Endings

3

Was I meant to just ignore the fact that Jamila was preganant? How on earth was I going to confront her? On one hand if I did confront her, she'll know me not only as the brother who takes out his anger on her but the brother that also invades her privacy but on the other if I don't say anything and just keep things hush hush, she would have to go through all this alone, without any support from her family. I was going to find the guy that did this to her and go ape shit on his ass or at least the area boys I shall hire to jump him would. I couldn't let her go through this alone, I needed to be there for her and let her know that it was okay and she was safe enough to say whatever and do whatever. She deserved that. As I was still contemplating and playing around with my options I suddenly heard the door creak and I immediately ran out of Jamila's toilet and dived straight for the couch. It was my dad, false alarm.

"Welcome back home sir" I said with a wide smile on my face

He just shrugged and walked to his room. I followed..

"Dad, erhm..are we okay?"

Still no definite reply, just another shrug

"Dad speak to me please"

"We're fine, everything's fine son" he replied

I could tell something was wrong. My dad wasn't the best at hiding things from the family, he didn't have a knack for it. Any issue was easily detected and quickly confronted but yet he still thought he was a connoisseur when it came to keeping things on a low. Ever since the affair he had with his office Secretary was revealed he just became miserable. It was a tough year for us when we found out. Mum cried and cried and threatned to leave him but his pleading stuck with her I guess. Saying no to your first love isn't the easiest thing to do. Jamila and I were so angered by the whole thing that we tracked her down. We carried out all our research on her and found out some juicy stuff to blackmail her with. Her name was Funke Balogun, a 28 year old, university drop out that was notorious for seducing well known business men. Sadly, dad found out and called the whole thing off. I couldn't understand how someone would be okay with being termed a home-wrecker. I felt bad for her to be very honest.

"Dad is it Funke again? Is she still threatening to ruin your reputation by making the affair public? All she wants is money, don't give in dad."

"I've told you never to say her name in this house again"

I didn't blame him. What she did was despicable but he was also to blame. It takes two to tango.

"Ali you just need to leave it alone. I'm fine, how many times will I tell you that everything is alright? Don't get me angry. Here's N3000 (three-thousand naira) go get a pizza for you and your sister. Order some bread sticks as well. Now go, immediately"

What a way to get rid of me. He keeps avoiding the issue at hand, it's unhealthy.

* * *
Having arrived at Domino's pizza I had already placed my order so now it was just a waiting game. You get told that your pizza would be ready in about 15 minutes but don't be taken aback when you spend nothing less than 45 minutes there. I wasn't sure of what to do to while away time so I decided to text Luna to ask if she noticed anything odd and alarming about Jamila's behaviour and demeanor in general.

Me: hey Luna what's up?
Luna: hey Ali. Nothing much..how are you?
Me: I'm great, well apart from the cancer and all lol
Luna: so what do you want to talk about? Im kinda busy.
Me: well it's a tricky topic. Have you noticed anything different about Jamila recently? Like any unusual cravings or behavioral changes? Just anything out of the ordinary you known.
Luna: erhm...Nothing distinct that I know of. Is she okay?
Me: that's what I'm trying to find out Luna
Luna: I'm sorry but I don't know what you want from me tbh. She's the same person. No cravings, just the same old Jamila.
Me: are you sure that there's nothing you're hiding from me?
Luna: well she was acting weird the other day. Probably girl stuff though, so..
Me: okay well thanks. Bye!

Luna was so useless. You would think that someone that describes herself as "fun and open to anything" on twitter would be a little more interesting and informative, my bad. As I peered through the crowd to go get my pizza someone bumps into me and to my avail it was Funke herself. The self proclaimed craddle robber. She was carrying this crocodile skin Hermés bag that I'm sure her sugar daddy bought for her. Before collecting her pizza she ran out to get something from her car..a Mercedes by the way. I bet she even borrowed the car

As I was staring at her doing God knows what I made sure I got a good look at her car, well her borrowed car. Funke was a pure ode (ode: someone that's incredibly stupid). She didn't even know how to open the car, she just kept pressing buttons. It was a sad scene. When she came back in I then decided to do the unthinkable. I was about to do something that could get me arrested and I was set on doing it regardless of the consequences. I ran out and pinpointed her car and then brought out this pocket knife I constantly carried with me and used it to slash her tyres. I made sure I was in the clear then in no time I ran into my car and drove away as fast as I could. That was such a rush. I'm this good-willed boy that grew up with parents that always told me never to offend people or to have malicious intent so me doing this was so out of my character. Now I'm a bad ass. If my father wasn't going to stand up for himself and take matters into his own hands then I'm afraid I just had to, for his sake. He deserved to be avenged, he didn't deserve the blackmail nor did he deserve what else she was cooking up. I had my fathers name to protect, I was basically just being a good son..in my defense.

I finally arrived home and I could tell that something was up. Jamila had this scared look on her face which made me think that she came clean to my parents about the whole pregnancy thing. My mum just sat by the mantle with tears in her eyes. I didn't know what was going on.

"Is everything okay?" I asked

No reply

"I'm asking a question. Can someone answer? Mum, what's wrong? Where's dad??"

My dad finally walks in the room yelling at the top of his voice.

"Is she okay? What happened? How did it happen?" He yelled

I had no idea of what was going on and I was seriously concerned.

"Okay, okay...thanks for the information. I'll call you later"

"Dad who was that?" I asked

"I never thought that I'd ever be included in her mess and now I've been ropped in. Why did she have me registered as her emergency contact? Didn't she have other family memebers to bother with her problems? I'm so sorry to put you guys through this again but I have no choice but to help, at least to clear my conscience"

I was more than confused.

Funke had got into an accident. Despite her flat tyre she decided to forcefully drive the car. I acted based on anger which was wrong but I never expected her to act so thick headed. A call to her sugar daddy to send a car to pick her up would have done the trick but she decided to take things into her own freshly manicured hands. I had just put someone's life in danger and for all I know she might be dying. What have I done.