Twirl

Chapter 16

A smile crept in as her family sang happy birthday to her. All morning, tears had flowed greatly, the hurt of losing her mum refreshed. Her mum wouldn’t be here with her. She would never be. Lolade had hugged and comforted her when she woke up to the sound of her cries. She had been uncontrollable.

Now, after morning prayers, she was feeling rejuvenated, her soul strengthened. God did not hate her after all but she was yet to understand why her mum and the sister she never got to meet had to die.

“We’ll go out for dinner this evening. I’ll come back from work earlier than usual. Okay?” big daddy announced.

“Yes, sir,” Tomini said.

They dispersed from the sitting room; Tomini and Lolade went about their house chores while Gbola went into his room.

“Tomi, you’ll be okay. You know that right?”

“Lolade, I don’t know. I hope so,” she blinked back tears as she rinsed a freshly washed plate and set it aside.

“You will,” Lolade said reassuringly. “I can’t say I understand cause I actually don’t. But I know God loves you and he’ll help you through this period. You’ll come out fine.”

“I wonder though, instead of causing me pain and then helping me through it, why couldn’t he just prevent it from happening?” Tomini shook her head as a stray tear escaped her left eye.

There was silence for some moments before she heard her cousin’s voice.

“God does no evil, Tee. God does no evil. That’s the devil’s job not God’s.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at all. I wish it didn’t happen. Am I really going to do life without my mother? I don’t even have siblings. It would have been easier, much better. All I have is a dad that didn’t even remember my birthday. Just dumped me here and hasn’t looked back.”

Lolade began to speak but paused. She spoke again after a while “Look, I don’t have the answers. I don’t.” She chuckled slightly before continuing.

“The bible says God takes no pleasure in wickedness. No evil dwells with Him. God loves you. He doesn’t want you to suffer, hurt or be in pain. Instead, he wants to help you get through it.”

“Then why did he let it happen?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. She rinsed her hands and rested both hands on the counter, her head down.

Her cousin who had been cleaning the gas cooker left what she was doing and came to her side. Pulling her into a side hug, she heaved a sigh.

“Umm,” Tomini cleared her throat and broke the embrace. “What are we going to eat?”

She found a shocked expression on her cousin’s face. “That was quite a switch.”

Tomini laughed and Lolade joined. Their attention turned to Gbola who opened the kitchen and slammed it after entering.

“Hey mister! Can’t you close the door like a human being?” Lolade yelled at him.

He dragged his feet towards the cooker and began opening pots, totally ignoring his sister.

“You’re a fool. Why are you opening pots? Did you cook the food that’s there?”

“So I shouldn’t eat again in my father’s house? See this babe. Tomini, abeg, what do you guys want to cook?”
Tomini smiled as she watched their exchange, internally wishing she had a sibling.

“We’ve been cleaning since. I think I’ll just eat bread and egg.”

“Please fry my own, too” he pleaded. Lolade immediately faced Tomini with a stern look.

“Don’t mind him. He has hands and he can cook for himself,” she said. Tomini burst into laughter and shook her head at the duo. Gbola went to his sister’s side and put his arm around her. She shrugged him off and slapped his arm hard.

“Girl, it wasn’t even painful. Is that the best you could do?” he mocked laughing.

“You guys,” Tomini drawled. “It’s okay. Gbola leave her alone. And it wouldn’t hurt if you cooked and clean. You after all live in this house and eat food cooked by others.”

“At least, you spoke like a human being. I’ll change when I grow up.”

She watched him leave the kitchen with a smile on her face.

***
The day was pretty uneventful. Asides the numerous calls from friends – most of which were classmates from secondary school, she was bored to death.

In the evening, they all went out to a local eatery and had dinner, after which they each prayed for her and sang her a birthday song. She had fun taking selfies with her cousins. Lolade also took personal photos of her. Before leaving the eatery, Lolade held her phone up and they all took a group selfie; big daddy made the peace sign, big mummy stuck her tongue out, Gbola had on a neutral expression while she and Lolade couldn’t help laughing at the funny poses big daddy and mummy made.

Lolade and Tomini were lying on the bed, scrolling through the pictures they had taken that evening when a call came in from Zion. Lolade chuckled as she handed the phone to her.

With a smile on her face, she accepted the call and placed the phone to her right ear.

“Hello,” she spoke softly.

“Hi Tomi. Happy birthday. I’m so sorry I’m late. I had no idea it was your birthday till I came online some minutes ago and saw Lolade’s post. I would have called earlier.”

“Thank you. And it’s okay,” she laughed.

“Not a big deal at all.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I hope you had a nice day, though.”

“It was okay,” she shrugged, even though she knew he couldn’t see her.

“What did you do? Did you have fun?”

She laughed before answering. “I didn’t do anything much. We all just had a family dinner at an eatery. I had fun.”

“I’d love to continue talking but I’m so tired. I need sleep.”

“Aww sorry.”

“You’re coming for evangelism tomorrow, right?”

“I’m not very sure but we’ll see.” She didn’t want to commit herself and then not show up.

“Why? Are you going to be busy?”

Chuckling, she replied, “I thought you were tired, Zion. Goan sleep na.”

“Stop trying to evade the subject,” he said, sternly. “If you have nothing doing, you have to come.”

“Alright, sir,” she said, her voice filled with sarcasm.

Lolade gave her a questioning look and she laughed out loud.

“I’m serious,” he said. She could hear the seriousness in his voice. He was almost always serious.

“Alright, Zion. Have a good night rest.”

“You, too. See you tomorrow.”

She laughed and shook her head, removing the phone from her ear and tossing it on the bed.

“You’re sure you don’t like this boy?” Lolade asked, mischief dancing in her eyes.

She shot her a glare and hissed loudly. Lolade laughed uncontrollably, tossing from side to side.

“It’s okay. I know he’s cute.”

***
After service on Sunday, a few people who knew about her birthday greeted her. Zion was the only one who came bearing a gift bag. He hugged her, wished her a happy belated birthday and handed over the gift bag. Immediately, he left without waiting for a response. Shock and excitement took over her as she took a seat and checked the content of the bag. In it was a journal and birthday greeting card. Her heart began to race as she opened the card.

He simply wrote his name at the bottom of the card without any address or message. The only message there was the printed one that was made with the card. She was a little disappointed and didn’t understand why. She wished he had written something…something personal. Her heart was still racing and she grew mad at herself. Why the heck was her heart beating so fast? He wasn’t even here. Gosh!

That night, Zainab sent her a message, asking if she had bought her graduation dress. She gasped and slapped her forehead with her right palm. It had completely skipped her mind. Her mind had drifted totally away from school. And to think the graduation was merely three days away – Thursday. She would talk to big mummy about it tomorrow.

All three of them – Lolade, Tomini and big mummy went shopping for a dress on Tuesday afternoon. Big mummy bought two more dresses for her and she was delighted. On the day of the graduation, Lolade insisted on doing her makeup even though she could do it quite well for herself.

She braided her natural hair into cornrows and wore one of her straight wigs. Big loop earrings dangled on her ears and her black block heels gave her extra height.

Big daddy could not make the event but Lolade and big mummy did. She was disappointed when she sighted her dad seating between Lolade and big mummy. What was he doing here? His presence was not needed. She didn’t need him. Her face contorted into a frown as she faced the stage, where the proprietor was giving his speech.

After the program, she took some pictures with her family before dashing off to meet her mates. They took numerous group pictures, after which she took personal ones with Zainab and Esther.

She searched with her eyes for Michael. Her phone began ringing and she dug it out of her small purse. Big mummy was calling. Perhaps it was time to go. But she wanted to speak to Michael first. The ringing stopped. Just as it started again, she found him talking to three boys from their set and she walked hastily towards him.

“Hi,” she said looking from one boy to the other.

“Hi,” she waved at Michael. He stepped forward with a wide smile and hugged her. Chuckling, she withdrew from the hug.

“How are you? You look beautiful!”

“I’m okay. Thank you.”

The smile fell off his face. “We’ve not been really been keeping in touch. You now stay with your uncle, right?”

“That’s partially my fault. I’m sorry. I’ve been staying…” she was cut off mid-sentence by the ringing of her phone. She looked down at it and faced him again.

“Sorry, I have to go. Later.”

He flashed his pearly white teeth and she smiled back, before hurrying towards the exit.


***
Her phone beeped and she picked it up.

“Eat your food. You people can’t do without your phone even for a few minutes,” Big mummy said sternly from her seat adjacent her.

Gbola chuckled and she frowned at him. They were all having dinner at the dining table.

“Sorry, ma.” She dropped the phone as quickly as she had picked it up. She would check the notification later.

She cleared the table with Lolade. She began washing the dishes while Lolade cleaned the table. She later joined her and helped in wiping the plates and cutlery with a napkin and placing them in the rack.

She checked her phone afterwards in the bedroom and saw that Esther had sent a picture – a screenshot of her WASSCE results.