Biola was on the balcony her eyes participating in a staring contest with the moon and she was winning. She had smoked almost a pack of cigarettes; her mouth was so dry that she couldn’t feel her tongue. It was almost dawn and she had been there for about three hours with a blank mind and a gloomy record playing over and over. Afar of she enjoyed the voice of a couple arguing painfully, their argument was hilarious to her.
The sound of pain was food to her soul, it didn’t bother her rather she embraced it. “I liked you” Efe’s voice was very shaky and Biola did not turn to look at her, it was as if she didn’t acknowledge her presence but Efe continued to speak non the less “for the sake of being gracious, I won’t exchange words with you I know what you did, you know what you did so I want you out… at the end of the day, when you are done staring at the moon; I don’t want you in this house, do you understand me?”
“Yes” Biola responded still looking at the moon “what did he tell you?” Biola’s voice stopped Efe at the door frame and the question set Efe off, she turned into medusa with verbal diarrhea. She called Biola all the names under the sun and moon that meant harlot and gold digger. She was disappointed at Biola and truly sad that she was losing a good friend; Biola just stood there this time looking at her but it seemed like smoking her cigarette was much important to her.
“So, is that what your father told you? That I seduced him and he couldn’t resist?” Biola was unscathed by Efe’s insults
“Wasn’t that what you did? Don’t even try to deny I am not going to stand here and listen to you disrespect me and my family” Efe went into another episode of enragement; it was amazing how many synonyms she knew for the words whore and exploiter. When she was done she did not give Biola a chance to defend herself, she stormed out; banging the door as if she wanted the moon to fall from the sky.
It was true that Biola was irresistible but that was not unknown to her or anyone else; that to her was not a reason to be violated, even the irresistible could be resisted. It was barely dawn when Biola packed up her things and left not without leaving a goodbye note for Efe.
It was 5pm and Biola was happy to be attending to the last customer of the day, it had been a long day with no break; and when she finished with the customer she headed to the cafeteria for a much anticipated meal. Biola got a call back from all the banks she interviewed for and chose to work for one of the biggest banks in the country, Grande Bank of Nigeria.
She was hired to join the customer service team as a customer service executive solving and taking note of customer issues. She was very glad that the cafeteria was empty but before she could relish in the quietness one of the managers in the branch walked in and joined her without asking.
He was called Umar “hmmmm fried rice eh… it looks nice” Biola pretended to still have food in her mouth so that she wouldn’t respond, eventually she didn’t have a choice but to talk to him which made her eat her food faster
“You eat really fast” he tried to keep up with her “I have some work to finish before I go home” Biola refused to look at him, he persisted asking her more questions to engage her in a conversation but she was not engaging at all.
When he noticed that she was almost ready to leave he called for the bill prepared to impress her by paying for her meal “you put only my order here, what about hers?” he asked the waiter “Oga, they have paid for her own” the waiter responded “who is the they?” Umar was a bit annoyed and curious at the same time “Oga… the Oga upstairs” the waiter replied, picked up their plates and left.
Biola did not know who the waiter was talking about and she didn’t care “there are many Bosses upstairs … so… yeah, thank you” she moved as swiftly as she could to avoid any more questions. “Will you have dinner with me sometime?” his voice caught up with her, Biola had a grim look on her face “are you married?” Umar was taken aback by her direct question and because he hesitated before answering she declined his offer. The question was designed by Biola to quickly weed out married men from her pool of suitors, it was a decision she had made with herself to stay away from married men especially the ones who had children.
It had been four months since Biola moved out and Efe missed her dearly. Her mother would have moved in with her since Biola was gone but she made her father stop her. There was an agreement between Efe and chief that she was going to keep his dirty secret if he allowed her live alone. She felt guilty about everything, especially the fact that she was the one who brought Biola home. Efe was tempted several times to invite Biola back in but she kept reminding herself how terrible of a person Biola was for seducing and sleeping with her father
“She will do it again” Efe told herself. She had three offers from three local newspapers to work as a journalist but she didn’t know which to choose, and that was part of the reason why she missed Biola. She needed her opinion before making a decision.
“Princess are you coming?” she heard her father’s voice from downstairs, he was around for some business and came to have dinner with her before leaving to Port Harcourt the next morning. Efe rushed downstairs and they settled to eat when a knock on the door stopped them, Efe went to open the door. It was a package.
“Daddy, you have a package” “bring it” Chief put his plate aside to open the package and what he saw in it horrified him; he let out a terrifying scream as he flung the box and the object in the box fell out
“Daddy, are you okay?” Efe rushed to his side and noticed drops of blood on his hands
“Jesus! What is in the box?!” Chief couldn’t speak he was terrified, so Efe walked slowly close enough to the object until she could see that it was a foetus, Efe immediately closed her mouth out of shock and rushed to hold her father. They noticed a note on the floor, Efe sluggishly picked it up and opened it.
SAY HELLO TO YOUR FOUR MONTH OLD UNBORN SON. AND NOW THAT I HAVE SACRIFICED MY FIRST BORN FOR YOUR SAKE, I AM PISSED. YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME STRUGGLE CHIEF. YOU MADE A BIG MISTAKE. NOW THE MOON WILL NEVER BE BEAUTIFUL AGAIN. BIOLA KILA
Efe immediately ran to the toilet to throw up, while she washed her face she remembered the note Biola left for her; a note that she abandoned without reading. She looked through her drawer desperately and found it; with great fear she opened the letter.
DEAR EFE, YOUR FATHER RAPED ME, HE VIOLATED MY BEING AND BECAUSE OF THAT I HAVE DECIDED TO DESTROY HIM NO MATTER THE COST BUT I PROMISE YOU ONE THING. YOU AND YOUR MOTHER WILL BE FINE NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. IT WAS NICE KNOWING YOU. LOVE BIOLA.
Efe did not notice the tears dropping rapidly from her chin to her shirt, she ran back to the dining room “you raped her?!” she asked Chief in a very hysterical manner then noticed him shaking uncontrollably
“My tower is crumbling, there was an explosion” he managed to speak before going into a cardiac arrest but before Efe could comprehend what was going on, unexplainable flames and smoke made their way towards them and a group of masked men carried her out of the house.
They carried a mortified Efe away into their car as she struggled and screamed “My father is in the house” she cried out watching the flames quickly take over the building as the car drove her away. It was a dark day, a day of destruction for the Omorighe family all because Chief poked a bear and that bear was Biola Kila.
