Naya: “no no, just leave me alone. Pack your
things and leave my house and I want you gone out of my room in school before I
get there. In fact, you have packed your bag already so just get out and get
out of our lives forever”.
Florence: “no, please don’t do this, you know
that we have come a long way, how can I cope in school without your support? Do
you want me to withdraw at this level?”
Naya: “it is none of my business what happens
to your education after now. You ought to have thought of all these before
allowing the devil to use you according to what you said. So, please just
leave”.
Florence looked up to Maya, pleading with her
eyes. Maya grabbed her feet and walked away, leaving her on her knees.
Florence: “Mummy…”, she turned to Mrs Lanre.
Mrs Lanre: “eh-ehn, don’t you dare mummy me. No
daughter of mine will behave this way”.
Mr Lanre: “What are we even doing here wasting
our time. Officers, please take her away and let the law take its cause”.
Florence: “No! please, sir. Temper justice with
mercy. Have pity on me, it is the devil’s work. Just allow me go and I will
never come close to any member of your family again”.
Naya was touched when she saw Florence crying.
She had heard stories of how people suffer in Police cell and she couldn’t bear
to see Florence whom she had come to regard as a sister suffer that much. She
also knew that Florence’s mother suffered from serious high blood pressure and
she couldn’t help but imagine how her health would be affected when she
discovers that her daughter was in cell for kidnapping related offences.
“Daddy, please”, Naya knelt before her father
and held his knees.
Mr Lanre: “What is it?”
Naya: “please don’t press charges against her,
just allow her go”.
Mr Lanre: “and why would I do that?”
Naya: “for the sake of her hypertensive mother.
Something terrible may happen to her when she finds out that her daughter is in
cell. And we are already in 200 level, sending her to cell will make her
abandon her studies and I don’t want to be associated with the reason why her
dreams were aborted. Let us forgive her and let her go her way, please dad.
Thank God my sister is here and fine, we should just allow God judge this case.
That is what you have always thought us your children”.
Mr Lanre: “this is a different case. If you
don’t allow the law take its cause with criminals, they will continue dwelling
in crime”.
Naya: “I know, dad but just temper justice with
mercy”, turning to Maya who was coming back to the sitting room, she said.
“twinny, add your voice to mine and plead with dad”.
Maya: “daddy, I think you should listen to my
sister. Just allow her go and let her go and pack her things and leave my sister’s
house. I don’t want you to persecute her now and before you know her gang in
school will come and attack my sister. The worst thing is that because we are
identical, they may also come after me”.
Mr Lanre looked at the two girls who were
standing before him. They looked so much alike that one could easily mistake
one for the other. He remembered that for years after their bath, he could not
make out their differences, he used to call any by any name. The only person
who could tell their difference was their mother, nobody knew how she was able
to do that. Even their nanny and domestic staff could not tell them apart. The
worst was at school, their teachers were never able to differentiate them and
in most cases, Naya who was the quiet and reserved one got punished for the
offences of her sister. Mr Lanre loved them so much, more than his life and he
knew that he could gladly give up his life any day for them to live. they were
all he had. For almost ten years after he married his wife, she had been unable
to conceive even though they had visited different hospitals within and outside
the country and even patronized spiritual homes and solution centers all to no
avail. When she did conceive, she had lost three pregnancies at the second
trimester and after the third incidence, she had given up hope on ever carrying
her child. He had withstood the pressure from his people to take on another
wife who would give him as much children as he wanted, being a military man
with his training, withstanding such pressure was no big deal for him. Then the
twins arrived, their bundle of joy. He was away in Liberia leading a peace
keeping troupe there when a telegram was sent that his wife had given birth to
two cute girls who looked very much alike. For the remaining months he remained
in Liberia, he dreamt of his girls daily and when he returned and saw them, it
was like he had one child in two bodies. He had fallen in love with them right
away and since then all that he had done was geared at pleasing them and giving
them the best of everything in life. They knew this and they adored their
father, he was their hero.
“daddy, please now”, the voice of the twins
brought him back from his reverie. There were on his side, one holding his
right hand and the other squeezing his left. “okay, fine. You have it. I will
call them to release her right away, I am sure they have not even gotten to the
station”.
“dad, put that call through now”, they chorused
simultaneously. They had the habit of saying similar things at the same time
and their mother often wondered if this was one of the characteristics of
identical twins.
Mr Lanre called the leader of the operation who
was in the van that took Florence away and in no time, she was released. She
returned back to school and packed her things out of the house she lived in
with Naya.
====
Some days later, Naya returned to school from
home and discovered that Florence had packed her things and moved out of the
house. “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish”, she said and proceeded to cleaning
her room which was dusty after staying without an occupant for days. She ran
into Florence when she went to lectures the next day. Florence almost walked
past her, ignoring her until Naya stopped her.
Naya: “Na wa o! Didn’t you see me?”
Florence: “So what if I saw you? How does that
stop me from going to where I am going?”
Naya: “at least we can greet, say a word,
anything”.
Florence: “me, greet you? For what? After the
humiliation you caused me in your father’s house? Greet indeed!”.
Naya: “I didn’t humiliate you and you know
that. If you had not gotten yourself involved in that kidnapping mess, by now
we would have still been best of friends and nothing would have changed”.
Florence: “oh yeah, shout it so that everybody
in this school will know that I am now a kidnapper. Rubbish!”
Naya: “anyway, where do you leave now? I am
worried about your safety”.
Florence: “I don’t know how that is any of your
business. Anyway, I leave with my boyfriend in town”.
Naya: “Florence!”.
Florence: “Abeg, abeg, I don’t have time for
too much talk. Time is money, excuse me”. She hissed and left Naya astonished.
====
Philip: “Florence, what are you doing here by
this time of the day? I mean you are my girlfriend’s friend and roommate and
you should not visit me this late before people will start gossiping”.
Florence: “biko Philip, Naya is not my friend
again and we don’t live together anymore. So cut that crab”.
Philip: “why? What happened? Last time I heard
about you two was that you were following her home”.
Florence: “Long story. Besides, I know that
Naya and you are not in good terms. She told me she caught you with a girl and
so she dumped you, the silly girl that she is. She will not allow you touch her
and yet she will not allow another person give it to you, useless girl”.
Philip: “What bullshit are you vomiting about
my girl? Say what you have to say and use the door, like I don’t know that you
are one of the people gingering Naya to dump me”.
Florence: “I want you”, she rolled her tongue,
undid the robe of the loose kimono she was wearing, revealing her pink pant and
bare boobs”.
Philip: “Philip’s eyes popped out as he was
staring at the goodies offered him on a platter of gold.
Somewhere on the next street, Naya was on bike
coming to Philip’s house, she was coming there to spend the night with him, the
very first time she was ever going to do a thing like that.
Question: Will Philip fall for Florence’s
seduction? Will Naya meet them there?
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