not returning my call as promised and for ignoring, when I even attempted to call her. In my mind, they had gotten used to me not regularly demanding anything from them and they were taking me for granted. I decided to travel home and give them a piece of my mind…I told Deola I would visit my folks the following day.
As I was preparing to leave the next morning, my phone rang and it was my sister. I quickly picked it and before I could say anything, I heard
“It’s Mama o…” followed by a lot of static
“Which Mama?
What happened to her?
What’s happening?
Hellooooo”
I bombarded her with questions but she did not respond. I looked at the phone and it had disconnected.
Even Deola was concerned at this point, she gave me her phone and I called my sister back but her phone was switched off.
“How could her phone be switched off? She just called me now” I screamed at the phone as if it could hear me
“Well, it could be the battery or maybe the phone wasn’t fully charged” said Deola, as she tried to find a rationale behind what happened so I could calm down.
She later decided to travel with me because I still couldn’t get through to either my sister or brother. We took Deola’s car…it was about an hour and half to our house.
As we pulled into our street, I saw my sister running toward the house…Deola honked and she looked back, tears all over her face. It took a while before she knew it was us. I jumped out of the car and ran to her. I didn’t want to piece things together to form a conclusion.
“What happened to Mama?” I asked. I was scared to my very core and was hoping she wouldn’t answer the question…
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Click 7 below to read episode 7