Star-crossed - Episode 7

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Comfort:

"So, anything from the University of Lagos? Saw you checking again last night." Joyce asks as we walk down the road. I shake my head at her and she smiles wanely.
"Admission journey no just easy babe. I know how long I tried getting into the university before I settled for the polytechnic where I finished my ND. I don't think I'll be going back for my HND sef . I no get power." She chuckles and I can't help the smile that creeps onto my lips.
"Maybe when Stanley finally proposes, I'll get the store I've always wanted to own. Business suits me better anyways. I can just imagine the kids running around the shop while I___" I have to tap her shoulder when my eyes leave her for a second to look down the road and I spot the familiar car at the end of the road.
"Oh." That's all she says before giving me a sheepish smile. What the hell? I narrow my eyes at her and it gets her speaking.
"He asked for my help! Said he needed to speak to you and you haven't been answering his text for the last four days. That's rude by the way." She says before I elbow her in her side. I anxiously look back down the road and freeze when I see the door pulling open.
"Ouch! I'm just saying. Just talk to the guy

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. What are you so scared of?" That question has my head whipping back to Joyce. Why does everyone think I'm scared of something just because I avoid everyone.
I angrily point my index finger in her face and growl underneath my breath when I hear him calling my name from behind me.
"Hey, don't leave!" Joyce tries to hold me back but I forcibly yank my hand from her grasp.
"Hey, wait." Stronger fingers wrap around my wrist before I get far and I freeze.
"Calm down." He smells of cigarettes and something minty. I try not to breathe in his scent as I take in large gulps of air into my lungs.
"Don't get mad at your cousin. I just thought you'd like to come with me to get your guitar from the repairer. I know nothing about guitars so I wouldn't know if it's been fixed correctly." He says softly. I bite down on the inside of my cheeks before I turn around to face him.
"Y__" I look behind him to find Joyce watching us so I swallow my words and pull my phone out of my pocket.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TEXT ME ABOUT IT INSTEAD OF SETTING ME UP.

I send the message to him and motion for him to check his phone. He lets go of my hand to retrieve his phone. His eyes looks over his shoulder at Joyce before he reads the text.
"You've not been replying any of my previous texts. Can we just go to the car. I know you don't want your cousin hearing you and I want to hear your voice instead of reading several texts." I eye the car down the road and frown.
"It'll save you airtime." He adds and I know he's right. I nod my acceptance and the grin that takes over his features softens my resolve lots. Why does this good looking man act like my agreeing to go with him is such a big thing to him.
"I don't want you to change your mind and run." He says and with that his warm hand takes mine in it. I freeze up as usual and try to retrieve my hand from him but he's having none of that. He holds unto my hand more firmly and butterflies swarm my stomach when I look up into his eyes.
"Bring her back before 6 okay? I'll be with Stanley at the usual hangout. She has to go home with me or my mother will worry." My eyes snaps away from his at Joyce's instructions. I give her my annoyed eyes but she just waves at me.

****

Raymond:

"Why don't you want them to know that you can speak?" I ask the question that's been on my mind for days as soon as I've locked the doors of the car. I see her body clam up at this.
"None of your business."
"Well it might be. I mean you speak to me just fine." I push on
"That's because I don't want people asking me stupid questions like you are now." She snaps and I frown.
"You don't speak to your family because you don't want them asking you questions. That's__" I shake my head at her and her eyes comes to pin me.
"Weird? Crazy? You can say it. You've heard the rumors after all. I've already been labeled the crazy one of this town so it's nothing new." I catch the shiny glazed look in her eyes before she pulls her face from me and faces the window.
"I don't think you're crazy." I say softly. My fingers tremble with the urge to touch her, assure her that I don't see her the way the town sees her. Just when I get up the boldness to touch her hand which is resting on her lap, she pulls it away and faces me. Her eyes are now clear.
"Are we going to get my guitar or not?"
"You're agreeing to go with me then?" I ask with caution.
"Do I even get a say in this? I don't think you'll let me be if we don't get this out of the way. So let's get it over with."
"Alright. Put on your seatbelt." I decide to let the issue rest and take what she's willing to give me. She manages just fine to get the seatbelt on and I carefully pull the car into the road.

****

Comfort:

"Hey wake up. We're here." My droopy eyes blink open at the soft voice and Raymond's face comes into vision. The first thing that comes into my sleepy mind is that I'm dreaming but when I look around and take in the interior of his car, my mind catches up to where I am.
"I fell asleep." I say without question and he nods.
"How long were we on the road for me to fall asleep?" I remember watching the scenery pass outside the window while he drove through the town. I must have dozed off to the soft music he had on. How long has it been anyways?
"Over two hour?"
"What?!" I jerk up on the car seat and look out the window. The peeling green paint on the wall of a tiny shop with Jacobs Music instruments printed boldly on the sign above the door has my hackles rising at an impossible rate.
"Where are we?" I ask anxiously without taking my eyes off the sign.
"Calm down. There wasn't any instrument technician in your town. This was the first place I could find a technician to___"
"No no no no no." I put both my hands over my ears to shut him out.
"Hey, Comfort. Calm down. Can you hear me? I just__ just wanted to help." He puts a hand on my shoulder.
"You think bringing me to my father's shop is helping me?!" I scream in his face. His face falls and so does his hand.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." I touch my face and realize that I'm crying. I brush my face clean angrily.
"Take me out of here." I make sure he hears how serious I am right now.
"I promise I didn't know he's your father until he saw your mother's guitar and said he knows who owns it. He said he gave it to the woman who owned it. He thought the guitar must have been sold to me after the owner died. That's your mother right? The owner of the guitar."
"I said get me out of here, Raymond." My voice shakes with the intensity of the anger boiling inside of me.
"Look, I know you're angry with the man. Joyce told me your father left you and your mother for another woman. I know how that must hurt but the man inside that door regrets everything. He__"
"You don't know anything!!!" I scream at him, stopping him in his words.
"That man in there left his dying child with his mentally unstable wife when they needed him the most! For another woman! And you tell me he regrets it?"
"His dying child?"
"Please, Raymond. I can't be here. Please I__ oh God no__" the shop's door opens at this moment and my chest nearly combust with how hard I'm breathing right now as my eyes clashes with that of my father. When was the last time I saw this man? Almost two years ago. He's not changed at all. He's still the handsome man who my mother fell for and the same man who left us.
"Say the words and I'll drive off now. You don't have to speak to him." I barely hear Raymond. My eyes move from my father's dull eyes to the guitar he's clutching to his chest. Mother's guitar.
"Open the door." I say gravelly.
"Are you sure?"
"Please." I say then hear the click of the door unlocking.
"Comfort__" I ignore Raymond as I use my shaky hands to push my door open.
"Comfort, my child__" The man actually looks like he's pained as he says my name but I know better. A man who left his dying child isn't a father.
"You don't deserve to hold that." I point to the guitar in his arms. His eyes goes from me to the guitar and back to me.
"I don't. Here. It's yours." He hands the guitar to me and I greedily grab it from him.
"I'm so glad your mother gave it to you." He says as I start to turn around and I stop.
"You don't deserve to talk about her.

Read " To Hate Emmanuel Johnsons " by the same author ( Ameh juliet )

. You killed her. We actually, but___"
"What are you talking about?" He interrupts me and I shrug nonchalantly.
"You can't possibly think that your illness drove your mother into committing suicide!"
"Well I do! My sickness made you leave her. I drove her to depression. You can't tell me otherwise!" I snap.
"Yes, I can."
"Don't patronize me." I grind out and he shakes his head.
"Your mother would never commit suicide, Comfort. Especially on that particular day."
"What do you mean by on that particular day?"
"I met her that day."
"You did what?! What did you tell her that made her decide to end it all?! What did you do?!" I scream at him.
"No. I was going to come back to the both of you. I was going to leave Ogechi. Your mother was so happy that day."
"You were going to come back? Wait, was that the day you gave her this ring?" I ask him as I pull the chain from under my shirt.
"What ring? Oh my God." He gasps as his eyes catches on the ring.
"What? Didn't you give this to her?"
"Where did you get that?"
"Mother was clutching this ring when I woke up to find her in a pool of her own blood that night. I thought it was something you gave her before you left."
"That's Ogechi's ring. The ring I used to propose to Ogechi. Not your mother."

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  • Rating (4)
  • Blessed Daniel picture
    Blessed Daniel
    Hmm Pathetic And Touching. Could It Be That The Mother Was Killed. I Guess Nt. Thumbs Writer.
  • Dolapo Oloyede picture
    Dolapo Oloyede
    Hope is not what I'm thinking, could Oghechi killed her
  • Anthonia Okezie picture
    Anthonia Okezie
    Does that mean that ogechi killed her
  • Michael progress picture
    Michael progress
    Something is fishy
  • Delly Soglo picture
    Delly Soglo
    My goodness! I suspect Ogechi killed Comfort's mum. This is so sad. Ray did well by bringing her to his shop at least we know something now. Well done Julie!
  • Shiru picture
    Shiru
    Now this is interesting , was her mother killed ?
  • Lo is picture
    Lo is
    So it's murder!!
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