I'm moving in

...It had to be.

...

The weekend came in slowly as possible. A colleague of hers had a birthday celebration that Friday and she tried her best to truly be happy. This particular colleague always gave her quite a tough time, he remarked on anything and everything he could think of about her and she hated the way he went about it.

He made her feel like sin.

She called garbage to his talk but never had the guts to say it to him, she would be dammed if she started a fight in the house of God, she knew that much.

Food was served round the offices in celebration and it was the party food of the country Jollof (1) Rice and a well roasted fish. She took a spoon of it during lunch break and realized the pepper used was more than she could bear and she had her health to think of so she gave the food out.

That night her pain came visiting again waking her up in the middle of the night. She steadily carried herself to her living room so as to not wake up Precious who was sleeping soundly.

She took her drugs and didn't know when she slept of on the couch with her drugs as her companion.

...

They had their first check that day on the road as the minister of works and development for the state came around. He was pleased with how much has been done and Su Yan discussed further with him on how he really was working towards finishing in less than four months.

Miss Susan came to the site and if she was pretending to ignore him, he didn't notice. Clearing was now completely done and it was now time for filling of the roads.

His only sadness was that the minister had said the government was considering breaking grounds on Lagos. He knew Lagos was the name of the place Tale had renamed rainbow, he would hate to see that go. But he said nothing on it as the minister had barely mentioned it like a serious case.

However if it was going to be worked on, he knew they would come to him.

They had no choice.

...

Tale opened her eyes slowly and realized it was very bright for her at once, she turned to lie on her back and that's when she recalled she had slept off on the couch, she looked at her side and didn't find her drugs.

She tried to feel the couch to check if she laid on it or kicked it to a corner. She felt weak, really weak but her daily chores had to be done.

She got up to see Precious staring at her and knew where her drugs must have gone.

"Well, well, well…"

"Yep, good morning to you too"

Precious most definitely wasn't in the mood to go back and forth with her so she raised up the pills in her hand as well as the syrup she had chugged down half of.

"Yes I had a little heart burn last night and took it."

"Do you really think I'm stupid, half the packet of pills is gone. Are you abusing drugs?"

"OK, I've been having a bit of heart burn lately. It's the stress and…"

"Not eating right because I don't know who the hell you think you are"

Precious said something in Igbo (2) that Tale couldn't understand for she was from the western part of the country. But she could only guess what she meant.

Her best friend was worried and that had been what she was trying to avoid for the longest of time.

"Precious, I am OK. I promise. I have been taking my pills and I feel great. I just had this food at work yesterday, it had so much pepper in it."

"Are you sure?"

"Very!" besides what's the worst that could happen she thought.

That Saturday she googled more on how to write a perfect resignation letter and after two hours of doing that she decided there wasn't a perfect way. If she went with what she felt she would be cursed.

"THANK YOU FOR THE WORST TWO YEARS OF MY ADULT LIFE, TILL NEVER AGAIN." TALE

She smiled at how she really felt and settled to a formal letter.

An hour later she re read what she typed out and decided it was best. She would show Precious who had suddenly wanted to help her do her groceries alone.

Her siblings called her to find out how she was doing without them even if it had only been a week since she saw them. They were back to school which was four hours away from the state the family lived in.

She was saving her work when precious busted into the house.

"I need help carrying"

"Tell me about it, why did you buy so much?" Tale saw her friend had gone all out on shopping for food for her. Or so she thought. She got everything from white beans to brown beans to rice and spaghetti.

There is a saying that one is lucky if they made it through life with one good friend. She was pretty lucky. Precious isn't her only friend but the others were there for a season, Precious was there for a lifetime.

"I'm moving in."

"What!"