In The World Of 3 Women – Episode 12

In The World Of 3 Women – Episode 12

© Kayode Odusanya

Dapo woke up with a slight head ache. He had that feeling he normally had when he over drank and woke up afterwards trying to remember the last couple of things that happened before he passed out. He jumped up from where he was all of a sudden when he discovered he wasn’t on his bed. There was a pink Apple laptop on a table that faced the bed he was on, and it had a twitter page opened. Two large size panda bears were by the head of the bed, and he guessed he must have been using one of them as a pillow as he saw a pillow on the flow. He noticed he didn’t have a shirt on, and when he looked below, he noticed he had nothing on there too; it was only the sheets that covered his unclothedness. “poo!” He exclaimed under his breath as he rubbed his forehead.

He wrapped the bed sheet properly around his waist, and just as he was about to get up from the bed, his phone started to ring. He looked around, but didn’t find any of his clothing’s. Then he noticed the ringing was coming from under the bed. When he bent to look, he saw his jeans trousers and boxers short under the bed. He pulled the phone out of the pocket before it stopped ringing.

“Hello?”

“Thank God! I thought something had happened to you. I have been calling you since yesterday.” Lola said.

“Oh!” Dapo said, and tried to buy himself some time.

“Dapo, you are sounding funny. Are you okay?”

“Yea… I just have a slight headache.” He said as the door to the room opened, and Dupe walked in with a white towel wrapped around her body, and a pink one wrapped around her head.

“So, where did you leave your phone? I was really worried.”

“I just got it out of the car; I was really tired after I got back from a meeting I had yesterday.” He said, and he thought at least he didn’t lie about that. He kept his eyes on Dupe for any sign of what had happened last night.

“Okay; I got to go, we just stopped at a Petrol station. We are on our way back to Lagos.”

“Okay.”

“Bye! See you in a bit.”

“Hey!” Dapo exclaimed. Dupe was just about to remove the towel that covered her body, and he didn’t know when he shouted.

“Dapo! What’s the matter?” Lola shouted into the receiver.

“Sorry…I think a soldier ant just bit me.” He said, and Dupe tightened the knot of the towel before turning around and giggling.

Lola also laughed at the other end of the receiver. “Dapo, please don’t ki*ll me. See you in a bit. Love you!”

“I love you too.” After He got off the phone, only the sound of Dupe applying cream on her body was audible. The silence was unbearable for Dapo after a while, and he broke the ice. “So…yesterday, we…” He couldn’t complete it, but Dupe was already nodding her head at him. He bowed his head in shame. “How? Why? I mean, how did it happen?”

Dupe had turned her chair around to face him now. “What do you mean how?” She said with a little frown on her face. “You came unto me, and I couldn’t resist you. Don’t tell me you can’t remember?” She said, with a puzzled look on her face.

“This wasn’t meant to happen; I am in a lot of poo already.” Dapo said, running his hands through his nappy hair as he leaned his back on the wall from where he sat on the bed.

“Don’t beat yourself up like that; it’s not like I am going to tell your wife.”

“You don’t get it; this wasn’t meant to get this far, I should have…I should have…”

“Wait! Don’t complete that.” She said with her hand in the air and a stern look on. Then the look turned into a smile. “And cut!” She said, and laughed. “I swear; you are a natural.” Dapo looked at her puzzled. “I was playing around; nothing happened last night. Come on! I’m not that cheap.” She sad and laughed. Dapo had his head bowed now, laughing lightly. Then he looked up.

“This poo isn’t funny at all. But, you got me men! You got me.” He said, and laughed till phlegm flew out his nose; an evidence that he was on the verge of breaking into a tears before Dupe told him the truth. But then he looked at her with a puzzled look. “What happened then?”

“You got drunk and I couldn’t allow you go home like that.” She said, and headed towards a wardrobe by the bed Dapo was sitting on. She pulled out a black Caftan.

“I mean, why am I Unclad?”

“Oh!” She exclaimed and laughed a little as she threw the Caftan over her head. It flowed to her ankles and she wiggled till the towel fell to the floor from beneath the dress. “Don’t get too comfy now; you did try to sleep with me last night, but you were too drunk.”

“Aww!” Dapo hit himself in the face with his palm. Dupe laughed a little more. “It ain’t funny. Why do you keep laughing?”

“I don’t know, maybe because it was just funny seeing you act like that. One minute you were in control, and the next minute you were no longer making sense.”

Dapo looked at her standing in front of him and a thought crossed his mind. “And why are you so comfortable around me.” He said. “I mean, you are so comfortable changing around me.” He said and pointed at the towel on the floor.

“Sorry about that, sometimes I lose myself and think I am on a movie set or something.” She said and walked to her dressing table.

“Weren’t you scared? I mean, weren’t you scared I would force you to…”

“No, you were too drunk.

“poo!” Dapo exclaimed “Lola said she was at Sagamu. She should almost be in Lagos by now.” Dapo sand jumped off the bed. “Where is my shirt?”

“It’s in the parlor…downstairs.” She said as Dapo ran into her bathroom with his jeans and boxers shorts in hand. He re-emerged seconds later, and ran out the room. “Relax!” Dupe said and laughed a little.

She offered to drop him off, but he declined, saying he would rather take a cab. They said their goodbyes, with Dupe in-between laughs all the while.

___

After Dapo told Lola about the death of Mr Cole, he saw genuine tears roll down her eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was 100% because the man was dead, or how the man’s death would affect things with him and Mrs. Cole.

He had waited till the next day after she got back from her holidays, so he wouldn’t spoil her mood. Now, she just wondered around the house; going from one room to the other with no real aim.

Kike had called Dapo to keep him updated on things; the body would be flown in from the states in a couple of days. She also told him that his assistance would be appreciated in the planning of the funeral.

Mr. Cole didn’t have any other family members, except from his wife and her kid. His siblingS had died in a car crash along with his parents when he was a little boy, and he had grown up staying with his father’s younger sister, who was also dead now. So, right now, all the responsibility rested upon Mrs. Cole, and Dapo.

“So what happens now?” Lola asked. She came over and sat on the edge of the seat Dapo was on.

“Nothing; we just help out with a couple of arrangements. And after the funeral, Kike would travel back to the states.”

“Kike?”

“Sorry, that is Mrs. Cole’s first name.”

“So what happens to Anu?”

“She would be at their house; Kike’s sister would be there with her. It had already been planned that way before Mr. Cole died.”

“Okay.”

“And we are free to see her anytime we want.” Dapo concluded and watched the reaction of his wife. He never thought they would get to this point, where he would feel like he had done something to change everything they had planned and believed in. The fact remains that you can’t change the past. It was just so unfortunate that his past had to come back and haunt him. “So when do you resume work?”

“Next week; the holidays were extended for most schools because of the Muslim festivities.”

“Okay.”

“You know, I still find it hard to believe that Mr. Cole is actually dead.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“He had so much energy.”

“poo happens; he was fighting death all along. I don’t know, I guess something just made him give up.” Lola got up from her squatting position and started pacing the length of the room.

“I remember what my mom always said; no matter how much material things you had on earth, when you die, you can’t take any of it with you.” Lola said.

“True.”

“I hope all he worked hard to build, doesn’t crumble after this.”

“He was a smart man, he would definitely have made some plans for that; he knew he was dying.”

They spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house and Dapo went out briefly to get things from the store. He still felt a little tension around the house, and as much as he would like to deny it, Lola was not the same again.

The Cole’s arrived exactly one week from the death day of Mr. Cole. The funeral was planned in top speed and before long; the body was properly put to rest.

A couple of weeks after the funeral, Dapo got a call from Mrs. Cole, asking him to come over for official reasons concerning her husband. He went over and was surprised when he found out that the man’s lawyer was there and it was about his will.

Mr. Cole had instructed his lawyer to have Dapo present at the reading of his will. Dapo was more shocked when he found out that the man had willed all his businesses to him; his greatest fear had come to life. If he took the offer; then, one way or the other, he would have to take up the family too. It was like the dead man was playing a game of chess with him in his grave.

When he told Lola about it, she was dumbfounded; and there was silence for a couple of minutes, then she asked. “Are you going to take it?”

“I don’t know, I should…or what do you think?” She went silent again. He knew it was really tough for her to handle; it seemed more and more like the Cole’s were going to take her husband away. He looked at her, the baby bump was very evident now, but she still walked around the house swiftly like it was no load.

“I was just thinking, you know…like I shouldn’t turn it down. I would let the man down if I did so.”

“Just do what you feel is best.” Lola finally said, and it was like she threw a blank check his way. He didn’t say anything more on the matter. He knew he needed time to weigh his options and he thought he would sleep on it, and make his decision in the morning.

To be continued

ALL EPISODES

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
error: Content is protected !!
Close

Turn Off Data Saver

To enjoy the full functions of our website, kindly turn off your data saver or switch to mobile browsers like Chrome or Firefox. Reload this page after turning off data saver