Sister Deborah

EPISODE 9: IMPROMPTU DEPARTURE.

“You are very stupid, Hakeem. You are a big fool for that trash you just vomited!” Divine pointed at Hakeem and spat on his feet. “Heartless animal! I don’t blame you!”

She spat again and added, “I heard every single word you said. I don’t blame you. I blame Deborah for not respecting herself and stooping so low to mix up with a riff-raff like you. Dirty thing!”

Divine walked back inside and slammed the door. Immediately she left, Timi and Fatai burst into laughter, pointing at Hakeem’s bewildered face as they did.

With deep shame, Hakeem looked away and hissed. The next thing we knew, the door opened again and Divine exited the house with Deborah. She held Deborah’s bag and held her arm for support. Deborah was now dressed in her normal clothes, still looking pale and weak.

“Divine hold on, where are you taking her to?” Fatai asked, puzzled.

“We are going home.”

“Home?” Timi repeated. “But you can see she’s still recovering, and besides, it’s drizzling.”

“I don’t care.” She hissed and rolled her eyes, storming past us with Deborah. I’d never seen that side of Divine before, but I understood the reason behind her rage.

I wanted to go after them but Timi stopped me and told me to give her some time to cool off. Fatai, on the other hand, being Divine’s boyfriend, pleaded with Divine to wait, but she paid deaf ears to him.

Later in the evening, after much contemplation between ourselves, we decided to visit Deborah to check up on her, but Hakeem refused to tag along, probably out of sheer guilt.

Along the way, however, I stopped by a provision store and got provisions for Deborah, figuring that she might need them.

When we arrived, to the least of our expectations, we found Deborah’s room shut with a padlock. I phoned her number several times but it was switched off. Fatai tried Divine’s number as well but it was futile. She was intentionally ignoring his calls.

Desperate, we asked about their whereabouts from some neighbours around the compound, but they had no idea where they were, either.

“What do we do now?” I sighed exasperatedly, almost losing hope.

“It’s late already, we can come back tomorrow.” Timi suggested, but just then, we saw someone’s figure from afar coming towards us, and a few more steps revealed Divine, who seemed rather undelighted to see us at her doorstep.

She hissed, on stopping before us. “What’re you guys doing here?”

“Divine calm down. Are we quarreling?” I asked, calmly.

She folded her hands, rolled her eyes and looked away. “No, we are not.”

“So why the attitude na?”

“See, I don’t have time. What do you want?”

“Fine. I want to see Deborah. Is she in?”

“Nope.”

“Where is she?”

“She has moved out.” Divine answered.

I felt a sting of shock around my whole body. “Are you serious? How come? When? What time?” I asked all at once.

“She has moved out of here, period.” Divine maintained, walking away, but Fatai held her back and gave her a calm look.

“Divine, why are you behaving this way? He wants to see your friend. I know she is in there. Allow him.”

“If you think it’s a joke, follow me and see for yourself then.” She shook his hand off her arm and unlocked the door, went in and then switched on the lights.

Truly, a large portion of the room was vacant, as though something was missing. The wardrobe was ajar and I saw that it was almost empty. There was no sign of Deborah in the room, not even the sweet fragrance of her perfume.

“Neche, let’s go home.” Timi said, sounding very annoyed.

“But Divine where exactly did she go to?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

“I don’t know.”

“Divine please, I beg of you. Please!”

“I said I don’t know! Is it by force?”

I felt downhearted by Divine’s unpleasant attitude and the unexpected turn out of events, so I just dropped the items I came with and buzzed off, infuriated, wondering what led to Deborah’s impromptu departure.

It didn’t make any sense to me. No single sense at all.