Niola woke up to a beautiful day, She checked the time on Chiamaka's phone, it was 6:30, the couch wasn't bad one bit. Chiamaka was still asleep and was snoring pretty loudly. She smiled and stretched, she felt good this morning, remembering all the drama that happened yesterday she shook her head and sighed.
There were two new toothbrushes and paste on the dresser, Danielle must have left it there. She went to brush in the bathroom and took a quick shower.
Danielle was downstairs, she had woken up earlier working on her computer, she poured herself a cup of tea as she went through her laptop by the kitchen counter, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs, She looked up it was Niola, "You're awake... you care for some tea?"
Niola nodded and said hoarsely, "Good morning."
With a warm smile, Danielle replied, "Good morning, how's the headache?" while she poured Niola a cup of tea.
"I feel a lot better," Niola gave a relief groan and mouthed a 'thank you,' as Danielle handed her the cup.
"Do you have a charger I could use?" she added bringing out her iPhone from her pocket, "my phone is dead, and I need to call someone to give me a lift to ikoyi, or maybe halfway…. I just hope he hasn't left for work yet."
"Sure, there is a charger plugged in the socket right next to the water dispenser, you can use it," Danielle said without looking up, her concentration fixed on the computer. "Or I could drop you off…"
"Oh, sure I'd appreciate it."
"Alright," Danielle closed her laptop then head for the stairs, "I'll be down in a few. Let me get dressed." She said, then went up the stairs.
Niola took the last gulp of her tea then she heard a deep whisper calling her name… Eniola!.. Eniola!!
She looked around quickly and then saw a dark smoky image of a man pass into the living room, she shook at the sight and her elbow knocked down the cup.
Danielle heard the shatter and then came out of the room to the balcony, she saw Niola picking up the shattered mug from the floor. "Are you alright?"
"um, yes…. Yes I'm fine, sorry the cup just slipped," she assured, then disposed of the broken pieces.
"It's okay, I'm way clumsier sometimes," she sneered. "finally she wakes." She added as Chiamaka walks out of the hallway groggily.
Chiamaka staggered towards the stairs with sleepy eyes "You guys were too loud."
"loud?" Niola raised a brow sarcastically. "And you slept quietly right?"
Chiamaka grinned, "I mean, yeah, I always sleep quietly."
Danielle laughed, "so quiet I almost thought there was a truck with a bad engine coming from your room."
Chiamaka chuckled and sprawled on the couch in the living room, "whatever, haters!"
Soon Danielle drove Niola to her bus stop, she pulled over by the shoulder of the road, while Niola thanked her for the Ride.
"You know, I've been meaning to discuss something with you," Danielle said before she got off the car.
Niola turned back to look at her surprisingly, "really?... Alright," she sat back in the chair and closed the door. "I'm listening, shoot."
"I was thinking I could sign you to model for my fashion brand... you know, if you are interested,"
"Oh.. wow.. um, I, I don't know." Niola suddenly got short of words. "I'll think about it I guess, I've never modeled before."
"Sure, you have all the time to think about it, you don't have to give me an answer now." Danielle gave a warm smile and added, "could you write me the address of your studio? maybe I could drop by sometime." taking a pen and notepad from the glove compartment.
"Sure," Niola replied.
She finally got home, Niola shut the door behind her as she walked into her living room, she dropped her dress on the couch and then went to the kitchen to take a glass of water. Her phone chimes, then she glanced at it on the counter. She was running late for her appointment with a customer at the studio, she dropped the glass and went to change.
Her scooter was at her mom's so she had to call an Uber, between an hour she got to the studio. Mr uzor was waiting in his car, when she arrived.
"sorry I kept you waiting," she apologized as she approached him.
"Oh, miss Michaels.. no need to apologize, good to see you, I just got here anyway," he smiled warmly. " good morning."
"Niola please." she corrected. "Good morning to you too, let's go upstairs."
They got upstairs and Niola offered him a drink from the fridge while she set up the camera, she had to take a clear shot of him so she could get enough detailing for the portrait she would paint since the picture he brought wasn't clear enough.
Mr uzor stood up to take a call while Niola used the opportunity to look around for the mysterious statue, but it was all clear no sign of it, none of this made any sense. One minute it was here, then the garden at her mom's, and now nowhere, she sighed and continue the shots as Mr uzor sat back down.
"I have a son that will like to be your apprentice, he's seventeen, he just finished secondary school and he has a passion for all this he has been experimenting with our backyard."
Niola smiled as she took the last shot, "we're done, I'll call you once it's ready, make your first deposit to the account I sent." She walked over to the desk and drop the camera. "Tell your son to follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, then if he's still interested after all that, here!" she handed him a note she wrote her website. "then we can do the old-fashioned way."
"Alright, thanks a lot, he'll do that."
After he left, Niola looked around again to reassure herself, everything seemed normal which was quite a relief. She sat before the computer to print the picture then her phone rang, it was her mother. She set the photo to print and answered the call.
"okomi, omoola…" her mother continued in a eulogy in Yoruba.
Niola smiled, "mom, I'm not mad at you, at all, I was just speechless and overwhelmed, I needed to clear my head."
"I'm on my way to your Studio… you need to know certain things."
"Ok mom," Niola sighed, "I'll be expecting you."
She arranged the pictures she printed together, then went back to cut and stretch out a canvas roll on an accurate board. On the other hand, Mrs. Michaels was on her way to Niola's place on a bus, she stared out the window as the bus moved and she kept thinking about how she was going to make all these things her daughter has been seeing go away, she could go back to oke-Osa to her uncle but it's been twenty years since they last spoke, in fact, they quarreled. Ifadahunsi didn't want them to leave, but Tolu wanted a change for all the things that happened to her in that town and a fresh start, not just for her, but for her daughter too. Oke-Osa was a local area, she didn't want Eniola to grow up in a village, she wanted one of the best upbringings for her, but Ifadahunsi didn't look at it that way, he was so angry and all he kept saying was 'you are leaving? after all, I've done for you. She heard the palm oil factory fell two years after she left and he said it was because she took Eniola away. But she saw it as some kind of excuse for the poor management and lavish spending. But what did he expect, they deserved a better life, not to be stuck in one Kind of village and be in some kind of debt to her uncle. After all, she's Eniola's mother and she was going to do whatever it takes to keep her happy and healthy.
After going through a little hectic traffic Niola's mom got to Eniola's studio, she told her the whole story about everything that happened before and after she was born.
"Could he still help us?" Niola asked afterward, "he's your uncle after all."
"Hmm... I don't know, we haven't spoken in twenty years, I can't just call him all of a sudden," Her mother said and rubbed her forehead worriedly.
"You still have his number right?"
"Yes I still have it, but still it is not proper to just call him out of the blue, it's not appropriate, I should travel to oke-OSA to see him."
"Oh.. ok, old people's rules," she chuckled and her mother raised a brow. "Jeez! I'm just kidding," she smiled and pick up the photo to start a sketch then she saw something in the dark corner of the picture background that wasn't there before. It was the statue, she got up quickly and when to check out the corner.
"What's that?" Her mother saw the worries in her movement toward the corner. "Did you see a cockroach? You look like you just did." She laughed sarcastically
"No Mom," Niola replied coldly as she walked back to the desk to check the rest of the photos; it all had the Statue in each one of them. "Mom! Look at this," she pointed it out for her Mom, "please tell me I'm not the only one seeing this."
Mrs. Michaels looked at all the photos and looked back up at Niola, "Of course I see it, that's some weird ugly sculpture there, why will you sculpt something like this, it looks like some orisa—"
"No! Mom," she cut her before she went further. "That's exactly what I've been telling you, I didn't do it, that's the statue I was telling you about!"
Her mom paused, looked at it closely, then stood up to check around with Niola.
"It is not here!" She said
Niola sighed out of frustration and tucked back a lock of her hair behind her ear, "Yes it is not, it's never anywhere! It just appears!"
Her mother placed both her hand on Niola's shoulders, " calm down sweetie," she said. "look at me, I'm going to fix this. I.. am going to go to oke-Osa, okay?"
Niola nodded and her mother cupped her cheek, "You are going to be fine, nothing is going to happen to you, not on my watch." She smiled and Niola hugged her tightly.
"what about you? Promise me you will be fine."
"Of course, I will!"
"We could go together, you know, precisely I'm the one seeing crap."
Her mother smiled, pulled back to look at her, "It will be better if I go alone first, I have no idea what I'm going to meet… and now you worry like an old lady."
Niola laughed and her mother said, " I'll be fine, I'll call you all the time."
"Please do."
At night when Niola got home, she took a warm bath and her head was banging from all the paranormal things she had been seeing throughout the day. Afterward, she sat before her computer trying to search for everything about oke-OSA on the internet, and all she came across was their festivals and springs. Everything she saw on the internet seemed normal until she came across an article from seven years ago that says 'how Reverend Olusegun became one of the active men of God in Oke-osa'.
She tried to find more but nothing else was elaborated, it was just motivational speeches from the Reverend and an address in Osun state which she wrote down. Her mother was leaving for Oke-osa in two days and she had this feeling that it was all going to be grave news.
It was almost 10 pm so she went to bed, she was stuck in her muse for a while before she slept.
In her dream.
she was in the forest, it was at dew point she carried a lantern and was barefoot as the floor was sticky, then she heard a twig snap
"Hello!" she shivered with cloudy smoke fanning out of her mouth.
one of us!
Voices began to echo from the dark like a hundred people ranting. All of a sudden she began running, she had no idea why she was running but she had the urge to. She paused at a point her feet were stuck, she panicked, then a dark strong hand grabbed her left arm as if to help, but it burnt her.
"haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…." she screamed out of her sleep and open her eyes. The dream felt real as if the hand grabbed her, she glanced at the time on the digital clock and it was almost 4 am. "ow! My head," she muttered, about to rub her head then she felt a sting on her arm.
She rolled up her sleeve quickly and suddenly jumped out of bed to switch on the light.
It was a burned print from the hand in her dream.