Tola
Important Note: it appears we have reached this point in humanity where it’s necessary to say that all parts of this were created by a human being and AI had no parts in it. Every iota of brilliance is mine. As well as all the weird AF examples, typos and annoying run-on sentences. Thank you for reading from this human writer :).
Hello everyone and welcome to this missive. We’re doing something a little different this week. In the spirit of multitudes, I thought I’ll try us out with some fiction and see what you think. If you enjoy it, I’ll make it more of a thing. And if you don’t, then I guess not. Either ways, do let me know your thoughts.
This one is a bit of an older story that has been gathering dust in my drafts.
Enjoy!
She danced to the tune coming from her phone while stirring the sauce in the pot. It was a rainy day, the dark clouds giving their distinct sign that the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. Tola dropped the spatula to try to rearrange her braids as it was getting in her face and affecting her cooking.
She was preparing yam and sauce which is the standard food to make on Sundays for most people. She was raised Christian but wasn’t much of a religious person which was why she wasn’t at church or on her way. She had been living alone for six months now after she getting a new, lucrative job which, unfortunately for her mom but fortunately for her, was far from home.
She had been wanting out of living with her mum who since they lost her father and her younger brother in an accident when she was 10 years ago now, has hopped right on the paranoia train and caged Tola all her life. For as long as she could remember her mom has been overprotective of her, taking her to a school not far from her work place and getting a job as a lecturer when she started university. It was so bad that her mum had her redeployed during her NYSC program to Ogun state where they lived so she won’t be away from home at all.
Tola was 22 now and she can’t remember the last time she went out without her mom hot on her trail. This included parties, hangouts with friends and one time, almost a date. Her mum wanted her to work with her uncle so she could keep an eye on her but Tola refused flat out and told her she was getting a job on her own.
She stays in Lagos now working for a news company far from home, her mum’s paranoid and sheltered life and has never felt freer. She loved her mum but most times, she was a lot of work. Now the most her mum interfered with her life was the daily calls which Tola managed to trickle down to weekly as of last month and the allowance her mum refused to stop sending her despite the numerous conversations, or more like arguments about it. She was living the life at least by her own standards.
Her colleagues at work seem to disagree and they happen to be the new people she was trying to get rid of now. They always seem to think she’s lonely and needs to be dragged to a club every Friday to hook up with strangers and wake up the next morning with hangovers. She really couldn’t get a break, from a mum who never wanted her to leave the house to colleagues who couldn’t get her out fast enough.
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She had to make a deal with them that she will follow them to a club every last Friday of every month without putting up a fight and they leave her for the rest of the month. Begrudgingly they accepted, but of course that didn’t stop them from extending an invitation every other Friday, one which she never accepted. She was quite happy, her job was paying well, her two bedroom apartment at the most accessible part of the state, Ikeja was amazing, which in itself was a miracle in Lagos and her mum was healthy, albeit far far away, life really couldn’t get better.
She turned off the heat of the sauce, moved it to the counter top and covered it up. Due to living with her mum alone since forever, Tola had gotten an unshakable habit of setting the table completely before serving her food. That included all utensils and cups even if she doesn’t end up using them, so she moved to her plates’ rack on the counter top and took out her utensils. Placing them on the dining table and arranging them out. She then moved to the cabinet which was beside her refrigerator in the dining area and took out her mug, and the coffee. And then took milk from the refrigerator and set it all on the dining table. Before moving the food, dishing it out and sitting down to eat.
.
*************************************
She had finished her meal and was at her work desk at one corner of her living room. It was wooden furniture, with a purple chair accompanying it. She had her laptop and a bedside lamp on it, with jotters, pens and her phone on the table. She got to work creating content for her one hour show which aired on weekdays. It had started as a fifteen minutes show once a week on Wednesday nights but Tola had worked hard on it and now the viewers love it, which aided her in getting commercials and so the company had no choice but to make it regular. The rain was still drizzling, the result a gentle tapping sound on the rooftop, but Tola didn’t mind it. It’s not like she was planning to go anywhere and she had always enjoyed a little sound while working.
She was typing away at her laptop, humming to Taylor Swift’s Wonderland, when she heard a beep from her phone that signified that she had gotten a new message. She turned on her phone and the beautiful flowers that were her wallpaper greeted her. It was a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. It read
“Hello beautiful”. She was confused.
She couldn’t remember giving anyone her number and she wasn’t on any WhatsApp groups where someone could have attempted to send her a private message on her number. Even the groups that her colleagues at work added her to, she left immediately, despite pleas from them not to and deleted it. Not knowing what else to do, she replied,
“Hi, who’s this?”. After about 30 seconds he gave a reply that sent chills down her spine and caused her to laugh at the same time. It read,
“Darling, I’m your husband”.
Hey again! I hope that was a fun read for you. Like I said, please let me know your thoughts and if you’ll like the rest of it.
Thank you for reading my thoughts as always. I’ll see you on the next one! Have a great week.
And in the meantime, try you must!
