Chapter 14

"Tamilore?" She had seen the clearly defined shock on her aunt's face. She had turned her face away.

"What happened? Why didn't you tell me?" Her aunt had asked her.

"Isn't it obvious? She is ashamed of herself," her stepmother had said in hate.

"Let's go to your room," her aunt had said ignoring her stepmother.

When they had settled down in her room Tamilore had burst into tears, how could she not? Aunty Tinuke had been the first person in spite of her shock to look at her with genuine worry instead of judging her, even her father when he looked at her she could see him asking the question 'how could you?'

"It's okay honey, you're going to be fine. Have you eaten?" Aunty Tinuke had asked while embracing her.

"I... It was..." and for the first time, she had recounted the events leading up to her pregnancy.

"What's done is done. So this bastard ran away from school?" Her aunt had asked her.

"Yes, I don't know where he is," Tamilore had replied.

"Will you come stay with me in Lagos? Kiishi will be happy to see you besides there is no way I am leaving you with that woman," her aunt had said.

"Yes ma," Tamilore had been happy to leave her home, her stepmother would daily remind her how she has brought great shame to their family and church and sometimes she would bring her friends to gossip about her.

"Alright. What's his name again?" Kiishi's mother had asked and she had told her.

"You don't mind if I tell my husband, do you? He's friends with some senior ranking policemen I'm sure they will be able to locate this guy and bring him to justice," and that was how she had left Ogun state for Lagos.

In fact, it was not until they were out of the house that aunty Tinuke had called her father to inform him that she was taking Tamilore to Lagos. Her father had not protested much, he knew she would be well taken care of there.

***

Tamilore stood outside her room as if in a trance, she had just seen her aunt with a worried expression going into Kiishi's room and she suddenly missed her mother. If her mother had been alive when that bastard had started oppressing her she would have known something was wrong just like she sensed that aunty Tinuke had noticed something was off about Kiishi.

"What are you doing staring like that?" It was Kiishi, she had not even noticed when her cousin had left her room.

"A diamond for your thought?" This brought her fully back to the present as she and Kiishi laughed. It was a personal joke between them. Once, she had caught Kiishi staring into oblivion and she had asked

"A penny for your thought?" Kiishi had come back to reality and had said to her, "My thoughts are definitely worth more than a penny."

"It's just an expression Kiishi, no need to get angry about it," Tamilore had been surprised her cousin had found that offensive.

"It's not just a phrase, Tami, it's the most cliche phrase in the entire English language," Kiishi had said with so much indignation.

"Haba! There are more cliche phrases than that," Tamilore had countered.

"Tell me one," Kiishi had asked hands akimbo.

"I can't think of one right now but I'm sure there are..."

"See you agree with me but honestly my thoughts are worth more than silver even," Kiishi had said with a serious face.

"Silver? Why not gold?" Tamilore had joked.

"Certainly not gold. My thoughts are worth at least a diamond," Kiishi had replied not taking her previous statement as a joke.

"Why diamond?" Tamilore had been finding it difficult to understand her cousin.

"Because diamonds are indestructible, my thoughts are just like that," Kiishi had said with a triumphant glint in her eyes that had left Tamilore dumbfounded. Since that day whenever she caught Kiishi spacing out or vice-versa their phrase was 'a diamond for your thought.'

"So what's wrong? You can puncture a hole in the wall with those eyes," Kiishi said holding her cousin's hand.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how lucky I am to have you in my life," Tamilore responded with a smile.

"Stop patronising me joore," Kiishi said veering towards the direction of Tamilore's room.

"Ladies. It's time for dinner," they both turned to see Mrs Adeoti smiling at them.

"Mummy, mummy please tell me I can have ice cream after dinner," Busayo burst out of nowhere.

"Young lady the answer is no," Tinuke replied her youngest daughter in a firm voice.

"Mummy please now, I promise to be a good girl," Kiishi looked at her sister with slight irritation, Did Busayo not realise that she was twelve and not six?

"This is not about being a good girl, your ijekuje these days is too much," Tinuke countered her daughter.

"What is ijekuje?" Busayo asked confused.

"Femi, I think it's high time we start speaking yoruba to these children. I doubt if Busayo even knows the meaning of her own name," Tinuke turned her attention to her husband who seemed to have left his room probably wondering why it was taking so long for his dear wife to announce his dinner.

"Yes Daddy, our social studies teacher said we should find out the meaning of our names. What does Busayo mean?" Everyone now had their eyes on Femi.

"You can't even speak English properly. How many times have I told you it is wrong to refer to a singular person as plural? Ehn?" Femi replied to his daughter.

"I forgot but you too daddy 'ehn' is not an English word," Busayo retorted with a pout emanating a laugh from everyone present.

"Little lady how dare you? Forget about..."

"The food will be getting cold," Busayo did not wait for her dad to finish before she took to the stairs, she knew her dad was about to back out on a promise he had made to her.

"Tinuke you need to teach your daughters manners, look at that tiny girl talking to me like that," but as he said this there was a smile dancing on his lips.

....

It was the beginning of a new week in what seemed like a second and although Kolapo had not talked to her physically, mostly due to the fact that whenever Bisola was absent from beside Kiishi, her sister and her friend would occupy the space next to Kiishi and she had also stopped picking unknown numbers.

Although she had done her best to avoid him all week and had been successful she could not help but feel anxious today, today being Sunday. She said a silent prayer as she entered church that he would not be around today and most importantly her father would not notice him staring at her. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened because he was there and he would not look elsewhere. Kiishi did her best not to seem flustered but she was not sure it was working.

When her family except Tamilore arrived at Kilimanjaro for a quick meal he was there sitting at the opposite table and he was looking at her. She decided to ignore him but her father had noticed.

"Kiishi, are you sure you do not know this boy?" Her father was looking at her perhaps to determine if she was lying.

"He joined our school recently," Kiishi gave a casual shrug.

"I see but you said you didn't know him the last time," her father said not breaking eye contact with her.

"He joined my school after that," Kiishi replied.

"The young man seems to be smitten by you, " her father observed.

"Our Kiishi is very beautiful," her mother said with a proud smile.

"Of course, but I don't like the way he's looking at her," Femi said.

"Me neither but what can we do?" her mother shrugged.

"I should talk to him," Kiishi could see that her father was tensed and he hated Kolapo very much.

"Femi I don't think you should do that. It'll only make things awkward for Kiishi at school," Kiishi relaxed when she heard her mum say this.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Her father asked and Kiishi choked on her rice.

"Here, have some water," her mother passed her a glass of water.

"No sir," just then Kiishi's phone rang and as she was under the scrutiny of her parents she has to attend to the call, it was an unknown number and when she looked up she saw Kolapo smirk, 'this was bad' she thought if she did not pick the call it would only raise more suspicion.

"Hello?" Kiishi said as she picked up the call.

"Kiishi, it's me Glory," Kiishi let out a breath she had not known she had been holding.

"Oh, Glory. What's up?" Kiishi asked.

"I I am not fine. Can you come over, please? I am scared Kiishi, my mum is not around and I just watched on the news that the flight my father boarded has crashed," she could tell from Glory's tone that she was scared and in that instant, Kiishi forgot all of her problems.

"Glory you have to calm down, everything will be alright. I'll be with you soon, let your estate know I'll be visiting," Kiishi said as she grabbed her bag.

"What's the matter, dear?" Her mother asked worriedly.

"It's Glory, she said her father's flight was involved in a plane crash and her mother is not at home," Kiishi replied hastily as the whole family abandoned their food to leave the restaurant.

"Where does your friend live?" Her father asked as he pulled out of Kilimanjaro.

"Royal gardens. I have told her to call the gate," Kiishi said, her hands were shaking. Glory was a friend in school even though they did not hang out as often as she did with Bisola she was still a valued friend.

"Glory?" Kiishi hugged her friend whose eyes it seemed were swollen and red from crying.

"Does your mum know?" Kiishi asked as her friend led her inside.

"No, I have been trying to reach her but she is not picking up her call," Glory replied between sobs.

"Hello dear, you need to stop crying and hope for the best since nothing has been confirmed yet," Kiishi's mother spoke for the first time.

"Aunty, I'm so sorry. Good morning ma," In her grief, she had not greeted Kiishi's mum.

"It's okay dear. Have you eaten?" Kiishi's mum asked to which Glory nodded no.

"Where is your maid?" Just then a young girl who looked to be about twenty years of age appeared. Kiishi knew immediately that she must be the maid, She knew that Glory was an only child and she lived without any cousins or aunts.

"Take me to the kitchen," Kiishi's mum ordered the girl. Forty-Five minutes later the maid came to the sitting room with a tray of jollof rice which she served to a much calmer Glory.

"If you don't start eating I will feed you myself," Kiishi said in a firm voice and in spite of herself Glory managed a smile.

As they were conversing Glory's mother a forty-five-year-old fashion icon walked into the house. From her facial expression it was clear she was oblivious to any news about her husband and was annoyed to see strangers in her house, however, her expression softened when she saw Kiishi.

"Good afternoon, what's going on here?" Glory's mother looked around the room and her eyes fell on a red-eyed Glory.

"What's wrong dear?" even though her voice sounded worried she did not make a move to walk toward her daughter.

"It's dad, his plane crashed," Glory burst into a new round of tears. At this news Glory's mum's face turned from slightly irritated to ugly although she still managed to keep her composure, Kiishi could not help but wonder if Mrs Augustine was always like this, living as though paparazzi were following her everywhere she turned.

"It's okay sweetheart, I'm sure dad is fine. Abigail! Have you served our guests here?" Kiishi almost had her jaw drop from shock, she could not believe that this woman had just dismissed the news like it was nothing or maybe this was just her way of dealing with things.

"We're fine," Kiishi's mum declared.

"I see," From her tone, it was clear that they had overstayed their welcome.

"Mum, did you hear me? Dad could be dead and you're acting like you do not give a fuck," Glory was angry and Kiishi couldn't blame her friend if she were her she would be infuriated.

"What would you have me do? Ball my eyes out in front of some strangers?" Everyone in the room was rather shocked at this sudden outburst, Glory's mum had just insulted them.

"I swear I hate you. When you were away at your boyfriend's place these strangers comforted me," Everyone gasped at this revelation although no one made any comment.

"How dare you?" Mrs Augustine looked like she was seeing red.

"How dare me? You think I don't know about your boy toys? I wonder why dad still bothers with you," Glory was now standing looking her mum in the eye with hatred.

"You... You are... I'll just head upstairs, I have a headache," And like that Mrs Augustine disappeared, no one commented on the turn of events, Kiishi only hugged her friend who started crying all over.

"Can you stay a little longer?" Glory pleaded with her eyes.

"Of course dear," Kiishi's mother said without hesitation.

"Stay with your friend I'll be back, I want Busayo to follow her dad home," Mrs Adeoti said as she signalled for her twelve-year-old to stand up. Their father had stayed in his car all this while.

By the time Kiishi's mother returned Glory had calmed down.

"I'm sorry you heard all that. I was just so angry... And I" Glory apologised.

"It's okay. We all say a lot of nasty things when we're angry," Kiishi's mother gave her a smile.

That day they returned home by 5p.m, Kiishi was mentally exhausted to say the least, but when she finally opened her phone she thought would become mentally dead.

It seemed Kolapo had texted her when she had left the restaurant in a hurry.

"Is something wrong?" Kiishi was a bit startled to find Tamilore standing beside her as she was about to enter her room.

"No, no I'm just tired," Kiishi said and there was no denying the eye bags that had started to form, it was not easy comforting someone who thought she might have lost her dad.

"I'm sorry about your friend. Busayo told me," Tamilore said squeezing her hand.

"I just hope her dad is fine," Kiishi said thinking back on the incidents of the day.

"I hope so too but what about you?"