Yesterday's Future 2✔️

8. The world seemed to stop.

8:08,
SouthPark, NY

Simi made him do it, and it still amazed him how his mother had reacted so lightly when he decided to open up to her and his sister, Tiaraoluwa about his underlying mental health and failed secret marriage to Lily Grace Wesley, during his vacation back in Nigeria. He didn't understand then nor now her calm attitude when she found out that her beloved son who'd been abroad for good nine years had been married without her knowledge or consent, to a white lady, who had his child, post their divorce. 

In his head, he had played out the worst scenarios of his mother over and over - of typical Feyisetan ranting, crying, refusing to eat, recounting all her failures as a mother and blaming herself, like she normally did when his father left, when his twin brother died of overdose or when anything went wrong. Instead, she just looked at him behind her googles and shook her head with pity and disappointment, saying she thought she had taught him to do better.

"People change as they age," Adam had concluded, and in the true sense, it was but for Feyi, it was more. The unexpected news of becoming a grandparent while she was still alive had filled her with joyful energy and made the conversation less awkward. Wayne was a beautiful addition to the family, the bright side of everything that had happened with Lily, the light at the end of Adam's tunnel.

Receiving that photo of his son from his friend Dylan that morning on his iPhone had been the shock of his life, it melted him, literally throwing him off balance. Locking himself in and pacing about his room, he had stared at his phone screen, zooming in and out of the image, and wondering why Lily hid his son away from him all these years, why she took everything away from him, what he ever did wrong to her to deserve all the torture when all he ever did was love her.

Apart from wanting to meet his son so bad, he  couldn't wait to come back to New York, to see her face to face, to hear her explanation or — he'd have been with Simi right now.

Arrgh! Like flashes from the past, she crossed his mind every hour, with an ounce of regret. He would have made that decision to stay back in Nigeria, even if it was just for a little while more because of her, if Wayne hadn't happened.

Adam brushed his hair again with his fingers to the back, looking at the front mirror, and reading his swank wristwatch, the third time.

He got there in time; few minutes after eight as Lily had told him to get here by eight. Looking to his right, all the goodies, chocolates and toys he had brought for Wayne were on the seat packed in different bags.

Stepping out of his car in the parking space up front of the Wesley's, he picked up the bags, locked his car and approached the door, his heart throbbing hard with excitement, impatience and curiosity.

Everything looked the exact way they were five years ago when he first met Lily's family; her two lesbian parents and sister Ella, after Caroline passed away from a lung disease. The all white wooden stairs, the porch, the rocking chairs, the designs on the walls and the lights at the entrance of the door  - even the small green lawn looked the same, but as new as ever. Climbing up the stairs, he wondered for the thousandth time how he ever got himself entangled with such a whitey family.

He rang the doorbell a second time when he heard advancing footsteps and his breaths quickened as the locks were undone with keys from the other side of the door.

Stiffly, she smiled as she looked up to come face to face with Adam. His stance was firm as always, his presence and spicy fragrance  hovered over the doorway. It felt like a dream but there he was in front of her... shinning like the sun itself. Her smile disappeared and the feeling that rippled through her in that instant, she couldn't put to words. Given their complicated history, she too didn't know what to expect meeting her ex-husband after two years, especially how bigger he'd gotten.