IN THE DARK
Episode 1
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The tap on my door woke me up,as soon as i opened my eyes,I noticed that the sun was shinning brightly already,time checked 9:00am . I heard My mom’s voice from my door step saying ‘Nancy wakeup,open up baby,its your day!’. What the heck is she talking about? My day Am I getting married or something??. I was thinking semi-awake,then she shouted from my door step again “its your birthday baby!! Your birthday!!! now open up”. My eyes widened immediately as if it would come out of its socket, OMG ‘its my birthday!!’ I hurriedly threw the duvet away from myself,rushed to the door and unlocked.
There she was,full of smile,with two househelp,one carrying a shopping bag and the other a beautiful cake decorated with pink and blue colour. The cake has a teddy bear shape with “sweet sixteen” boldly written on it. This woman knew how to take my breath away,she was my world,the one and only MRS.Williams. With all smile,i bent down to greet my mom,she carried me up half way and engulved me in a tight embrace. Saying prayers and wishing me a happy birthday in the middle of the mother/
daughter embrace. I kept on saying ‘amen’ till she released me and looked into my eyes and say ” how i wish he is here today” by that i already knew she was refering to my dad, she continued ” he was always making plans for your sixteenth birthday”. She was already in tears, i hugged her as tight as i could and made her know that he is in a better place and she was my world and my everything. Even though i was trying to be strong i could not help but remember the sweet memories of my dad,who would’nt remember a lovly father?.
My dad, “Chief Abiodun Williams”. He was a yoruba man while my mom was an Edo woman, he named me ‘Omojadesola’ specially while my mom named me ‘Nancy’, Dad was tall with athletic body structure. He goes on bussiness trip regularly and never fail to get me things whlie coming back. Once in a blue moon we discuss,and it always worth the wait, his favourite statement i could never forget was “only friends can betray you,try to keep your secret safe”.
Dad died in the month of December,few weeks to Xmas,he went for a bussiness trip outside the country and he never came back. His plane crashed,we did not even get to see his lifeless body to say a final good bye. We mourned dad for more than a year, i was sure mom would mourn him till eternity. It was after my father’s death that i got to know that the whole of the Williams wealth belonged to mom,she inherited d wealth from my maternal grand parent who were stinkingly wealthy, due to the fact that her younger brother was unserious. “Dad whereever you are, my last wish would have been for you to die in my hands,no matter how tiny they were. RIP dad.”
(Back to present)
I released myself from my mom’s embrace and cleaned the tears in her eyes. Mom smiled and led me to my bed, and said “sorry for trying to ruin ur day with my emotion, i just cannot believe my baby is sixteen”. I smiled and hugged her, now she released herself and teased me to stop behaving like a baby, according to her, i would get married soon and become a woman. We all laughed at mom’s statement, including the maids.
Mom treated them like her daughter which made them have a good relationship with her.
Tori and Sewa are both secondary school graduates just like i was, but they were way older than me probably because of their late education.
Mom told tori to place the cake on the table and light the candle. I walked to the table and made a wish before blowing off the candle. My yearly wish was what i repeated ” I wish all my wishes will come true” and we all laughed.
I cut a piece from the huge cake,fed my mom with some and ate the reamaining. Oh i love cakes!…………
Mom blessed me and ordered Sewa to bring the shopping bag. She brought out a beautiful beautiful diamond ring with letter N boldly written on it,she wore the ring on my finger and said ” your dad got two gifts for you for your sixteenth birthday,this is one of it” i opened my mouth widely in shock and looked at the beautiful ring on my finger. Mom brought out the second gift which is a jewelry box, she handed it over for me to open. As soon as i opened, a blinking gold chain was staring at me. There was a lock at the bottom of it,i hurriedly opend it and there was a smaller version of a family picture of us,dad full of smile and a handsome face,mom looked as beautiful as ever and myself the cutest kid have ever seen( not hyping). I was already in tears as i hugged mom for a very long time,mom then took the chain and wore it on me. I was still fiiled with emotion and i realised mom was trying to hide hers, to lighten up the atmosphere,she brought out a key,i was opening my mouth in shock already expecting mom to scream “this is the key to ur car” as if she was reading my mind she laughed and said ” in your widest dream,this is the key to our hotel’s owners lodge,your cousin ‘Khole’ is waiting on you down stairs give the party organizers a room to do their job,in that shopping bag is your clothes and jewelry,i will send a driver and makeup artist by 6pm”. Though i was a li2 bit disappointed when she finished but i was excited there would be a party and khole was around,My best buddy!
I collected the key hurriedly from mom,gave her a quick peck and rushed down the stairs to meet khole. Khole was my favourite cousin and we were like besties. I met her watching a T.v series looking as pretty as ever. We all have a very fair skin almost like the whites. She was looking breathe taken and i just could not wait to ask her about her outfit,atleast we have the whole day to be 2
together.
I covered her face from behind and she immediately shouted “Nancy!!!”
I removed my hand and we both rushed at eachother like little girls,jumping and shouting ‘OMG is this you?”. Khole was my dad’s only younger sister’s “Aunty Oyinkansola” first born and only daughter,she was a very nice woman and her kids took after her. Khole is two years older than me and a hundred level student of mass communication in kwara state university(Kwasu),her dad is a bussy bussiness man and luckily for khole,her dad got her a ride and a beautiful apartment off campus immediately she gained admission. Khole spun me around and wished me a happy birthday,she complained of not knowing what to get me as a birthday gift which was the reason why she transfered the sum of fifty thousand naira into my account to get myself a gift. She got me a huge pink teddy bear for me, for the main time.
I was surprised at how she got that amount for dash just as if she read my mind she told me she was a big girl and had enough to buy me and have change left. I pushed her playfully and we both laughed.
“Time up!” that was my mom’s voice interuptting, she had a playful frown on her face and said “Nancy do u not know that you are smelling already? I thought i told you to take your bath and rush to the hotel”
that was mom’s way of scolding me,i hugged khole from behind and mounted on her back like a baby,i then told mom i missed khole alot that i could not get enough of her. Mom was about spanking me when khole dodged and ran to the stair case,we both shouted ‘durrrr’ which made mom shout back at us saying ” come back here if i wont durr your mouth for you”.
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Khole dropped me on my bed and she noticed my dress was picked already,she gussed it was my mom that picked the dress and teased me of been mommy’s baby. I took my bath and dressed up then informed mom that were good to go. We took off in khole’s ride blasting foreign Jamz,from miley cyrus to Rihana and all other.