episode 9

Contd...... With the help of others, I was pulled out. I was wet,dirty and smelling from head to toe. I couldn't even look at him, I sat on the floor near the gutter and was looking down, I have never been dis humiliated in my life, the people that came out to help were thinking of a way to clean me up. My roommate suggested that I should be taken back to her boyfriend's house to have my bath that she had clothes there. I looked up and told her immediately that I would rather go back to the hostel the way I was than to go back to his house. Kami, who had left us immediately I was pulled out to talk to a lady came back to us and asked us to follow him. We followed him to a house that was 3 buildings away from my roommates boyfriend's house. The lady kami was talking to lead the way followed by kami, then me, my roommate was walking behind holding my shoe and bag. We entered a well furnished apartment, the lady took me to the bathroom. She helped me remove my dress, got warm water for me, gave me everything I needed including clothes. When we finished we went to join kami and my roommate in the sitting room. Then, it had started raining heavily outside so we couldn't leave. I sat down on one of the couch, made sure it was far from where kami was sitting. The lady brought hot tea for me. Then I noticed a wedding ring on her left hand. Kami was watching ball so he didn't pay attention to me, the lady went back to the kitchen and didn't come back I guess she was cooking. 30mins later it was still raining my roommate had dozed off, the match was over. As if he just realised I was there," hope I didn't bore u with what I was watching?" He asked.
"No."I replied.
"so u watch ball?"
"Not really."
Just then the lady came in and said "Rich give her a break" I swallowed my spit and said "I really appreciate what the both of you did for me, I think the rain has stopped it wud be good for us if we leave now before it starts again." I stood up and woke my roommate up that it was time to leave. From the look of things he didn't recognise me or didn't want his wife to know. He asked where we were going to and my roommate answered him. The lady had brought my cloth, it had been washed by her washing machine but not dry, she folded it in a polythene bag and handed it to me. Kami offered to drop us in school. On our way my roommate received a call, she told us she had to quickly go somewhere, so she got down on the way. I almost got down with her so I won't be alone with kami but it won't be polite, so I continued the journey with him. When we got to school he parked in front of my hostel and said "here we are." I thanked him opened the door to step down, then he said "one would have thought you would have good taste in men with the way you criticized my painting." I froze. "Oh u thought I didn't recognise u" he continued. I turned to him and said " I am sorry for what I said the other day and pls thank your wife for me." He smiled and said "she is my sister and she is married, I came to do a job here in zaria so I am staying with her till I am done."
"Painting" I asked
"No, I am an architect, painting is just an hobby and besides my job has to do with drawing so u can't blame me."
"That's nice."
"so can I ask you about the guy that was chasing you with a cutlass."
I smiled and told him what happened. By the time I finished he was laughing so hard that I didn't know when I joined him too.
Then he asked "do you swim."
I asked him why he was asking and he replied "or why else would you have dropped back into the gutter when I was trying to help you out." My face changed. He smiled and said "I was only joking about that I knew you were shocked to see me."
"Yeah, what do you expect me to have done I raised my head to find you helping me if asked I would have preferred the devil."I replied.
"Haba do I look that bad."
"Oh just joking."
We spoke for a while then we exchange phone numbers. I called him later to know if he had gotten home, spoke with the sister basically thanking her for helping me. Kami and I became friends and later became lovers. He spent 3weeks in Zaria went back to Lagos. He started taking jobs in Zaria and Abuja because of me. Since then we had been together.

Back to present, kami had woken up and was surprised to see me awake so he said "hey baby, I know you are sad but you need to sleep or else you would have headache, come closer."He pulled me and cuddled me. I slept off like a baby.
(To be contd)