Too precious episode 1

TITLE: TOO PRECIOUS

WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI

CHAPTER 1

Two girls walked into Prestige Girls’ Secondary School on the same day. They were similar but yet different. They were both born the same year, a month apart. They had fathers who did not play an active part in their lives. They both had working-class mothers who were hærdly home. They lived in big houses and never lacked anything. They were both beautiful and intelligent. Most of all, they had the same name. They were both named PRECIOUS. They were very much alike but……

One Precious is yellow while the other is dark. So they were called Precious Yellow, PY for short and Precious Black PB. PY is tall, about 5”8 slim and athletic. PB is shorter 5”5, fatter than her friend and hated exercise. Her best form of exercise was walking. They both had absentee fathers; PY’s father worked with an oil company and was always offshore while PB father was a drunk and drug addict. PY’s mother is a medical doctor who worked with a fertility clinic while PB’s mother was the Vice Principal Administration of a secondary school. PY was sponsored by her parents while PB was sponsored by her grandparents. PB grandfather was a business tycoon. He made money early in life and had grown it over the years. PY lived in Lekki while her friend and namesake PB lived on Adeniyi Jones Ikeja. PY is Igbo while PB is Yoruba.

Luckily, they were in the same class and their dormitories were close to each other. They became good friends. As their relationsh¡p grew, they were inseparable. PB is a black beauty who blossomed very early. At the tender age of 10, she already had had h¡ps and her bosom had started developing. PY was slim with no physical development.

PB was the only child of her parents Gbenga and Seun. Gbenga was a drunk and drug addict. It began after he married Seun and she had Precious. He took to drinking and later dabbled into taking hærd drugs. Seun had stuck with him ever since his troubles. He didn’t have a job or business, he initially lived off his parents until they got tired of fending for his lifestyle, then he pounced on his wife who was working with his mother.

PB lived with her parents in her grandparents’ house at Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos. Grandfather, Chief Rotimi Adeoye is a business tycoon while grandmother, Titilayo, is an educationist. She had nursery, primary, secondary and post-secondary schools. That was where PB’s mother, Seun, worked. Grandmother hated her mother and sided with her son all the time.

Seun put her all into her work. Gbenga would take all the money she earned and disappear until the money was exhausted. If she kept the money in the bank, he would harass her until she was forced to give it to him. His mother never intervened; she watched from a distance and supported her son afterwards. He was the last child of his father and the only child of his mother who spoilt him so much that he couldn’t keep a job and always got into trouble due to his drunkenness and drug addiction.

PB’s father beats his wife at every given opportunity and treats her like a slave. PB was in the boarding house because her grandmother didn’t want her in the house witnessing the quarrels between her parents and also she wanted her to learn independence.

PY’s family was the opposite. Engineer Collins and Dr Hope Okoli had three children, two boys and a girl. Their daughter, Precious, was the middle child. Engineer Collins is a responsible man who made sure to meet the financial and material needs of his children. He was hærdly home and even when he was, he had so many activities lined up and spent less time with his children. He was like a stranger to them as they were closer to their mother and she was always there for their activities. They lacked nothing.

Both of the girls were happy in school and enjoyed each other’s company. Academically, they were both doing well. PB was a bit smarter than her friend and they had healthy competition in class. They were inseparable. The struggle to go through junior class in a school where bullying was the order of the day was not easy but having a friend who sticks closer than a sister was what kept them going.

PB appreciated the friendsh¡p more because she had no siblings. She hærdly had children around. Her aunties and uncles who lived in Lagos didn’t want her to visit neither did they come to the house with their children. So having a close friend she could play with was what made her very happy.

Prizegiving day, JS 1. PB won prizes for best in Mathematics, Science, Literature and overall third position. PY won a prize for best in English and had the seventh position. PB mother, Seun, came to join her as she received her prize. PY’s mother, Hope, also joined her when she received her prize. Both girls introduced their mothers to each other in the hope that they too would become friends.

PRECIOUS BLACK
Going home for the long holidays, PB wasn’t happy. She had exchanged phone numbers with PY and hoped they would be able to talk every day. Both mothers were consumed in their world. They had their struggles which their daughters wouldn’t understand and were too young to be exposed to.

“Omo mi, welcome. How was the term?” Titilayo asked her granddaughter.

“It was fine ma. E se ma”

“Go and take off your uniform, have a bath and come down for lunch. I have made amala, gbegiri ati ewedu for you to enjoy. You have lost too much weight and we need to fatten you up before you go back”

Precious went upstairs to take a bath and rush downstairs to eat her grandmother’s delicious meal. She always enjoyed her grandmother’s cooking and it was in the kitchen they bonded. That was the only time her grandmother talked to her.

As PB and her grandmother were eating, she heard someone come into the house. She turned to see the person, it was Gbenga, her father.

“Daddy!” Precious ran to hug her father.

“There is my princess, my priceless gem. Welcome back. I have missed you. How was school?”

“It was very fine dad, I won four prizes today and I was the third in the entire JS 1 form”

“I wouldn’t have expected less from you. You are eating? Go back to your meal let me see your mother”

That was all the attention she could get from her father. It never lasted more than five minutes before he goes in search of her mother and then trouble starts.

She stayed downstairs with her grandmother waiting for when her father would storm out of the house. This time around, it wasn’t like that. He stayed longer upstairs that PB began to worry. She stood up and went upstairs. She heard them arguing.

“By September Precious is resuming school. If you take all my money, how will I buy the things she needs for school. I have told you I have no money. You can beat me until I am comatose, I don’t have money. Ask your mother for the money. How did you know we were paid today if your mother didn’t inform you? Beat me, but my daughter needs clothes, shoes, and will buy things when she is resuming. Your mother wouldn’t give me a salary advance to pay off those things and the small one I have you want to collect from me”

PB heard a slap and then some shoving around and her father scre-ming at her “You wh-re! Shameless woman! You will give me the money otherwise I will commit murder today”

“Kill me! At least I will be free from this torture. Kill me but you will still not get any money to get high. Maybe then you will face your mother”

The beating continued. PB had been warned by her mother never to come close when they had their fights and importantly, never to get involved. She left for downstairs.

It took a while but finally, her father came downstairs, didn’t take another look at her and left. PB was sure her mother had parted with some money for him. She went upstairs to check on her mother. Her mother had locked herself in her bedroom like she always does. She knew by tomorrow Seun will come out not looking like what she went through the day before. It hurt PB but there was nothing an eleven-year-old could do.

PRECIOUS YELLOW

PY was excited to get home. Her elder brother was outside the house. He was almost fourteen but was quite tall and lanky. He mouthed her a greeting while he continued to play his basketball.

Her younger brother who was eight ran to meet her. They hugged and PY felt the love. There was a lot to catch up with.

“Dad travelled two months ago. I gave him your list and he bought everything. He travelled again last week. I wrote a list for you so he will shop for you too. Come and see what I wrote for you”

“Elvis, leave her alone; she just got back. She has to take a bath and eat before anything else. Nne, will you have stir fry pasta with prawns and fish? That’s what I asked them to make. Or will you have Jollof rice, plantain, cole’s law and turkey?”

“I will go with the pasta, mum”

“It will be ready before you come down. I have to be at work by 6 pm. Your school’s ceremony took too long. Anyway, food will be waiting for you”

PY went upstairs into her room. She took her bath and dressed up to eat. She ate the food and then went to the sitting room to join her brother. He continued his story about their father’s travel.

PB called PY and they spoke for almost an hour on their landlines. They talked about so many things and they wished to spend time together.

It was a tall order for PB because her mother drove her around. She had never been driven with her grandmother’s car to visit family; her mother always took her car. She knew she couldn’t tie her mother down by taking her to PY’s house for the wh0le day.

PB also didn’t want PY visiting on a day her father decides to come around and create a scene. Grandpa had travelled and was expected soon. He was very nice to her and always dashed her money which her mother whisked away quickly before grandma could see it. She needed a car and a driver for her visit. She wanted to visit first just to get out of the house. She was distracted by the sitting-room door opening. She turned to look at who came in.

“Grandpa!” PB ran to hug her huge grandfather.

“Arike mi, how are you? When did you get back? Nobody told me you are coming back, I would have come back sooner”

PB laughed because that was what he always says each time she comes home. He dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a wad of notes to give her.

“No grandpa, I don’t want money this time. I want to visit my friend in Lekki and I need a car and driver”

“Is that all? Why would you refuse my blessings for something that is yours? Tomorrow, I am buying you a car and employing a driver that will work with you during this holiday. Take” he handed her the wad of money, “you will need to buy clothes and accessories for your visit”

PB jumped on her grandpa and said “Grandpa you are the best”

He laughed as he swung her around. They went upstairs together. She rushed to her mother’s room to share the good news.

“Precious, please do not accept the car from your grandfather. It will cause serious trouble at home and even your father will be more demanding believing we have received so much money from his father. Please my child, this is not a show of love at all. It is a big burden to your mother.”

“But mum, he has already promised. How do I tell him I do not want the car again?”

“Tell him your mother said she will take you to see your friend so she could meet with her mother. He will not buy the car for you again”

“What will I do with all this money? Should I return it too?” PB asked her mother.

Seun looked at the packet of N200 naira notes in her daughter’s hand and snatched it from her. “Did anyone see him give it to you?”

“No mum”

“Good. I will buy you a new dress and shoes to visit your friend. We will also prepare you for school with some of the money. Don’t tell anyone about this; if your grandmother should find out, she will ask your father to come and collect the money from me. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, mum. When do we go shopping?”

“Tomorrow”

That night, PB went to her grandfather’s room to tell him she didn’t need the car anymore.

“My mother has agreed to take me to my friend’s house”

“She sent you to me, right?”

“We don’t need a car; it will cause trouble. Dad was here the day I came back and he collected all the money mummy had. If he finds out you gave me money, he will be back and would collect everything from her. She wants to quickly buy me a few clothes and shoes before she shops for my returning to school. Once she does that, she will have no money left. If my dad finds out you bought me a car, he will beat her until he collects everything she owns”

“I have banned him from entering this house, how did he gain access? Where was your grandmother when he was beating your mother?”

“She was with me downstairs”

“And she received her salary that day, right?”

“Yes, she did”

“You will get a car with a driver but it will not be in your name. Take this, give it to your mother to add to what she has. Hide it before you leave”

Seun was shocked when her daughter came back to her with more money and told her what grandfather said. She cried out, “Why did you tell him your father was here? Ah! This woman will kill me. Olorun, when will all this be over? I am still here because of my only child. Help me not to die in their hands. The mother is not better than father and son”

“Mum, what are you talking about? Who is the woman?”

“Don’t worry. When we go to the market tomorrow, I will deposit this money but you must never mention we went to the bank even if we are dying. This will take care of future provisions”

The next morning, they went to the market. PB got a beautiful yellow flowery summer dress. She loved the flowers on them and how the dress balanced on her body. She felt beautiful. Her mother also got her other dresses, a pair of white sandals and also a pair of black shoes.

As they moved further, Seun bought hair attachment for her daughter to make her hair and look like a human being when she sees her friend. They entered Oke-Arin market from there and she bought everything on the list for her going back. There was no way she would sit still and watch her daughter be made fun of in school. The ordeal will soon be over.