It was a Saturday evening and the atmosphere was cool and calm, such a weather Grace always loved. It had just finished raining and everywhere was muddy. Inside her parent’s two-bedroom flat, she was uneasy. She kept peeping through the window and opening the front door intermittently stooping to check whose car passes by. David her fiancé had called her earlier to inform that he was on his way to visit. She is always elated to have him around. Before meeting David, she had dated a couple of men who ended up jilting her after promising heaven and earth. She wanted to curb that bad cycle so she patiently waited for years as a single lady after her last relationship. But age wasn’t on her side; at twenty-nine she became anxious to have a man to call hers. Aside this, intimidation from friends, families and pastors often gave her sleepless nights. When she met David, she was hopeful that her marital woe would soon come to an end.
She still remembered vividly how she met David. It was a Thursday evening; she was about to close her shop when a car parked right in front of her shop. It was David. He was new in the area and seemed to have missed his way. He had come to visit his cousins; Ben and Chris.
'They live beside my house,' Grace said. That was after David had given a perfect description of Chris and Ben.
After describing the path leading to Chris and Ben’s house, David seemed not contented with Grace’s description. He would prefer Grace to enter into his Lexus model car and lead him to the house since his cousins’ house was right beside hers. After little appeal from David, Grace agreed to enter into the car. The first fifteen minutes’ drive was clouded with silence until David broke the ice.
'I’m David by the way; may I know the name please?' He said.
'Grace,' she whispered uninterestedly. She knew men are fond of taking an advantage of rendering help to them to nurture unnecessary feelings.
Initially, she was not interested in David’s conversations but she spontaneously gave in to his chat after few minutes; she could not explain why. The forty-five minutes’ drive got David acquainted with Grace. He was astounded by her use of English language despite she was a secondary school dropout. His eyes wouldn’t stop staring at her as he drove closer to their destination. He loved everything about her: her tall stature; fairly dark skin and her dimples that formed each time she smiled. Although she was not a buxom type, she was subtly hippy and that suits David’s taste.
'I love this lady, how can I get to know her more?' David asked his cousins on getting to their one room self-contained apartment. That was after he had told them about Grace. ‘Although I collected her phone number before she alighted from the car.’ David explained. He scrolled through his phone contacts to confirm if the phone number was well saved.
His cousins laughed.
'Bro, forget about this lady, she is after-one,' Chris said and sneered.
'After-one!' David recapitulated. The word sounded strange to him. 'What does that mean?' He confusedly asked.
Chris and Ben jested.
'He means she had given birth but out of wedlock,' Ben explained.
'Oh, that, it doesn’t matter.' David shrugged.
Few months after, Ben and Chris still could not believe how David and Grace got to be so close that they became the talk of the town. They were amazed when David told them of how Grace denied the allegation that she was after-one. David believed her. After all, he had confronted her several times and her answer was always ‘No’. He decided not to pester her again. But Grace knew deep down within her that she was lying. Her foul-play while in Senior Secondary School, SSS 3 led to Favour, her daughter. Favour had grown, a ten-year-old girl, calm and gentle. She had from her infancy taken her grandmother as her mother while her biological mother; Grace, as an aunt. This continued until the day Granny told beautiful Favour the truth about whom her biological mother was. Grace saw Granny’s decision as a huge disaster to her life.
'Granny, you shouldn’t have done that.' She grumbled. She loves Favour, she really does but Granny’s decision to her shouldn’t have been at that crucial time when she was thinking of getting married. ‘No man will marry after-one.' She said and furiously walked away. Granny’s decision often propelled Grace to hide Favour each time she had a male visitor. Still Favour did not stop calling her mummy. Sometimes, Grace did appeal to her mum
Granny
to help take her along to the shop.
But that very Saturday when David called to pay her an impromptu visit, Grace was shocked. If she had known, she would have pleaded with Granny to take Favour along when travelling to a nearby town that morning, but David did not give any prior notification. He called Grace when he was just few miles away which got Grace loitering around the sitting room, restless. Grace thought of the old Mama Iyabo, their neighbour but it was one of the owambe Saturdays, Mama Iyabo had gone to party with her grandchildren.
‘I would have sent her there to play,’ Grace thought within her. That was the only neighbour she could trust her daughter safety with. She sighed. Her eyes gazed at Favour who was sitting on the sofa, reading a short story book.
When David arrived, he parked his car in front of the house. Before he could climb the stairs to the door leading to the sitting room, Grace grasped Favour by her right wrist.
‘Mummy loves you, you know that right? But Mummy wants you to go and poo now…’ Grace said walking her towards the toilet.
‘Mummy, but I don’t feel like,’ Favour replied.
‘Ha! You have to. Mummy loves you but Mummy…’ She hissed. She felt remorseful. She quitted explaining and forced Favour into the toilet. She felt remorseful as she locked Favour inside.
David had started to knock for the third time when Grace opened the door.
‘Sorry, I was in the toilet,’ she lied defensively.
They both sat on the sofa at the sitting room that was after they had embraced each other and Grace had offered him a cup of water. They had barely sat for thirty minutes when David heard a voice within the apartment- ‘Mummy…Mummy…!’
‘Oh, that?’ Grace grinned.
David suspiciously looked around.
‘That would be our neighbours’ kids,’ she lied again.
‘Neighbours’ kids?’ David asked with dismay. ‘This voice seems to be coming from within.’
‘Mummy…Mummy…Mummy…,’ Favour kept yelling. She boisterously banged the toilet’s door.
David stood up curiously and walked towards the toilet. Grace followed him. She was apprehensive.
‘Not from here, they are neighbours’ kids,’ she kept repeating.
At the toilet’s doorstep, David stood quiet to listen very carefully. This time, Favour was sobbing silently. David forcefully unlocked the feeble wooden door. He was terrified on seeing little Favour who was just a replica of Grace. Perspiration was all over Favour’s face. ‘Mummy-mummy…,’ she cried fidgetingly. Grace then knelt down to beg David.
‘I can explain dear,’ she said.
David stood still like a statue. He wondered why Grace would have denied her beautiful daughter.
