COME WHAT MAY

CHAPTER ONE

The wind howled eerily as Lolita packed her blue Honda Jazz in her parking space at her Parent's big mansion in Block ten, Gaborone. Her job as a secondary school teacher exhausted her more than usual today and a massive headache she has been struggling with for over three hours did not make things better. The students at that secondary school did not help make her job easier either; teaching them successfully was only achieved by the grace of God. She wished she could just erase the pain in her head with a wave of her hand. She smiled wearily at the thought. All that was missing was a sparkling white wand. She locked her car and opened the door to the immaculate house with two Living rooms and Five bedrooms. Sometimes she wondered why they bothered with such a huge plot of land when their family was not a large one. She dropped her bags and walked to the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

Lolita downed the glass of the orange juice in her hands and sighed heavily. She left Nigeria when she was Twelve years old and now at twenty seven she was an independent immigrant meaning she was no longer under her parent's permit documents. The contract of her teaching job will end in five months' time and she earnestly prays her employer renews it. But what if he doesn't? She had never lived apart from her parents...where was she supposed to go anyway? She pushed the discouraging thoughts to the back of her head. "God will make a way out, surely He will," She thought defiantly but the thoughts resurfaced.

What if her contract gets renewed but the immigration office refuses to give her a work permit?

Lolita sat down on the cream leather sofa in her parent's living room, grabbed the tv's remote and switched it on to see what was on.

"If I leave now, I will never get the chance to find out if I meant anything to him then or now. Lord what do you want me to do?" Her heart beats to keep her alive, care for her family, friends and of course to love God. She had successfully built an almost impenetrable wall of ice, stones and iron against the part of her heart that could feel love for a man. She had promised herself not to love any other man until she was sure her first love was not the one. But who was she kidding? The guy doesn't even feel the same way at least she thought so. Even worse, she had not laid eyes on him for six years! They parted rather badly at varsity after four years of friendship. He had left without a trace and changed his number.

Why was she yearning for someone who treated her with so much dis-respect and dis-loyalty? The entire friendship must have been a set up anyway. Lolita switched off the television set and stretched herself on the sofa. The best way to forget is to sleep and that was what she was going to do.

Three hours later, Lolita's parents arrived from work. Physics Professor David Badmus and English Professor Grace Badmus both let out the same sigh of relief from their jobs. University of Botswana was taking its toll on her parents, but the reward for them working there was the citizenship they had now acquired, including even for her eighteen-year old brother, David Junior.She knew she got her love for teaching from her parents but her brother was a Computer geek that breathes and live binary numbers and programming. It was already his last semester of second year at the University of Botswana and he could not wait to finish school and apply to do his Masters in the United States.

"Lolly," she heard someone calling her. That was her nick name from her mother. She always feel special and child-like when she hears it. Lolita stretched herself on the sofa as she scanned the three people standing over her.

"Welcome back." She went on her knees to greet her parents.

"You look tired. Have you eaten?" Grace asked.

"No. I went straight to sleep when I arrived from work."

"So you didn't prepare supper?" Prof. Badmus asked angrilly.

"Dad, please don't start. I had a terrible headache. I just needed some sleep." She yawned and stood up. "I will get on with it."

About two hours later, her family ate their supper and were reclining in their living room while Lolita had retreated back to her room. She teaches Science to Form 2 and Form 3 students at Aurora Private Junior Secondary School. She smiled as she sat on the edge of her queen sized bed. She remembered she had three marriage proposals earlier in the year. She laughed softly as she recalled each guy's line of proposal. Two of them were so cheesy while one seemed sincere; two brothers at church and one at work. Of course she turned them all down.

Her mother had chided her for not giving them a chance, but she was not interested in getting married anytime soon. Her first love was not really holding her down (who was she kidding?) She was truly not prepared to get married with someone else in her heart. The thought of getting married suddenly sent shivers through her body. She could not bear being separated from her family, she might as well just ask "Dear future Husband" to move in with them. She laughed at the thought. But that wasn't a bad idea. She could imagine him hiding from her father's over-powering presence.

She stood up and walked to the adjourning room which was set up like a mini library. The walls were painted light cream colour with the only window in the room covered with a bright flowery cream curtain. This was her life and she would do anything to keep things as they were. She drew the curtain to one side and looked around. The mini- library had a medium sized table and three chairs. It was her work station. Three wooden shelves stood against the wall holding her fiction collection and text books. A desktop set stood in a corner of the room with a leather chair in front of it. She took out her work bag, brought out a file containing her Form two class' test papers and proceeded to mark them. Slowly her concentration diverted from her personal problems. Come what may, she will surely achieve all her dreams and not even a piece of paper can stop her.