Ini

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

Inioluwa's phone dropped out of her hands, not because of what Folashade had said but what it caused. A vision of a woman in white going through a forest flashed through her mind immediately Folashade had said those words.

She snapped back to reality to see the concerned look that Folashade had on. She blinked multiple times as she tried to recollect the image of the woman she had seen but she couldn't.

She narrowed her eyes at Folashade before yelling, "what kind of stupid prank is that?!" Folashade, now oblivious to her possession, was taken aback as she wondered what had come over Inioluwa that made her react like that.

"What are you talking about?" Folashade asked and this got Inioluwa angrier as she rose up from her bed.

"Really? Acting like you don't know what you just said. Don't play silly pranks with me Folashade. It's not funny." She yelled again, making her little sister take a few steps back.

"What is happening now?" Abike asked when she got into the room as the noise they were making was beginning to be unbearable. "What's all the noise about?" She asked again, her Yoruba accent pushing through as she stared confusingly at Folashade as she asked herself what would make Inioluwa to burst out like this.

"I don't know maami. I came here to say hi to Ayo and all of a sudden, she started yelling at me." Folashade said, while eying her sister.

"Why did you shout at her Ini?" Abike asked.

"Because she came here all dazed and started saying stuff like Oriṣa Ife needs me. What does that even mean?" Inioluwa said but her mother's mind had gone far.

She knew the severity of the issue but using Folashade to pass the message meant everything was crumbling. Jide was right, she thought. She should have listened, she should have stopped but now, everything was going through her fingers like sand and there was nothing anybody could do.

"Maami." Folashade called out which immediately snapped Abike out of her train of thoughts.

Abike cleared her throat before saying, "stop all these yelling and shouting. You are sisters, act like one." The two sisters looked at each other, foreheads wrinkled in confusion because this was not the reaction they expected.

Inioluwa thought her mother would caution Folashade of her pranks while Folashade thought her mother would solely blame her without giving her a chance to explain but now, their mother seemed calm-yet inwardly tensed.

"Mo fe sun. Don't wake me up." She warned before leaving as Inioluwa sensed that something was off. Inioluwa looked back at her sister, with narrowed eyes and Folashade threw her a last glare before walking out of the room. (T= I want to sleep)

Inioluwa said nothing to her sister as she bent over and picked up her phone from the floor. She frowned when she saw that Ayo had ended the call but she wasn't shocked though.

She sat at the edge of her room as she tried to recall the vision. She tried and tried to reimagine the woman's face, all to no avail but there was one thing she was sure of; the woman was someone she may or may not know and maybe her mother knew something.

⁕⁕⁕

"How much is this?" Inioluwa asked the trader as she squinted her eyes from the radiating sun that afternoon. The trader gave her the price and was putting the items into a black nylon while Folashade stood beside Inioluwa complaining about how the sun was scorching on her fair skin.

It was a sunny afternoon and two days after the incident but it had never left Inioluwa's mind. Her mother had refrained from talking about the matter and she made sure that that was the end of it.