Iphey opened the fridge and stared into it like it was a strange being. Finally she reached for a bottle of water. As she poured it into a glass, she looked at the clock. The time was 4:32am….strange! She'd never woken up this early before. Well at least for once she was following her doctor’s orders.
“You should drink a cup of water when you wake up every morning...”
She smiled as she remembered the way he'd said it and then was brought back to her dreams. They were strange and she couldn’t understand them. She'd never been one to put much stock by dreams but these ones were beginning to freak her out. The latest one felt all fuzzy as she tried to remember the details.
For the past few nights she’d been having the same dream but each day it got longer. A guy was in it, he'd stood at a distance and beckoned her to come closer. She had refused outright the first night. The second night he'd come closer, and even more the third night. Yesterday, something had obstructed them and they couldn’t reach each other no matter how much they tried. Today would make it the fifth night, and this time he'd spoken. He'd whispered her name.
Unlike the other times, she just couldn't go back to sleep when she woke up after the dream, no matter how hard she tried. She'd kept tossing and turning until she finally gave up and here she was on her sofa trying to decipher these strange dreams. Who could be the man in the dreams, it couldn't be Chinedu or could it? He had not tried calling her since that night; maybe he tried when she'd switched off her phone and then given up.
That night, she'd driven home trying not to think of what she had seen. He'd sounded so guilty, “Iphey I can explain…” Explain what? She'd thought over and over again. It was too late for a business meeting so she knew Bisi was not at his house with regard to the accounts they’ve been trying to get his people to open at their bank.
It could not be that Bisi was out to sabotage Nedu and her. She’d been encouraging right from the first time they discussed him. She tried to understand what had happened that night again, Bisi's attitude to her, the guilty look on his face. It just didn't add up. And to think she'd driven over there to declare her willingness to fully commit to the relationship. Iphey shook her head and hissed. She'd expected him to call the next day but it hadn't happened. More than a week later, no calls, no messages, nothing!
The sound of her ringtone brought her back...5:27am…who could be calling this early on a Saturday morning? She looked at the phone, no caller ID, strange! She decided to pick it up, she was tired of hearing herself think, and anybody’s voice would help her right now.
“Hello, who’s this...speaking…? Are you kidding me…I cannot believe this, you called me, so you still remember me….WOW!...when?......are you serious?....” After almost an hour on the phone, she finally said bye, but not without a number. She quickly added the number to her contact and added the PIN on her blackberry messenger. She was still learning how to use the phone; she'd got it at her most recent session of retail therapy two days ago, not that it had helped her.
Feeling really pumped, she called Aisha.
“You’ll never believe who just called me...Oh! I’m so sorry, I forgot it was so early. I shouldn't have called…anyways, guess who called me...no…no…no…I’ll tell you when you come later today…I’ll make breakfast…no I won’t tell you, not until you come…just go back to sleep…my fault! Sorry for disturbing you and TJ…yeah! Yeah! Bye…I said bye….when you come I’ll tell you.”
8:53 AM
“Girl you’re fast o…you like gist too much shaaa! I didn't think you would show till like 9-10...”
“You offered me the perfect combination…gist and food…how could I waste time on that? I discharged TJ with cereals and here I am.” Aisha flopped down on the settee.
“I never shower and food never ready finish…shey you fit help me look after am? Make I go brush.”
9:15 AM
“You remember that time in school when I had this mad crush on Dapo? The one with the fine janded sister that all the guys were trying to get with…I mean Dapo Smith.”
“Don’t tell me you woke me up, made me rush to your place, all for one stale gist. The guy dumped you after chasing you madly for two months. He left for the States and didn’t even tell you and that was what? Two, three years ago?”
“I know…I know…"
"So where's the gist?"
"His sister called and I spoke to him...he's coming back this month and he wants to meet…can you imagine?”
Iphey launched into full details. Aisha asked her what she was doing awake when she got the call and Iphey told her about the dreams. But with the excitement of hearing from Dapo after all these years, the conversation moved back to him, to their school adventures and flings.
Aisha made a note of not asking or reminding her about Chinedu, knowing that Iphey would talk in her own time. Maybe the distraction of an old flame was just what the doctor ordered for Iphey. The dreams showed she'd been fretting about the situation with Chinedu. The day after the botched trip, Aisha had pressed Iphey for details but her friend's reaction had cut the discussion short.
Aisha had seen Chinedu earlier this week and he too hadn’t said anything about it, it was like that night never happened but it had been less than a week! She knew Iphey really liked Chinedu and he felt the same. She considered herself their fairy godmother and would make sure they gave this a real try. Maybe with Dapo coming back, she would find a way of telling Chinedu about his competition. Nothing like jealousy to make the sparks fly.
Hmm...April wasn’t so far again!
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So who's our contributor? RENE writes faction and fictional series on her blog Cuppy Cakes and has a story collection she's working on. Here's little ranting from her last post.
"Now, for a struggling size 0/1 individual like me who think she's too thin and trying to reach a size 3, all these things bruise my ego(i Kid) but they annoy me because everywhere I turn it's always about loose weight fast! Blah! Blah! Blah! It's never about add a little pounds in 30 days. I eat a lot like literally so saying that wouldn't help me reach a 3 and since I got to this country(well maybe long before that) I've been alternating between 48 kg and 51 kg(of which I think most is bone mass) for several years now! I know some people will go "oh! I wish I had your body, I would never complain" WRONG!"
