Pelumi's Memoirs - 8

Tare sat up with her heart beating in her chest. She held her head in her hands. It was a dream. A familiar dream that had crept up again. She looked at the clock in her hotel room and saw it was just fifteen minutes before 7am. Her day started early the previous day and she had a swell time meeting with friends that night. No wonder she crumbled on the bed and fell asleep the moment her body hit it.

Rising from the bed, she hugged herself tight. The dream was troublesome. It brought back memories from the past. She sighed. Should she pray? Talk to someone about this recurring dream that never really went away? She seldom prayed and she felt like she could use some prayer now. Maybe she'd call one of her friends and open up. She shook her head. Bad idea! Her friends were not really given to prayer either.

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah yeah)

Michael Jackson's wanna be starting something lyrics jumped at her.

"Really? Smh for you Tare," she said aloud. She proceeded with saying a little prayer. Maybe one of these days, well just maybe, she would summon the courage to talk to Reverend Nnamani about these dreams that had been harassing her for some time now. Why couldn’t they just go away?

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Three Months Later........

Ivan went over the speech he was going to deliver at the Q1 town hall which was bound to commence in another thirty minutes or so. Town halls were held at the beginning of each quarter to communicate management expectations and indicate the financial position of the company.

He noticed the young lady who had just walked into the conference room. The conference room was huge and there were different people entering the room. For some reason, she held his attention. She had her hair braided and in an up do. Her skin was clear. The color of chocolate. His eyes took in the details of what she was wearing. Mustard yellow silk shirt tucked in navy blue pants. Her earrings were the color of golden yellow gemstones. He also noticed what looked like a diamond ring on her third right finger. Pretty, he thought. She looked very familiar. There was a certain grace about her.

Forty minutes later, he mounted the platform and proceeded with his speech. "We have had a successful Q1". Ivan cleared his throat. "The merger between our company and Daffodils Advertising was a huge success.  We are poised for a stronger brand and a better competitive edge overall. I'll like to thank the members of our corporate finance team who have worked tirelessly and even sleeplessly to make this happen. I want to recognize Shirley Wright and her team of finance experts." Everyone in the town hall clapped.

He recognized a few more people and the audience clapped again.

"To celebrate our good success, we will be having a night of celebration/ awards night in two weeks at Chateau Hotels in Victoria Island. It'll be a Friday night and everyone should plan on having some good fun. There'll be lots to eat and drink. If your dance steps and moves have gotten rusty, this is a good time to get it polished before the D-day." There was a sound of jubilation everywhere.

Liyel looked at his brother and smiled.  He would always be proud of him. Ivan was well balanced and had a good head on his shoulders. He had always been his role model and he didn't see that changing for a long time to come.

*************************************************

Celeste looked at the final house for the day. She had made up her mind to move back to Lagos after five years of living in Port Harcourt. She had been looking at houses on the mainland. Ikeja and Magodo to be precise. Today, she set out looking at houses on the Island. She wanted to be close to her friends. Majority of them lived around Lekki, Victoria Island and Ikoyi. She settled for a two bedroom serviced apartment in Lekki. It was spacious and close to major shopping malls like ‘The Palms’.

Her phone rang and she beamed when she saw the caller. It was Ivan.

 "Hi you, how have you been?"

 "Pretty good."

 “Are you doing anything on Friday two weeks from today?"

  "Uhmm, not really. What's up?"

Celeste walked away from the agent who had been showing her the apartment. She moved to another side of the room."Well, I'll like to request your presence at an awards and celebratory night hosted by my company."
"Ivan, do you even need to ask like that?" Celeste laughed. "Of course, I'd be delighted to come over."

"How’s the house hunting going?"

She gave him the good news. "I am actually moving to my own apartment next weekend."
"Splendid! Text me the address when you can. Got to go now. Just wanted to give you a heads up." "Okay, talk to you later." She hung up the call.

She would be accompanying Ivan to his company's awards night. Fantastic, Celeste thought. She had some great looking cocktail dresses. She just had to try them on to see which ones still fit her after gaining some few pounds.

*************************************************

Pelumi decided it was time to head home after seeing Naetochukwu’s text that he was at her job to pick her up. She was so thankful. He must have been around the area. The town hall had eaten into her working time and she felt like she needed to compensate for the 1hr 30 mins of meeting. Her head spun. She searched her bag and found some paracetamol. Reaching for the bottled water on her desk, she popped the pill into her mouth and gulped some water. She was tired and felt weak. There was a road construction going on around the route she usually took to work. She had to find an alternate route and that required longer walking or more okada rides. She needed a car plain and simple. She had been working for a few months and had some savings but she didn't want to put all of it into buying a car now. She didn’t want to be broke and living from paycheck to paycheck. She'd wait until she had saved enough. She thought about investing but the Nigerian economy was so volatile now and she didn't have throwaway money yet. Throwaway money was money you found easy to let go of. Right now, she knew she would feel very bad if she incurred losses from investments. She was going to err on the side of moderately conservative for now. Pelumi grabbed her bag from where it sat under her desk and headed towards the elevators.

She was waiting by the elevator and was so grateful her cousin had decided to give her a ride home when she heard a deep voice. “Don't I know you from somewhere?" She turned in the direction of the voice. Pelumi blinked and tried to collect her thoughts. It was Mr CEO. She looked around to see whether someone else was being addressed. “Sorry, me?"

"You were on your way to Tarkwa Bay a few months ago. I hit your car from behind."

"Oh my goodness!" Pelumi opened her mouth agape. “Were you the guy in the navy blue car who paid for our Uber ride the other day?" Ivan nodded. Chimo! She was in hot peppersoup! The sound of the elevator arriving alerted them and they both walked inside it. Pelumi remembered how she had hurled insults at him that day and felt very bad. “Me and my big mouth." She thought out loud. "What did you say?" Ivan asked her.  "Nothing. I was just thinking out loud." She was tense and wanted the elevator to quickly get to the ground floor so she could dash out. “I'm sorry about that day. It was a day I'd been eagerly anticipating. I hadn’t been to the beach in a while and I was just so upset." She looked at his face for some sign that she had been forgiven. Ivan said nothing. He just smirked.

She had always thought there was something familiar about the CEO. Chai! She was in trouble. Was this how she'd end up losing this job? Ah, my enemies have followed me here.

When the elevator reached the ground floor, she mumbled an inaudible good night and rushed towards the parking lot.

"Be there walking like one fine girl. "Naetochukwu teased his cousin. He liked ruffling Pelumi's feathers. He had been waiting for her at the parking lot. He stepped out of the car to help clear the passenger seat. His mum dumped her shopping bags on it before heading to her fashion designer friend's house.

He noticed her sad countenance. “What's wrong?" 
“Nothing jare, I screwed up." She recounted the events of some months before. “Don't feel bad." Naetochukwu admonished her. “Shit happens you know."
“Yeah, I shouldn't have been so flippant with my tongue!"

“Pelumi, stop the pity party. This is Lagos and people don't exactly jubilate when someone hits their car you know. If it makes you feel better, I'm sure you know he should be the one feeling this way for almost ruining your fun day." 

“True that," she agreed with her cousin. That didn't stop her from pouting. “You and this your ‘you know’, ‘you know’ sef. American shild!"

“Should I stop at Cold Stone's and buy you ice cream? Nothing treats a bad mood like some sugar rush." 

“And end up with cavities and a bigger butt than I already have? No, thank you." Pelumi reached for the seat belt. 

“And the award for the stiffest queen in town goes to?” She punched Naetochukwu on the shoulder before he had time to complete his speech. "Ouch, ouch!" He yelled. “Why does your punch hurt so much? Do you lift steel?" She stuck a tongue out. Her cousin laughed. “I don't want ice cream but fried rice, salad and chicken should do just fine."

“All that food at this time and you say you don't want to get fat?"

“Please..." Pelumi made a face at him. “Okay, okay. Whatever you say!"

“So, when are you moving in with us?" Naetochukwu stepped hard on the brakes. “Geez, Lagos driving is so crazy. How do you guys even cope? Too many maniacs on the road starting with these ‘Danfo’ drivers'"  Pelumi rolled her eyes. “Abeg, abeg! Like you don’t know your people?"

“Well, I’ll move to your house when I know you are in Nigeria to stay for real and won't be jetting off to Milan, Zurich and wherever you like to go in a heartbeat. Besides, I have to talk to Itoro first. We have a financial agreement."

“Can't you find a replacement?" 
“We'll see."  Pelumi answered. Moving to Magodo was not a bad idea but she'd hate to stay in an empty house all by herself. Her aunt had a domestic help and cook but they didn’t live in the house. They reported for duty in the morning and headed to their respective homes in the evening. On the other hand, she would be able to save some money. Their rent was not due for renewal until another six months though. While at UNILAG, she lived on campus and rarely traveled back home for holidays. Her mum visited sometimes and she was okay with that. She hadn’t set her eyes on her step father since the day she moved out. At first her mum had convinced her to visit them every now and then but she had stood her ground and refused. Aunt Kema and Chief Edewor lived in the United States and visited Nigeria from time to time. 


Naetochukwu was visiting after a long time and  ‘IJGBs’ couldn't be trusted to stay in Nigeria permanently. Next minute, they would be complaining about how hot the weather was to bad roads. Endless complaints! Could anyone blame them?