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Susan lounged lazily in her mother’s expensively furnished parlor, skimming ways in her mind on getting back into Daniel’s graces. Seducing began looking like the best approach, she was so deep in thought that she started when the door bell rang suddenly.
She frowned at the disturbance but didn’t make any move to get up. The sound of the maid’s hurried steps towards the door was a comforting sound that lulled her back to her skimming.
It took a while to register that the maid was suddenly in her line of vision with a confused frown and a mutely moving mouth, she seemed to be talking to her.
“What is it, Sisi? Eh, why are you staring at me like that?” Susan snapped at the maid, who nervously shook her head and stammered her errand.
“Sorry aunty, somebody is come to find you,” she reported in bad English.
“Man or woman?” Susan was still frowning in displeasure.
“Man.”
“Who is he?” she asked her heart taking a hopeful leap that it would be Daniel.
“Em…na…,” Sisi seemed to be nervously contemplating; basically, her problem was self expression in English.
“It is …em…post office,” she suddenly blurted, then frowned because it didn’t sound correct. “No, post person,” she corrected and smiled with a look of accomplishment.
Susan sighed in disappointment, “The courier man? Is that why you’ve been wasting my time?” she snapped, transferring her anger immediately on the maid. She hissed long and loud and then brushed pass the scared maid.
The courier man waited patiently at the door, he straightened to his full height when Susan appeared.
He cleared his throat officiously, “Good afternoon, madam. Please, are you Susan Daniel Akpan?” he asked, reading from the brown envelop he held.
“I am,” Susan answered with a slight tone of pride to her voice. Her mind had done a quick about turn since she’d heard that Daniel had made it. She wanted to be identified with his name now, a name she’d previously cursed time after time.
“Please sign here,” the courier man said courteously, he wiped out a note book and pen as though from thin air, placing it on the brown envelop for Susan to sign.
“Have a nice day, madam,” he greeted and left Susan at the door with the brown envelop in her hands.
She stared after him with a curious frown. Her curiosity wasn’t about his identity but about what could be in the brown envelop. Susan retreated into the house, without closing the door. Apparently, Sisi was used to this because she’d been waiting patiently at the side and closed the door when her mistress’ daughter walked away.
“Who was at the door?” Mrs. Grant asked, breezing into the parlor, accompanied by her usual, expensive scent.
“The courier man,” Susan replied solemnly.
“Oh, any mail for me?”
“I wish,” Susan murmured; she looked really disappointed. “It’s divorce papers from Daniel. So soon, he couldn’t even wait a day,” she gripped.
“It’s been three days since your return, Susan. And those paper’s had been filed three years ago, you just weren’t around to be served.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. And I thought you’d be angry and indignant for my sake mom, not being so…reasonable,” she said petulantly.
Mrs. Grant widened her eyes at her daughter. “I can’t be angry because it’s the law. The constitution clearly states that a divorce petition can be filed if the marriage has broken down irretrievably. Oh, and that involves a year’s abandonment from any of the parties.”
“Daniel waited two years to file that,” she concluded with a matter of fact tone, and then she murmured, “In my opinion, he’s been patient.”
“Mother, who’s side are you on?” Susan sounded indignant.
“Yours, baby, but I have to remind you, I was never in support of your absconding.”
“But you helped me,” Susan pointed out incredulously.
“Well…you know what they say about blood being thicker,” Mrs. Grant said, folding her hands elegantly on her lap.
Susan sighed wearily, reading from the sheaves of paper in her hand. “On grounds of abandonment and forceful separation of father and child…God, this looks bad on paper,” she moaned.
Mrs. Grant cleared her throat calmly, “It doesn’t look bad, dear, it is bad.”
Susan looked like a fish out of water with her mouth open and moving but with no sound coming off it.
~*********~
The plan was going smoothly, Daniel thought as he waited a few feet from Mrs. Grant’s mansion. He repeated that thought when the courier man came out of the giant gates with the news that he delivered both messages.
He repeated it again, when he sighted Sisi hurrying towards him.
“Ah. Sir, good afternoon,” Sisi greeted with a wide smile. It had been a while since she’d seen Daniel; a man she’d always pitied for marrying her madam’s spoilt daughter.
“Sisi, you received my message,” Daniel said with a smile.
“Yes, that post person tell me say, you wait for me outside,” she said, smiling and swinging her arms.
“How are you?”
“I fine, Sir.”
Daniel cleared his throat nervously, “And how is Stacey?”
“Stacey fine,” Sisi answered with a smile but then frowned. “But she no dey talk to anybody o.”
“Why…what is wrong with her, is she well?” Daniel asked worriedly, his eyes lifting to the mighty building as though he could sight his child from where he stood.
“She no sick o, she fine. She no dey just talk to person. Every time, she dey her room, dey carry face vex vex.”
Daniel’s heart twisted painfully at this report, he knew his daughter must be going through some psychological upheavals. And it pained him that he couldn’t immediately go to her; he had to stick to the plan.
He sighed helplessly and handed the small shopping bag to her. “Give this to Stacey. Please don’t allow anybody to see it,” Daniel warned worriedly and got a nod of understanding from her.
“Then,” he began, sliding out his wallet and fishing out three, one thousand naira notes. “…take this one and…”
“Ehh…,” Sisi celebrated, doing a small gig as she collected the money. “Thank you, sir. I will do as you talk. Thank you…let me fast and go inside,” Sisi said and at Daniel’s nod, she hurried back into the gate.
“I’M STILL NOT TALKING to you,” Stacey griped, not bothering to turn to the opened door of her room.
Sisi paused in confusion, “Stacey, you talk to me?”
The teenager turned at once, at seeing the maid, she shook her head, “No, not you. I thought it was…never mind. What are you holding?”
Sisi smiled, that was a less complicated issue, she thought and moved forward to where Stacey lay. In a conspiratorial tone, she said, “Your father tell me to give you this bag.”
Stacey frowned doubtfully, “My father,” Sisi nodded eagerly.
“Do you even know my father?”
Sisi drew back with an insulted air. “Stacey, no look my small body o, I dey when your father been bring you come see my madam for holiday period. I know your father, and he give me this bag to give you,” she stretched the bag to Stacey and then hurried out of the room.
Stacey was left alone at the slight click of the door. She looked curiously in the bag and smiled when she saw the Android phone. She pulled out from the carton and fiddled with it excitedly.
Just minutes into her fiddling, the phone rang, the ID that flashed on the screen said, ‘Dad’. Her eyes widened, so Sisi had been right. She’d thought the maid might have delivered what was probably meant for her mother, but she’ d been wrong.
“I didn’t know my father still remembered me,” she murmured to her self and picked the call.
“You aren’t being subtle…dad,” she said without preamble.
“Stacey?”
“Yes.”
“You sound different.”
“I grew up.”
Silence reigned, and then Stacey sighed, rolling her eyes upward, “I got the phone, thank you.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, yes I do,” Stacey replied, injecting a bit of pleasure into her frosty tone.
“I’m glad you do.”
Silence again.
“I’m glad I’m talking with you right now, Stacey. I missed you…I missed you a lot.”
Her father’s voice was bringing back a lot of memories. Memories she’d learned to lock away. Ones she’d thought she’d never have to visit again. With the memories, tears pricked her eyelids and slid down her cheeks.
“So, why didn’t you find me?” she blurted. “Why didn’t you come for me? I kept waiting, I kept looking out from the back of the car…hoping I’d sight your face in any of the approaching cars…”
“Ahhh, Stacey,” Daniel called, his voice watery from the tears he was trying to control. “I did, baby, I did. I looked for you everywhere, I involved the police but I didn’t know…”
“Oh God, sweetheart, no excuses can make up for my failure. I just want you to know that I’m extremely sorry and that I’m glad you’re back.”
“I missed you too, daddy,” Stacey cried, sniffling through the phone.
“My God, Stacey, I can’t wait to see you. Are you really tall?”
Stacey giggled at the silly question, the sound made her father’s heart soar exhilaratingly. He remembered that giggle. He’d always looked forward to that giggle at the end of every working day.
“No, dad, I think I inherited a lot of your genes,” she said and was happy that her father laughed. She was reminded of the fun she’d always had with her father. Even though she’d been little, she recalled the fun conversations she used to have with him. Her father had always treated her like an adult; the very opposite of what her mother did.
“I want to live with you, dad,” she blurted passionately. There was silence from the other line.
Daniel couldn’t believe that his wish was just falling into his lap. He’d thought that he’d have to beg or bribe his way back into his daughter’s heart.
He cleared his throat, “You don’t know what that means to me, Stacey. I’d like that very much.”
“I’d like that too, dad.”
“I’m so happy. Are you sure you like the phone?” he asked again, worriedly.
“I love the phone, dad, and stop worrying.”
Daniel chuckled nervously, his daughter, his baby sounded so grown up. “Okay, I’m glad. But don’t go telling anybody I got you a phone, okay?”
“I won’t, daddy.”
“MY DADDY GOT ME a phone,” Stacey announced and smiled at the astonished expressions of her mother and grandmother.
Both women spoke simultaneously.
“What?! Let me see.”
“How did he manage that?”
Stacey answered her grandmother first. “Courier services, grandma. Here it is, mom,” she handed over a very old Nokia phone to her mom.
“What the hell is that?!” Susan exclaimed, twisting her face in disgust.
“Watch your language, Susan,” Mrs. Grant said calmly and squinted to get a closer look at the phone.
“It’s a mobile phone, mom,” Stacey replied to her mother’s earlier outburst.
“This model is so old; I’m not sure its still in the market. But trust Daniel to find it; stingy man,” Susan griped maliciously.
“I’m not sure it even works,” Stacey prodded in a soft, subtle voice. The twelve year old knew how to tweak her mother’s nuts and wires; she knew how to rile her pride and get her to do things that a normal mother wouldn’t be prodded to do for a twelve year old child.
Mrs. Grant scooted forward on her seat and squinted, all she wanted was a better look at the phone. Her expression was skeptical and the smart Stacey saw this. Stacey snatched the phone from her mom’s hand and dropped it in her pocket.
“So, what are you going to do about it mom?” Stacey asked and watched as her mom, looked at her own mom in shocked surprise that she’d asked such a question.
They should be shocked; she’d not been communicative at all, since their return. Stacey watched and saw the exact moment her mother’s mind was made, anger took over her face.
“That’s a good question, Stacey,” Susan said and got up to pace. She was suddenly filled with nervous energy, the kind that pushed her to be especially mean to people.
“That phone looks exactly like Sisi’s phone,” Mrs. Grant said, her mind had finally recalled why the phone looked so familiar.
“Exactly, mom,” Susan exploded. “The phone looks like a maid’s phone. Who does that, which person purposely goes out to buy a demeaning gift for his daughter he’d not seen in a while? For crying out loud, mom, I thought you said he was rich.”
“Err…,”Mrs. Grant began.
“You’ve still not said what you’ll do,” Stacey interrupted, perfectly cutting into whatever her grandmother was about to say.
“First of all, I’ll get you a new phone, the latest. I’ll show Daniel how it’s done.”
“But, Susan…”
“Mom, you’ll help me with the divorce papers, won’t you? You’re still friends with those judges, aren’t you?”
Mrs. Grant stared at the skimming face of her daughter and the mischievous face of her grand daughter and sighed wearily.
“Of course, I’ll help,” the oldest woman in the room said reluctantly, her eyes watching her grand daughter with a frown as she flew into her mother’s arms.
“Thanks mom!” she exclaimed, “You’re the best,” Susan held her and seemed confused as to what to do. Stacey and Susan had never had a hugging relationship, so she was shocked and confused as to how to react.
Stacey left her before she could decide. The twelve year old flashed a bright grin at her grandmother, “You too, Granny, you’re the best,” she said, and fled from the room.
Mrs. Grant shook her head, was it her or did Stacey just mock them, she thought. When she turned to her daughter and saw how riled she was, she sighed wearily. “Stop worrying, Suzy, mama will take care of it,” like I always do, she thought.
~*********~
The story continues…
She frowned at the disturbance but didn’t make any move to get up. The sound of the maid’s hurried steps towards the door was a comforting sound that lulled her back to her skimming.
It took a while to register that the maid was suddenly in her line of vision with a confused frown and a mutely moving mouth, she seemed to be talking to her.
“What is it, Sisi? Eh, why are you staring at me like that?” Susan snapped at the maid, who nervously shook her head and stammered her errand.
“Sorry aunty, somebody is come to find you,” she reported in bad English.
“Man or woman?” Susan was still frowning in displeasure.
“Man.”
“Who is he?” she asked her heart taking a hopeful leap that it would be Daniel.
“Em…na…,” Sisi seemed to be nervously contemplating; basically, her problem was self expression in English.
“It is …em…post office,” she suddenly blurted, then frowned because it didn’t sound correct. “No, post person,” she corrected and smiled with a look of accomplishment.
Susan sighed in disappointment, “The courier man? Is that why you’ve been wasting my time?” she snapped, transferring her anger immediately on the maid. She hissed long and loud and then brushed pass the scared maid.
The courier man waited patiently at the door, he straightened to his full height when Susan appeared.
He cleared his throat officiously, “Good afternoon, madam. Please, are you Susan Daniel Akpan?” he asked, reading from the brown envelop he held.
“I am,” Susan answered with a slight tone of pride to her voice. Her mind had done a quick about turn since she’d heard that Daniel had made it. She wanted to be identified with his name now, a name she’d previously cursed time after time.
“Please sign here,” the courier man said courteously, he wiped out a note book and pen as though from thin air, placing it on the brown envelop for Susan to sign.
“Have a nice day, madam,” he greeted and left Susan at the door with the brown envelop in her hands.
She stared after him with a curious frown. Her curiosity wasn’t about his identity but about what could be in the brown envelop. Susan retreated into the house, without closing the door. Apparently, Sisi was used to this because she’d been waiting patiently at the side and closed the door when her mistress’ daughter walked away.
“Who was at the door?” Mrs. Grant asked, breezing into the parlor, accompanied by her usual, expensive scent.
“The courier man,” Susan replied solemnly.
“Oh, any mail for me?”
“I wish,” Susan murmured; she looked really disappointed. “It’s divorce papers from Daniel. So soon, he couldn’t even wait a day,” she gripped.
“It’s been three days since your return, Susan. And those paper’s had been filed three years ago, you just weren’t around to be served.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. And I thought you’d be angry and indignant for my sake mom, not being so…reasonable,” she said petulantly.
Mrs. Grant widened her eyes at her daughter. “I can’t be angry because it’s the law. The constitution clearly states that a divorce petition can be filed if the marriage has broken down irretrievably. Oh, and that involves a year’s abandonment from any of the parties.”
“Daniel waited two years to file that,” she concluded with a matter of fact tone, and then she murmured, “In my opinion, he’s been patient.”
“Mother, who’s side are you on?” Susan sounded indignant.
“Yours, baby, but I have to remind you, I was never in support of your absconding.”
“But you helped me,” Susan pointed out incredulously.
“Well…you know what they say about blood being thicker,” Mrs. Grant said, folding her hands elegantly on her lap.
Susan sighed wearily, reading from the sheaves of paper in her hand. “On grounds of abandonment and forceful separation of father and child…God, this looks bad on paper,” she moaned.
Mrs. Grant cleared her throat calmly, “It doesn’t look bad, dear, it is bad.”
Susan looked like a fish out of water with her mouth open and moving but with no sound coming off it.
~*********~
The plan was going smoothly, Daniel thought as he waited a few feet from Mrs. Grant’s mansion. He repeated that thought when the courier man came out of the giant gates with the news that he delivered both messages.
He repeated it again, when he sighted Sisi hurrying towards him.
“Ah. Sir, good afternoon,” Sisi greeted with a wide smile. It had been a while since she’d seen Daniel; a man she’d always pitied for marrying her madam’s spoilt daughter.
“Sisi, you received my message,” Daniel said with a smile.
“Yes, that post person tell me say, you wait for me outside,” she said, smiling and swinging her arms.
“How are you?”
“I fine, Sir.”
Daniel cleared his throat nervously, “And how is Stacey?”
“Stacey fine,” Sisi answered with a smile but then frowned. “But she no dey talk to anybody o.”
“Why…what is wrong with her, is she well?” Daniel asked worriedly, his eyes lifting to the mighty building as though he could sight his child from where he stood.
“She no sick o, she fine. She no dey just talk to person. Every time, she dey her room, dey carry face vex vex.”
Daniel’s heart twisted painfully at this report, he knew his daughter must be going through some psychological upheavals. And it pained him that he couldn’t immediately go to her; he had to stick to the plan.
He sighed helplessly and handed the small shopping bag to her. “Give this to Stacey. Please don’t allow anybody to see it,” Daniel warned worriedly and got a nod of understanding from her.
“Then,” he began, sliding out his wallet and fishing out three, one thousand naira notes. “…take this one and…”
“Ehh…,” Sisi celebrated, doing a small gig as she collected the money. “Thank you, sir. I will do as you talk. Thank you…let me fast and go inside,” Sisi said and at Daniel’s nod, she hurried back into the gate.
“I’M STILL NOT TALKING to you,” Stacey griped, not bothering to turn to the opened door of her room.
Sisi paused in confusion, “Stacey, you talk to me?”
The teenager turned at once, at seeing the maid, she shook her head, “No, not you. I thought it was…never mind. What are you holding?”
Sisi smiled, that was a less complicated issue, she thought and moved forward to where Stacey lay. In a conspiratorial tone, she said, “Your father tell me to give you this bag.”
Stacey frowned doubtfully, “My father,” Sisi nodded eagerly.
“Do you even know my father?”
Sisi drew back with an insulted air. “Stacey, no look my small body o, I dey when your father been bring you come see my madam for holiday period. I know your father, and he give me this bag to give you,” she stretched the bag to Stacey and then hurried out of the room.
Stacey was left alone at the slight click of the door. She looked curiously in the bag and smiled when she saw the Android phone. She pulled out from the carton and fiddled with it excitedly.
Just minutes into her fiddling, the phone rang, the ID that flashed on the screen said, ‘Dad’. Her eyes widened, so Sisi had been right. She’d thought the maid might have delivered what was probably meant for her mother, but she’ d been wrong.
“I didn’t know my father still remembered me,” she murmured to her self and picked the call.
“You aren’t being subtle…dad,” she said without preamble.
“Stacey?”
“Yes.”
“You sound different.”
“I grew up.”
Silence reigned, and then Stacey sighed, rolling her eyes upward, “I got the phone, thank you.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, yes I do,” Stacey replied, injecting a bit of pleasure into her frosty tone.
“I’m glad you do.”
Silence again.
“I’m glad I’m talking with you right now, Stacey. I missed you…I missed you a lot.”
Her father’s voice was bringing back a lot of memories. Memories she’d learned to lock away. Ones she’d thought she’d never have to visit again. With the memories, tears pricked her eyelids and slid down her cheeks.
“So, why didn’t you find me?” she blurted. “Why didn’t you come for me? I kept waiting, I kept looking out from the back of the car…hoping I’d sight your face in any of the approaching cars…”
“Ahhh, Stacey,” Daniel called, his voice watery from the tears he was trying to control. “I did, baby, I did. I looked for you everywhere, I involved the police but I didn’t know…”
“Oh God, sweetheart, no excuses can make up for my failure. I just want you to know that I’m extremely sorry and that I’m glad you’re back.”
“I missed you too, daddy,” Stacey cried, sniffling through the phone.
“My God, Stacey, I can’t wait to see you. Are you really tall?”
Stacey giggled at the silly question, the sound made her father’s heart soar exhilaratingly. He remembered that giggle. He’d always looked forward to that giggle at the end of every working day.
“No, dad, I think I inherited a lot of your genes,” she said and was happy that her father laughed. She was reminded of the fun she’d always had with her father. Even though she’d been little, she recalled the fun conversations she used to have with him. Her father had always treated her like an adult; the very opposite of what her mother did.
“I want to live with you, dad,” she blurted passionately. There was silence from the other line.
Daniel couldn’t believe that his wish was just falling into his lap. He’d thought that he’d have to beg or bribe his way back into his daughter’s heart.
He cleared his throat, “You don’t know what that means to me, Stacey. I’d like that very much.”
“I’d like that too, dad.”
“I’m so happy. Are you sure you like the phone?” he asked again, worriedly.
“I love the phone, dad, and stop worrying.”
Daniel chuckled nervously, his daughter, his baby sounded so grown up. “Okay, I’m glad. But don’t go telling anybody I got you a phone, okay?”
“I won’t, daddy.”
“MY DADDY GOT ME a phone,” Stacey announced and smiled at the astonished expressions of her mother and grandmother.
Both women spoke simultaneously.
“What?! Let me see.”
“How did he manage that?”
Stacey answered her grandmother first. “Courier services, grandma. Here it is, mom,” she handed over a very old Nokia phone to her mom.
“What the hell is that?!” Susan exclaimed, twisting her face in disgust.
“Watch your language, Susan,” Mrs. Grant said calmly and squinted to get a closer look at the phone.
“It’s a mobile phone, mom,” Stacey replied to her mother’s earlier outburst.
“This model is so old; I’m not sure its still in the market. But trust Daniel to find it; stingy man,” Susan griped maliciously.
“I’m not sure it even works,” Stacey prodded in a soft, subtle voice. The twelve year old knew how to tweak her mother’s nuts and wires; she knew how to rile her pride and get her to do things that a normal mother wouldn’t be prodded to do for a twelve year old child.
Mrs. Grant scooted forward on her seat and squinted, all she wanted was a better look at the phone. Her expression was skeptical and the smart Stacey saw this. Stacey snatched the phone from her mom’s hand and dropped it in her pocket.
“So, what are you going to do about it mom?” Stacey asked and watched as her mom, looked at her own mom in shocked surprise that she’d asked such a question.
They should be shocked; she’d not been communicative at all, since their return. Stacey watched and saw the exact moment her mother’s mind was made, anger took over her face.
“That’s a good question, Stacey,” Susan said and got up to pace. She was suddenly filled with nervous energy, the kind that pushed her to be especially mean to people.
“That phone looks exactly like Sisi’s phone,” Mrs. Grant said, her mind had finally recalled why the phone looked so familiar.
“Exactly, mom,” Susan exploded. “The phone looks like a maid’s phone. Who does that, which person purposely goes out to buy a demeaning gift for his daughter he’d not seen in a while? For crying out loud, mom, I thought you said he was rich.”
“Err…,”Mrs. Grant began.
“You’ve still not said what you’ll do,” Stacey interrupted, perfectly cutting into whatever her grandmother was about to say.
“First of all, I’ll get you a new phone, the latest. I’ll show Daniel how it’s done.”
“But, Susan…”
“Mom, you’ll help me with the divorce papers, won’t you? You’re still friends with those judges, aren’t you?”
Mrs. Grant stared at the skimming face of her daughter and the mischievous face of her grand daughter and sighed wearily.
“Of course, I’ll help,” the oldest woman in the room said reluctantly, her eyes watching her grand daughter with a frown as she flew into her mother’s arms.
“Thanks mom!” she exclaimed, “You’re the best,” Susan held her and seemed confused as to what to do. Stacey and Susan had never had a hugging relationship, so she was shocked and confused as to how to react.
Stacey left her before she could decide. The twelve year old flashed a bright grin at her grandmother, “You too, Granny, you’re the best,” she said, and fled from the room.
Mrs. Grant shook her head, was it her or did Stacey just mock them, she thought. When she turned to her daughter and saw how riled she was, she sighed wearily. “Stop worrying, Suzy, mama will take care of it,” like I always do, she thought.
~*********~
The story continues…
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