Blindfolds

5

Somewhere from a distance she heard her phone ring, she groaned and tried to shut out the noise by pressing a pillow over her face, but the ringing continued.

"Turn it off." She heard Temi groan.

The ringing stopped much to her relief, but continued again after some seconds. Dinma forced her eyelids open and flung the pillow away from her face, then she held unto her throbbing head. Suddenly it felt as though everyone in the neighborhood had decided to be noisy, everyone was talking so loudly at the same time that she wondered if they didn't have someplace to be on a monday.

Monday!

Dinma sat up quickly not minding the throbbing in her head.

"Shit!" She cursed as she scrambled out of the bed. Temi whined at the noise, and placed a pillow over her head to resume sleeping.

"Don't you have to go to work?" She asked her nonchalant friend.

"I already called in sick."

Lucky you, Dinma thought.

Temi worked as a paralegal adviser in her step mum's private firm, so she could always call in sick whenever she wanted, and unlike her, Dinma had to always be in school. She had to teach the kids.

The ringing phone caught her attention again, and she was able to detect that her phone was somewhere in her purse. She marched to the purse lying on the table and rummaged through it until she found the blaring device.

Her mum was the caller, but that wasn't what caught her. It was the time, 7:27am.

"Shit!" She cursed again and silenced the phone.

She had barely 40 minutes to get ready for school. She was late and she was going to get queried.

She dashed immediately into the bathroom, and in less than 15 minutes she was out. While she dressed, she remembered everything that had transpired between Mr. Yomi and her the previous night. She could remember her conversation with him, and also the fact that she had wanted to seduce him. She groaned at thought, embarrassed that she had done that. She stared back at the woman in the mirror before her, and told herself that if she was going to run into him, she would feign ignorance.

"What time are you coming back?" Temi asked watching her from the bed.

"I don't know, why?" Dinma stared at her friend from the mirror while she worked on her shirt buttons.

"I wanted you to buy suya for me."

"Just send the money, I'll get it whenever I'm coming home."

"Okay."

Dinma clipped on her ear rings, and her necklace; a gift her grandmother had given her before she died.

"This your necklace I've been asking for-"

Dinma turned to face her "I can't give it you -"

"Cause your grandma gave it to you." Temi completed "I get it."

She smiled "Thank you, and I'll see you when I get home. Make sure you send the money."

"Yes ma."

The day was uneventful. She had successfully taught the kids some rhymes and the alphabets up to the letter L, also no one had called her up to query her, and that was a good sign. But as the day drew to a close, she felt her anxiety rise.

She was going to face Yomi, and she wasn't mentally prepared for that. She needed to devise a plan to skillfully avoid the man, a fast one at that.

Then came the plan, the plan that would involve Miss Abike; the youngest, most available and of course the most talkative teacher, to help deliver the kids to their parents. Miss Abike worked as the Nursery three  class teacher assistant, and because the head teacher of the class was able to handle the class alone, it made Miss Abike the most dependable option. Dinma just needed to meet her before the bell rang.