Hands Of Fate
I waited at the hotel room until it got late in the evening.
Ten minutes after she left with her dad, she sent a text message to my phone. “I’m really sorry for all these, but at the right time, you will understand better.”
I decided I was going to stay at the room and wait for the right time. Few hours later, I called her line but it couldn’t connect.
I kept trying and it was clear she had switched off her phone. I paid to keep the room for one more night, hoping she would return the next day. I returned to the previous hotel where the ugly one and mike with his girl lodged.
I went straight to his room late that evening and told him everything that happened. He listened with keen interest as I told him everything that happened. He shook his head after I was through with the narration.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the previous pregnancy incidence?” he asked.
“Because I thought she really took care of it.” I replied him. I never told him about the pregnancy event few months back. Sonia didn’t sound very sure about the pregnancy then, later on, she informed me she had taken care of it. So I felt relaxed.
“This is the missing piece I’ve been trying to find all these while, and you had it and kept quiet.” He said to me. “I have been trying to figure out what was wrong with all this set up and you kept quiet about this!”
How was I supposed to know she was still pregnant!
“Where is she now?” he asked and I told him I couldn’t reach her. I showed him the text message she sent earlier in the day and informed him that I was still awaiting her return to confront her fully.
“She is not coming back again.” He said to me like he was so sure.
“She will come back. She just went to the airport with her parents. . .” it then occurred to me. She packed her bag real good and there was no way she intended coming back to that hotel room. I wanted to suggest checking her at her work place the next day but remembered the argument she was having with the etisalat manager about leave.
“She’s gone!” I exclaimed to myself. ______________________________________
The next day, we left Lokoja. The ugly one returned to Imo state while Mike and his girlfriend with I returned to idah.
Within the days that followed, I kept trying Sonia's number but it wasn't going through. It became a habit, she was on speed dial and once in a while, I'd dial her number. I still could not connect to her. Gradually, I stopped calling, and within the next few weeks, I decided to let fate play out the rest.
After all, I was still in the hands of fate.
There was no explanation that could solve the misery. There was no solution to it all: she was seven months pregnant, and would be in her eight month already. There was really nothing else that could be done rather than to have the baby.
“It’s just a baby, not a dinosaur” I smiled to myself as I remembered her exact words the same day she broke the news of the pregnancy to me.
I marveled at the way she had perfected her plot. She was indeed smart, smarter than I could give any woman credit for. I had always taken women as the weaker sex, totally dependent on men. Never for once did I imagine being outsmarted by a lady.
As time went by, I found myself trying to contact her once more. I started having this desire to check on her and see how she was doing. It pained me that I still couldn't connect with her.
I must have scared her a lot. I craved to hear her voice and ask how she was doing. I didn't want to let her carry the burden alone any more. The baby was surely going to come, so it was high time I get used to the fact and embrace it.
I felt frustrated that I couldn't connect to her. I called Sani who was serving at Lokoja. I asked him to help me go over to the etisalat office and check if Sonia resumed work or if she was around. He informed me that he learnt Sonia never returned after the wedding. She must have reached a compromise with the office as they still sent her clearance letter to the nysc office.
I was getting worried, worried and frustrated. I felt I must have scared her off. I felt I could have acted more mature and would have handled the situation better.
Now there was nothing else to do.
Rather than wait, wait for the inevitable.
I left it all in the hands of fate. .
*****************************
When the semester resumed after the Christmas break, my work load at the poly increased tremendously.
Dr Sowald totally left the second part of Laplace Transformation, Mat212 for me full time. Dr Ani, the cec coordinator increased my course to two, and gave me more work to do at the general office of the cec unit which included compiling students results, creating a Data base for their results and computing their cumulative grade point average, CGPA.
He shifted most of the work to me and I was to ensure the students do not surpass their recommended credit load for each semester. The work was so tasking and I had to put in more hours at work. I adjusted perfectly, but when the secondary schools returned for their own xmas break, it became more tedious combining the both.
Dr Ani had gradually turned me to both his personal assistant and his secretary. I only found solace on the fact that I was making money from the students; marking and grading exam scripts, adjusting some GP’s and adding some 0.3’s as requested by anyone in need of it.
The result marked and graded by me for Dr Sowald must have impressed him a lot. He commended my marking and grading skills. He must have trusted me a lot as he completely handed over Laplace2 to me without monitoring me. The course was starting to give me a hard time. I discovered that students were more daring when I teach them than when Dr Sowald did.
They constantly interrupt my classes with questions, questioning my approach to problems and means of getting the solutions. These were things that were hardly seen when Dr Sowald handled the course. Seems the students were scared of asking him questions or interrupting his classes. They kept badgering me with questions in each class that I had to start making some research before entering the class.
It was in one of such research sessions one afternoon, at the school library that I met kehinde, again.
I had not seen her for quite some time, since after the incidence with Monica and Ken. At first, I didn’t notice she was the one I was sitting close to when I entered the library. I had headed to the catalog section, checked for available text books on calculus and, with their card number; I proceeded and traced the number from the shelves. I got three of such books, and settled on the nearest desk to study through them.
Few minutes later, when I looked up at someone who seemed to be feeling uncomfortable beside me, I saw her. Our eyes met and she tried vainly to hide her face.
“Hi.” I had said to her but she muttered an inaudible sound in reply.
“Longest time.” I said again. The calculus text books I was trying to study were literally dealing with me, so I needed the distraction to cool off.
She looked at me again and muttered something still inaudible. She looked across to the girl seated opposite her. I suspected the both came together as it looked like she was giving her a signal; like she was confused and needed guidance from her friend. The signal from her friend must have been for her to be more positive as she then made an audible comment.
”I’m fine, how is work?” she managed to ask. It was obvious she was trying so hard not to look perplexed but her looks gave her aware. She couldn’t stare at me for a second without looking down her desk.
“Work is ok.” I said. “Isn’t it too early in the semester to be coming down to the library?” I asked her.
“We’ve started submitting project topics and mine has just been approved, so I’m trying to work on it.” She said, trying so hard to avoid my stare. She preferred looking down on her chair like there was a note down there she was reading from.
“What topic are you working on?” I asked, rather too loud. Some students seated close to us had started expressing discomfort at the distraction coming from us as they stole occasional glance at us. I just realized we were at the library, so rather than wait for an answer; I wrote the question on a paper and passed it to her. She wrote a long topic on the note as a reply and returned to me.