Countless - S01 E92

3 years ago

Countless - S01 E92

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 92

Dressed in a vermilion moschino top and a blue pencil jean with her cropped pixie cut radiating under the lumniscence of the white fluorescent bulb medial the P.O.P ceiling of the boutique section of the Modus shopping mall was Nike, Doris daughter and Joke’s sister calling me that provocative name.

All my past encounters with her began to trickle into the memory card of my brain as we both engaged in almost 3mins of awkward stare on eachother.

The simultaneous equation stunt she pulled when she saw me hiding under the bed in her mum’s room and how she always come to the rescue whenever I find myself in a compromising situation with Joke and a whole lot of other complicated memories of us continued to take a leisure stroll in my mind during the short moment of awkwardness.

Just when I thought I’d succesfully buried and celebrated the wake-keep of some of the causes of my past mistakes, Doyin, Doris, Joke, Lovelyn, Chioma, Jessica, and Beatrice just to mention the least, but apparently the devil have taken it personally to use Karma and Fate, those two lesbian moderators to push another imminent trouble to the front page of my life.

“Nike, Hi…longtime….” I managed to say after my vocal cord had succesfully returned words back into my mouth and simultaneously extending an handshake.

“that doesn’t answer my question….” She declared plainly with a smirk while turning down my handshake offer.

“which question is that?” I asked pushing the trolley away from the walking path of passer’s by whom were starting to disperse steadily.

“I said are you here to steal something else? Handsome th….”

“will you stop calling me that?” I curt in feeling upset at her.

She let out a wicked chuckle before she spoke. “and why should I stop? After everything you did to us?….eh? You deserve that and more Mr thief!”

“is something wrong with you? Last time I checked my name still remains Darousmart …..and not what you just calling me.”

“really? Cos last time I also checked, you are a thief, a liar, a cheat and a flirt….” She expected me to retaliate but I just gave her a wryry smile which prompted her to resume her free style ramblings featuring what seems like nonsense and jargons to my ears.

“hehehe….Darous….” She said clapping her palms together. “if am to go by what my mum said you did, you will be in the cell right now….”

“and why would I be in the police cell when have done nothing illegal to you or your mum….” I stated rhetorically feeling a bit confused at her insinuations.

She raised an eyebrow at the completion of my statement and readjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder as she changed her countenance to a more serious one.

“don’t you dare play a dumb game with me….After everything we did for you, Darous, the only way you see deem fit to repay us is by attempting to kill my mum after she caught you trying to steal her jewelries….you’re so unbelievable…..and am beginning to hate you for that……” She declared frankly and I was totally flabbergasted at the life-sentence lie her mum said about me.

Apparently instead of trying to defend myself or argue as she continued to reveal all what her mum said, I turned around and walked out of the mall leaving her there to stare at my back.

***

I was still beside the main road thinking of all that just transpired inside the mall between me and Nike when I began to hear Nike’s voice shouting my name.

“Darous! Darous!…..” I turned around and watched her panting and running in my direction.

After catching her breath, she accosted me and continued from where she’d stopped inside the mall.

“don’t you dare walk away without saying something or telling me why you had to do that to us, after everything we did for you….” She paused to hear my verdict on the issue but instead I just returned my attention back to the road trying to wave down a bike. “conscience is troubling you right?” She said after probably getting frustrated at my silence.

“your mum is a first class b!tch Nike…she just bade peace a goodbye and she will never know one in her life ever again for all that accussations against me. I swear to gawd…she will live to rue the day she lied against me after selling me off like some piece of trash to Beatrice. Tell her am coming for my twins. She just drew the battle line. And she should be ready for the consequences.” I wanted it so badly to say all that to Nike while she continue to glare at my perturbed face as I engaged in a deep thought at how best to handle the situation.

I scoffed and moved closer to her. “you want me to say something?” I asked. “well have gat just 3 words to say to you…”

“then say it and stop hiding under the gallows of muteness!” She shouted at me.

“THUNDER FIRE YOU!” I declared without feeling any bit of remorse. I watched dolourly as the proud look on her face absconded and a gentle one replaced it.

I returned my attention to the road and waited expectantly for the next bike.

‘you should’ve relocated after you got back from Nasarawa. You brought all this upon yourself with your decision to still remain in Abk and if anything happens after this, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. You should have make hay while the sunshines.’ That was one of my inner voice telling me how stup!d my decision to remain in Abeokuta was while waiting for the next upcoming bike and I couldn’t agree less after whats happening presently.

I heard Nike let out a small chuckle and ambled to my front while backing the road.

“you think you are smart right? Well I wonder what you gonna do when my sister that has been searching everywhere for you finally learns that you are back in town..” She paused to study my facial expression which was suddenly filled with worry and anxiety and she continued. “do you have the slightest clue of how devastated my sister was when my mum told us what you did?…..” She halted again to see my reaction which still remains the same. “I guess you don’t….my mum had to leave the country for the U.S when she could no longer withstand the pitiful state of my sister….”

I felt a painful punch in my heart when the awful imagination of what Joke had gone through because of my transgressions dawned on me.

‘please….please forgive me! Joke! Pleeeeaaase!’ I cried inwardly in agony cos ironically, I realised I had some undiscribable feelings for that cool and loving woman afterall.

“and knowing my sister well,” Nike interrupted probably after seeing the effects of her words on me. “I know she wouldn’t take it any where near easy on you….and when that happens, I’d be the most happiest spectator at your falling point.” She hissed after saying that and turned around and began to walk away.

It took my brain some minutes to assess the consequences of Joke finding out about my return to Abk as I watched Nike walked back into the Modus shopping mall.

‘Sometimes the greatest sacrifice someone can make is to give up what they hold most dear. And if letting go of Joke will be the key to getting her a better man and happiness, then you should be glad to make that sacrifice.’ The same inner voice mentored and again, I had no choice than to succumb with it.

As far as am concerned, Joke is far better off without me. She deserved someone better to make her happy and not a flirtious idiot like me.

With that selfless thought in mind, I quickly ran after Nike and pleaded with her for a longtime not to inform Joke of my presence in Abk.

“whats in it for me? If I choose to keep my mouth shut from my sister?” She finally said that after almost five minutes that I spent trying to make her see reasons with me.

“you don’t get it? Your sister is better off without me..” I stressed for the upteenth time.

“I know T-H-A-T.” She said laying emphasis on the last word.

“ok..ok…what would you have me do?” I inquired after realising that I had no choice than to acquiesce to the direction she just steered the discussion to.

“first you have to promise to agree to it….” She said with a mischievious shrug.

“you make it sound as if I have any choice.”

“no you don’t buh I had to be sure you’re willing to do it.”

“ok I promise”

“fine. Lets pick up from where you and my sister stopped.” She stated downrightly.

“what! Thats absurd!” I lamented after seeing that my determination of not introducing another variable of p---y into the equation of my relationship with Bella was about to crumble.

“Remember you owe me some favours back then, see this as your way of paying me back. Or else am gonna sit my sister down when I got home.”

“wait, are you trying to blackmail me?” I questioned confusedly

“call it what ever colour of mail you want, but I think this is Paybackmail.” She stated with a feral smile.

“hmmm…” I hummed as I couldn’t come up with the proper thing or words to say to find my way out of her complicated proposal. “ok…ok…but it won’t be a serious thing atall. Do you really want that?” I said after deliberating on it for some minutes.

“great…atlast we had a deal. Am paying you a visit tomorrow.” She declared and gave me her number before she leaned up to me and gave me a suprise peck on my right cheeks.

She turned around and left me standing there like a statue to wonder about all that just transpired between us.

***

I got home around 12:30pm after Nike had succesfully blackmail me into succumbing to her proposal of paying me a visit the following day. The only department of my body that was thrilled at the expectation of her visitation was my konjination.

I was about rounding the corner that leads to my room when I started hearing some ransacking sounds coming from Jide’s room

Thinking it was Blessing, I headed there and was about knocking the door when I heard Jide’s voice making a call

The door wasn’t totally closed and when I peeped through the small space between the door and its frame, I was able to see Jide, backing the entrance while rearranging some cloths on the bed

With a rare spark of geniustic instinct and boundless megabite of curiousity, I settled my ear closely behind the door and listened with rapt focus at the phone call.

“I said I’ll be back before evening. I just came to pick some few things from my room….(silence) ok…..No…I know..but please give me sometime, I’ll pay you your 30k in full…..I know…please you have to understand….eh?…na that idiot wey spoil my source of income na…ah go don pay you since…..(silence)….ah sure thing nao…. Later guy….”

The moment he ended the call, a sudden urge to barge inside and experiment my boxing skills on him surged through my body but something stopped me abstractly from doing so.

Barging inside ferociously, I launched a well aimed overhead punch to his head and before his goalkeeper could say Jack, my Leonel Messi had already sent the ball of my punch to the back of the net of his skull.

After falling face flat on the tawny rug with a groaning sound, Jide rolled over quickly and I watched with gritted teeth as his once upon a time cool face turned to one filled with shock and horror.

“happy to see me?” I asked and without giving him any chance to regain his stand, I quickly pounced on him and began to rain all sorts of punch on him.

He ducked some and unducked a plenty some, but at the end of the scuffle session, I was able to pin him down while holding his neck firmly as if trying to squeeze life out of him as he struggled for his life under me.

His eyes was tainted in red as he wriggled vigorously perhaps to roll me over but no, this desperate shangoic body of mine is too much for his treachery strenght to handle.

“urgh..urgh…” That was him making some gagging sound as blood continue to ooze out from every unit of hole in his face.

“tell me!…” I yelled. “what did I do to deserve this.? Tell me before I kill you….tell me!” I thundered angrily while he continue to make the gagging sound as strenght gradually defied him and he choicelessly surrendered himself to me.

“I…I….I…” He was about to continue when the vibration of my S7 snapped me out of the thriller movie displaying inside my head.

Meaning all the events I narrated above only happened in the imaginary-wood of my brain while in reality-wood, I was still standing behind the door contemplating on whether to barge inside and display a rare level of maturity for him or carry out the events of the imaginary-wood in reality-wood.

I settled on the former and when Jide saw me enter the room, I must say, even dictionaries will be in a bone of contention when trying to come up with the right adjective to discribe the look on his face.

But apparently from our english lecturer in GLOCOTEL where I graduated from, Jide’s face was laced with a high level of flabbergastedinervoustination.

“hi buddy.” I said with a placcid smile and a handshake gestur

He swallowed hard before talking. “ah..hi…guy.” He managed to return the handshake.

“longtime.”

“no see bro….” He replied as he settled on the plastic chair infront of the bed. “where have you been Darous…we’ve looked everywhere for you.” He said while googleling my face for honest answers which I wasn’t ready to give.

I also settled my body on his bed. “well, I was trying to give you some space after what happened between us in my hometown.”

“oh guy, you don’t need that nao, that one don tey. We don already move past that level.”

“you sure?” I asked with a tone of sarcasm

“yes nao…if not we wouldn’t be having this conversation na.” He stated oblivious to my sarcastic tone.

I reclined on the bed and gave him another smile. “ok. Buy us drinks and lets party to the celebration of this re-frendship.”

He scratched his head and embarked on one of his typical way of telling me how broke he was.

“ah go buy 200naira card to call my mumsie, ah need 50naira detergent and 200naira toothpaste….” He rambled on while holding a 500naira note he picked from his pockets.

“ah go use the remaining to chop this….”

“lets go to Tantalizers. The bills on me.” I interrupted him and he was totally dumbstruck at my rich and thunder fire recession offer.

“you sure?” He queried agogly.

“yes bro. Lets go.” I said and we both exited the room.

Before going to the eatery, I made sure I gave him another reason to feel dumbstrucked when I transferred 40k into his account.

“thank you bro…..you’re indeed a life saver.” He stated appreciatively after seeing the alert.

“never mention bro…” I replied with another smile and oblivious to Jide was the silent message that always follow every benovelent acts I did for him that reads:

‘YOUR WAYS TO STOP MY HAPPINESS WILL ALWAYS BE A STEPPING STONE FOR ME TO BE ECSTATIC’.

And besides, “no better way to have revenge on someone that doesn’t want your happiness than making sure you always keep a happy face whenever they are inches away from you and let their conscience handle the rest.” Epistlelistic quote of a shangoic writer. TheBlessedMAN.