Lucy episode 1

●LUCY
*
I heard a story once… about a boy who lost a diamond chasing stones…
I heard the story while growing up, seated on his legs, listening to him as he tears up.
You see, I was little, but I could understand the pain of what he was feeling.
He was my father you see, all white haired and sad eyes.
But I didn’t understand why he was sad, my mother was in the other room and I saw them love each other so good.
But still, I saw him seat alone , out in the yard, staring into nothing. .. his eyes cloudy and misty and every time I walk up to him and ask him..
“Papa, what are you thinking ?”
He would look at me and then he would smile that smile of his that never quite reaches his eyes when he is in that state and then he would tell me..
“Son, maybe one day I will tell you what aches my heart,maybe one day when you are abit older you would understand and don’t make the same mistakes I had made…Maybe one day when you are old and grey like me and your wife is somewhere in,side the room making tea, you won’t be out here, sitting below the dark clouds and wishing you could see a smile shine down from the twinkling of the stars…Maybe one day Christain ,I would tell you what bothers my lonesome heart” Papa would say and everyday just like that day I would nod and walk away, watching him behind the closed windows. .
I’ll see him cry and dab his eyes and then…he would smile up when Ma comes with his cup of tea and then he would smile and talk to her and I would see that trully..love is blind..
If not…Mama should have seen the ache in my father’s eyes.
I am a young adult now…and Papa..Papa still goes alone to sit at the corner and stare…just wondering and not bothering when I walk up to him coming down the stairs. .
“Papa, now will you tell me what bothers your heart…I am fifteen, I promise I would understand ”
Then he seats down, asking me to do thesame, and then he begins to talk and I swear I saw it in my mind’s eyes as his words became a picture for me to see. ..
He said….
“We grew up together , from babies to toddlers and even to when we could count and write down our own numbers…
I remember her…vividly now..
 
She used to pull my hair
 
..just to get me to stare..
Whenever I got distracted somewhere
 
..by other things other than her to even bother to care..
She was a year younger.. I realised now..
She used to follow me up the stairs..
 
Just to catch me unawares
 
Whenever I tried to go away from her.. even right then and there
She would cry and pull at her ears so I could regret and keep her with me here but all the while I just never wanted her there.
Over the years, I could tell now..
She was as shy as a dove..
 
but she was like my shadow…at every streets and sometimes up the penthouse above..
I never bothered to acknowledge her because to me, all I felt was that she was to my flesh a thorn..
And I was a boy…being rude to a girl was all but scorned.
So I pretended to like her when we were together and when others were near..I showed her I didn’t care.
And even in my pretences of like….it was a look and nothing more, a dead silence and then I would ignore
she was always nice to me…I remember it all too well now, and that only earned her my scorn even more .
All my friends thought she was silly, following a guy around who didn’t give a shit really, and was very rude and downright unfeeling.
I laughed and jeered at her you know, i mean, i wondered if she didn’t have anything better to do, other than mope at me all day, wait for me all day, write me letters all year round and so many other things i was done keeping counts off.
 
 
To me I thought it was downright cheesy.
 
And so I did everything bad to her a boy would do to a girl he didn’t like or felt disgusted to have around him even for a second but i swear now son, I regret it now.
Oh,you have no idea what we did..
we did so many things to her,
 
Not just me…all my friends and all who dared and i gave them permission to do soo too and we didn’t even bother when all she did was shed a tear and burst out crying like a fountain of water.
She cried alot, felt embarrassed when we made her the laughing stock of the school room in a second.
Running out the class she did, falling on our spiteful traps….and we felt all too swell because it was fun too.
Oh stupid me.
You see, I didn’t understand why a girl like her, could think a boy like me would care for her sillyness and cute face.
I was young, maybe your age then son but you see. ..nothing mattered to me..not even her tear
You see, I hurt her while we were in school, and at home…I was tired of pretending to care. .so I didn’t anymore , I showed her who I really was and I was hella proud of it son.
When she came around, I would let the door hit her face so she goes home and never returns, but every single time I did that,every single time she came back, and said she was fine and she forgave me.
Whenever we were asked to play together , I would turn away and ask her to leave, I didn’t want her near me, not even a slight touch of her cloths,to me she was a pest…a very annoying pest I couldn’t get rid off.
But you see son, she always came back no matter how much I turned her away, she got me gifts even from the little things she had, when I hit my head or broke an arm,she was the first person to come by and see me and rub it with her palm over my arm to make the pain go away, and still i never appreciated her little efforts, her little cares and her show of love because I was a kid and I was stupid…to even see.
And yet time and time again…i made her cry,i scre-med at her for making me a sandwich, I yelled at her for being the first to wish me a happy birthday, I pushed her so hærd she had a bump later for days, I poured water into her food so she doesn’t sit and eat beside me..i just wanted her away from me and I didn’t understand why she never leaves.
And after high school….i knew i treated her badly… everyone saw that and yet she refused to even see that and I didn’t understand any of that.
Son,it gets worse.
In college ,i had begun liking girls
..i was handsome, I was popular I was loved…and I loved the feeling.
You see if I had looked even at her a little more I probably would have realised she was even pretty but I didn’t.
She was just the next door neighbour’s daughter who spared so much time on her plates to be in my own personal space and I had hoped that during college, when she began to see other boys and make friends. She would get out of my own face.
But…no it didn’t happen that way.
And just as always, she still follows me around , like a shadow ghosting me while I walked back home .
She still dropped letters in,side my locker and like always I had stopped reading them because I knew what she always said in them.
Like always she would be standing at her balcony and wait for me to turn off my lights at night before she goes to sleep, and like always, she would be at my door and hoping for once we walk to college together or take the bus, and like always I don’t see her, i ignore her at the door and when my friends come to pick me….i let them tease her. .and while she stares I would lean in and k-ss another girl because trully i didn’t care about her ..i just wanted her to leave me alone.
One time…I almosy had a fight with my mama.
“Lucy likes you Peter, she does. why don’t you give her a chance son? you guys have been bestfriends forever, sometimes…love comes form the best of friendsh¡ps”
But I didn’t want to hear of it…”We aren’t friends mama,we aren’t best of anything. She is just a girl who stays next door and wishes we are more than what we are…which is strangers.
I hate that she is always in my face , wanting to help me do this or that, shadowing me..sitting next to me helping me when I burn my hand or when I hit my head,i hate that when she smiles when our eyes meet, I hate that she keeps droping letters in my locker and tells me she likes me, I hate that she is always at my door every morning, I hate that she is the last person I see at night staring out of her window when I am about to go to sleep,i hate that she cares for me and expects that I care back; I hate that she feels we are meant to be something greater than we are….i hate her mother and I pray she leaves me the hell alone.. I can never ever like someone like Lucy. ..she is a stranger to me and I pray she leaves and never comes back” I bellow to my mother
And when I turned back, she was standing there at my door which is wide open, having heard every single thing…
Finally , I breathed.
 
Maybe this is what she needed to hear and have a wakeup call.
I expected her to cry and run and leave.
 
I spewed venom.
But she stood there with a smile on her face and says “can I walk with you to school today Peter? ?”
Arghhh!!!
I wanted to scre-m and kick something and do wh0le lot of damage becsuse of what I felt…just so it would make me feel better.
So I slam the door in her face and walk away..
You see…
She never left ..
 
 
 
She never ever leaves.
Everyday she was at my door, she smiles…she was always happy to see me and when she couldn’t hide the pain I meted to her, she cried and then she would smile again .
I didn’t understand it at all.
 
All I felt was anger.
I didn’t want her near me…
 
I just didn’t like her because I didn’t know her and didn’t want to know her despite she knowing me..
This goes on son till my third year in college, I had been through a number of girls and I didn’t care in the least and I never for once saw her with someone. ..other than a couple of friends ..
But everytime she saw me, her eyes lits up, her smile comes in and then she would leave her seat and come to mine, she would help me get my lunch and even remove the dust from my hair, she would pick up my books and then she would proceed to help me with my homework and if I was sick she would be the first to make sure she stayed till I was well and when I was better i go back to telling her…
“leave me alone,go away..please..just go away. I hate you”
But she would smile despite that I see the tears and her hands keep shaking
“it’s okay Peter, it’s okay. But I won’t go away…you deserve a friend. .Someone who really cares. You deserve someone who loves you enough to never leave”
Oh I was tired Christain, I really was. …and every single day I made it even difficult ….hærd…more painful…but she always never leaves.
The last time I remembered was when I went on my knees and asked another girl to marry me .
You see. ..i liked this girl I was with.
 
I did..
 
she was amazing,she was beautiful., she was great and I knew that she had to be the one for me..
And then she had been walking towards me when she saw me lift this girl twirl her in the air.
I expected her to leave.. finally.
 
 
 
I expected to see…..that Peter loves a girl for real and Peter could never love her .
But she didn’t.
 
She walks up to me and congratulates me and her…and told us she was happy for us…
And I knew that. ..this time she would stop. Give up and never come near me again.
 
Tbc