HOOK, LINE AND SINKER (Episode 5)

My aunt (aunty Dupe) walked into my room on a Sunday afternoon after church with a glass of juice in hand. As grateful as I was for the warmth, love and care I was showered with by my aunt, her husband and only daughter who was several years younger than me, I couldn't stop the feeling of rejection from my parents that crept in once in a while.

She set the glass cup on one side of my dressing table, and balanced her small frame on the low stool positioned in front of the mirror.
"Bisola" she called out softly.

"Ma" I replied quietly.

"Don't you like it here?" She turned my face up to look directly into her eyes.

"I do... " I really felt comfortable living with my aunt but I had so much bottled up inside including a foetus without a father. I tried to stop the tears from flowing down.

"Shhh, shhhh" aunty Dupe moved the stool with her body towards me and began patting me on the back.
"Everything will be just fine... " she kept saying as she continued with the gentle patting.
Her phone rang and I could see it was my mum calling. She handed over the glass of juice to me and excused herself to pick the call.
I took the glass of juice from her and shook my head at the thought of mum. Mum was steadily avoiding me. Only father called to check up on me. I guessed I had disappointed mum more than I thought.

In minutes, aunty Dupe was back into my room. She conveyed mum's message to me but I doubted mum sent any regards in the first place. A part of me wondered why she never picked mum's calls in my presence since I moved here but I shoved the thought aside in a jiffy.

"Get some rest before dinner, okay?" She said after minutes of sharing funny but unrelated issues with me in a bid to lighten my mood.
She reminded me of my doctor's appointment the next day and I thanked her yet again. She was so nice; maybe mum actually thought this through, I said to myself.

Two days later, I returned from antenatal clinic to meet aunty Dupe waiting for me. I was not surprised, she was a full housewife. She queried my late arrival back home and I told her who I ran into - Sharon, my NYSC bunkmate who redeployed to Port Harcourt for several reasons including an arranged marriage. It wasn't as if I needed to explain my movement, after all I was a grown woman, but I explained anyway as a sign of respect for my aunt who had been far too kind to me.

"You don't want to be making friends everywhere... " she said sternly as she walked into the kitchen to pour me a glass of juice. That moment of sternness reminded me of mum.

"Here" she handed the glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to me. I took the glass from her and drank up. I walked after her into the kitchen and we began preparations for dinner.

While at the dining table with the rest of the family for dinner, I felt a sharp pain in my tummy. I immediately held my tummy with one hand. In another two seconds, I felt the pain again. 'It was definitely not the foetus, no, baby', I told myself. I emptied my glass of water quickly and poured myself another glass, with the hope that water would take away the pain. I began to cough. My aunty raised her head from her food in an instant.

"Are you alright?" She must have asked but I could barely hear anyone. All I remember was holding my tummy tightly, and resting my head slowly on the table as my eyes closed on their own accord.


***

Peju rushed into the house with so much excitement. She knew Bisola would not be back by the time she got home and it was fine by her. She dropped her bag on the couch and rushed into the kitchen, washed her hands and brought out ingredients from the fridge. She hummed 'here comes the bride' as she went about preparing her special vegetable soup. She placed a pot filled with water on another burner and went back to the vegetable soup. Once the ingredients for the soup were all in, she covered the pot to allow the stew sauce fry a little.
She rushed back to the sitting room to plug her phone to the DVD player. Scrolling through her music folder, she clicked on the 'Naija collection' playlist. Kiss Daniel's Mama was the first on the list.
Peju raised her hands in the air as she sang along and danced back to the kitchen. She continued singing, switching every part of the song that referred to 'girl' with 'boy'.
In a few minutes, the colorful efo riro (vegetable soup) was ready. She brought down the pack of poundo yam and set out to work.

Bisola walked in to meet the speakers blasting. She picked the remote from the sofa where it was lying and tuned down the volume the DVD player.

"Peju..." She called loudly as she removed her shoes and began making her way to the kitchen barefooted.

An excited Peju was still dancing and singing loudly as she turned the poundo yam mixture with the spatula. She added a little hot water, turned the mixture again, and switched off the burner. She danced her way to Bisola who was now standing by the door, trying to figure out what the cause of the excitement was.

"You will never believe what happened today ooo" Peju said at the top of her voice as she shook her body to the music.
She stretched her left hand towards Bisola, who had tiredness written all over her but was definitely curious.

Bisola immediately spotted the rock shining on her cousin's ring finger.

"Oh my word..." She found herself jumping with Peju.

"He proposed?"

"In front of the entire office... And I said yesss, yes, yes, yes a billion times" Peju screamed.

"Ibadan, get ready;
Lagos, get ready;
Nigeria get ready!" She raised her left hand in the air and began flaunting the ring.

Bisola echoed 'yes o' at every declaration. She brought her cousin's hands down from mid-air and stared endlessly at the big rock.

"It's gorgeous..." She must have said that five times in less than a minute.
"Oh my, I'm so happy for you." She continued.

"I know..." Peju laughed as she hurried back to the cooker.

"And we're having a special dinner tonight, just because..." She began dishing their meals.

"Correct... Gbenga should propose everyday till the D-day o." They both laughed.

In no time, dinner was set and the cousins set out to consume the nice-looking meal. Peju who was good at telling stories, gave Bisola the full gist of how the proposal went down and in that moment, Bisola was filled with pure joy and zero worries until her phone beeped. She hurriedly checked the phone and realized it was a message from MTN. She hissed and threw the phone on the table. Her mood suddenly changed back to what it had been since she returned from the mall earlier in the day.

"Is anything the matter?" Peju noticed the change in her countenance.

"No o; not at all. It's one of those stupid messages from MTN" She replied nonchalantly as she tried to switch back to her happy mood.

She had been expecting a call or a text from Marcus all day after the brief reunion at the mall. It had been extremely difficult concentrating on work for the rest of the day and she found herself struggling to complete articles that were due for publication.
She spent the entire ride home thinking about the brief hug they shared; how nice he looked, his nicely shaved beards, his entire outfit from shirt to shoes, while dismissing the ring she noticed. She however. remembered that he smelled differently from his usual self.
The few words he said kept replaying in her mind and at every instant, she scolded herself mentally.

"You must be as stupid as you were four years ago. He fooled you, slept with you, got you pregnant and disappeared into thin air. And here you are; four years after, still reminiscing on a stupid hug and 'oh you take me back'..." That was the last scolding she gave herself before walking into the house.

"What do you think of rose gold and wine?" Peju tapped Bisola with her phone that had images of color combination showing on the screen.

"We're already talking colours? You go girl" Bisola jerked back into the moment and raised her left palm to meet with Peju's left palm in a hi-5.
She had to stop trying to put the pieces together and concentrate on better things like planning the first wedding in her immediate extended family.
Akin had stopped by her table to tell her 'the guy didn't show up' and although, Bisola tried to hide her confusion by thanking him and asking him not to bother anymore, she couldn't help but think about who Marcus came to the mall to see if it wasn't Akin. .

They both stood up with their empty plates in hand and walked towards the kitchen.

"Can you set up another blind date for me this weekend?" Bisola blurted as she placed her plate in the kitchen sink.

"Seriously?" Peju was beyond surprised but was excited that her cousin was beginning to loosen up a bit.
"Why not? On it immediately." She hurried out of the kitchen to pick up her phone.

"Hey, hey..." Bisola rinsed her hands and rushed after her.

"Same place like the last time, and please add 'punctual' to the advert o.'' She let out a small laugh.
"This had better work" She said inwardly, as she ticked off the execution of the plan she had come up with in a bid to connect the dots.

"O..kay" Peju looked at her in surprise yet again.
"What has gotten in you?"

"Nothing. I guess it's the lovey-dovey atmosphere..." Bisola smiled sheepishly towards the sitting room. She picked up her shoes and bag and strolled into her room.

"And thanks for the meal" Bisola said at the top of her voice before shutting the door to her room.

"Today is a definitely a good day..." Peju laughed as she walked towards the sitting room, tuned up the volume of the DVD player and continued her dancing, while staring at her new bling in intervals.

***
As she dabbed her body with a towel after exiting the shower, she remembered her phone was still in the sitting room. It would be difficult to hear her phone ring through the loud music, she thought to herself as she hurried out of the room with her towel wrapped around her body. Peju had switched from dancing to the songs on her playlists to the ones playing on HipTV. There was no stopping the flow of excitement tonight, Bisola thought to herself.
She picked up her phone, swiped it for notifications of any sort and was rather disappointed.
She let out a long hiss but didn't realize Peju heard.

"Expecting a call?" Peju asked as she tuned down the volume of the TV.

"Not exactly..." Bisola concentrated on her phone.

"You sure?" Peju rolled her eyes as she walked closer to see what Bisola was looking at on the phone.
"You've been staring at that phone all evening" She continued.

Give me that..." Peju pulled out the phone from Bisola's hand when she wouldn't respond to her questions. She scrolled to the call log and noticed the last dialed number was 'KainaM', with multiple call attempts but zero seconds recorded.

Bisola rushed after her cousin who was now standing at a corner of the sitting room, searching frantically for clues. She noticed a composed message for the same KainaM in the draft folder.

"Is it KainaM?" she began to laugh this time.
"You don't want to call him?" she waved the phone in the air in a bid to stop Bisola's hands from reaching them.

"Don't do anything stu..." Bisola paused to adjust the towel that was beginning to fall off her chest.

"Hello... Hello..." Peju rushed to another end of the sitting room and waited for the person at the other end of the line to say something.
She was rather shocked to hear a female voice.

"Hello..." The lady at the other end of the line called out to someone else and said "your phone".
Peju rushed towards Bisola that was now fuming with anger. She ignored the look, pulled her cheeks and gave the phone back to Bisola after hearing a deep baritoned 'hello'.

"Hello... "

Bisola ended the call in a hurry.  She looked sternly at Peju but before she could give her a piece of her mind, her phone began to ring again. It was Marcus. She watched it ring and let a out a sigh of relief.

"Don't ever do that again!" She tried not to ruin the night for her excited cousin and made her way into the room.
As she slammed the door behind her, her phone beeped again but this time it was a text message.

"Hey Bisola
Sorry, I couldn't call all day.
Was nice seeing you again.
We should hang out sometime. Night."

She read the message thrice before deciding on what the content of her response should be.

"Yeah, we should.
Especially to talk about your child."

She clicked the send button and switched off her phone immediately.

***
HOOK, LINE AND SINKER by Faith Olatunbosun