"Back?" All expression flushed from Niola's face, "mom! What do you mean back."
"I lied to you," Her mother said in bitter sobs.
"What do you mean?" she asked with teary eyes, confused more than ever now. "You've never lied to me….ever!"
"No baby, I'm sorry…but I did," she caught a tear from her eyes and held her hands again. " I lied to you about your father."
It was almost ten o'clock, Chiamaka and Danielle sat on the couch in the living room talking and laughing.
"Hey, Amaka!" Mike said as he headed for the door with the rest. "Off we go,"
"oh..ok, alright drive safely," Chiamaka waved them goodbye with a smile. Now it was just the both of them in the living room and the neighbors eating pepper soup in the corridor with the music playing softly.
"where is your friend?" Danielle said glancing at the time.
"I'm sure she'd be out in a few," Chiamaka assured chewing some chin-chin from the table. " I hope you have food in your house, I mean like better food, not junk, 'cause I'm hungry, and you Europeans eat like ants, I don't know if it's a thing or like the queen's law. All I know is this is Nigeria and you better have food or else, na you I go chop." She said and Danielle laughed
"You can't even thank God I came to your rescue and I'm letting you sleep at my house, not that you would have to take a cab to the island this night, matter-of-factly, don't let me change my mind."
"Whatever!" Chiamaka raspberries and they both paused as Niola dashed into the living room from the hallway.
"Let's go guys," she said walking past them and heading outside.
"What do you mean let's go?" Chiamaka said after her.
"I'm going with you guys," she said as they got to the car. " is there room for one more?"
"Absolutely," Danielle said unlocking the car.
"What's in the bag?" Chiamaka grinned peeping through the transparent bag she carried. "Is that jollof rice, OMG. That's why you're the best" she pecked niola and got in the back seat, while Niola sat in the front, "I'm crashing at Danielle's tonight, I'd go home in the morning." She informed Niola.
"Ok," Niola replied quietly as she had a lot on her mind, she can't tell if she was angry or disappointed, or if she was avoiding hearing whatever her mother was about to say concerning her father. She needed to clear her head first.
"You know you don't have to go home tonight, it's kinda really late, you can sleep over and go home in the morning, there is plenty of room, right Danielle?" Chiamaka said
"Yeah, absolutely," Danielle assured as she drove out of the estate to the highway.
"ok," Niola said looking out the car window.
"Are you alright?" Danielle asked noticing the cold response.
"Yes, I'm fine," she turned to look at Danielle then glanced back to look out the window. "I'm just exhausted and I have this Headache, Twas a long day…. If it's okay by you, I can stay over at your place till morning."
"Of course." Danielle smiled.
"Woohoo…. It feels like a slumber party, yay!" Chiamaka yelled from the back.
"jeez! Must you be so loud? Cow." Niola said and they laughed. "Shit! Watch out!" Niola screamed as a blue truck almost crashed into them but quickly the driver turned sharply in the lane.
"Oh my God!...that was close," Danielle said tightening her grip on the steering as her heart raced.
"All these lout drivers, he might be drunk…omo, thank God o."chiamaka said with a hand on her chest.
Niola was quiet throughout the drive, that was the truck in the vision, and it was right at the same spot. Whatever happened, they got lucky.
The rest of the drive went smoothly, they finally got to the estate Danielle lived in. The estate was obviously Of high class, the houses were quite posh, and designed alike, and the warm street lights lightened up the streets.
Her house was a three-bedroom suite duplex with stunning interiors. Danielle took them up the stairs to the guest room.
"you guys can sleep here, my bedroom is just right across," she said stiffening a yawn. " Niola, here! You can wear these sweats, it should be more comfortable than the gown."
Niola smiled, "Thanks a lot."
Danielle's gaze met hers and she noticed how captivating Niola's eyes were, it was like they were communicating with her soul.
Niola cocked a cavalier brow, "good night."
Her heart fluttered, she had no idea what to say, maybe she was supposed to say goodnight or good day, but neither came out. It felt like she was going to say gibberish if she had opened her mouth at that moment. Danielle swallowed and smiled, "good night."
Chiamaka muffled with a mouthful of rice "Good night cousin!"
After Danielle left the room Niola went in the shower while Chiamaka sat on the bed eating. She turned the faucet and washed, in a blink of an eye she saw blood all over her hands dripping.
A woman's voice said with echos in her head. "You killed him."
Then snap! Everything was normal again. She turned off the faucet, got out and dried herself with a towel, then put on the sweats. Chiamaka had slept, her large body spread across the bed and she was snoring so loudly. Niola chuckled at the sight of the way Chiamaka slept, the space left on the bed wasn't comfortable enough so she took the couch beside the dresser. It was relaxing enough and she closed her eyes.
Tolu ( Niola's mother)
She sat quietly on her bed, her heart was heavy, and she didn't want to lose her daughter.
Back in the early eighty's, she went to live in a small town in Osun state, called oke-OSA. She lived there with her uncle, ifadahunsi, and his family. She stayed there till the early 2000s, back then her uncle was a very well-known herbalist in that town, and they had a lot of orisha in his backyard that people come from far states to worship.
Tolu worked for her uncle in his palm oil factory, her uncle put her in charge cause she was intelligent, while he concentrated on being a native chief and herbalist. His wife Ajoke was down with an incurable illness, which caused cysts to grow all over her body, which made her vulnerable. Her two children were grown, her first son, olokunjuwan, and his younger sister, ifayemisi, were quite helpful and respectful. Juwan was nineteen, while yemisi was fourteen.
Ifadahunsi spent most of his free time looking for a cure for his wife's illness, seeing her isolated was something that brought sadness to his heart, thankful enough, he had his children and niece around to help.
One time in the mid 90's it was the harvest season, and they had lots of order, tolu had to make sure the refining of the palm kernels were hastened, they wouldn't want to let their customers down.
On one of those busy days at the factory, tolu left the factory very late, the moon was at its fullest in the middle of the sky.
The long musical notes of cricket chirping were loud enough to cover the sound of her footsteps, she walked home through the tiny path between the forest with a torch as the night was cold. She heard a twig snap and she stopped, she turned and pointed her torch but nothing, it was probably some kind of bush rat she thought, then she continued walking. Suddenly another Twig snapped again.
"Hello! Who's there!" she said in Yoruba. Nothing at first, then the twig snapped again, and a whooshing sound.
She peered through the dark as she pointed the torch through, she suddenly saw a shadowy image with bright red eyes. Her heart fluttered so fast it couldn't be healthy, then she ran…. Something knocked her off her feet, and that was it, she couldn't remember any other thing that happened that night till this very day.
According to her uncle, she was missing for a week and by the time they found her, she was unconscious and clean without a single mark on her body, and her clothes were fresh. But she didn't open her eyes for days. She remembered her uncle mentioned he sensed supernatural force around her and he did his concoction and burnt incense regularly to keep the aura away.
After a while, she was conscious and was able to get back to a few daily activities, except going to the factory. Her uncle tried everything possible to know how she got missing, but it was to no avail. All of a sudden she was pregnant, she felt ashamed as she couldn't even remember what happened to her over the past weeks, and things got harder for her, her uncle assumed she was kidnapped and raped, but deep down something wasn't right.
As soon as Tolu was six months pregnant, everything changed, the factory was flourishing, their produce became the best all over and people started coming to buy from other states, and her uncle's wife, Ajoke, was cured of her illness.
Ifadahunsi being also a spiritualist did his findings, and he realized all the good things happening were from the baby in Tolu's belly, the child was a person of prosperity. He told Tolu everything he had seen about the baby, but tolu thought he was just being skeptical so she could cheer up, all she hoped was when she gives birth, the father would surface.
After eight months Tolu gave birth to a baby girl on a stormy night, she was so beautiful, and perfect, there was a white birthmark on her head and she had blue eyes, tolu was almost scared that her daughter had eye issues, but she was perfectly fine. The midwives said she had escaped albinism. Ifadahunsi took the responsibility for the naming ceremony and she named the baby Eniola and other series names.
The older the baby got, Ifadahunsi noticed dark Forces around the house sometimes, this began to worry him, every other thing was flourishing as usual. As soon as Eniola was four years old she began telling her mother she saw people in black cloaks outside, she even told Ifadahunsi one day that she saw his daughter yemisi in white clothes outside the house, and said she didn't want her to go back to school. Ifadahunsi thought she was talking gibberish as children do sometimes until one-day yemisi died in the school. It wasn't some kind of coincidence, how can a four-year-old child predict the death of his daughter, and he, a so-called spiritualist couldn't see the death of his daughter coming?
This became a major issue as Eniola kept seeing things she shouldn't be seeing and it troubled both her mother and Ifadahunsi.
Anytime Ifadahunsi tried to find out more about what was going on with Eniola, he always had a block from the orisas. So he decided to perform a cleansing ritual for their good, Tolu wasn't in support at first, cause she thought of the dangers attached to all those so-called rituals, but it was getting worse, it was keeping Eniola from getting enough sleep. So she decided to go through with it.
Truly, just like Ifadahunsi had said, Eniola had stopped seeing whatever she was seeing after the ritual was successful, and she started living the normal life a child should.
After a year, Tolu decided to leave Oke-OSA for good, then she came to Lagos with her baby. She had made enough money to rent an apartment and Start a business of her own from working for her uncle, it wasn't easy but just as he told her years back, Eniola was a prosperous child.