Sing Of A Tree In The Wild

Poetic Justice

18th of May

16:19

Elfrida

I really don’t know what’s coming next in this current sequence of unbelievable occurrences. First, I had my first attack in three years. Next, I wake up to a mega plot twist. After that, I lie to Dennis and now, my dad is picking me up from school for the first time since JS3. Even in my present deep-sunken state, the question, ‘Why now?’ is running riot in my head.

“Elfrida, how are you doing?” He asks, his eyes fixed on the windscreen. “I want to believe you’ve totally recuperated.”

Seriously, Dad. “I recovered the moment I woke up on Friday. The fact that you came for me today simply baffles me.”

My dad pulls over, takes a deep breath and looks at me. “It only gets better. I’ll also be dropping you for the meantime.”

When I needed those favours, you didn’t give them to me. Now that I’m older and more mature, you want to start them ‘for the meantime’? I expected better from you, James Owolabi.

“How long is the meantime, Dad?”

“This ‘meantime’ could end this Friday or Democracy Day or the day you leave for the UK; I don’t know. And I don’t care how long it takes, as long as you’re perfectly fine in the end.”

So it’s about Friday’s incident, after all. “You need to believe me-“

“Young lady.” He cuts me off sternly. “What happened on Friday could be the first in a chain of resurgent disasters we’re both familiar with. Until last week Friday, I absurdly thought you were completely healed of your asthma. Knowing that’s not the case, I have to gird my loins. Consider this damage control.”

Silence.

“Elfrida, you never told me how it happened.

“Dad, it just happened-”

“It didn’t just happen!” He exclaims, hitting the steering wheel. “You sound pathetic when you lie! Will you die if you tell me the truth for once?”

“Will you live again if I tell you this ‘truth’ in your grave, many years from now?”

I can literally feel the heat of hell-hot anger and restraint radiating from my Dad. Judging by the circumstances that led to my mother’s death, I should be nicer to him than anyone else. However, the decision he took in marrying that snake of a woman and the fact that she has rendered him powerless is even more pathetic than he thinks my lies are.

“I won’t ask a second time, Elfrida.”

Now that the path of least resistance calls, I can’t say no. “I was doing a write-up that very day. I was so engrossed in it that I forgot I had a home…house to return to. While walking out of the class, I tripped and fell. The sweepers happened to have left an unpacked heap of sand precisely where I fell.”

Slowly, my dad begins to sober up. He closes his eyes and brushes his hand across his face. I honestly can’t believe he bought it. “What write up were you on to that Friday? Tell me it’s not related to that competition.”

I give him a wordless stare. “Yes. It is. I qualified for the final round.”

Mixed feelings of open shock, masked joy and utter surprise begin to manifest on my father’s face. “When…when did you find out about this?”

“That was almost three weeks ago. Matthew was the one that informed me.”

“And you’ve been silent about it all this while?”