Life Before a Storm (A Nigerian Story) COMPLETED

Chapter 14

RINGGG! RINGGGG!! RINGGGGG!!!

The annoying alarm clock rang loudly and made my ears bleed. At first I thought I was having a bad dream, but the clear sound of it jolted me into reality. It was five o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday, and the weather was terribly cold.

I put the alarm clock on silent mode and tried to get back to sleep for at least another thirty minutes, but the thought of completing my task early pumped into my heavy head.

I stretched, and my tightened muscles became flexible. I yawned tiredly, then lazily picked up my phone and saw a text message from Idara. It read;

"Babe guess who is off the market! I'm getting married!!!"

I was subjected to a wave of conflicting emotions that instant. The Idara I knew was never the type who will want to settle down easily. She had dated different men and none of the relationships lasted. She had always given one lame excuse or the other why she had to opt out.

One of the men she dated, Francis, was very good looking and well to do, but according to her, he was stingy and arrogant. She moved on to Udeme who was a good Christian. She jilted him because she found out that he had incest with his female cousin in the past.

Then she dated Paul, a promising vocalist. She quitted due to his inability to send her orgasms to the heavens whenever they made love. According to her, Paul was inexperienced at kissing, and he had the habit of becoming tired in just two minutes.

Only four months ago, she fell head over heels in love with an electrician, Tobi. A  spiffy Yoruba man with impeccable manners who would have been her end. The horror she felt when she was warned by somebody who knew him that he was HIV positive was second to none.

Now there she was telling me she was about to be married. To who, I had no idea. I wanted to call her but I hesitated. I replied her text instead, congratulating her.

I sprang out of bed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast for the twins. Susan gave an order the previous night to make a breakfast of scotch pancakes, fried eggs and sausages with some warm milk.

It was 8am already. Jesse and Jessica were dressed for a little outing with their mother. I served them their food and watched them eat.

"Ima-obong, the food is so good. I could eat a whole drum of it." Jessica said.

"Thank you." I smiled.

Jesse said nothing. She was slouching on her food. I noticed how she had a very small bite of the sausage and pushed it aside with her fork, then ate the eggs and pancakes.

"Finish your food Jesse else I'll tell your mom." I said.

"I hate sausages." She replied nastily.

"Well, your mom didn't tell me that. Finish it, else I'll tell her that you want to waste food." I said, maintaining calmness.

"Don't tell her please. It'll break her heart." Jessica said. She had a gloom expression on her face.

"When she is alone, mummy is always crying." She continued.

Jesse gave her a mean look and she fell quiet.

A tinge of worry filled my heart. I wanted to prod her to say more but I didn't. They were too young to have such a discussion with.

________

Later that same day, the twins came back from their outing with their mom.

"Welcome ma. What can I get you?"