Last Episode
It was when he got home and saw the letter that he knew something was amiss. Her belongings were still well arranged in the corners she’d fashioned for herself, ever since Ben chose to stay in the room with her, now that all boundaries are broken. He knew she had gone even without taking anything he bought for her. He opened the letter.
‘When your mum came to tell me that I will only destroy your life. I made plans to make you hate me. So you can leave me. You see I never went to Prince. I only begged that Hairdresser near the street to allow me stay the night as I knew you wouldn’t leave. But these past days you’ve treated me like a dog. In the morning, at noon and in the dead of the night. I was an animal to you. I know you were trying to punish me. But I felt if you loved me one bit, you would have had mercy on me. So, I am gone. To never return. Whether in a long journey or to death, I do not know. But let me tell you this. I love you so much. I never stopped.’
He didn’t find her. He was devastated. Nobody has seen her, nobody knew her whereabouts. Not even the Hairdresser he threatened with the Police. She simply disappeared into thin air. But on a particular weary night. He opened his mail and saw an invitation letter for a job two weeks due. He thought he had lost the employment. But the good friend of Anita was waiting for him that day. It was a shipping company. The pay was good and his experience at the Foundation really helped him, his basic salary was 4.2million naira per annum with housing and a car.
Ben’s life has changed but a hole lies gaping in his heart. He had a bit of affluence but he would give everything to have Temi in his arms, if just once again. He even prayed to God for the first time in a long while. Renewing a lost relationship. He was temporarily relieved. The hurt still lingered, the pain fresh. He had peace now…but not joy.
The call was late in the night. It was his mother. She knew she caused the misery that has befallen his son. Of course she had the dream after an encounter with Doctor Felix. If the words influenced her dream, she couldn’t say. But the fear was that Temi would destroy her son’s future. But now it’s his son’s present that is already destroyed, why bother about future. So, she investigated the girl’s background and went to the lady’s maternal village in Okemesi Ekiti.
It was at the Oke Agbona’s Hospital Mama learnt that, when the lady discovered she was pregnant, she tried to abort the pregnancy. She was unsuccessful…
Ben knew her life hung in the balance. He brought her to Oluyoro’s Hospital in Ibadan as the College Hospital was on strike. She was in coma for days. It was on the sixth day that she opened her eyes. It was fixated on him. He looked at her with tears in his eyes. He knew she lost their baby. But they still have each other. She was very weak. She seemed to finally recognize him. ‘I’m sorry.’ She muttered.
‘Don’t be…let me be sorry for both of us. You don’t have to be my love.’ He told her. She began to mutter some inaudible words as Ben bent down his ear towards her mouth wanting to hear.
‘I love you, silly boy.’ She bites his ear playfully as they laughed for long.
Tola Bolaji (PRO TAMPAN GUILD OF DIRECTORS)
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