Categories
Story Time

MOTHER, PLEASE DONT LEAVE.

“Debo, come inside this minute, dust the footmat and shut my door. No one must go out of this house today until I say so” My father bellowed. 

Obeying my father’s stern orders that were like prison orders was an easier task than washing plates but not again. Not after seeing my mother packing her things to leave the house while my father looked on without saying a word to stop her earlier today. The both of them had fought yesterday night, he was sure of that.

He could still remember the dream that had him sweating profusely, last night. He had woken up breathing heavily and suddenly scared of the dark, contemplating whether to lay down or attend to nature’s call, go to the toilet two rooms away and empty his painfully full bladder. 

A few minutes of contemplation was all it took for him to jump out of his bed and race off towards the toilet without light. With the fear of the dark still lurking around, he paused by the living room’s curtain to make his way to the toilet by feeling the wall, and doors while hitting his legs and big toe on some obstacles on the way. Blaming the dream for instilling such fear was easy, he would have raced towards the toilet and would have been back to his room, the urge to return to bed and resume his dream if he could was greater than the darkness itself. He needed to know why his father was chasing his mother with a pestle in that dream and why people witnessing the act just stood there looking at him chasing her, they made no attempt to stop him or help his mother hideaway. 

Why was the toilet still far away? 

The toilet was like an adjoining room to his parent’s bedroom. He was almost there and it was time to tiptoe. Quietly, he made his way to the toilet’s door, opening it carefully so as not to wake his mother who does not sleep heavily. It worries him always that his mother finds it difficult to sleep and when she eventually does, she sleeps lightly so lightly that a drop of pin could wake her, leaving her fully awake till day break. 

Iya Debo, as his mother was popularly referred to by everyone had once told him the doctor said she has insom.. something, he had made a mental note to check for the meaning of the word from his elementary school’s library but since forgot to do so. He must remember to check it in school on Monday. 

 His mother was the only reason he prays to God to conquer her sleepless nights and that none of his two siblings or himself should wake up to urinate to avoid disturbing her while opening the toilet door that squeaks so loud even at the slightest touch, the door was a bad one, so bad it was at the risk of falling off, it would have fallen off if not for the barb wire his father had used to hold it in place two months ago.

 Baba Debo has refused to call Saka the carpenter to do the repairs.

The last time they tried to raise the topic of repairing the toilet door to his father, he snapped at them and said,

“Manage it that way, I will hold it with a strong wire, and it won’t fall if you kids are careful. And Anyone at whose hand it falls off will have to answer to my judgement”

 Baba Debo’s judgement is not a pleasant sight to behold so they had since stopped bringing up the door’s issue since that day. 

No one dares bring it up again.

He was through using the toilet and was about to close the door and leave when he held a repressed noise that sounded like muffled cries and someone else’s harsh and scolding voice. Curious, he moved away from the toilet’s door towards the source of the sound, lo and behold it was coming from his parent’s bedroom. He was dazzled, never has he seen them bicker at each other, at the middle of the night at that. 

Who is that crying? His mother? His father appears to be the one shouting, why?

He moved closer and saw the door slightly ajar, he moved closer to peep in and listen but could barely grasp anything. All he heard were murmurs.

Minutes passed when he thought to open the door slightly further, he was about to do so, when he saw his father moving towards the door with a very angry expression on his face. He turned on his heels and ran blindly towards his room miraculously missing the obstacles on the way and making no noise. He mouthed a prayer of thanks to God because if his father had caught him, it would have been a different story. 

Curiosity about what was happening in his parent’s bedroom and the will to resume the previous dream had him turning back and forth on his bed until a mild headache forced him to eventually fall asleep.

That was all that happened to me yesterday night, just few hours ago… until this drama unfolding as I stayed by the door watching helplessly as my mother struggled to mount her baggage onto the lorry waiting by the crooked steps that led to our parlor. Earlier that morning, I had woken up to my father’s heavy footsteps on the concrete floor. I knew something was wrong. I came out right on time to witness my beloved father hurling my mother’s belongings out of the house onto the veranda with all the might I have never seen him exert before. All my pleas, questions, and cries fell on deaf ears. He shoved me off his way all the time I tried to stop him, my father was like a menacing beast at that moment. 

My mother did not make any attempt to move her loads back inside or plead with him. She just stood at a corner loosening and retying her wrapper above her breasts. A few hours later, she dressed up and went out. Now, here she is, packing her loads into the lorry she came back with. As soon as she was done, she shouted at the top of her voice to tell the driver to come to tighten the loads together, then she started moving towards me, she stopped a breath away from me and said, 

“Okomii, I will come back for you when the time is right. Make sure to eat well, do your school works well, and don’t miss me. Anything your father tells you about me is all lies. I’m a good mother but I have to leave to survive for you” 

I did not respond as everything was just so strange to me. I have a lot of questions. What happened between them last night? Why does she have to leave? Without me? What was her offense? She held me closer and squeezed me tightly in an embrace.

“Debo, shogbo? Answer me”

“Can’t you just beg him, mother?” I spoke out suddenly.

“Beg him? That son of a gun? Oluhun mii o ni je” She vehemently replied while moving her hand over her head in demonstration of the swear. 

She hugged me tightly again, pulled my cheeks playfully, and turned towards the lorry. 

“Mama, come back! Mother, please come back!” I screamed.

The last I saw of my mother was her waving at me from the window of the lorry.

“Please, don’t leave me” I screamed again, my voice echoing in sync with the disappearing lorry.

“Debo, come inside this minute, dust the footmat and shut my door” my father bellowed. 

“No!”  I screamed back at him, left the footmat untouched, opened the door more widely and turned to walk away.

Categories
Story Time

WHO MADE DAVID MAD? (EPISODE 4)

Alfreda looked into David’s eyes and saw dread. The issue at hand is no joke, right then and there she was determined to try everything possible to find out and discover all about this wrecking game, this mess he got himself into.

“They were just empty threats, Dav. You could have just told me before you got in too deep, to this point of no return, or just reported to the right authorities.” Alfreda said on the verge of tears but no single tear dropped. She needed to be composed and get to the root of this.

“I wish they were empty threats, Al. Those people are evil, they are the devil himself. I made friends with a guy, Tunes. His name is Tunise, he was in deep shit as much as I was, and we planned to leave together. We threatened the owner of the apartment we use for the night game, Mr. Shoke, with recorded videos of the murders that had taken place there, he promised to halt the game and claimed he was not aware of such taking place in his building. We made Him swear and recorded a video where he confessed to not being aware of the game and promised to halt further activity,”

He paused to cough and continued,

“I and Tunes left feeling relieved but we both had our doubts, we did not trust him entirely. Believe me Al, there was no way we could have reported to the police, we were being watched day and night and any suspicious movement could have led to instant elimination. That was the instructions the tails watching us were given. We were warned. I and the guy were able to see the owner of the building because the tails knew we were still within the vicinity of the game house and they did not suspect anything, if they had known we went to see the man, we would have been killed. But they got to know eventually, somehow the man betrayed us. Yes, we stopped going to the game house as soon as we spoke to the owner, Mr. Shoke. Three days later, I got an email with a video attachment…In the video, I saw someone who looks exactly like me brutally murdering Tunes, hacking him to small pieces.”

David paused to look at her face and saw the shock, vivid over her face. He rushed towards her and was about to touch her when I raised her hands to stop him.

“Dav, I’m too stricken enough to not want you near me, just move back and tell me everything else there is. I need to know my next line of action”

“I just wanted to be sure you are okay, Al. I did not mean for you to get shaken by all these.”

Alfreda laughed and answered,

“You did not inform me of when you were about to commit this atrocity, you did not before you got in too deep neither did you when you were an inch away from being ruined but now, that you’re too far away from being redeemed, you chose to tell me and you expected me to not get shocked at this folly of yours? You had high expectations, my dear. I hope you do not expect me to find solutions or is that why you are telling me now?”

His expression gave him away. He can’t be for real. Alfreda shook her head and laughed that sad laughter once again. He wants her to find a way to help him out. What can she do at this point? She does have to find out what to do. It seemed like Tunise died but how? God knows she would lose her mind if David died.

With a straight face, she asked David,

“Is Tunise dead?” She asked.

“Yes, they killed him. Those evil people manipulated the recording of his murder, making it seem like I killed him. If the video gets out, all everyone will see is not the real perpetrator but me killing him. Under that video, I got a message saying, ‘That is the exact punishment for those who make any attempt to break free and betray them. I was warned to not try anything suspicious or they will kill you, kill everyone at my place of work, kill your mother, and make me a wanted criminal. They…they came here”

He was no longer speaking, she was not surprised to see him dabbing at his eyes. About time he shed tears. If possible, he should shed enough tears for both of them. She felt like screaming and crying out loud herself but she was too numb to move, not to talk of doing the others.

After a few minutes had passed, David continued speaking,

“They came to throw his corpse in our backyard, they informed me it was there. I did all I could to be careful while disposing of it but somehow, they captured me in the act and sent me the recordings to further warn me. Al, what do you think we should do? I have tried all I can, I have gone to beg them to let me go, I have borrowed some more loans and given them more money yet, they want me to keep on with the game and kill you as a punishment for desiring to leave or they will Kill me like they killed Tunes. You see I’m in deep shit, Alfreda. What do we do?”

She gave no response.

Alfreda’s heart slammed against her ribcage and she almost peed in her panties and was fuming with anger. She looked lost and miserable. The room was hot, her insides were burning and she needed to escape the room. She was taking off the thick clothing she had on when David asked again,
“I need you to answer me, Al. I didn’t mean for any of these to happen to us… I knew… somehow, you’d find a way for us out of this mess. I’m out of options, what should we do? Where are you going? Answer me, Al what should I do!” He cried.

Alfreda was at the door, her hands on the doorknob before she replied and said,

“It seems too late, David”

She opened the door, closed it gently, not paying heed to the urge to slam it shut, and went down the stairs. She needed to vent her anger on something…somewhere. Okay! What she needs is to take a drive with ear-blasting music playing from the car’s speaker.

In the room, she had seen blood drain out of David’s face, he looked like he had seen a ghost and she knew. She knew it was because she had called him David. It has always been anything else lovely, except David.

STAY TUNED FOR EPISODE 5

Categories
Story Time

WHO MADE DAVID MAD? (EPISODE 3)

Alfreda had taken a seat at the edge of the bed while still laughing hysterically, she felt like punching David in the guts, maybe watching him double over and groan in pain would have eased the pain she felt at that moment. She touched her chest, and moved her hand up and down her chest in a bid to calm herself. David stood there looking so confused and lost. The realization that she had been coupling with a kid who could not make sane decisions for himself and was easily pushed about like a wheelbarrow hit her like a wave. He has never made good decisions for them, she has always been the one looking out for them. How couldn’t she have known all this while? Is love truly, blind?
He just stood there scratching his brows, saying nothing.


“David? What game brought this ruin upon you? What silly game did you squander all our money on?.”

She was looking directly into his eyes and was at the brim of bursting into tears. Several minutes passed and David still had not said anything in response to the question. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she stood up abruptly and said,

“Don’t Tell me you gambled with all that money?” She got no response.

“Answer me David before I pluck your eyes out!” She cried.

His shoulders dropped, he sighed and said, “Something like that. It’s not really gambling, it’s just a sophisticated game of the rich. That is the name for it”


“Sophisticated game of the rich? Interesting. Tell me about it, Dav.”


“See Al, I thought I would be able to do it once, get a whole lot of money off it, and never indulge again according to how the leader of the group described it to me, it was supposed to be easy. I never knew it would turn out this way.”


“It’s no use crying over spilled milk Dav, and I have been patient enough with you at the moment, what the hell was the game you played?!”


“I’m not supposed to breathe a word of this to anyone who is not a member, for all I know there might be a monitoring bug on me, in my phone, or even in this house but since I am totally ruined, I have to tell you. It is called ‘the game of lords.’ It’s a large network of people and all the members are rich, I mean stinkingly rich but there are different categories of the rich there…those still looking for more money, those looking for pleasure, and the ones who make money off the other two. Ermm… we made big money offers on…on…peo…people’s life.”

He went silent, she saw his worried look and his eyes frantically searched her face for any reaction. What should she have done? Cry? Scream? All she felt like doing at that moment was laugh, laugh at the misfortune David had tabled before her and how unbelievable it seems. Isn’t this the kind of occurrence that one only see in movies? Maybe she has been jilted by David. Maybe he was a jigolo who had planned to ruin her alongside his scammer friends all this while? Has she become a victim of scam or?… Her thoughts were interrupted when David asked,


“Are you okay Al?”


“Of course I am, at least your head is still intact and not on the floor in pieces. A very good evidence that I am still very okay.”

There was a long pause and she had to scream at him to continue.


“Calm down Al, I will” Another agonizing silence then he continued.

“We gather at THE NIGHT’s galore, you know that big apartment at the east side of Johnsbuggert City. At first, we were placing hefty sums on animal fights. Each night, we get to pick sturdy animals of choice to fight against opponents for the night, I noticed they were fed substances, I don’t know what it is but it seems like drugs, they said it is meant to energize them. The winning animal takes home the prize, and the other one ends up dead or gets shot dead if injured. I wanted to opt out because the sights of this were too horrific for me. But the anchor persuaded me that it takes getting used to and I was going to lose the money I have invested without a dime returned to me if I opted out that early, so I stayed and kept losing each game. I won on my fifth trip to the club but several games later, here I am about to be a destitute.”


He paused, searching her face, she noticed the genuine look of concern on his face and she just shook her head and glared at him.
She had wasted years loving a foolish man.
He sighed and continued,

“It got worse Al, after my first month there they started bringing in human beings and we started betting on humans, able-bodied men. I wondered why they were taking such a risk, my guess was they were sweet-talked and promised heaven and earth and a truckload of profit like they did to me. The GOATS, we call them GOATS, they also ingest the powdery substance before they wrestle. It was no ordinary wrestling, they wrestled one another until death. The rule of the game was ‘You kill or you die’ It was as if everything was programmed. They let you get comfortable and they show you their true colors… the bets on the animals were like an initiation into their group and there is no turning back…it’s like…like crossing the Rubicon bridge. I tried hard to escape, to opt out but I was completely damned.”


He coughed, took a glance at my face, and continued.


“All I could do was keep playing, watch the gruesome game take place, loose and lend more and more money from other members and keep watching all over again as they wrestle relentlessly with one another, clawing blindly and breaking bones with each blow, none of the two fighters must rest, any slight attempt to rest from your GOAT is inviting death from the opponent and you, the GAME LORD losing money and the profits. It became a routine. Believe me, I tried but I was threatened, they threatened to falsely accuse me of all sorts of crimes so, I had to give in.”


The sound of Alfreda’s phone ringing had jolted the both of them. She looked across the bed at her phone and saw that it was the alarm she had set for 4 pm. The time had passed so quickly and David was still telling her what seemed like rubbish and seemed like the truth at the same time.

“You gave in to empty threats? Just like that?” Alfreda asked, she was about to reach the limit of her patience at that moment.


“I wish they were empty ones!” He cried.

STAY TUNED FOR EPISODE 4

Categories
Story Time

Who Made David Mad? (EPISODE 2)

Alfreda knew immediately she saw the look on his face that David was in trouble. Big trouble. He is not difficult to read especially when something is bothering him and somehow, she is always quick to detect just like this moment.

She took a step away from the window planes, and turned to face him,
“David, you can’t pretend nothing is bothering you, it’s all over your countenance and I know deep down that something is wrong, this was further rooted when you raised your voice at me over the phone today. what exactly is the problem? I need to know,” She asked in a barely audible and persuasive tone.

A low groan escaped his lips and he pushed himself up against the pillow. She noticed he was trying not to make eye contact with her and that made her more agitated.

“Al, I’m deeply sorry for raising my voice at you. I don’t know how to begin telling you this, I’m so scared and afraid. Saying this might cause a rift between us and I don’t want that, Al. I would be able to bear this burden alone,” He said while still making efforts not to make eye contact with her.

“David, you not speaking to me about whatever is going on means only one thing, and it is that you do not trust me. I need to know what is eating you up, baby. Do you know how I feel? As if you built a shell around yourself and you’ve withdrawn into that shell, shutting me out. What you seem not to know is, that I’m not happy when you are not, Dav. So please, talk to me,” she pleaded.

“Sweetheart… er hmm…you see…one thing I want you to know is that I will never intentionally hurt you, you’ve always been my rock, always been there when I need you most, you prioritize me over anything else even your career and I feel like I am the luckiest man on earth every single day and I pray earnestly to God that I do not want to hurt you because I love you with all my heart, without you, my existence is meaningless, my life had a turn around when you came into it.”

At that moment She had struggled to even breathe as a blush crept up her neck and spread widely across her cheeks. Oh, how he has a sugar-coated tongue, he has always been that good with words, words that made her insides tingle.

She snapped back to reality, beginning to get impatient and it seemed as if he was deliberately stalling time. Was he pulling her legs?

“Baby, I know all this, just tell me what has been bothering you.”

“Al, you see…ermm…,” He paused to clear his throat

“I have wronged you, all we have built is down the drain..be..be..because of my stupidity. All our savings are gone, I sold off my car and yours, the new owner of your car is not yet here to pick it because I told him to wait until I have informed you. I’m sorry I did not do so before going ahead to sell it. Al, there’s no hope of getting a proper apartment again, I sold my position at the office too, and I took out loans in my name and yours. We’re in a huge debt and we’re back to square one.” Then he went silent.

She said it! He was pulling her legs or he was simply playing a prank on her like the videos she has been seeing all over the internet nowadays where people play pranks on their loved ones while a camera records somewhere across the room.

She stood up to ransack every nook and cranny of the room, scattering things along her trail, looking for the hidden camera. Surely, this must be a prank or if it turns out not to be that, then it must be a dream.

“Al, take it easy, what are you looking for? You’re scaring me this way, Al. Al?…Al?..Al!”

She turned towards him suddenly and snapped,

“For God’s sake, where did you hide the camera? Where is the damn camera? I know all this is a prank but it is not funny, when did you start shooting videos for comedies, Dav? You know I hate surprises like this and you should have told me beforehand. So, where exactly did you place the camera?

While doing all that, her heart was slamming widely against her chest. She had looked straight into David’s eyes and what she saw horrified her. She saw guilt, anguish, and woe.

“Dav, you were playing a prank, right? You were trying to see what my reaction to that news would be, right? Are you being serious?”

“Yes, Al. I’m damn serious”

Her throat became dry and painful.

She sat on the bed next to him and said, “It’s no problem, all you spent was for the investment of your start-up company, right? The one you started alongside, Jide? Is it not moving according to plan? Do not worry, I understand. Everything will get into place soon. I know all this is to make our life and that of our children better and it’s not easy for a start-up company to boom immediately. We just have to trust God and put in more effort to make it work. Do you need more money, then? I can take out of my savings for you, baby”


“No, dammit! There was never a startup company Alfreda. Our lives are ruined!.”

“Our lives are ruined? Oh no, darling, I trust you”

Suddenly, something dawned upon her and she rushed towards her vanity table, opened the drawers, and ransacked it from top to bottom, she moved to their wardrobe, ransacked it, and still could not find the documents to both her car and his. She rushed downstairs and searched everywhere for her car keys but found nothing.

She had picked up the phone to call David’s friend, Jide, and cunningly asked Him about the start-up company and he denied having started something of such and even laughed at the idea of a start-up company.

She ended the call and put off her blouse to create a source of air herself as a wave of heat came upon her from nowhere and her throat felt tight. The atmosphere had been cold but it seemed as if she was in an incinerator.

This is a dream and she needed to wake up.

“Somebody wake me up,” she screamed

“Alfreda!” David called rushing down the stairs toward her

“Get it together, Al you’re not helping matters, you’re rather making it worse with your display. You know, I didn’t want to tell you. If I had known you’d go berserk like this, I wouldn’t have told you” He said with a straight face


“Make it worse? My display? You say all that to me? You sold my car, spent all our savings, did all sorts of things on only-God-knows-what without informing me and you dare say those words to me? I trusted you to know what you were doing but there was no company to start with. Oh God! I have been fooled. My head… My head is hot. Where did all the money go, Dav?”

She got no answer.

“What did you spend that money on before I go crazy? A mistress?”


“It was a game that was supposed to make me rich, The game took it all”

Right at that moment, she indeed went berserk

Then she laughed. She laughed like she never had in her entire life.



TO BE CONTINUED…

Categories
Story Time

WHO MADE DAVID MAD?

Alfreda suddenly turned face up, she had been lying down on her seat in the same position for some hours. The movement startled the old man sitting beside her, and she heard him gasp in shock, she looked over at him, he had that “What did you do that for” expression on his face. She had to say something to appease the man or else he would unseat her and throw her out of the plane with his intense stare. “I’m sorry, I was feeling uncomfortable sleeping on my side,” she said.

Sleep has eluded her for days now.

She’s been on this plane for 8 hours and she still hasn’t slept even for a minute. It was no better on the ground and in the sky, she had thought it could only get better while on the plane. She was wrong.

The images that pop up when she tries as much as to close her eyes to get a little rest are gory.

“David is not here on the plane with you, you have to take a few minutes of sleep. Try hard. Get him the fuck out of your mind and rest a little. You know you deserve better than a man like him,” that voice that has always been in her head said to her. The voice goes on and off, it comes to either console her, motivate her, or like now, scold her

“You know what? Just keep shut! If you do not get what my fear is about. You are just a passing voice, you can’t even help me, just disappear this very minute,” she murmured to herself.

It is easier said than done. It’s not as easy as the voice makes it seem. David has somehow imprinted the fear of him in her.

The thought of David and what he said he would do to her engulfs her like cold as every minute passes by.

He is capable of doing the most unthinkable things, I know who and what he is.

Alfreda has had no peace like he had said since she packed her belongings out of his apartment three days ago and finally, out of town yesterday far away from him and his vileness. But why? She was the victim here for God’s sake! The victim of his psychotic behaviors! She turned in her seat for the umpteenth time and sighed heavily.

She had loved this man with all her heart, Where did everything go wrong? At the peak of their relationship, everything just came crashing down. One thing she knew was that she was not at fault because she made sure to make their relationship work as much as she could.

It was David who was the orchestrator of the downfall that befell their relationship.

At first, David had sunk their finances into the mud. They both had agreed to keep a joint account and save twenty percent of their earnings in it, be it from their monthly salary, from proceedings of their side gigs, or any other means. They were a live-in couple and things were going well and as planned, in fact, they had planned to move from their studio apartment into a bigger and more spacious apartment by the end of the year.

Then, all of a sudden the money in the joint account started reducing day after day. Anytime, she asks David about it, he assures her and tells her it’s for a project introduced to him by his colleagues at the office and they needed as much money as possible to kickstart and keep it running.

At the point when it became obvious that he was going to empty all they’d strived to save for the past three years, she became worried and had to call him to talk.

One day, she had reached out for her phone to call him. Picking up the phone to call him was a usual routine and she was used to it already and he was, too or so she thought. As soon as he answered her call, the next thing she heard was him yelling at her and saying what she could not process at that moment, and up till now, she still did not understand what caused that outburst from him.

“Hello honey,” she said as soon as she heard his voice over the phone.

No reply.

“How’s work moving?” She asked and got no reply from him again.

He sure could hear her well, she could hear him breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong Dav? Are you okay? Why are you not responding? You don’t sound okay? Is work tedious today? Should I come to drive you around town so you can cool off a bit?” A wave of restlessness came upon her when she still did not get a response from the other end of the phone. She was about to look for footwear to put on when she suddenly heard him speak.

“Look Al, I need you to know the appropriate time to call and not to call, your call just made me lose a fucking deal! You need to learn from other girls who do not use calls to disturb their man during the day and do better.”

Alfreda stiffened at the snap in David’s voice remembering that David was all charms when dealing with her, something must be wrong at work then. He had abruptly cut off the call. She would wait patiently for him at home and get to know what went wrong.

He came home very late that night but she did not question him, he showered, ate a little, went up to the room, and slept immediately. Thankfully, the next day was a weekend, David does not go to the office on weekends so she decided to bring up the matter the next day.

Alfreda stood up very early the next day, to sort out house chores so she and David could have time to talk without any distractions. She went back into the bedroom and saw David already awake. David is no doubt a handsome man. He was a tall, dark, athletically built man in his late twenties and very aware of his good looks and physique. That drowsy half-awake expression on his face every morning never ceases to make her heart flutter. As Alfreda closed the door behind her, she moved further into the room and made her way to the bed, she bent down to kiss David on the cheek and immediately felt a tingle spread through to her spine. David pulled her closer and attempted to deepen the kiss but she escaped his embrace and proceeded to open the window blinds. She knew if she obliged him, they would forget the issue at hand totally.

It was glaring that he had been avoiding talking about what had been going on with him.

She was busy dusting the window with her back still turned towards him as she said,

“David, you know we have to talk right? About what you’ve been up to this past few months. I deserve to be informed about it and no! We won’t talk about this later but right now.”

She could feel David’s eyes boring intensely into her back. And right there and then, she knew.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Categories
Uncategorized

WHO MADE DAVID MAD?

PART 1

Alfreda suddenly turned face up, she had been lying down on her seat in the same position for some hours. The movement startled the old man sitting beside her, as she heard him gasp in shock, she looked over at him, he had that ‘What did you do that for’ expression on his face. She had to say something to appease the man or else he would unseat her and throw her out of the plane with his intense stare. “I’m sorry, I was feeling uncomfortable sleeping on my side,” she said.

Sleep has eluded her for days now.
She’s been on this plane for 8 hours and she still hasn’t slept even for a minute. It was no better on the ground and in the sky, she had thought it could only get better while in the plane. She was wrong.

The images that pop up when she tries as much as to close her eyes to get a little rest are gory.

“David is not here on the plane with you, you have to take a few minutes of sleep. Try hard. Get him the fuck out of your mind and rest a little. You know you deserve better than a man like him,” that voice that has always been in her head said to her. The voice goes on and off, it comes to either console her, motivate her, or like now, scold her

“You know what? Just keep shut! If you do not get what my fear is about. You are just a passing voice, you can’t even help me, just disappear this very minute,” she murmured to herself.

It is easier said than done. It’s not as easy as the voice makes it seem. David has somehow imprinted fear of him in her.

The thought of David and what he said he would do to her engulfs her like cold as every minute passes by.
He is capable of doing the most unthinkable things, I know who and what he is.

Alfreda has had no peace like he had said since she packed her belongings out of his apartment three days ago and finally, out of town yesterday far away from him and his vileness. But why? She was the victim here for God’s sake! The victim of his psychotic behaviors! She turned in her seat for the umpteenth time and sighed heavily.

She had loved this man with all her heart, Where did everything go wrong? At the peak of their relationship, everything just came crashing down. One thing she knew was that she was not the one at fault because she made sure to make their relationship work as much as she could.

It was David who was the orchestrator of the downfall that befell their relationship.

At first, David had sunk their finances into the mud. They both had agreed to keep a joint account and save 20% of their earnings in it, be it from their monthly salary, from proceedings of their side gigs, or any other means. They were live-in couples and things were going well as planned they had planned to move from their studio apartment into a bigger and more spacious apartment by the end of the year.

Then, all of a sudden the money in the joint account started reducing day after day. Anytime, she asks David about it, he assures her and tells her it’s for a project introduced to him by his colleagues at the office and they needed as much money as possible to kickstart and keep it running.
At the point when it became obvious that he was going to empty all they had strived to save for the past 3 years, she became worried and had to call him to talk.

One day, she had reached out for her phone to call him. Picking up the phone to call him was a usual routine and she was used to it already and he was, too or so she thought. As soon as he answered her call, the next thing she heard was him yelling at her and saying what she could not process at that moment, and up till now, she still did not understand what caused that outburst from him.

“Hello honey,” she said as soon as she heard his voice over the phone.

No reply.

“How’s work moving?” She asked and got no reply from him again.

He sure could hear her well, she could hear him breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong Dav? Are you okay? Why are you not responding? You don’t sound okay? Is work tedious today? Should I come to drive you around town so you can cool off a bit?” A wave of restlessness came upon her when she still did not get a response from the other end of the phone. She was about to look for footwear to put on and drive down to his office when she suddenly heard him speak.

“Look Al, I need you to know the appropriate time to call and not to call, your call just made me lose a fucking deal! You need to learn from other girls who do not use calls to disturb their man during the day and do better.”

Alfreda stiffened at the snap in David’s voice remembering that David was all charms when dealing with her, something must be wrong at work then. He had abruptly cut off the call. She would wait patiently for him at home and get to know what went wrong.

He came home very late that night, but she did not question him, he showered, ate a little, went up to the room, and slept immediately. Thankfully, the next day was a weekend, David does not go to the office on weekends so she decided to bring up the matter the next day.

Alfreda stood up very early the next day, to sort out house chores so she and David could have time to talk without any distractions. She went back into the bedroom and saw David already awake. David is no doubt a handsome man. He was a tall, dark, athletically built man in his late twenties and very aware of his good looks and physique. That drowsy half-awake expression on his face every morning never ceases to make her heart flutter. As Alfreda closed the door behind her, she moved further into the room and made her way to the bed, she bent down to kiss David on the cheek and immediately felt a tingle spread through to her spine. David pulled her closer and attempted to deepen the kiss but she escaped his embrace and proceeded to open the window blinds. She knows if she obliges him, they will forget the issue at hand, totally.

It was glaring that he had been avoiding talking about what was going on with him.

She was busy dusting the window with her back still turned towards him as she said,

“David, you know we have to talk right? About what you’ve been up to this past few months. I deserve to be informed about it and no! We won’t talk about this later but right now.”

She could feel David’s eyes boring intensely into her back. And right there and then, she knew.



TO BE CONTINUED…