Anna woke up after two hours, she had had a dream where she and Liam where on the their wedding day. She checked her phone in hopes of Liam's missed call or message but there wasn't. She sighed in frustration. She went for lunch in the same restaurant she had been buying food from before Liam came into her life.
"Fifi!" Anna called Fiona on her way back, "Come to my house with your phone, I want to show you something."
"Okay! Just a moment" Fiona replied.
"Alright!" Anna said and entered her house. The kids flooded in as usual which was okay to her and they ate all together.
"Here I am!" Fiona said when she got in. Anna took her phone and exchanged the simcards. She put her new MTN line in Fiona's small button phone and then put Fiona's two lines in the new Samsung galaxy phone that Liam had given her earlier.
"What happened to it?" Fiona asked.
"Why?" Anna asked searching for any damage on it or a broken piece.
"No, not there, I thought you're checking something inside, maybe" Fiona said.
"Because I put your simcards in it?" Anna asked and the girl nodded, "No dear, it's perfectly fine. It's yours now"
Fiona frowned, "What's mine?"
"This smartphone." Anna said moving her neck in a round dramatic motion.
"No" Fiona said shaking her head, "I won't take it"
Anna frowned, "Why?"
"Because it doesn't suit me. I mean, I don't deserve it .Besides, I don't even know how to use it" Fiona said with an innocent shrug.
Anna giggled in amazement, "If I was a man, I would've married you. You're so original and pure. And if you were a photo, you would've been natural without any filter. Who deserves it?"
"Educated girls like you." Fiona reasoned.
"Can't you read and write?"
"Apart from complicated vocabularies I sometimes come across with and I don't know their meanings, I can read and write the usual simple English." Fiona said.
"Then what's the problem? I rebuke every ancestral spirits that are keeping you in analog life. We're in digital life my dear friend, rabababa shekekeke tererere" Anna pretended as if she was praying for Fiona while taping on her head. Both girls burst out laughing.
"Is that speaking in tongues I hear about?" Fiona asked in fits of laughter.
"Yeah! I was actually planning to be a nun" Anna said scratching the back of her head, "But this world is evil to let me be holy even for once."
"What nun!" Fiona asked playfully sarcastic, "Even if God himself comes and tells you to choose heaven and Liam, I bet you can tell him to give you a few years to think about it"
Anna laughed so hard and so loud rolling on the floor "You...you girl are crazy. How did you know?"
"I know! The way you love Liam, you will fight your own kid when you get one for looking at him or spending much time with him."
"Stop Fiona, stop" Anna said holding her stomach, "AH! I'm dying"
"But it's the truth!"
"I wish I knew your husband or seen you guys together, you wouldn't I've survived my daily naging remarks." Anna said.
"I love him, so much that I feel like I can't live without him but not to your extent. Just the way you look at him or care about him makes me love mine more." Fiona said and Anna's face changed to a serious one.
"Wait, I thought you don't like him at all"
Fiona smiled, "No, I actually love him much more than my dad. You could've seen how I was looking like in the days he married me. Even dogs couldn't eat me if I was offered to them as food, I was so skinny and faded like an old rusted metal. But he loved me regardless and gave me a good life I had longed when I was in village.
I wake up at anytime I want, cook for myself then watch TV all day long. Not like in the village where we grew up digging everyday from morning to evening like slaves. He doesn't put me on marital pressure like these ladies I see here. He even promised me last night to open up a boutique for me after surgery so that when he retires and his older kids take over his businesses, I won't need to beg them money. I will be my own boss."
"Wow, I like him now. What surgery though? Is he sick"
"He has diabetes, kidney failure and high blood pressure. He's going for kidney transplant next week"
"Ew! So sorry, may the healing hand of God heal him sooner." Anna said
"Amen"
"Aren't you guys muslims or do muslims also use that word?" Anna asked.
"Who told you that we're muslims?" Fiona asked with a chuckle.
"Nobody, I just thought that maybe your husband is, judging by the way you veil everyday."
"Not really, I be covering my poor looking hair. I can't say he doesn't give me money for saloon but I send them to my mom and kid."
"And that's how you cheat on yourself, huh!. Now go in the saloon right away. No, I will take you." Anna said standing up.
"We haven't finished the phone's issue and now we're on my hair. What's going on?"
"You will know once we're out of this house. I know that you're a single mother but you got to take care of yourself, what if your ex sees you shabby and unkept? You want to give him laughter?" Anna asked, "Is your husband coming today?"
"No, maybe in a month or two after the surgery"
"Okay then, as Liam isn't coming as well, we're all free to do whatever we want to. Now park your bones together with your phone and go lock your door. We're to come back here at midnight."
Fiona giggled as she got out and changed into some nicer outfit. Anna changed into decent clothes, not the so skimpy skirts Liam had chosen for her. She wore black pants and a white blouse. Fiona came back well set but her clothes pretty good old and shabby.
"My dear, is that all you got?" Anna asked.
"Since I don't go anywhere, I don't mind about buying new clothes" Fiona said checking her long old fashioned dress.
"Have you ever tried pants?" Anna asked and the girls eyes widened.
"No please, Anna. I've never and I fear to"
Anna rolled her eyes on her and went directly in the closet. She picked another black jeans, a black tank top, a red leather jacket, and black sneakers. Fiona couldn't say no when she saw all these good-looking and seemingly expensive outfits. Luckily, they were of the same size only that Anna was shorter than Anna but not as short as Christine.
Anna put off Fiona's veil and installed Nancy's black wig on her head but put a black nice cap on top as the wig had faded at the front. She only applied a red lipstick on her and make up was done. Given that Fiona is a more light skinned person even surpassing Comfort, red lipstick and black outfit matched her skin better. She sprayed her other cologne on her so that they don't smell similarly.
When the poor girl looked in the the dressing mirror, her kid-like unending giggles filled the room. Even Anna herself was amazed at the girl's all along hidden beauty.
"You look like an angel for real." Anna complemented. "But you still need a matching handbag."
She gave her a red hand bag that matched the jacket. Fiona only packed the smartphone she was given in a big bag and slayed. She went outside to get more complements and all women showered with all kinds of sweet words. Even those who had smartphones took several pictures of her.
Anna put on pure white sneakers and Liam's jacket and locked the door before packing the credit card and her two phones. Since she hadn't called Max not wanting to tire him, she decided to use the usual taxes she had always used.
"Will she come back?" One of neighbor ladies asked and Anna chuckled.
"I'm telling you, I don't know if they won't steal her from me on the way." Anna said. All women were left amazed by Anna responding to them warmly. As the girls walked down the street, all people who knew Fiona were left in awe.
In the tax, Fiona kept looking through the window gazing at how beautiful defferent kinds of houses on the streets were built. They drove deeper in the city she had never stepped her feet into. Anna called Nancy mid way and asked to meet her to which she accepted immediately. They met her at the pharmacy where she worked as a pharmacist.
"Hello darling," Nancy greeted Anna hugging her. "Wow, these girls really look alike."
"Who and who"
"Your new friend and her sister" Nancy said checking Fiona out not bothering to greet her.
Anna chuckled, "It's the same person, Fiona"
"No way, you mean, gosh no! Do you have a boyfriend Fifi?" She asked then looked at Anna "Uncle Enoch is still single, you know"
"Drop your match making, she's happily married." Anna said.
"Awwwn! She looks young to be married"
"How about uncle Enoch, was he going to adopt or marry her still, in your imaginations"
"So you learnt to mock me, huh? So sarcastic and and annoying." Nancy said.
"Yes big ma'am. We're going for shopping, can you accompany us please, all bills on me." Anna said.
While Nancy and Anna were talking, Fiona was looking around the place. All people around were nicely dressed and good looking. Now she understood why her mom had always told her that money determines the beauty. Even if you're ugly, as long as you take good care of yourself without financial struggles, everything falls in place.
The trio left the place together and headed to a salon. Nancy chose fashion, style and the colour of braids the hair dressers would use on Fiona that would suit her skin colour tone and the shape of her face. They first cleaned her dirty natural hair before braiding. Anna and Nancy excused themselves to go meet Nathaniel at the bank as the braiding process would take hours to get done.
Fiona who had thought at first that Anna was taking her to some simple salon was in total astonishment of the salon's nice interior designs. The a mount if well shaped mirrors and bigger bulbs plus other beautiful decorations she didn't understand and a green fluffy grass-like carpet made her want to stay there forever. With her smartphone in her hands, she started taking photos on every step the saloonists reached at.