EPISODE 10
Tania was especially doting, with
Dayo, she kept telling herself that
if things had been different, she
would have loved Dayo for real.
Damilola took the opportunity to
take Dayo to the bank to set up a scholarship fund for him
accessible to him only when he
got admission into any higher
institution of learning in Nigeria
or abroad. Dayo: “With this, nothing can stop
me from being a doctor” he said
excitedly as they exited the bank. Damilola: “Oh really, why did you
decide to be a doctor?” he asked,
thinking the boy was going to
say it was because he, Damilola is
also a doctor. Dayo: “I want to be a doctor
because it is my mother’s dream,
and I won’t rest until I am one”
he replied passionately. Damilola: “That is some strong
determination there” he quipped
and patted the boy on the
shoulders. But he stumbled in his
steps because he thought he
heard a voice. “I would have been a doctor, if
you had not deceived me, taken
my pride and abandoned me with
a baby” the voice had said. He turned, searching for Khadijat
in the crowd, but not one face,
but every face was Khadijat’s. He
held his head muttering under his
breath. Damilola: “Khadijat I am sorry,
please forgive me and give me
back my peace of mind” he kept
muttering this over and over
again, standing on the stairs of
the bank, with people going and coming. Dayo: “Uncle Damilola, are you
alright?” he touched him and that
was how Damilola gained back
himself. He wiped his face and
gave Dayo a smile, but the tumult
was yet from over. When they got home, Tania
rushed to meet them, she kissed
her husband on the lips and Dayo
on the fore-head. Tania: “Dayo, today you have
gone out with uncle, tomorrow is
my turn oh. I promise we will
have lots of fun and eating. But
now, I made delicious Banga
soup, heard it is your favorite” she said. Dayo: “Yes, it is, thank you aunt
Tania” he replied, in his heart he
was wishing that his mummy
Bella was as nice as Tania was. The family gathered at the dining
table to settle to Tania’s banga
soup, as they ate, Tania watched
Dayo, and Damilola. She saw the
scholarship fund as Damilola’s
move to care for his son, without arousing her suspicions. “Men are wicked. So you would
be taking care of your son and be
fooling me that we are looking
for a child, at the end, your child
will come and reap all that we
sown together. I would be the one at the losing end. Thank God
for Bella, now I am a step ahead
of you, and when I am done,
everything will return to the
status quo, if God gives us our
own child, fine, if He doesn’t, we both die childless” She pondered
as she chewed her food. The next day was Saturday, Bella
woke up early and kept watching
her phone like she was waiting
for a call. Her husband, Gberan
even asked her if she was
expecting a call, of which she replied in the negative. Since
Tania called her to ask for Dayo’s
favorite food, she had been
expecting an alarming call from
the family to tell them that
something g had happened to Dayo. She expected that her
friend, Tania wanted to poison
Dayo, that was the reason she
was asking for his favorite dish.
But until now, she had not gotten
any calls. “What if you read her wrongly,
what if she hates Dayo, but is
trying to love him anyways? What
if she found out that her husband
doesn’t know and intends to
keep it that way. Oh no, I have to take matters into mu hands, but
what do I do?” She jumped out of bed and
rushed into the bathroom to have
her shower amidst protests from
her husband, asking where she
was preparing to go to, so early
in the morning. Damilola woke up early to make
breakfast for his wife and Dayo.
Weekends were the days he was
extra romantic, he served his wife
breakfast in bed, and took her
out. But she had opted to take Dayo out on her own today, to his
surprise. While he was in the
kitchen, Dayo came in to take his
morning milk from the
refrigerator. Damilola: “Dayo, hope you are
enjoying your stay with us?” he
quizzed Dayo: “Sure, but I miss my home, I
miss daddy Gberan and mummy
Bella and even Ken” he replied in
his normal chirpy tone. Damilola: ‘But why do you call
your parents that way, especially
your dad?” he asked curiously,
he wondered if perhaps the boy
was not told that Gberan was his
father. Dayo: “Actually, I already called
them mummy and daddy but
soon found out they were not my
biological parents, so I added
their names. Actually, my mother
is…” he could not finish as he was interrupted by the buzzing of
Damilola’s phone. He received the
call and spoke hurriedly into the
phone. Damilola: “Dayo, there is an
emergency in the hospital, when I
come back, we will talk huh” he
removed the pot from the fire and
hurried into his bedroom which
he shared with his wife. Damilola: “Honey, I am so sorry I
cannot make you breakfast as I
used to, I have an emergency in
the hospital. Make sure you have
fun with the kid, there is 30k in
my suit pocket, take that as pocket money” he said as he
hurried into his clothes. Tania joyfully went to the kitchen
and continued the cooking that
Damilola left off. It was the
delicious ekpang nkwukwo, he
learnt how to cook it from his
roommate in the University, who was from Akwaibom. After they
were done eating, Tania dressed
up and they went out. Dayo
however noticed that she was
jittery and he wondered why. He
also felt a sense of foreboding but his little mind could not put a
finger on it. Tania took him to the Ikoyi
amusement park, also to water
park and other fun sites around
Lagos, by evening they ended up
at one high end restaurant where
she got Dayo food and ice cream. While he ate, she kept asking him
if he needed something else. Dayo: “Aunt Tania, you have
done so much for me that I don’t
need to ask for anything again”
he said in his usual smartass way. Tania: “No my darling, you can
ask for anything you want, like
that chocolate sundae, don’t you
want that?” she pointed towards
a glass display of cakes and
sundaes. “Eat anything you want, this is
like last supper” She eyed him. On their way back home, while
they were on Falomo Bridge,
Tania turned to eye Dayo, but the
latter turned and caught the
angry look in her eyes. He
wondered what he had done to warrant the sudden change, but
immediately Tania smiled again.
The eleven years old was
confused, but he didn’t have time
to ponder the issue, as Tania
suddenly swerved and hit the side of the car where Dayo was
seated, on the railing of the
bridge. The impact of the collision
was so great that the side of the
car squeezed into itself, and it
threw the occupants of the car against the windscreen. Tania hit
her head on the steering wheel
and fainted. Dayo was thrown
against the windscreen, and it
broke, piercing into his head and
body. Bella had gone to the house of
Tania and Damilola, she didn’t
know what she was going to do
but she had every intent to take
control of the situation. However
the gate man told her that there was no one in the house. Bella: “Stupid bitch, you cannot
do something as simple as get rid
of a little boy, I should have done
it myself. Tomorrow, Dayo will be
back to the house to terrorize my
son and me” she muttered to herself. The gate man asked her if
she was alright, she just flipped
him off and entered into her car. Damilola having called his wife
earlier and known they were not
coming home anytime soon,
decided to stop over at Gberan’s
house. He had been thinking a lot
about what Dayo said and he wanted to be sure that it was true.
If it was true, he had decided to
adopt Dayo. Gberan: “Wow Damilola, you are a
sight for sore eyes, always
looking dapper. I cannot count
the number of girls you
destroyed in your youth” he said
jokingly, but it was spot on. A cloud came over Damilola’s face,
but he quickly recovered with a
smile. Damilola: “Ore mi atata, you
always have sweet tongue.
Anyways I came because of Dayo,
he told me he is not your child”
he said. Gberan heaved a heavy
sigh and began to tell him the story of Dayo, but before he could
say the name of Dayo’s mother,
Damilola’s phone rang, stopping
him from finding out yet again,
that Dayo was the son Khadijat
was pregnant with. He received the call and was told to come to
the hospital that his wife had
been in an accident. Damilola: “Accident ke, where,
how? I am coming right away” he
said it into the phone and bade
goodbye to Gberan hurriedly.
.
.
.
.
.
Has Tania’s plans
worked, is Dayo dead? Who can
tell?
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