A Journey That Never Ends - Episode 1

 

A long time ago in a big city of Pally. There lived a man called Pascal. Pascal was happily married to a beautiful woman whose heart was worth more than the world to her husband. Lauretta was every man’s dream wife. She was famous for her beauty and the good sense of humor. She loved everyone, and everyone loved her. Pascal was so proud of his wife that he boasted about having the best wife in the whole city of Pally . Pascal’s mother was always at loggerhead with Lauretta. She was unnecessarily hostile to her. She would flare up at every slight provocation. As long as it had anything to do with her daughter- in- law, it would never be good enough. Rumour had it throughout Pally that she was mean to Lauretha due to her ugliness. 
         Moana, Pascal’s mother, was a very jealous lover in her prime age. She would do anything to remain a sole partner to any man that had an affair with her.  A rivalry was her greatest nightmare. A story was told of how she implicated a young lady who she saw as a threat to her relationship with her first boyfriend. Moana went as far as dumping a contra bound item in Pricilla’s purse, and also went ahead to inform the authority that her rival had an illegal item in her possession, an act that got Pricilla jailed for a while. She kept on fixing every Tom, Dick, and Harry that crossed her path

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/a-journey-that-never-ends-1

. Until one day, she met her perfect match in a beautiful wild lady called Jolene.  Jolene had heard stories on how Moana dealt with her threats. She decided to teach her a lesson.
 One evening, Moana had a date with her new boyfriend. She was looking radiant in her new dress. She said a lot about her beauty until the night was almost becoming a tale of Moana’s beauty. Walker, the new boyfriend, was swept off his feet as Moana kept on parading herself as a queen. Just as they settled for dinner, after the long show beauty talks, a fierce, gracious looking beauty queen surfaced and evaded the table of the duo. Walker could not take his eyes off this strange, gorgeous damsel. Moana noticed this and started questioning her. She ordered that Jolene left immediately or else..., Jolene cut in, “or else what? Would you fix me like you fixed others? Incriminate and send me to jail as you did to Pricilla?” She then scoffed, turned her attention away from Moana, bent down towards Walker who was already confused and started kissing him. Moana could not contain the shock, the act of impudence and the mockery. So, she decided to fight this battle the rough way. She raised her hand to hit Jolene, only to be stopped by a stronger arm. She wondered if it was “the Superman” holding her through Jolene. She tried to use her leg, and this fetched her a lifelong, unforgettable beating. She was beaten to a pulp. Left at the bar with a broken jaw, wrist, and a disfigured face. Unknown to her, Jolene was a black belter. The fierce beauty queen walked out of sight majestically, pushing aside Walker who seemed too afraid to intervene. Jolene muttered the words “that was for my innocent sister you sent to jail” as she walked out leaving the bar attendees singing her praises. It then dawned on Moana that Jolene never needed Walker for anything. She only came to pay her back for her past mischief. She thought to herself how stupid she was not to have noticed the resemblance between Jolene and Pricilla. She soliloquized, “she was her sister!” She went to a nearby hospital for treatments. The fractures were taken care of, but she had not enough savings to go for facial surgeries. She carried the indelible scars she got from that beating throughout her days. The ugly look was said to be the beginning of her worse nightmare. She no longer looked at the mirror. That dirty look forcefully humbled her.

Lauretta was heavily pregnant as at the time of Moana’s visit. Pascal was always away for work. So, they needed Moana to help Lauretha out. Lauretta, been an only child of her aged parents who lived in a far country had no choice than to allow Moana fill in the gap. Instead of easing her tension, Moana was always a thorn in Lauretta's flesh. Lauretta told Pascal to ask his mother to leave as she was opposite of a solution to her. Pascal insisted on having her around due to the nature of his work. Lauretta pleaded that Pascal took a break from work to help out till she put to bed. He said his mother and Lauretha should get to settle the score between them and learn to live with each other. Lauretha wondered why her husband was reluctant in doing the right thing.
One day, Pascal was off to work. Lauretta began to have contractions. She quickly called out to her mother in law who was baking in the kitchen. She yelled in anguish “seems the baby is coming”!. Moana pretended not to have heard her. She screamed and yelled over and over. Moana came out of the kitchen and asked her to maintain some sanity as she had also gone through labor pains. With disbelief, she asked Moana to help get her phone from the bedroom upstairs so she could place a call to Pascal. Moana bluntly refused. When the pain became unbearable, Lauretha decided to pick the phone herself. In the process, she slipped and fell from the stairs. She passed out immediately. When Moana saw what had happened, she decided to run out from the house and pretend to be away when the incident occurred. As she opened the gate to flee, she was knocked down by a reckless driver who was blasting his stereo while driving and lost control. Neighbors came to her rescue, and she never told anyone about Lauretta until one of them decided to inform Lauretha about Moana’s accident and to see if she could go to the hospital with them. She lied that her daughter-in-law was a bit indisposed and would not be able to go with them. The neighbor insisted on informing Lauretta. On getting in, she found her lifeless on the floor. Moana forgot to empty the oven before fleeing the house. She lied about knowing what happened to Lauretta. Claiming she was going to get a drink from a nearby shop when she got knocked down. Later on, the truth was revealed about Lauretta's death. When Moana was confronted on why she killed her daughter-in-law and unborn granddaughter, She said Lauretta was always tormenting her with her beauty by the way her son Pascal talks about her before everybody. She could not stand the horror of seeing another little Lauretta. So she hated her, and if only she could make her lose the baby, it would be comforting to her. She never meant to kill them both. Reality dawned on Pascal on how he had allowed his relationship with his mother to deprive him of the people that meant the world to him. He could have saved his wife and unborn child if he had listened to Lauretta. He realized in a hard way that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Just when people thought Moana had overcome her jealousy, she proved to every one that jealousy is a never ending journey. It doesn't end until someone or something crucial is destroyed.