Silence.

 

More silence.

 

Awkward silence.

 

Bidemi was now standing above Lola’s curled up body, frozen.

 

The girls and I exchanged glances and Kenny mouthed

 

“ Let’s leave ”

 Like we didn’t already know we should have left. But the thing tire us. We stood up one after the other, got out, leaving Bidemi and Lola alone. Door was broken and could not stay shut, so any eavesdropping plan we had was aborted. We moved far enough to not be seen, but close enough to hear, though faintly.

 

“Babe, what did you say?”  Bidemi finally said something with a shaky voice, and he sniffed.

 Woah! Was he crying?

Well, e reach to cry na. We don’t see love like that a lot. BIdemi and Lola were the poster kids for love in all it’s varied expressions. They would literally walk into a lion’s mouth if it meant the other person would be alright.

 

Bidemi had even told Lola that if she got the 60% scholarship they had been applying for, he would foot the rest of the 40%. They had planned that she would be housed in the UK by his sister-in-law through out the duration of her masters and wedding would follow right after her masters. He would have married her before she travelled, but he knew that Lola would want to focus squarely on school, before she will go and be pregnant in school. He didn’t want that because he knew she didn’t want that.  Everything was set and now this?

 

“I can’t be with you anymore Bidemi“ Lola responded between sobs.

 

“ Okay. Why? . Did I do something? Did you do something? Is it something that can be worked on?. Lola you can’t do this nau”

 

“ Bab….Bidemi, I’m sorry. It is what It is. Please leave”

 

Hmmmm, she couldn’t even call him babe. Haa!!!

Bidemi was thrown off balance, could tell from his voice. He tried to plead with her to say something other than “ We can’t be together anymore” to no avail.

 

Silence.

 

More silence.

 

Then Bidemi came out. He walked past us without a word , then turned back as he got close to the exit .

 

“I’ll send a carpenter tomorrow morning. Sorry about the door”

 

And he walked out.

 

Silence

 

 

In Lola’s room.

None of us could say a word.

Lola just laid there, groaning in pain.

Eso went to her, curled up on the ground with her, held her and joined the crying.

I looked at Kenny and I could tell from where I was sitting that she was losing her mind trying to figure out a way to fix this, if only she knew what ‘this’ was about.

 

“ What is it Lola. Please talk to your sisters” Kenny reached for Lola and put her hand on her head.

 

“Woah! You are burning up. You need to get up and have a bath” Eso and Kenny started to pull her up.

 

Just then, my phone rang, and it was Lola’s Mum. We save all the mums with ‘Mummy (Friend’s name)’  Eg: Mummy(Eso). Mummy(Kenny) .

 

“Lola, it’s your mum” .I stretched out the phone to her as she was being helped by the other girls to the bathroom.

She looked and the phone and looked away.  Lola doesn’t ever do that to her mum’s calls. She doesn’t ever!

I picked up the call.

 

“Hello, good evening ma”

 

“Good evening my dear. How are you?”

 

“I’m fine ma”

 

“Ok . Bless you. Please my dear I’m concerned. I’ve been trying to call  Lola since she left for Abuja , but her phone has been switched off. Please have you girls heard from her?”

 

“ Oh, yes ma. She’s back but she’s in the bathroom and her battery died”

 

“ Ehn but that’s unlike Lola nau. She should have used your phone or anyone else’s to call me. Abi?”

 

“ Oh..yes..yes ma. She..she..she entered a meeting immediately she got back. But I’ll have her call you as soon as she gets out of the shower”

 

“Please dear , do so. Because she got us really worried. We’ve been trying to reach her for hours”

 

Us? Who be us abeg? Last I checked, Mummy (Lola) lived alone and had no other children. So who is the ‘we’ that has been calling Lola for hours?

 

My amebo should have stayed in my head but my mouth betrayed me and asked

 

“Us?”

 

“Oh , yes nau. Shola and I “

 

Okaaayyy…who be Shola abeg? I’ve never heard that name before, at least not from Lola. And if he or she is part of an ‘us’ to Lola’s  very private mum, then he or she must be somebody we should have known, or should know.

 

“He offered to drop her at the airport after church but she adamantly refused, Only for her phone to be switched off minutes later till now. Got the young man and I scared. And you know how these times are. God forbid! Evil is far from us in Jesus’ name”

 

“Amen ma. Mummy, I’ll have Lola call you as soon as she’s out of the bathroom”

 

“Ok. Thank you my dear. God bless you . And tell Lola that Shola sends his love and that she should call him back”

 

“Ok ma. Bye bye ma”

 

“Bye dear”

 

Shola is a ‘he’? A ‘he’ that we’ve never heard of? Hmmmm.

 

Lola was now done with her shower and putting on a night dress. She hadn’t said a word.

 

“Your mum is worried about you. She said you should please call her back”

 

She nodded.

 

Her eyes were swollen like party balloons. She was moving at a speed 7x slower than normal. She looked really weak and weary. She needed sleep. This was not a good time to ask her any questions but,

 

Who the hell is Shola?