Bitch – Batch 6

EPISODE 25.

You never really can run away from karma. Its just like the sun. At night, you can do whatever you want freely without the rays hitting your skin, but when morning eventually comes, it comes with the sun.

* * *

Richærd was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Before now, he never really understood what that phrase really meant.

So here he was faced with two almost impossible options. Go to prison for five years or pay a fine of hundred million naira. The money wouldn’t have been such a big issue If his account and assets weren’t frozen but sadly, they were.

He had a lot of friends but its times like this we know our true friends. He decided to go ahead an make some calls. A lot of calls actually.

It wasn’t easy but after calling more than a hundred friends from his cell, he finally raised the money and he actually got to know the true meaning of friendsh¡p because the friends who helped him were does who he never thought would.

He paid the bail and after a month, he was set free.
As soon as he was out, the divorce papers were signed. He didn’t bother fighting it, he knew there was nothing he could do.

As Zainab opened her newly bought brand new Nissan Murano, she turned to stare at Richærd who was still standing hopelessly at the front of the court. That was the last time she saw Richærd, or so she hoped.

Just for the record, Richærd moved to Ghana and with the help of Tony, he started up his video company from the scratch again.

Zainab and Richærd finally went their separate ways. E.A and Zainab just didn’t work. Jummy and John got closer. And this is where our  story really begins.

EPISODE 26
With every new sun, comes a new day. A new
beginning, a new hope that things would be
different and better than it was yesterday –
Eep, The Croods.

* * * * *
After all the drama she went through with
Richærd, Zainab attitude and view towards
love and life in general changed. She started
to view love as an excuse to get hurt and even
though she never really voiced it out. She
made a mental vow not to fall in love again.
Thanks to Richærd’s one hundred million
which had been completely paid in to her
account, she had more than enough more
than enough money to spend on spending.
As good friends with Jummy, she bought
Jummy a brand new sleek Toyota Camry,
2013 edition, Jummy was more than excited.
You need to be there to understand exactly
how Jummy reacted because its something
that can’t really be typed.
She had earlier left “Let’s Talk Relationsh¡p”
with E.A because after all that they went
through, working together felt weird, so she
left.
As expected, she started receiving hundreds of
offers to host different shows from different
companies and after much deliberation with
the help of Jummy, she made her choice and
picked one.
She picked to work as a director on multiple
programs at Tunde Owolabi Productions (aka
TOP).
TOP, owned by Nigeria fourth richest man –
Tunde Owolabi, was and still is a production
company just like the Wale Adenuga
Production and as a matter of fact, was an
arch-rival. TOP specialised in soap operas,
movies, TV programs and many more.
So Zainab was glad when she got the offer
from them to be a general director, she had
years of experience in show biz, so she
assumed it would be a piece of cake, but
maybe she was wrong.

* * * * *
MONDAY MORNING, two weeks after the court
case. .

As Jummy cruised into the car park of GNP,
she s₱0tted the free s₱0t which had a sign
board with: “RESERVED (asst branch manager)
” written on it. She smiled and parked right at
the front of the sign board.
She stepped out of the car and purposely
walked to the exit before pressing the “Lock”
button on the car’s remote, a sharp click
sound followed which signified the doors have
been locked. She loved the Ghen-Ghen feeling
it gave her.
She stylishly waved the few hair that were
over her shoulder backwards and catwalked
into the building feeling like Bruce Lee.
She felt exceptionally happy that morning. It
had been a wonderful weekend for her as John
being the most rom-ntic guy on this earth –
according to her, took her out to over four
different places and occasions all in the span
of the usual two days weekend break
(saturday and sunday).
It all started on friday night, he picked her up
from her office after work hours and drove her
straight to “Golden Gate” where she had the
been dinner she had had in years and
afterwards, he dropped her home then with
just a k-ss, he took off. From the way he acted,
having s€× with her wasn’t even in his
dictionary and that made Jummy feel luckier –
a man who isn’t interested in s€× but love her
for who she is.
What more can I ask for? She thought.
Saturday morning, he called her and by 1PM,
they were already already on their way to
Oniru Private Beach to chill out. Just when
Jummy thought that was all he had under his
sleeves, the left the beach by 5PM, and by
10PM, they were of to show which feature top
class celebrities like 3Face and P-Cube, it was
an all night show.
By 3AM Sunday morning, he dropped her at
her door steps and once again, he k-ssed her
and went home.
She slept for the rest of the morning, down to
12PM before she finally decided to wake up
and once again, John called and they both
went for a Christian comedy show. Jummy
was blown away. John was rom-ntic, kind
hearted and also a christian.
So the glow on her face on Monday morning
was massive and obvious that as she stepped
into her office and saw Stephen sitting on the
visitor’s seat without any invitation, she didn’t
frown, she was too happy to let a jobless
Stephen spoil her mood.
“Someone seems to be in a good mood this
morning,” Stephen finally said as he watched
her drop her bag and switch on her system
without even uttering a word to him.
Jummy decided to use the advantage to make
a point to Stephen, “You are right, I had the
best weekend ever with my BOYFRIEND.” She
made sure Stephen noticed she was purposely
emphasising on “boyfriend.”
Stephen shrugged, “Oh! I see.”
“Yea, you won’t believe what he did. I don’t
know how he knew it but he fulfilled all my
dreams in one weekend. I’ve been dying to go
to that new Golden Gate eatery down the block
since it opened but haven’t had the time or
right companion to go with… And guess
what?” Jummy asked grinning.
“What?” Stephen asked irritated, he definitely
wasn’t interested.
“He took me there on friday evening for
dinner!” Jummy replied excitedly, she seemed
to be enjoying the effect her story was having
on Stephen. “And you won’t believe where he
took me to on saturday!” Jummy replied.
Stephen stared at his shoes and murmured,
“like I give a fucck.”
Jummy heard him but ignored him and went
ahead to tell him, “he took me to the beach
and then we headed to that show Etisalat
hosted and you know how etisalat parties use
to be like, right? Not like this our stingy GNP.”
Jummy hissed.
Stephen just stared at Jummy in silence, he
felt like stabbing her.
Jummy felt she had tortured him enough and
decided to pity him, “pardon my manners,
what are you doing here anyway?” She asked
calmly.
“I just wanted to give you this.” Stephen
handed over a letter and grinned, there was
something suspicious about the grin and
Jummy noticed it but she had no idea what it
could be.
She took the letter and read the contents. Her
glow faded.
She looked at Stephen disgusted, “how long
would this trip be?”
“Two weeks.” Stephen replied, grinning widely
than before.
“Why am I going with you? Why not Mrs
Ogbonaya? After all she is the boss around
here.” Jummy asked, looking for an excuse.
“We are the bosses around here, point of
correction,” Stephen replied. “And we can’t
both leave the company for two weeks in the
hands of a newly promoted assistant manager
who knows nothing about managing a
company. This trip would help you familiarise
with an aspect of managing.”
Jummy bowed her head on her desk in
frustration. The letter was from the head
quarters and it instructed her and Stephen to
go to China for business purposes, GNP
wanted to sign a deal with a
telecommunication company in China and so
they sent them both.
This meant two weeks without John and two
week all alone with the one person she
despised the most, Stephen.
Stephen stood up from the seat and adjusted
his suit. He walked to the door and opened it,
before he stepped out, he turned to Jummy, “it
would be fun, trust me.”
He walked away laughing out loud. He
sounding like one of those evil scientist in
cartoons.

* * * * *
SAME MONDAY.

Just like Jummy, Zainab cruised into the car
park of TOP company and parked at the
reserved s₱0t for the director.
It was her first day on the job and she had
purposely dressed to kill.
She wore a kneel length red gown that
complimented her dark complexion and
showed off her To-Kill-for curves. She held a
portable Versace hand bag and Jimmy choo
four inches high heel shoes.

As she walked into the company, all heads
turned towards her, even the females couldn’t
help but stare at her.
Zainab noticed over a thousand eyes on her
and wasn’t sure if it was her killer outfit that
warranted such stare or the fact that a big
shot like her was in their presence. Either
which way, she loved the attention.
A young man, about twenty-one, obviously
younger than Zainab was the first to go and
speak to her as she stood at the entrance
staring at the vast building in confusion – she
didn’t know where exactly to go to.
He was somewhere in between macho and
average, he had a reasonable amount of flesh
in the right places and he was pretty good
looking, he probably had a couple of girls that
would be crushing on him, but at the same
time, something about him said “not
interested in girls yet, book first.”
“Hello!” He said excitedly.
“Hello,” she replied and looked down at him.
Thanks to her heels, she was a few inches
taller than him.
“Am Michael, and I’ve been directed to show
you around. So for the time being, consider
me as your own personal secretary or
something like that.”
“Oh! Thanks Mike, I was already about
wondering where exactly I was meant to start.”
Zainab replied and gave him a warm smile
which made him blush.
“Err.. Zainab, its no problem, as a matter of
fact, am a huge fan of yours and I think am
lucky to be able to learn from you. Am just an
intern here.” Michael replied.
“Oh! Am flattered.” Zainab replied and gave
him that warm smile again. “So where exactly
are we going to start from?” She asked
immediately trying to change the topic.
“Oh! I’ve got your schedule at my desk over
there, if you don’t mind we can head over
there before I take you to your office.”
Zainab nodded in approval and followed him.
He handed over to her a thick file. She starred
at it in surprise, “what is in,side that?” She
asked.
“Your schedule for the week, your first official
duty starts in about an hour so I’ll advice you
to start getting familiar with the contents right
away,” Michael stood up from his chair, “let
me show you your office.”
Zainab sighed and followed him as the went
through a corridor with about four doors on
about both sides, each door had different tags
at the front of them. Tags like: Dressing Room
and Make up Room.
They stopped at the front of the last door by
the left which had “DIRECTOR” written on it.
“Here we are,” Michael said.
“Yea.”
Michael handed her the file and gave a
mischievous smiled, “good luck,” he said and
just before he turned to walk away he added,
“you would need it. And welcome to TOP.”
Zainab nodded in silence and looked at the
large file in her hand.
“God help me,” she sighed.

EPISODE 27.

It must have taken Zainab over thirty
minutes before she could understand the
way the contents of the file were
arranged.
The file was a collection of four set of
different coloured sheets of paper; yellow,
blue, green and of course, the normal
white.
The white sheet of papers which were ten
in number, they contained things that
weren’t that pressing and she could do
anytime she felt like. The yellow sheets
contained things she was supposed to do
before the end of the day; they were
fifteen. The blue contained things that
were supposed to be done during the day
time, after the lunch break to be specific;
they were six sheets. And the green sheets
contained things she was to do right
away; just three green sheets.
“These people are pretty org-nised!”
Zainab though out loud.
She separated the three green sheets from
the file and pushed the file away as she
started going through the sheet’s contents.
The green sheets contained the summary
of a thirty minutes sport program she was
supposed to go and direct right away since
it was being shot in the studio which was
at the northern wing of the same
building.
She had expected something totally
different. She had thought it would be one
project at a time and probably she could
start from learning from the old director
to know how things were meant to be
done, but here she was, reading files on
sports even though she never really had
any interest in sit and she could bet the
crew were already waiting for her.
In no time, she got the basic idea and
stood up from her seat, picked up the few
green sheets of paper and headed to the
northern wing.
“Here goes nothing!” She sighed.

* * *

She finally got to the right studio after
missing her several times, she had
assumed there would be only one studio
in the building, but she was wrong. There
were four studios in all and so she had to
ask for directions. Just as she had guessed,
the crew were already waiting for her.
Most of them had heard that the old
director had been transferred to their
new branch in Ghana so they expected a
new director today.
Zainab stood at the door for a few
minutes, staring at the wh0le room filled
with people, cameras and a stage which
had been set already.
Then she walked in, “hello everyone.” She
said hoping to get their attention.
No one replied at first because her voice
was really low and they were busy trying
to put things in order for the supposed
new director.
“Hello everyone!” She said with a louder
tone.
Everyone paused and turned to her, she
felt shy and unsure for a minute but
quickly cleared her mind.
“Is this studio two?” She asked. She had
seen the number “2” at the front of the
door but just needed to be sure first.
“Yes, it is.” A fair, chubby man with a
“pot belle” replied. He had one of those
kind of face that were always smiling, just
like a permanent smile, Zainab could bet
he had never frowned in his life.
“Oh! Good. So I’m guess this is the
sporting crew?” Zainab asked.
“You are right. But may I ask, who are
you?” The chubby man replied.
Zainab shrugged, “oh, I’m Zainab An,” she
wanted to say “Anderson” but realised she
wasn’t really an Anderson anymore since
she was divorced, but was she going to
keep the surname or change back to her
former surname? She asked herself.
She suddenly realised the chubby man
and about eighty percent of the people in
the room were still staring at her, waiting
for a proper introduction.
“I’m the new overall director, you can
call me Zainab,” she finally replied,
expertly avoiding the surname issue.
The chubby man face brightened, “oh!
Nice to meet you Zainab, we have been
expecting you. I’m Mr Awoyinka, I’m the
assistant sport director.” He offered his
hand to Zainab and she shook him.
“We go live on-air in ten minutes, so I’m
guess we had better start preparing.” Mr
Awoyinka replied.
“Oh!” Zainab exclaimed in shock, “as in
this is a life show? Not recording and
broadcast later on?” She asked. She had
never done a live show, as an actress, the
movies were filmed and then released to
the public after all the error had been
corrected, so this was a new thing to her,
she knew no mistakes would be tolerated.
“Yes! Its a live show.” Mr Awoyinka
replied grinning, he had an idea about
what was going on in her head.

* * * * *
Jummy could have sworn her day
couldn’t get a worse after the wh0le
Stephen drama early that morning.
She locked her self in her office all
morning, swarmed in office work all
because she didn’t want to think much
about the trip.
She just couldn’t believed it. Two weeks
without John who she had grown very
fond of and two weeks with Stephen who
she despised, all alone in a strange land.
Life is a b1tch, she thought.
She noticed she was already thinking
about it once more and immediately
focused on her work, just then, the
intercom when live.
Without check which office the call was
from, she picked it.
“Hello,” she said.
“Come to my office now.” Was the
response she got and the caller hung up.
Jummy didn’t need to check who called,
only one person could speak to her that
way in the office and she knew it. But
judging from the tone of the call, she
could sense trouble.
She tapped some buttons on her computer
and put it to sleep, she stood up and
headed to Mrs Ogbanaya office.
Jummy got there and knocked, without
waiting for a response, she walked in to
the office.
“You sent for me ma,” she said as she
noticed Mrs Ogbonaya didn’t even look up
at her.
Mrs Ogbonaya didn’t reply.
Jummy was wondering why Mrs
Ogbonaya always had to play the
hærdcore boss, can’t she just free herself
and be friendly for once?
Mrs Ogbonaya kept on doing what she was
doing and Jummy kept on staring at the
woman, not sure about how she was
supposed to react.
After about two minutes of silence, the
only noise that was made was from the
keyboard as Mrs Ogbonaya typed
something.
Mrs Ogbonaya looked up at Jummy and
asked a question which nearly threw her
of her balance.
“I’m going to ask you this just once and it
would be in your own interest to answer
with the truth.” Mrs Ogbanaya started
and stopped typing, she looked up to
Jummy and asked, “What is going on
between you and Stephen?”
* * * * *
The stage was set, the cameras were
rolling and the presenters were good to
go.
On the stage, was the presenter who was
to anchor the show and ask the questions,
and two invited guests.
They were all clad in sleek black
designers suit that would make even
James Bond blush. Someone who probably
saw them when they were leaving their
houses that morning would have thought
they were going to a very important
meeting with the president of the United
States of America.
The main presenter was a well built man
of roughly twenty six, he was dark in
complexion and of average height. The
guests were both retired famous
footballers.
“Good morning viewers, you are tuned in
to ‘Thirty Minutes Of Football with Osi’.
What we do is break down and an-lyse
everything that’s been happenning in the
world of football in thirty minutes. Today
I have to special guests who don’t need
much introductions, on my left we have
retired Manchester United FC forward,
Musa Adamu and on my right we have
two times africa best player, Iheanacho
Kelechi.” Osi kept quiet for a micro
second and continued, “so let’s get down
to business, we start with topics making
round here in our country Nigeria. Before
we do that let’s go for a short commercial
break.”
Zainab didn’t need to yell cut before an
advert was put on play, Zainab watched
in silence, not because she was scared of
things going wrong but because she had
never been a fan of sports, let alone
football, she hated football as a matter of
fact and here she was, directing a football
show. How ironic, she thought.
The advert ended and the cameras started
rolling once again, “So Musa,” Osi – the
presenter started, referring to one of the
guests, “what’s your take on the current
Nigerian football scene, do you think we
are doing better compared to your days in
the national team?”
Without much hesitations, Musa cleared
his throat and replied. “You don’t
compare two generations in football so I
can’t give you a direct answer to that
question.” His accent was a mixture of
the ideal Hausa accent where “FA” and
“Ps” are mixed up and a slight British
accept which he adopted during his years
of playing for Arsenal in North-London.
He continued, “take for example, Lionel
Messi and Christaino Ronaldo have both
collectively broken almost all the football
records the likes of Pele and Maradona set
back in those days, would you now say
that Messi is better than Pele?” Musa
asked and waited for a answer but got
non, so he continued, “no! You can’t, and
the reason is simple, the rules of the game
has changed, the training facilities has
changed, the stake and bars have been
raised so comparing isn’t really going to
be fair. All I can say is, the super eagles,
the super eaglets, the super falcons and
all other national team are currently
doing very well. Just this year, the senior
male team won the CAF and the U-17
team won the World cup.”
The presented was frustrated by the
answer, he had hope for a simple yes or
no reply but instead he was being asked if
Pele is better than Messi.
What has that got to do with my
question? He silently wondered.
He smile at Musa and turned to his other
guest, “Iheanacho, during your time, you
were nominated twice for the world best
player, ever since then, no other Nigerian
player has been nominated let alone win
the prestigious award, does this mean
that the standard of football in the
country is falling?”
Iheanacho gave a enigmatic smile which
made the presenter wonder what was
behind the smile. “I don’t think its falling,
rather, like Musa said, the bars and
stakes has been raised.” He replied, and
the presenter now knew what was behind
the smile.
He wanted to ask more about it but
something in him advised against it, so he
moved on.
He turned to the front camera and he saw
Mr Awoyinka who stood behind the
camera, signalling him to move on to
another topic and leave the Nigerian
football scene.
“We are going to quickly move on to the
foreign scene, the biggest matches we
have this weekend are without any doubt,
Arsenal versus Manchester United, Napoli
versus Juventus and the almighty el
classico, Real Madrid versus Barcelona.”
Osi turned to Musa, “Musa, what are your
predictions?”
“You can’t be hundred percent correct
when predicting football, but! I think the
winners this weekend would be Arsenal
because they are in top form and are
having a wonderful season so far and on
the top of their league table, Napoli, and
of course, I expect Real Madrid to take the
el classico win because they are in pretty
good form and Barcelona is short of
Messi, I think we all know what that
means.”
“Nice an-lyses Musa, how about you
Iheanacho, what’s your prediction?”
“Well I think Man-U would win the
match against Arsenal because its Old
trafford and then there is Rooney and Van
Persie who as far as history is correct are
dangerous to Arsenal, I gave the seria A
match to Napoli and I give the el clasico
to Barcelona.”
Osi checked the timer and he saw it was
already almost thirty minutes, he need to
end the show.
“Okay viewers, that’s all we have for you
today, if you have any suggestions or
questions, you can send an Email to the
email address showing on the screen at
the moment. Have a splendid week.”
“And cut!” Mr Awoyinka said in a low
tone.
He turned to Zainab who looked bored as
hell, “you did pretty well for a first day,”
he teased.
Zainab just smiled and walked out of the
studio, she made a mental note to either
bring a bed to the studio next week or
leave everything related to the program in
the hands of Mr Awoyinka.
So much for a first day, Zainab thought.
She had expected her day one on the job
would be fun, but so far, it had been
everything but fun.

* * * * *

Jummy stood in silence for close to a
minute, trying to really understand what
was happening. How did Mrs Ogbonaya
get the hint that something was going on
between her and Stephen? She had
thought the little stunt he had pulled
which earned her the promotion had
shookd her of the woman’s radar.
“Miss Olukoya, I asked you a question,”
Mrs Ogbonaya snapped Jummy out of her
thoughts.
“Err… Huh? You what?” Jummy stuttered.
Mrs Ogbonaya looked at Jummy plainly
and repeated the question, “what’s going
on between you and Stephen?”
Jummy decided to go with the risky
answer, “nothing ma,” she replied and
kept quiet, waiting for the worse to
happen.
“Are you sure?”
Jummy briefly thought about her answer
and affirmed it.
To Jummy’s greatest surprise, Mrs
Ogbonaya smiled and said, “Okay, if you
say so. I’m aware you are both going on a
trip soon, if he starts acting wierd or you
have any complaint about him, don’t
hesitate to report him to me, I know how
to handle him.”
Jummy raised and eyebrow and then
closed her mouth, she didn’t even know
when she opened it, “okay ma.” She
replied, it sounded more like a question.
“You may return to your work, you are
doing pretty well by the way.” Mrs
Ogbonaya smiled once again and waved
Jummy off.
In all her years of working at GNP,
Jummy she had never seen Mrs Ogbonaya
smile at all, let alone smile to her. Jummy
knew there was something fishy about
this wh0le set up,
But what was behind this Mrs Ogbonaya
smile? Jummy asked herself as she walked
back to her office deep in thoughts.
She got to her office and checked the date
of departure and saw it was two days
from now.
She took a deep breath, picked up her
phone and dialled John’s number.

* * * * *

John wasn’t having the best of days
neither. Two of his massive weaving
machines which would take nothing less
than a week to repair had crashed and he
had just signed a contract to deliver a
huge amount of materials in two days
time to a new Federal School who wanted
to have a uniquely different school
uniform that couldn’t be bought just
anywhere.
And the thing with contract works was
that a percentage of the final pay is
deducted for each day the package is
delivered, and with out those two
machines, there was no possible way he
could meet up with the deep line, he had
to improvise otherwise, he would be so
screwed.
He paced the length and breadth of his
office, deep in thoughts, trying to think of
a solution.
He could hear the voice of his dad in his
head saying, “I trust you would make me
proud, so I’m going to give you veto
authority of my textile company. You
would solely manage it for a while till
you have proved that you can take over
the entire branch of ADE companies.”
That was about five years ago.
So far, he hadn’t been doing a good job,
just months ago he lost a multi-billion
contract with a foreign based designer
company and now this? His dad would
definitely be highly disappointed and
there was no guessing how his dad might
react.
Just then, his cell phone in his pocket
went live, he hurriedly picked it up
hoping it was the engineer with a good
news on to see it was Jummy.
He smiled and for a split second, he forgot
about all the problems he had in his life,
he never really understood why Jummy
presence of any sort made him react that
way.
He picked up the call.
“Hello Jummiana ,” he said excitedly.
Jummy chuckled, ever since they both
heard a song which went like: ‘Juliana,
come take your medicine, o my God, you
are my medicine.” He had turned Jummy
name to Jumiana to rhyme with Juliana.
“Hello John, I have something I need to
tell you.” Jummy said with all
seriousness.
“Am all ears, you are my medicine so I
think I really can’t say no.”
“I’m travelling to China in two days
time.” Jummy replied and waited for a
response but she got non, rather, the call
went dead as John hung up.
He had never hung up on her.

EPISODE 28

* * * * *
MONDAY.
TIME – 7:23PM.
At long last, the day ended for Zainab. It
hadn’t been as bad as she had thought it
would be, well, not totally.
She picked up her bag as she walked out of
her office, heading to the car park, tonnes of
“bye bye ma’am” followed her and she just
waved and smiled in response.
She got to the car park and saw her Brown
Murano neatly parked at the front of the
“DIRECTOR” signboard, exactly how she left it,
for some strange reasons, she smiled and
headed toward the car.
She used the car’s remote to unlock the car
as she approached it and by the time she got
close enough, the doors were already opened,
she casually walked in and as she ins**ted her
car keys into the ignition, her phone buzzed.
She had a call.
She looked at the screen and saw it was a
strange number. She tried to recall who she
gave her number to recently but no name rang
in her head so she picked the call out of
curiosity. She just hoped it wasn’t a TOP
employee calling to tell her something that
might require her to go back into the office.
She kept quiet and waited for the caller to
speak first. It was her custom not to speak
first when a strange caller calls, she used the
advantage to quickly an-lyse the voice to
know if it was familiar and to know how
exactly to reply.
The caller didn’t speak for a while neither, he
too had the same custom as Zainab, so it
literally, it was a game of wits, who ever spoke
first would be the looser.
At first, Zainab wasn’t really bothered, after all
it was her airtime that was wasting but after
thirty long seconds and no sound Zainab
considered dumping her custom and speaking
first.
She was about to say hello, when she was cut
short at “hel” but the caller who quickly said:
“Hello, please is this Zainab?”
She shrugged in victory. “Yes, this is her. Who
am I speaking to?”
“Oh! Great. This is Henry.” The caller replied
excitedly, he sounded like he was very familiar
with Zainab.
Zainab looked confused, she could recall a
certain Henry from her alma mater at Canada
and she knew there was no way this was him.
“Henry? From where?” She asked.
“So you have forgotten me so soon?” Henry
asked in a low tone, “well its normal sha, that
how beautiful ladies treat guys like me.”
Zainab wanted to ask how exactly that
response answered her question but she kept
her cool and decided to play along. “Anhan!”
She exclaimed. “Its not like that na, I’ve just
had a lot in my head of recent and seem to
forget a lot of things.”
“Yea yea. Do you recall that guy that gave you
a ride home the day your car got stolen at the
club?”
Zainab flashed back and immediately recalled
the wh0le incident, and how she indirectly
gave him her number in exchange for a ride
home. She smiled, he was pretty a fun guy.
She recalled that much.
“Oh! Its you? Am so sorry, but you never
called even though I gave you my number
about a month ago, what did you expect?”
Zainab finally replied.
“Hey! I didn’t call because not because I
didn’t want to call. Its just like work has been
tedious of recent, and I barely have time for
myself.”
“Yea… Right.” Zainab replied, waiting for the
reason why he called.
He got the message, “anyway, I’m on leave
now and I recalled I have the contact of the
most beautiful lady from this part of the world
but haven’t really taken advantage of the
privilege.”
“Un-hun.” Zainab replied indifferently, he
attitude towards flattery hadn’t changed.
“Well, I was wondering if you could do me the
honour of going out with me this weekend?”
Zainab leaned back on her seat, “I’m not sure
if I’ll be free during the weekend.” She replied,
she had no plans and if it was a long term
friend she would have jumped on the offer, but
this was a different case.
“I expected you to say that, so I made my own
plans to make sure you change your mind.”
“What are you talking about?” Zainab asked,
her interest was piqued.
“Well, if you say no, I’ll have to hire
kidnappers to abduct you from your house on
saturday and make you go out with me by
force.” Henry sounded like he truly meant it.
“Are you indirectly threatening me?” Zainab
asked grinning.
“I never said that. Let’s just say you must go
out with me this weekend by fire by force,”
Henry replied and a laughter followed.
Zainab smiled, she knew he was kidding about
the ‘kidnapping’ threat but she like his
approach.
“Okay, you know what?” She asked.
“What?”
“I’ll think about it and see if I’ll be able to
clear my schedule for you. No promises made
though.”
Henry smiled, “I’ll call you on friday to give
you the details.”
“Okay.” Zainab replied.$
“Alright, talk to you later.” Henry replied and
hung up.
He sat down on the couch in his sitting room
and closed his eyes.
“Step one accomplished.” He murmured
inaudibly.
* * * * *
Jummy was lost in her own thoughts, she was
trying to get a suitable reason why John hung
up and no matter how deep she thought, no
reason seemed suitable or reasonable enough.
She was going for a business trip and she told
him, so he hung up? What does that even
mean? She wondered.
She decided to call again and get some
answers directly from him.
He picked on the third ring.
“Hello,” she said.
“Yea, hi.” John replied coldly, Jummy knew
the normal John would never reply that way.
“John, what’s wrong? The trip is just two
weeks, not like I’m going to spend the rest of
my life there.” Jummy complained, mumbling
words together.
John sighed, he realised he had really over
reacted, “I’m sorry babes, I’m just having a
bad day and adding the fact that I won’t see
you in a long while just made my day worse.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry.” Jummy had an idea, “okay,
you know what?”
“What?” John asked excitedly.
“The trip is in next tomorrow so I’m going to
take a one day leave tomorrow all in the name
of preparation for the journey but I’ll spend
the wh0le day with you.”
John literally started jumping, “you would do
that for me? No work, no interruption? Just
you and I?”
“Yes! I mean it. Anything for you. But…” She
was cut short by the ringing of the office
phone. It was probably a business call.
“But what?” John asked.
“Bit duty calls, I’ll call you later on.”
John accepted and let her hung up.
Jummy picked the office phone, “hello.”
“Yea, hello. There has been a switch in plans
Jummy.” The caller said immediately.
Jummy immediately recognised the voice and
it was Stephen’s, why he called the office
phone instead of her cell phone was a
question she had no answer to.
“Change of plans? What do you mean?”
“The trip? We have to leave first thing
tomorrow morning.”
Jummy opened her mouth to let out a scre-m
in shock but no sound came out. “Why? What
happened.”
“I’m currently emailing you all the details. Bye,
I need to get prepared.” Stephen replied and
hung up.
Jummy just sighed out of frustration and laid
her head on the desk.
John won’t take this sudden change of plan
lightly, she thought.
* * * * *
It took quite a long time due to the bottle
neck traffic she encountered on her way home,
but after spending two hours on the road,
Zainab finally cruised into her compound.
The house was actually Richærd’s and Zainab
had expected him to come for it immediately
he got out of prison but to her greatest
surprise, he never came. So she kept on living
in it and stashed a huge sum that was enough
to rent a nice house in the bank just in case
he came suddenly.
“Madam, I dey welcome come ko.” The hausa
gate man waved and greeted her in his
horrible mixture of Hausa, english and pidgin.
It sounded like a question to Zainab but she
didn’t understand what he meant so she did
what any one in her shoes would do, she just
smiled at him and walked into the house.
She dropped her hand bag, undressed and
went straight to the shower to freshen up and
once she was done, she went to the kitchen to
fix something to eat.
After opening the fridge and cupboards several
times, she emptied the contents of a spaghetti
pack into a pot of water and placed it on the
fire she lit.
Then it was time to wait.
She went to the sitting room and switched on
the Television set. As soon as it came on, the
video of a popular Ghanian song was playing,
it was one of her favourite song and she had
no idea the video had been shot.
Unlike the current average day video where
half Unclad girls rolled their butts all over the
screen, this was uniquely different and had
enough relevance to the song, she silently
applauded the director and waited for the
name of the director or studio to show on the
screen.
Maybe I could contact him for a private lesson
on directing, since she now had a similar job,
she thought.
Finally, the video came to an end, and just
before the a new song was put on play, the
words: “A Richærd Anderson Concept”
appeared on the screen in a blue Comic Sans
Ms font.
Zainab smiled, some people just don’t give up,
she still wondered why he had to steal the two
million from her when he could have just
asked and she would have gladly given him
without much hesitations. Men and their ego,
she thought.
She knew the hope she had had before of
calling him was like the possibility of Osita
Iheme, popularly known as “Paw Paw” in the
movie “Aki na Paw Paw”, marrying Mitchelle
Obama. Yes, that impossible.
* * * * *
After rounding up at work, Jummy finally
decided to call John, she knew telling him the
new development won’t be nice and fair to
him, so she invited him over to her house,
which he gladly accepted even though it was
already getting late.
By 8:30PM, which was exactly an hour later,
Jummy got home and quickly freshened up,
she laid on her bed and for the first time in a
long while, she recalled her family – her
parents in particular.
Her mum had been a pain in the butt, always
reminding her of how old she was and the fact
that Jummy hadn’t married yet, let alone
bring grand kids home.
Jummy didn’t understand what the big deal
was in bearing kids and wasn’t just ready so
she killed all means of communication with
her mum by dumping the SIM her mother had
the number to and getting a new one, she
knew it was wrong and unfair, but she was
tired of the endless phone calls from her
mother. Even when she ignored the call, her
mum would call till her battery died.
The truth of the matter was even though
Jummy acted all “area mama” on the outside,
she was a s-cker for love and loved kids too,
but wasn’t going to have a baby outside
wedlock all because of her mother so she
patiently waited for the right guy who would
come into her life and sweep her off her feet.
In her own opinion, that guy was John.
She was sure he was the one she had been
waiting for all this years and decided there
was nothing wrong in making him the father of
her baby. She silently decided to give him
something she never had hoping to make him
and her mum happy at the same time, it
seemed like an all win situation.
She picked up her phone and dialled her mum
number which she knew by heart.
Her mum picked on the first ring.
“Hello.”
“Hello, mammi?” Jummy asked.
Her mum immediately recognised the voice,
“Jumoke? Na you be this?”
“Yes mum, na me. How body dey do you na?”
Jummy asked in pidgin, trying to quickly raise
a topic before her mum starts to lament on
how she disappeared.
“I still dey breath sha, even after that ‘winch’
wey dey live for opposite my house don try kill
me two times,” her mum replied coldly. She
had had no contact whatsoever with any
“witch” but well, old age can make people act
strangely.
Jummy was used to such response, she knew
her mum pretty well, “no worry ma, baba God
dey your side.” Jummy played along, she
recalled trying to explain to her mother that
the fact she woke up later than usual or
missed her steps and fell doesn’t mean a
witch was trying to kill her, and she recalled
how it all ended, Jummy wasn’t ready for a
round two.
“Yes oh my daughter, you dey correct, I just
pray say the same God wey dey my side go
allow me see my grand pikin before I go join
my mama,” her mum said, indirectly raising
the topic Jummy once dreaded.
“Don’t worry ma, he would. I’m going to bring
my husband to the house very soon,” Jummy
said with confidence, suddenly switching to
English. she had no doubt John was
eventually going to marry her.
“Ehn? Isi gini?” (What did you say?) Her mum
asked in Igbo, how her mum understood and
spoke Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Efik still
surprised Jummy.
“I said I’m getting married soon and you
would have the grand child soon.” Jummy
repeated herself, a knock on her door startled
her, she knew it was John. “Mum, I go call
you back later, I put food for fire.” Jummy
lied.
She hung up before her mum could reply and
went to open the door, she was right, it was
John.
He wore a slim fitted black polo and black
pencil jeans, he looked quite different in the
new look, John was always on corporate
shirts, never on polo.
It was a welcomed look as his broad chest
protruded through the polo, Jummy felt she
was in for a long night.
She let him in and before joining him on the
couch, she grabbed a bottle of brandy and two
glass cups from the  kitchen, they need to get
high a little bit.
Jummy dropped the drink and went to the bed
room to change.
She wore a see through night gown with just
her p-nties under and looked at herself in the
mirror.
She approved the look, no guy in his right
senses would be able to resist this, she
thought.
Little did she know she was in for a shocker.

EPISODE 29.
People don’t just hate because they want to,
they hate because they don’t undertand. In
simple and direct words – they hate what they
don’t understand – soCHISTAR.
* * *
“Her eyes, her eyes – makes the stars look like
their not shinning/ her hair, her hair – falls
perfectly without her trying/ she’s so beautiful,
and I tell her everyday/ I know, I know – when
I complement her, she won’t believe me/ and
its so, its so – sad to think that she don’t see
what I see/ but every time she ask me, do I
look okay? I’ll say…” Were the lyrics of
Brunomars – Just the way you are that
Jummy murmured to her self as she left the
bedroom to join John in the sitting room.
She expected John to turn and look at her
while she stood at the entrance but he didn’t,
he was already busy with the brandy, for a
second, Jummy regretted offering him the
drinks before going to change, but then again,
it wasn’t such a bad idea, she thought.
She had to walk to his front before he actually
saw her.
From John point of view, he just stared at the
most beautiful and curvy woman in the wh0le
wide world. Jummy was wearing a pink see
through gown that was just slightly above her
kneels, and to top it, she wore only a pair of
sparkling white p-nties under it, so John
could see her huge cups and the protruding
black n1pples which stood at attention just at
the front of the cups.
John had severally pictured Jummy unclad
mentally and the pictures hadn’t been a nice
one. Jummy was chubby, she had a lot of
flesh and was pretty huge, so he had expected
a stomach filled with stretch marks and
sagging b-obs, not like that mattered much to
him though, but well, that was just his
thoughts.
After a long minute of dead silence – if a pin
had dropped, the sound would have been
heard, Jummy finally spoke. “Hello John,” she
tried to sound as sed-ctive as she could,
slowly pronouncing the name.
John looked down at the bulge down low and
sighed, he didn’t even know he had gotten
er-ct.
“Hello Jummy,” John replied in a failed
attempt of sounding sed-ctive.
Jummy smiled, and walked closer to John, she
took the half filled glass of brandy from his
hand, “let’s keep this aside for a while,” she
said, and dropped the glass on the table
beside the couch.
She sat on his laps, facing him and before
John could say John Mikel Obi, Jummy leaned
over and k-ssed him lightly, then quickly
disengaged from his l-ips, she waited to see
what would happen next.
As expected, John leaned towards her, and
k-ssed her, and this time Jummy responded by
k-ssing back, for several minutes they
‘Frenched’ k-ss each other.
As the k-ssed, John suddenly placed his
hands on Jummy’s wa-ist and slowly moved it
upwards till he got to the cups, they were too
big for his hands to hold so he expertly
grabbed them from under and squeezed
upward, Jummy mo-ned inaudibly and John
knew he was doing pretty well.
He k-ssed her h-rder to suppress the mo-n
and he squeezed h-rder, Jummy couldn’t hold
it anymore so she stopped him and stood up,
in one quick movement, she removed the
gown… Lo and Behold, the twin towers were
let loose.
She bent over and grabbed John’s hand as he
stared sheepishly with his mouth wide open,
she cat walked to the bedroom while literally
dragging him right behind her.
As she walked into the bed room, she pushed
him down on the bed and bent over to un-
buckle his jeans, she must have had a lot of
experience in removing guys jeans because it
took her nothing less than five seconds to
remove the jeans and throw it on the TV set
which hung at the southern wall, she grabbed
his d–k through the boxers and wanked it,
then without removing it she crawled upward
and k-ssed him again, she moved to his ear
and bit it slightly, John mo-ned, he had no
idea bitting of the ear could give such
pleasure.
He voluntarily removed his shirt and left just
the boxers.
Jummy love where this was head and was
super h—y, as she k-ssed him, she let her free
hand wander downwards to the boxer and just
when she was about to slide her hands into
it…
“Wait!” John suddenly said.
Jummy paused and gave him an inquiring
look.
John sighed and shrugged, he pushed lightly
her off his body and sat upright on the bed,
“we can’t do this,” he said.
“Why not? I want it, you want it so what’s all
the fuss about?” Jummy asked getting really
confused, or was it sad? She didn’t know
exactly how she felt.
“I love you too much Jummy, I’ll prefer if we
get married before we do anything.” John
said.
Jummy was shocked at John’s reply, in a
good way. Jummy couldn’t believe her luck,
John was rom-ntic, rich, funny, a christian
and now he just proved how much respect he
had for her?
She sat up right beside John and pecked him,
“I love you too.”
John turned to look at her in the eyes, and
Jummy assumed he was about to say
something rom-ntic, “it you don’t put on
something now, I might not be able to resist
you twice.” He said and they both laughed out
loud.
It was a nice night for Jummy and she didn’t
want to spoil it so she settled for dropping a
letter be she left for China the next day and
apologise over the phone, he would definitely
forgive her, or so she thought.
* * * * *
Cristiano Ronaldo ran so fast that Usain Bolt
would have felt threatened, he had just
received a perfect through ball from Xabi
Alnoso and he was in a great position to
score, but he just had to beat Puyol, Pique
and Victor Valdes who were the last line of
defence. Puyol saw Ronaldo coming and
quickly ran forward to stop him before he
entered the box 18, Ronaldo saw him and just
as Puyol was about to slide, he executed the
perfect snake bite technique and gave Puyol
enough space to fall down on the floor. The
Madrid fans in the stands roared at this as
they could smell a goal. Just Pique and
Valdes to beat, Ronaldo pressed forward,
Pique was wise not to plunge forward so he
stood his grounds and let Ronaldo run to him,
that was his mistake. Ronaldo counted the
“leg over” move the first time, Pique still
stood, he counted same move the second time,
Pique still stood and as he counted it the
third time, he added a little “cutting” and ran
past Pique who still stood, the fans bursted
out in laughter as Pique stood marvelled and
wondering where Ronaldo passed, the naughty
cameramen focused the camera at Shakira
who stood at the stands laughing at her
husband, but quickly composed herself as she
saw the camera was on on her. Ronaldo had
just Valdes to beat this time, without thinking
much about it, he kicked the ball to the far
end of the post where he knew it would take a
magic trick to save Valdes, Valdes knew this
and didn’t even bother diving for the ball…
AND ITS A GOAL!!! The commentator scre-med
as the wh0le stadium went wild with madrid
fans jumping and scre-ming in joy.
Zainab switched off the station and went
straight to the bathroom. It was tuesday
morning and she had to prepare for work, she
had purposely woken up early so as to watch
a little sport before she prepared for work, she
knew she was going to be directing a lot of
sporting shows and decided it would be best if
she started liking sports and what better way
that to watch a classical match between
Barcelona and Real Madrid, she knew if that
wasn’t enough for her to get her interest in
football, nothing else will… The good news
was that she was impressed by the drama
that came with football and decided to start
watching more matches.
In no time, she was dressed and on her way to
work.
She got to work and just as the previous day,
Michael the intern handed her the file which
contained her To-Do-List for the day. She
gracefully took it and walked to her office, she
dropped her hand bag on the desk and
immediately started going through the file.
She picked up the green sheets and saw she
had a soap opera to direct in few minutes
time, she quickly went through the plot and
headed to Studio C where the shot was taking
place.
She wasn’t so bothered this time because she
herself was an actress who had starred in
many movies and soap operas, so she knew
one or two things about acting, likewise
directing.
She opened the door of the studio and walked
straight in, she was confronted with a huge
room filled with people and a green stage up
front. Pieces of armours and swords were
littered all over the place and shirt-less actors
paraded the room, trying to memorise their
lines, some were practising how to fight with a
blunt swords. It seemed like a gladiator
rom-n Empire movie. And it was apparently
going to be the first from Nigeria, “Nice,”
Zainab sighed in approval.
She picked up a public address system, “hello
everyone.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and
turned to look at Zainab who was already
standing on a podium.
“I’m Zainab Anderson and I’m the new overall
director, please who is in charge here?” She
asked.
One of the actors who was wearing an armour
and practising how to swing a sword turned
over to Zainab and removed the helmet, “I am
in…” He wanted to say but paused in shock as
he saw who asked.
Zainab was surprised as well, and paused for
a bit, she didn’t want to cause a scene so she
quickly spoke up, “okay, good. Can I speak
with you?” She asked.
“Ye… Yea, sure.” He stuttered. He dropped the
sword and helmet on the table that was
nearby and scre-med “everyone please
continue what you were doing,” he walked
toward Zainab.
“Zainab, what are you doing here?” He asked
as he got close to her.
“I should be asking you that. Is this a
coincedence or is it your way of making sure I
don’t run before our supposed date this
weekend? I still recall you threathened to
kidnap me.” Zainab asked with a grin, a
confused grin.
It was Henry.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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