Like the finest apple tree in the orchard is my lover
among other young men. I sit in his delightful shade and
taste his delicious fruit. He escorts me to the banquet
hall; its obvious how much he loves me…
-Song of Solomon 2:3-4
——————————————–
“Lord help me…” She made a cross sign, though she
never attended a catholic church, that was her usual
mode of relieving her nervousness. She walked into the
big hall, very uncomfortable in the blue cord lace material
mini gown she wore. “Why on earth did I allow Bolanle
convince me to wear this annoying gown, I cant even
walk properly in it”, she said while trying to pull the gown
to her knees for the umpteenth time. She walked slowly
into the hall meant for the graduation party organised for
Tola her school daughter. The pretty girl had insisted she
come for the party. It has been years since she last
attended a party.
“At first I thought it was the statue of Mona Lisa, but as I
came closer I said to myself, an angel is missing in
heaven” Jadesola turned around to see a young dashing
man probably in his late twenties wearing a black tux
trying to catch her attention with a piece of poetry.
“If you use that line for every lady you meet, you will be
the oldest bachelor on earth” she replied while rolling her
eyes, *did she just blush no!!, she couldn’t resist the
smell of his cologne, or maybe it was the wine he was
holding that was smelling that nice*
“Does that mean you can’t resist my charm?” he said
almost reading her mind. “…Are you here for the party?”,
he added, asking an obvious question.
“Try harder…” she said, and walked towards a seat.
He followed and sat beside her making her wonder why
he was so desperate for her attention, or was it the dress
she wore?
“I am Toriola Busayo…” he finally said trying to break the
few minutes silence between them.
“Wait!!! did you just say Toriola, don’t tell me you Tola’s
elder brother” she said almost knocking off the wine on
the table, while she covered her mouth to hide her shock.
Now that was the effect he was scared of having on
ladies, but this one was a little bit different, she seemed
to know him a bit more closely.
“Erhmm… Have we met before? He managed to say
almost stuttering.
“Naa!! I am Tola’s school mum” she said smiling and
feeling light, “oh!”, he said, “I thought you were one of her
numerous old secondary school classmates who are fond
of drooling on me”, he added in the best cocky way, and
seeing the way he disgusted her with her last words, he
quickly said “Oh!! That was just a joke… I meant to say
am not a… You know…? erhm…”, trying to fix the
situation..
“Its okay, no offence taken”, she said and then motioned
for a glass of wine from the party waiters, and turned to
continue her conversation, just immediately Busayo’s
phone rang. “Excuse me please I must pick this” he said
and practically ran out the hall.
“What have you done to my brother?” She jolted back in
shock only to face her lovely school daughter clad in
purple Ankara materia long gown with long strip or maybe
a divide from the toe to the knee to give her free
movement…
“Oh honeypie, you look so beautiful…” She said standing
up to give her a motherly hug. Then duo took their sit,
with Tola sitting on the same chair her brother had sat on
earlier.
“So tell me what were you two talking about, or how did
you two meet, hmmh, no! Erhmm what did he say too?”
She said in a gossiping manner. The scene looked like
two friends gossiping about a neighbour whose husband
had just arrived drunk.
“Calm down love, he just walked up to me and started a
conversation”, she said feigning ignorance to what Tola
was insinuating.
“That is too impossible… Broda mi has never spoken to a
lady in public for over five years…”, she said
demonstrating her every word with her hands like a deaf
and dumb student instructor. Just then, her name was
called by the master of ceremony to come up stage. The
party was about to start, the mother and daughter had to
suspend their “gossip” and walk down to the front while
Jadesola sat closer to the front seats that had been
reserved for special guests.
…………………
“Hello! Yes… Its Jadesola speaking… Busayo?… Erhmm,
oh!!…” she turned to look at Tola who was holding her two
hands in a pleading manner and whispering “please say
yes”. “Alright, I should be free around 3pm tomorrow…
OK, no problem…” She finally hung the phone and feigned
a frowning face as she faced her school daughter..
“Why did you give him my number without telling me?”
She said sitting on her bed.
“Well he kept pestering me to give him your number and I
had no choice but to give him. More so, that is the first
time he would ever show interest in any lady since
mummy died”, she said avoiding Jadesola’s gaze and
then quickly added “so what did he say?”
“Well… He asked me out on a date,” she said to satisfy
her curiosity, took a deep sigh and then spoke her
thoughts out loud, “Tola, even if this works out the way
you are thinking about it in your head, I might not be able
to love your brother.”
—————————————
She was right, she never loved him, though they dated for
close to three years, she had to break up with him just
last week, and he took the break up well…. Why on earth
would he have an accident? It was all her fault, she
shouldn’t have led him on when she knew she couldn’t
love him.
“Ma, we have arrived at LUTH”, the cab driver said waking
her from her deep thoughts. She paid him her transport
fare and walked into the renowned hospital…
“Intensive care unit, room 4” the nurse at the reception
said to her while she murmured a thank you and walked
briskly following the direction the nurse gave her.
“How did it happen?” She asked Tola whom she met at
the door of the room, Tola had gone out earlier to get
some beverages for him.
“Hmmmh!!! He was driving home after work last night
around 10:30pm when he dozed off and went off the road
to hit a parked 18 seater Honda accord bus…”, she tried
to explain to her.
“Oh no!” She exclaimed, she knew she was the reason for
the accident, each time Busayo had an issue he could not
solve or that was beyond his power, he buried himself into
work, taking excessive coffee to keep him awake all night.
And the only issue she was sure he had over the couple
of days was their breakup, even Tola had not gotten over
it yet…
“So how is he now?” she managed to ask. She opened
the room for her to see him for herself, the sight was not
too good, he had bandages over his head, and his left
hand was full of bandages too.
She walked up to the sleeping Busayo.
“His friend said he will be alright, the injuries are not life
threatening” she said seeing the state of depression and
sadness Jadesola was in.
“His friend?” she asked not taking her gaze away from
him.
“Yes his childhood friend. He has just been transferred to
this hospital some weeks ago and he…” She was trying to
say more when the door opened and Jadesola turned to
see who came in but she was more shocked than she
had been when she saw Busayo’s condition..
“You…!!!”, she screamed.
