UPWARD MOVEMENT
‘Oh
my’, I sighed.
‘What?’
Bidemi asked. She repeated the question twice but gave up when she did not get
any answer.
It
had become a routine. I mean the sighs. The reason for them was what I could
not place. All I know was that for sure, I yearned for fulfillment and that
with every passing day this fulfillment seems to elude me.
My
phone began to ring. At first I did not recognize its ‘omoge mi’ ringtone but
Bidemi’s continued stare made me eventually pick the phone. I picked up the
phone but not the call. The caller ID told me that it was Nkechi on the line. I
did not feel like talking to her. I could tell how the conversation will go.
Nkechi was a success story; married to a loving, caring and rich man who had a
fantastic consulting outfit and adored her, Nkechi had two kids, a girl and a
boy, just as she always dreamed of in school. Picking up her call was a
reminder of how hard it has been it has been for me since I lost my job two
years back. It would also remind me of Shadrack’s disappearance and the consequential
loss of my five months pregnancy the year before. In totality, it reminded me of
how much of a failure I had been.
‘You
should have picked the call, Asia’, Bidemi said, breaking into my thoughts. It seems
to be her forte these days but I was grateful. Bidemi would never express her
opinion in a condescending manner or chide me for being out of a job at my age.
Even throughout Shadrack’s episode, she would never condemn. This is in spite
of the fact that she never liked Shadrack all trough the period we dated.
‘There
is something that is just not set about him, Asia, he is just not that set’. She
would say.
Bidemi
grew up with us. I mean in my family home. Her mother was my mother’s little
sister. Her dad, she never knew, he never saw her. He was on training when she
was born. He died in a plane crash on his way back. When her mum remarried
after her sixth birthday, she decided to leave her with my mum who did not mind
as I being the last was already in my third year in a secondary boarding
school.
‘She
is calling again pick up the call. You may never know’, Bidemi added again
I called her my shadow when she was like this.
Good thing was that at times like this she was mostly right, sorry, always
right. As she was with Shadrack so she was with Nkechi. I was right too. I mean
my intuition about the reason for Nkechi’s call was right. She was calling to
invite me to her daughter’s birthday in the coming week- end. She had planned
to do a joint celebration with her tenth year wedding anniversary.
I
had my reservations as I dressed up for the party that Saturday but Bidemi did
not give me any room to exercise them. She practically dressed me up and
walked me to the party. It was not until I had gotten into the compound that
she returned home.
Nkechi’s
party changed my world. It was at the party that I met Bode who was looking for
an on-the-ground partner to run his carpentry/furniture business. At first I thought
it was not feminine but the thought of learning something masculine intrigued
me. By the next week, work started as Bode was in a hurry to travel back to his
Brazil base.
I
was on the job when Nosa walked in to request for the furnishing of his
company. From taking measurements and trying to meet specifications to a few
lunch dates, we went further to becoming man and wife.
***************************
Finally
I found fulfillment so we named our baby Oghogho.
I
thank God for his faithfulness and for those who coped with me in my time of
depression, particularly Bidemi.
