SHADOWS (5)

 

“Hello? Seun
said into the receiver. “Yes, I am…. What? Where is she? Why is she here? Okay,
send her in.”

Why is Dami here? Is something wrong? Did something
happen to her? She
became increasingly worried for her niece.

She got up from
her chair, pacing, like she did whenever she was worried or angry.

There was a soft
knock on the door and it opened. Dami entered, followed closely behind by Rita.

“Oh my God,
you’re here,” Seun said, rushing to hug a surprised Dami.

“Aunty Seun, the
hug…..too tight,” Dami struggled to say.

Seun released
her. “So sorry. What happened to you?” she asked, turning Dami around, looking
all over her body. “Did anybody hurt you?” She looked at Rita, “Where did you
find her?”

“Nothing
happened to me,” Dami said.

“Nothing
happened to her, I guess,” Rita added. “She told me she came to see you.”

“See me for
what? Why did the school authority allow you leave the premises like that?”

“I’ll leave you
two to it,” Rita said and left the office.

“Your office is
very beautiful,” Dami said, looking around, slowly walking away from Seun.

“Don’t act smart
with me, young lady,” Seun said, pulling her back. “Why are you here when you
should be in school?”

 “School is over, Aunty Seun. See,” Dami
pointed at the wall clock, “it’s past five.”

Seun looked and
relaxed a bit. “Okay….why did you come here? Are you not supposed to go home?
Why did the cab not take you home?”

“I told him to
bring me here because you asked me to come.”

“You lied,
Dami!”

“I know and I am
so sorry, Aunty Seun. I wanted to see where you worked and I wanted to see you
too,” Dami pleaded.

“And it couldn’t
wait till I got home?”

“No, I wanted to
watch you work.”

Seun looked at
her for a while. “Don’t do that again, okay?”

Dami nodded,
taking a seat in front of Seun’s desk.

Seun sat beside
her. “So, how was school today?”

“Fine.”

“That’s all? No
gist for me today?”

Dami shrugged.
“Nothing special happened in school today.”

“I see. What
about….”

“He did not come
to school today,” Dami cut in.

“Who?”

“Gideon. Is that
not who you wanted to ask me about?”

“No, I wanted to
ask how the quiz went. You’ve been preparing hard for it all week. But now that
you’ve mentioned Gideon being absent, I can tell why ‘nothing special happened
in school’.”

Dami flushed.
“You’re not going to let me hear the last of this, right? I told you one small
secret and you’re blowing it out of proportion.”

“Nope, it won’t
be the last. Besides, it is still our secret; your parents and even my husband
do not know about it. Maybe I’ll come to your school on Monday and see this
Gideon boy that…..”

“No!” Dami said,
suddenly. “Please, don’t!”

“Why?”

“He is not my
boyfriend!”

“So? It usually
starts from somewhere……from friends to….”

“We are not even
friends,” Dami said, “We don’t talk to each other.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to
talk about it, please,” Dami pleaded. Seun nodded in understanding. Her niece
probably liked a guy who barely acknowledged her existence or had too many
girls all over him. It was something she knew too well.

“It’s okay,”
Seun said, walking over to her seat.

“My dad’s office
is bigger and more spacious than yours but I think I like yours better. It’s
more calm and relaxing” Dami said after a short while.

 “Your dad’s bigger because he is the CEO of
his company. I am just an employee here. It will take a while before I become a
CEO.”

“Maybe if you
start that consultant business you’ve been talking about, you’ll be a CEO in no
time. I heard you and Uncle George talk about it one time like that.”

Seun looked at
her, stunned. “Dami! You eavesdrop on our conversations?!”

Dami’s eyes
widened, realizing the implication of what she had said. “No! No! Aunty Seun,
it’s not like that, I swear. I don’t eavesdrop, I swear.” Seun raised a brow.
“I was eating on the dining table that day when both of you were talking about
it, that’s how I knew.”

“I see,” Seun
said, making a mental note to be careful what they discussed in Dami’s presence
or in the sitting room. “Anyway, starting a business is hard, it’s not easy.”

“You have Uncle
George, right? I’m sure he’ll help you,” Dami said, looking at a file on her
table.

Seun smiled. Of
course, George would always help her. He had wanted her to start her own
business by the side. He knew she was capable but she didn’t think so….not yet.

“I’m hungry,
Aunty Seun,” Dami said.

“You wouldn’t be
saying this if you had gone home from school. We work here, madam.”

The door opened
and Rita walked in, a file in her hand. Mr Lambe asked me to give you this,”
she said.

Seun collected
it. “You see, Dami? We work here. Do you want to go home or wait till I close?”

“I’ll wait,”
Dami said, resignedly.

“Fine.” She
opened the file and her face turned sour. “What is this?” She looked at Rita
and back at the file, turning some pages over. “Why did…you know what, I’ll
handle it myself.”

She got up and
adjusted her skirt. “Please, before this one looks at me like I want to kill
her, do ask her what she wants to eat and get for her,“ she said to Rita.

Dami smiled. “Thank
you, Aunty Seun.”

“Yeah, stay put
and don’t leave this office.” I have an
urgent matter to deal with.

***********

George was
relaxing at home after work when he heard the honk of a car. It didn’t sound
like his wife’s, still, he looked. When the gate opened, a silver Camry car
pulled in.

Nah, not my babe’s, he thought.

He had been
worried when he got home and didn’t meet Dami and quickly called Dami. She told
him they were together. He hoped they would not be caught in traffic for too
long as it was now past eight.

He turned on the
television, flipping through channels.

He stopped when
he heard the doorbell. Who could it be at
this time? He got up and walked towards the door. He stopped for a while. Ahhh! It had better not be Jossy and his wife ooo. I dobt have
strength to settle any fight oop. Why did I even turn on the TV?

Jossy was one of
their neighbours who always had one issue or the other with his wife. He and
Seun had tried to settle them during one of their fights when they had just
moved into the compound and boom, the and Seun became the peacemakers whenever
they fought.

Personally, he
was tired of talking and didn’t want to go out most days to meet them but Seun
kept insisting.

The person
didn’t seem to give up because the doorbell kept chiming.

He groaned as he
opened the door. His mouth fell open. He wished he was seeing Jossy and his
wife in front of him now.

Not you! Not you! Not you!

“Hi, George. How
are you? It’s been a while, right?” He looked on, dazed. “You should close your
mouth before a fly enters,” she said, winked at him and entered the house.

She looked
around, running her fingers at the dining table and chairs. She went over to
the window closest to her where George had stood earlier and buried her face
into the curtain and inhaled. “Hmmm….feels and looks the same.” She looked out
of the window briefly as though expecting someone and turned to look at George.
“Just a few changes here and there, not so much, anyway. Seems only like
yesterday, right?”

She walked over
to the couch in the sitting room and sat. “So, where’s your wife?”

“What are you
doing here, Anita?” George asked
when he finally found his voice.

“I was in the
neighbourhood and thought to say hi. Is that a bad thing?”

A petite fair
skinned lady with glossy skin and body with well accentuated curves, Anita was
drop dead gorgeous.  She was wearing a
short, tight gown, black heels and a silver clutch purse. Her red lipstick and
perfect makeup only helped highlighted her beautiful facial features.

George found
himself looking intently and hopelessly at her. Anita was his on and off
girlfriend for five years.

He was really in
love with her then and thought she was too. At least, until he began talking
about marriage, that was when it all changed. She began acting strangely and
finally told him she wasn’t interested in being anybody’s wife.

“I want to live
and enjoy my life without anybody telling me what to do or not, I will not be
anybody’s slave!” she had told him that day.

And here she was
after all she did, sitting in front of him and smiling flirtatiously at him.

“I miss you,
George,” she said, standing up and walking towards him. “And with the way you
look at me, I can tell you do too.”

He pushed her
away. “Tell me why you’re here before I throw you out. I did not even ask you
to come in.”

“But you didn’t
stop me, why?” She smiled and winked. “I miss us, you know.”

(To be continued….)