Roland sounded stressed. “Yes, Baby. I’ve bought you four different and expensive phones in six months and the one you’re using now is perfectly fine. I got it for you three weeks ago, so why do you want a new one for goodness’ sake?”
“The fact that I want it should be enough for you, that’s what love is all about. I thought we agreed you’ll fulfil your duties as a boyfriend by meeting my every need.”
“That’s the problem, this is not a need. You’ll survive without a new phone.”
Rita rolled her eyes, not believing that Roland was capable of denying her something important to her, “So, in essence, you won’t get me a new phone, is that it? Let all my friends use the latest phone while I use something three weeks old”
“Fine, I’ll give you the money for a new phone but that means, we’ll have to spend the weekend in my house. Also, I must warn you, my mother is around so you must behave yourself.”
Rita screamed inwardly. She wasn’t ready to spend an entire weekend with Roland’s mother yet. “It’s better we go to Sheraton. You can get me a new phone any other time.”
“Hmmm, you’ll like to live with me forever someday but you can’t spend one weekend with the woman who raised me.”
“Honey, it’s not like that, even though I’ve not yet met your mother, I already love her and hopefully we’ll meet soon. I’m not just ready.”
“Okay, I understand. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Rita smiled as she ended the call. In her own way, Roland was really important to her. Her phone beeped again and this time, it was a message from her mom, asking that she spend the weekend at their home in Abeokuta, Ogun State. She sighed as she informed Roland of the latest development via text message. Hurriedly, she packed some of her clothes into a box. Of course, she packed only decent attires. Mom would be disappointed to see anything else. Quickly, she cleaned her dust coated bible and kept it in her box. That would make dad impressed. She came from a long line of evangelists and prayer warriors.
She looked round to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything then left the apartment with Wendy who insisted, she’d see her off. The terrible traffic on the way made the journey stressful. The word out was that the government had contracted the road construction to a popular company in Nigeria. Nobody had an inkling on the number of months the so called construction company intended to use in fixing the road. Six months had slipped by and the work at best seemed to be moving at a snail’s speed. The bad road made jaunting a nightmare. Rita got home exhausted but when she saw her mother sitting serenely with her eyes fixed on her bible, she smiled. She didn’t get what her mother found so interesting about the bible but again, maybe it contained the secret to her mother’s good looks. Every time she saw her mother, she looked like she was aging backwards, even the slight wrinkles here and there exuded strength instead of old age. When her mother looked up from the bible, Rita immediately regretted leaving her camera behind. The joy in her mother’s eyes could only be explained visually. Mrs. Macaulay closed her bible, kept it a corner of the chair and drew her into a tight hug. “My good daughter, how are you?”
Rita kept smiling. She was her mother’s only daughter. She wondered why her mother always used the word ‘good’ to qualify her even when in reality she was far from that but to be sincere, mom didn’t suspect her daughter had gone bad and she intended to keep it that way. “Mom, I’m great. I’ve missed you.”
Mr. Macaulay called out from inside. “Aha, my little pumpkin is back. Won’t you come inside and greet your father?”
During Rita’s early childhood days, she had been in awe of her father. He was hardly ever around but when he was, he was like a cool celebrity. Everybody trooped in to see him. She felt honoured to be blessed with his presence and listened keenly to the tales of his sojourn.
Rita hurried to the room and curtsied. “Good afternoon sir”
He closed the book he had been reading on love and marriage. “Good afternoon my angel, how are you?”
Rita wasn’t surprised to see her dad reading a love book. This wasn’t the first time he was doing that. “Very fine sir.”
Mrs. Macaulay stood by the doorway. “How was the journey?”
Mr. Macaulay wiped the sweat off Rita’s cheek with his handkerchief. Rita thanked him then turned to her mother. “Hectic. The traffic was so bad I prayed for wings.”
Mr. and Mrs. Macaulay laughed. “Wings indeed! It’ll get better dear,” they said in unison. The years had indeed been good to her parents. Rita liked the way they sometimes finished each other’s statements. Every day, they were becoming more alike than she ever remembered. That was not all. As the years flew past, beautiful physical resemblances seemed to mark their features, maybe it had something to do with relating intimately with one person for many years.
Mrs. Macaulay continued. “Go and drop your bag upstairs, then come down for lunch, okay?”
“Yes mom.” Rita stood up, carrying her box but stopped as she approached the door and turned to her father. “Please, tell me again, why do you read books on marriage and love?”
Mr. Macaulay’s eyes gleamed then became sombre. “Had I read these Christian books before marriage, I would have avoided a lot of mistakes. Honey, we’re indeed blessed to have such a good daughter like you and every day, for the rest of my life, I want to be a good husband to your mother and a good father to you.”
Rita went up to her room with a smile playing on her lips. Dinner time in her home was always fantastic, and that’s majorly because they talked as they ate and she got to watch dad steal glances at mom when he thought she wasn’t looking. Soon, it was night and Rita retired to her room after listening to advice from her parents on life, don’t withhold help from people and when you need it, you’ll find it. Remember how Jesus made Simon Peter a fisher of men after he lent him his boat. Remember how Abraham fed the strangers and got Isaac in return, remember how the Zeraphat woman offered Elijah shelter and got a child, remember how Ruth took care of her mother-in-law and got blessed with another husband, a wealthy and popular one. When her parents were done with the lecture, she thanked them then left making a mental note to treat people better. That second personality that almost always opposed her spoke now, you could start with Roland so you don’t cheat yourself out of a good relationship by cheating. She’d ponder on it later, she’d had enough lecture for one day. The minute her head hit her bed, she picked up her phone and started chatting with her boss. He simply loved having night chats with her. According to him, they helped him sleep better. Since doing that endeared her to him, she willingly sacrificed some hours of her night rest.
At 1am, sleep still evaded Mrs. Joy Macaulay. Her mind was disturbed for reasons unknown to her. Rita kept coming to mind, Rita as a child crying whenever they went for evangelical assignments without her, Rita as a teenager, quiet and willing to do whatever she was told, offering little or no opinion, Rita as an adult who seemed pretty balanced but was she?
Appearances could be deceiving.
Why was she thinking so much about her daughter who was only three rooms away? Since Mr. Macaulay was sleeping soundly, she decided to go check on her. She wiped her eyes with her hands and afterwards got out of bed gently. In two minutes, she was in her daughter’s room. “Rita, you’re not sleeping.”
At the sound of her mother’s voice, Rita dropped her phone on the bed and sat up. “No mom, I’m chatting with a client.”
Mrs. Macaulay folded her hands as she leaned on the door. “At 1am?”
Rita coughed. “Yeah, I’m trying to finalise some urgent business deals.”
Mrs. Macaulay raised her eyebrows and nodded. “And the conversation was so intense that you didn’t hear me come into your room?” She traipsed down the room, sank on the bed and looked at the phone before Rita hurriedly covered it with a pillow, coughing gently. “This