The Beginning Of The End

What Went Wrong (7)

Immediately Amanda came back into the room, she had to engage Opeyemi in a deep conversation. She asked about every financial challenge Opeyemi was going through and Opeyemi couldn’t hide it anymore. She explained everything in details. She didn’t withhold any part of her recent close-to-wretched financial situation.

Opeyemi didn’t need Amanda to utter any word before she knew that she was surprised to hear her story because as she was narrating her experiences, Amanda’s mouth was wide open throughout the conversation.

Whenever Amanda was surprised to hear or see something, she had two ways of expressing her amusement. She either opened her mouth like someone who is gasping for air after eating red-hot pepper or of course, she’d scream like a pregnant woman in labor.

On this occasion, she resolved to using the opening of mouth style. And after Opeyemi finished explaining herself, Amanda lamented her pain about the fact that Opeyemi didn’t let her know earlier and afterwards, she looked into her bag, picked up another set of a thousand naira notes, and handed them over to Opeyemi. This time, she gave her twenty five thousand naira and to Opeyemi, that was a whole lot of money!

At first Opeyemi was hesitant to collect the money but after all the explanation she had made, she had no escape route from Amanda’s care and love. Amanda simply squeezed the money into Opeyemi’s pocket like the way African parents will force money into the pocket of a grown-up that doesn’t want to collect money from them.

Although Opeyemi was hesitant to collect the money, she was in desperate need of it. Apart from debts that she had to settle, there were so many lingering bills at hand. Exams were close and there were many hand-outs she needed to buy, her foodstuffs were almost finished, provisions in the house were no better, and she wasn’t doing well in meeting up with daily financial expenses. The money was more than a blessing to her.

After that day, things changed drastically in the house. Amanda made it a duty to give Opeyemi some amount of money (even when she wasn't having much) whenever she asked or when she didn’t even remember to ask. Opeyemi wanted to say “No” to all of the advances at a time but it seemed that she was enjoying the sweet flow of things so she just let things continue that way. Little did she know that she was starting something beyond her.

Exams came, and they went really well. All thanks to the way there was no lack of things in the house and after the exams, they all went home.

Dear reader, when Opeyemi went home, a lot happened. I'd see you next week for the full gist.