Miss Gullible III – a short story

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“Sometimes I trust too easily, not because I am naive,  but because my heart wants to believe that not everyone is out to deceive” 

Please follow the story from the second part here.

There I was, a failed project. Since I came back from the hospital, I felt like an outcast.

Everyone at the house looked at me with scorn and contempt. I walked around the house downcast, like an abandoned child. I never felt that way before.

I couldn’t lock eyes with the Chef and gateman, let alone Aunt Jessica. I was clothed in shame that made me seem invisible around the house. I tried not to eat lunch or dinner, but they would slide the plate behind the door into my room.

I left the food untouched many times. I watched the food grow molds because the desire to eat died with my broken heart. All I wanted was Uncle Soji.

Aunt Jessica asked me about the man who put me in the family way. She wanted to know where to find him, that was all she was concerned about.

“Underaged kwa” she would then sigh deeply, shaking her head like a bitter woman.

She asked me to describe the house where we met to consummate our illicit affair, but I feigned amnesia. I simply refused to divulge any information. Well, not until the sound of her palm on my soft cheek, that stung so hot left me tumbling over the chair I sat on at the dining table, restored my memory.

I swear, if I had seen that slap coming, I would have ducked. It happened so fast, like a flash, one minute I was seated on the armless chair and the next, the cold uncomfortable floor tiles welcomed my contorted body on it.

I tasted my own blood. A faint, weirdly stickily feel.

 I managed to mislead her in between my exaggerated and fake sobs. I didn’t want Aunt Jessica to do something really silly, if she found uncle Soji out; my prince charming!

He promised to help me get admission into university. No one ever discussed about furthering my education at the house. He got me a mobile phone; The same one Aunt Jessica seized after she searched my room for evidence of my shenanigan while I laid helplessly on the hospital bed. He promised to always look after me and would never leave me.

No one should ever leave a beautiful girl like you” those words rang in my ears and echoed in my heart, my soft underbelly, something my stubborn brain could not comprehend it.

When Aunt Jessica came back home some days later, asking that I confirm the address I had given her again, I knew uncle Soji was safe, only for me to find. He would be proud to know that I didn’t give our love away. I fought for him!

When I got the first chance to leave the house by myself, I hurried over to the apartment where the walls kept the secrets of our tryst. The gate, that same one that i opened at will only weeks earlier, was locked.

My heart skipped beats.

The sprawling mansion that hid the small bungalow at the back, stood in its majestic splendor, but the gates that were never shut whenever I came over to see uncle Soji was firmly locked from within the property.

And so, I knocked the gate, reluctantly.

For several minutes I knocked the gate, louder each time until someone answered.

I had never seen this fellow before.

“Please I am looking for uncle Soji, he lives at the flat at the back” I tried to sound casual, masking the anxiety lurking behind my skin.

If only I could run into uncle Soji’s warm embrace.

“There is no one by that name here” His voice was stern and disapproving, as though I had roused him from sleep.

“Please sir, he lives at the flat behind the house sir” I repeated again, as I desperately tried to move towards the slightly opened gate.

“The flat at the back has been unoccupied for years. No one stays there” and with that, you guessed it, the gate was slammed on my face.

“Sir…sir” My voice was drowned in the quiet of the neighborhood.

I looked at both sides of the street in exasperation. I was suddenly confused.

I took a few steps back to examine the house again and the address that was poorly scribbled on the fence.

“It is certainly the same house”

I knocked on the steel gate again and again, before walking home dejected and sad.

With each step, I experienced all the range of emotions. Fear reared its ugly head, first, and so I started to panic. Then self-pity crept in like a stealthily snake, while I shook my head rigorously as tears pooled in my eyes, before streaming down my cheeks.

When I almost ran into a motor bike as I walked dejectedly towards our street, that was when waves of anger rose from the depth of my kind (insert gullible if you will) heart to the crown of my head. I think I must have snapped. Yes, I snapped; isn’t that what you’d call it?

Uncle Soji would have to pay, not just for taking my innocence, but treating me badly during my lowest moment. He simply absconded!

I wondered how this man could take one to the zenith of the love mountain in one breath, and then let one free fall to the valley beneath.

One Man! Never again.

With my clenched fist and badly bitten lower lip, the rage inside of me sought for release. Vengeance sounded like a familiar tune.

That was the only thing that could appease me. Vengeance! Nothing else would.

I had no picture of uncle Soji on my phone and so there was no way I could ask anyone to look out for him. We never took pictures together. It just didn’t  happened. Now I was beginning to see how he had planned this whole thing from the very start.

I was going to have to find him all by myself.

Soon enough, I resumed my evening rounds to buy bread for the family, like I used to before the incident. I had been of good behavior for many weeks, before Aunt Jessica cut me some slack and let me go out on errands. I think she felt genuinely sorry for me. I was just the foolish teenager who got emotionally and physically duped.

She wished she could get her pound of flesh on my behalf.

It didn’t take long before SOJI walked into the bakery. Calling him uncle Soji is becoming a mouthful. And why call him uncle anyway?

He didn’t deserve that self-entitled pre-fix anyway.

Oh dear, my heart skipped, the moment I saw him. He looked so gorgeous; I could almost smell him.

“Ouch” I yelped. That was me pinching myself, painfully on the thigh, to stay true to the plan. It hurt badly; No! not the pinch, my heart – the one that uncle Soji…sorry Soji…..broke!

I hid safely behind the bread racks while peering at him between the stack of bread, till he was done paying at the counter before walking out through the exit door.

Oh my…those lips of his still make my heart skip and thighs tingle. How I longed to kiss him dearly.

“Uncle Soji..” I almost called out his name, before running into the stack of bread, causing the steel rack, where they were gingerly placed to turn over.

I watched as he walked on helplessly, as I picked up loaves of bread from the bakery floor in embarrassment.

*****

I didn’t run into him again until 3 weeks after that first time. This time, I was more composed. I had taught my body and reflexes to obey the signals that my brain sent.

Listen not, to my heart!

I even learned some breathing exercises in a bid to calm myself.

Soji must pay” was the mantra!

When he left the bakery that evening, I walked a good distance behind him. I stayed on the other side of the road and turned quickly away whenever it looked like he turned his head to look at my direction.

We turned several corners between streets, as though he was trying to shake someone off his trail. But I stayed on.

He must have walked for about 15minutes before arriving at a property that looked quite similar and grand to the one I used to meet with him only months earlier.

He knocked on the gate for a bit, and then went inside whilst carrying the bread pack he had purchased at the bakery, as soon as the gate was opened.

I contemplated for a while what to do.

***

I raced back to the house at almost neck breaking speed. My legs just wouldn’t stop running. I didn’t want him to leave the house before I returned. Time was of essence.

When I dashed into the house, it was Aunt Jessica I first ran into.

“I found him! I found him!! I know his house” I spoke out of breath. I couldn’t even stand up straight, as I rested my palms on my knees.

Oh…..if there was any time I loved Aunt Jessica, it was that day!

“You know his house shei. Oya lets go” She ordered.

“Wait” I hurried into my room to retrieve the complimentary card Soji gave me the first day we met.

I found it tucked within the mattress where I hid it safely. It was still looking as clean as the first day he handed it over to me.

Soji Akindele

Director Sokas Enterprise

“Here” I handed the card over to Aunt Jessica.

“Oh okay, so he is a big man abi. We shall see. Let us go” with that said, Aunt Jessica adjusted her head gear and tied it around her waist.

The battle line was drawn!

*****

She drove her Mercedes Benz like she was in the FIA WTCR car Race of Morocco. Our bodies had to withstand the constant tugging of the seat belt, that was having difficulties keeping us strapped in,  whenever she took sharp turns along the street corners. I held on tightly to the handlebar above the passenger door for my dear life.

I spared a quick look at Aunt Jessica, she barely flinched as she starred out through the windshield like a woman on a mission. 

I was beginning to wonder if it was a bad idea getting Aunt Jessica involved. She had been spoiling for a fight ever since I got “knocked up”.

The car screeched to a halt right in front of the gate into the sprawling mansion.

I took deep breaths.

My Aunt parked her Mercedes Benz like she was about to drive into the compound. Exactly the same way she would if she was going into her own house with her head lamps turned on whilst honking repeatedly.

“Get down and knock that damn gate for me, my friend” She snapped at me.

Pronto, I was at the gate. I barely rapped the gate with the small stone I picked, when it opened.

A middle-aged woman nicely dressed swung open the gate in disgust. She looked like she was on her way out. Her expensive lace material clung to her body as gloves do to the hand, while her immaculate hair enjoyed a slight rustle from the wind as she stepped out from behind the gate.

I stood in limbo, unsure what to do. I looked back at Aunt Jessica.

Aunt Jessica stepped out of the car. She seem to take her time, before shutting the car door and then approaching the gate with the complimentary card flipping between two of her fingers.

“Yes? And what can I do for you? why have you parked your car this way in front of my house” the lady pointed at the Benz angrily. There was not just a hint of anger in her voice, she had the stance for confrontation.

“Please, I am looking for Mr. Soji Akindele, he is the one I have business with”

“I beg your pardon! Are you out of your mind? You think you can just waltz in here and demand to see my husband like you own the estate?” Her voice attracted two men walking on the street as they paused to watch the unfolding drama. 

Me? You ask? I took two steps backwards, seeing that both ladies were soon going to tear at each other within seconds.

“Please! Please!! Please!!! You should have known better before your randy husband impregnated my underaged girl”

“Which girl? This thing is what you call girl” she pointed at me in utter contempt.

That was the moment, they dragged me into the fight. I was the object of dispute.

“Where is your husband?” Aunt Jessica took the decibel on her voice up a notch as she tried to gain entrance into the property.

The lady stood between the gate determined to halt her stride.

“You are going no where” she declared.

That was when the lady drew the first blood; she threw a slap at Aunt Jessica, square in the face.

Not on the cheek, but right between her eyes, on the nose!

In one swift move, Aunt Jessica bent double and pulled a swift maneuver, that had the lady flat on her back within seconds. Amazing!

I felt the urge to clap. It didn’t require much strength to pull this off, just pure skills.

I watched in awe as she delivered soft blows to the woman’s face.

“Never….in…. your….life……, if you come back again, try that nonsense” Aunt Jessica barked as she delivered each syllable with a fist to her face.

That was when an elderly man yanked Aunt Jessica off the lady as though she was paper weight.

“What is going on here” he demanded looking from one woman to the other.

Aunt Jessica pulled her wrapper together and straightened her attire, whilst the woman writhed in pain on the ground, crying.

“I am looking for Soji Akindele” She insisted.

“That is all that matters right now” Aunt Jessica continued.

“Yes, that is me. Whatever happened?” the man responded.

Aunt Jessica turned to look at me.

I stuttered, confused. My brows collapsed into a wrinkled frown.

“He is not the one” I managed to say.

Just then, a face peered from behind the man, seeking to know the cause of the commotion.

“That is him right behind you sir” My sharp eyes caught the Soji the same moment that recognition dawned on him.

Soji was carrying a plastic mop bucket and hung a mop stick on his shoulder as his eyes darted from one woman to the other.

My Soji would never dress like that, but he looked horribly different.

Everybody turned to look at the man with the mop bucket.

The dirt on him was probably worse than that on the mop bucket he hurled on his other hand.

“That is our cleaner, Iskilu”

“ISKILU” Aunt Jessica and myself called out at the same time.

That was when, Soji….sorry Iskilu, started to run.

***The End***

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20 thoughts on “Miss Gullible III – a short story”

  1. Pingback: Miss Gullible II – a short story – Akin Akingbogun

  2. I’m sorry Ms Gullible couldn’t help but laugh. I hope teenagers listen to their parents and trust them to guide them aright rather than think they know it all.

  3. What??? Iski.. what??? Iskilu!!! I won’t say she’s gullible but naive, if she had been given a proper sex education, I don’t think ” broda Iskilu”would have had the chance.

  4. Iskilu ke., its very important for all parent or guardians to create time for our teens both male and female because if she has been given proper sex education she won’t fall a victim. Its a lesson for us all…..this is loud and we should lean from it….. Nice one bro

  5. Lool….Iskilu the good for nothing scumbag. He stole his boss’ complementary card to swindle Ms Gullible. I have no doubt Anna has learned greatly from this ordeal, I only feel for her future suitors would be objects of intense and unfortunate scrutiny when they try to get into her life for love sake.
    Good one omo Akin, you don’t cease to amaze me with your writings. Well done brother. So interesting!

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