Unfulfilled promise 2 episode 31 – 32

Unfulfilled Promises

Season 2

Episode 31
Eric stirred in his sleep and gradually
woke up It was morning He felt pains all
over his body particularly his hand and
head He mo-ned softly and his eyes
fluttered open It took him awhile to realize
where he was. Then the accident
gradually came to him He had been
going sightseeing when that posh car had
hit him He moved his gaze sideways and
smiled despite his pains. On the hospital
trolley were various assorted biscuits and
drinks; his favourites! So, his grandmother
had been informed about the accident. He was surprised. That meant she was back
in the country. But she had told him she
would be back in two days. Maybe she
heard about the accident and came back
early. He hoped she wasn’t cross with him
because he had broken his promise of
staying indoors.

He turned to the left side of the bed and
noticed a woman seated beside his bed
Her head was on the bed, she was fast
asleep. His grandma had probably sent
someone to come and stay with him
Maybe she wasn’t back after all but had
sent this woman to buy all these stuff for
him. He was disappointed. He tapped her
gently on her shoulder.
Oleng felt a hand on her shoulder and
slowly woke up. She assumed it was Eric
She would tell him to go back home and
that she was going to stay here until her
son woke up. She turned her head but
didn’t see Eric. She turned to the other
side and gasped as she saw her son
looking at her. Awake, he even looked
more like his father.
He smiled but suddenly his eyes w¡dened.
He looked at her intently in amazement.
“Eric! You’re awake!” she exclaimed and
stretched her stiff limbs.
He nodded but winced in pain. “Please,
can I get water to drink?”
Oleng immediately got up and poured him
a cup full from the bottle on the cabinet.

She smiled as she poured the water. Eric
had wasted no time in loading the cabinet
with lots of goodies. He had wondered if
their son would like them because some
of them had been his favourite snacks
and drinks as a child. She held the cup as
her son drank from it. He smiled his
thanks when he was through.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you.” he quietly responded.
Then as an after thought asked, “Please,
who are you?”
“I’m…I’m…the wife of the man who hit
you,” Oleng lied. She couldn’t tell him the
truth just yet.
He nodded slowly. “Why do you look so
familiar?”
Oleng was flustered at that. Dare she tell
him she had given birth to him? She felt
joy that he had been able to connect with
her.

“Why do you think so?” she asked in
curiosity.
“Well…” He paused and looked at his
hands.
“Yes?” she prompted.
“It’s just that…well, you look like my
grandmother,” he finally completed
“Your grandmother?” Oleng was perplexed
at that. “Who is your grandmother?”
Just then, they heard a knock on the door
before his father came in with Erica and
breakfast.

Oleng smiled, but frowned at the look of
sheer disbelief on her son’s face. Eric
noticed but shrugged it aside as he came
in and dropped the package beside the
bed.
“Good morning, sunshine. Morning, Eric.
How’reyou doing this morning?”
Eric cheerfully said.
“No! This isn’t happening!” Eric (Jnr)
exclaimed.
Everyone in the room, including the chirpy
Erica fell silent and stared at him Oleng
was the first to find her voice as her son
continued to look in horror at his father.
“What’s the problem, Eric?”
Eric (Jnr) looked at her and pronounced
bluntly, “Him! Who’s he?”
Oleng was tongue tied at first. “He’s the
man who hit you with his car yesterday.”
“No, no, no!” Their son protested
vehemently, shaking his head.
Eric just stood there staring at his son in
hurt silence.

“Is he my father?” Eric (Jnr) finally queried
Oleng in almost a whisper.
Both parents were dumb struck. No one
could fault him though, because he was a
replica of his father.
“Yes, I’m your father.” Eric finally broke
the silence
“No, no, no, no!” Eric Jnr chanted again,
still shaking his head.
“Eric, what is it?” Oleng inquired in deep
distress.
Her son turned to look at her. “I don’t
want him here. Please tell him to leave.
Please!”
His parents were puzzled again.
“But why? Are you angry because he hit
you?”
“No,” he replied sternly.
“Then why do you want him to leave?
He’s your father.”
“No! He is not my father! This man
abandoned my mother when she was
pregnant with me!” he raged.

Shock couldn’t qualify what his parents
felt at that particular moment.
“How…how did you know?” Oleng
stammered in dismay.
“My grandmother told me everything…I
want him out of here! I hate him!”
Eric felt as if he had just been slapped. He
turned around and quietly left the room.
Oleng was torn between going after him
and staying to comfort her son. She went
after the love of her life, knowing he was
hurting more.

“Sweetheart,” she called when she saw
him walking away, almost at the end of
the hall way.
He turned around and she walked slowly
towards him.
“I’m so sorry,” was all she said at the pain
in his eyes and hugged him with Erica
looking on.
“How could he have known? Who is his
mystery grandmother?” he asked with so
much pain, tears came to Oleng’s eyes.
“I think I know who she is. I believe she’s
Mrs Akpan. Before you came in, he told
me I looked like his grandmother.”
Eric shook his head slowly. “But why
would she tell him such lies?”
“She thought and probably still thinks you
abandoned me…meaning he has been
with her all this while. Did you notice his
accent?

“Yes. It’s even stronger than mine. It’s an
American accent…If she has been with
him all this while, why did she lie to you?”
He was clearly confused.
“Probably to hurt me as usual,” Oleng
sadly replied.
They were both lost in thought for some
time.
“Sweetheart, please why don’t you take
Erica home? Let me stay with him to get
some explanations inorder to try to make
sense of what’s going on.”
Eric sighed in disappointment. He had
woken up early to prepare to meet his son
with joy only for this to happen. He had
thought today would be a memorable day.
It was memorable alright, considering the
fact that he would never forget the words
his son had spoken to him in their very
first moment together. “I hate him!” Eric
cringed and grimaced at those words.
He shook his head sorrowfully. “Alright,
sunshine, please keep me updated.”

Unfulfilled Promises
SEASON 2

Episode 32

“I will, sweetheart,” she said and gave a
k-ss to the sleeping Erica who had dozed
off, probably from lack of attention She
hugged Eric also before he left.
Her heart felt as if it was tearing into two
as she watched father and daughter
leave Tears welled up in her eyes
because she knew how heartbroken Eric
felt at that moment She sighed as she
went in,side the room.
Her son looked at her wearily as she
entered the room.

“Are you alright?” she asked.
“Yes, thank you,” he politely replied.
“Do you need anything?”
“No.”
“Are you hungry?”
“No.”
“But you ought to be Let me see what
your…”
“No! I don’t want anything from him,” he
vehemently said as she got up to check
what Eric had brought in the picnic
basket.
Oleng stopped and looked at him. “Okay. I
think we need to talk,” she declared firmly
as she sat down again.
For an answer, Eric (Jnr) looked away.
“Who is this grandmother of yours?
What’s her name?”
He looked at her then with c*cked
eyebrows. “Why are you asking?”
Oleng could see clearly that either his late
foster parents had spoilt him rotten or the
supposed grandmother had.
“Because I want to know more about
you,” she softly told him.

“I want to see my grandmother. I miss
her,” he replied.
Oleng sighed again. So much for getting
explanations from him.
“Look, this is what we’ll do. Tell me the
name of your grandmother. If I know her,
I’ll go and look for her and bring her here.”
He considered it for awhile before saying,
“Her name is Mrs. Linda Akpan. Don’t ask
me where she lives because I don’t know
the address of the house This is my first
time of visiting Nigeria in six years She
told me not to go out but I disobeyed her
because I was bored. Now see what
happened!” Tears glistened in his eyes.
His mother was touched She leaned
forward to hold his good hand while trying
to come to terms with what he had just
said.

Why was her mother so wicked? To keep
her own child from her was inhuman. So
she had been with Eric since, even when
she knew they were searching for him
everywhere. That was so callous of her.
She however gathered herself together for
her son’s sake.
“I’ll help you look for her. I promise. But in
the mean time you have to tell me about
yourself. I really need to know more about
you.”
“Do you know my grandmother?” he
inquired with blatant curiosity.
“Yes, I do and I promise you that as soon
as you get better, I’ll take you to her
house.”
“You know the house?”
“Yes.”
“How come?”
Oleng was tongue tied. She didn’t want
him to know just yet that she had given
birth to him. She wanted to know the
story of his life first, but she should have
known that Eric was really his father’s son
and had inherited his brilliance too.

“Do I really need to ask? You’re my
mother, aren’t you?” he scornfully asked
while she just stared at him, wondering at
the scorn in his voice. Had Mrs. Akpan
fabricated stories about her also?
“It makes perfect sense. You look like my
grandmother and are the wife of my…the
man who just came in.”
“Stop it! Stop it right now! He’s your
father and that’s what you’ll call him,” she
firmly told him, snapping out of her
reverie.
“You can’t tell me what to do! After all,
you gave me up for adoption!” he yelled.
“What?” Oleng was in shock. “Was that
what she told you?”
“Yes!” he yelled again with tears rolling
down his eyes as the story of his life
poured forth from him in his pain.
“She told me everything! How my dad
impregnated you at age fifteen before
going to the States to further his
education. How she found out and had to
send you to her sister in Calabar because
she couldn’t take better care of you due
toher business engagements,but not
before my so-called father sent you a
message to abort me and forget about
him. She went to Calabar when she heard
you had given birth to me but by then you
and her sister had already given me up for
adoption. She searched for me but since
you all refused to tell her who you had
given me to, she couldn’t find me.
For six years, I thought the people I called
parents were my real parents until their
demise. I was maltreated in the house of
my so-called relatives and called a
bastard at every turn until she found me.

She had to pay them a huge sum of
money to let me go. I spent a month in a
hotel recuperating before we went to
Chicago. I’ve been there for the past six
years, schooling. But curiosity made me
beg her to have my vacation here in
Nigeria.
Had I known it would turn out like this, I
would have gone to stay with her friend in
Ohio for the vacation. So you can see why
you can’t tell me what or what not to do.

You don’t have a say in my life. I owe my
life to my grandmother,” he finished
bitterly,still in tears.
Oleng had been crying also. She wept at
the injustice of it all! At the lies her own
mother had spurn to poison her grandson
against his own parents, at the way he
must have suffered in the hands of his
foster relatives. She sat there crying
because she didn’t know what to say. She
tried to stop but the tears kept pouring.

She noticed he was still crying too.
A doctor and a nurse came in then to
check on Eric. They were surprised at the
tension in the room and the tears. Oleng
excused herself and left the room. At the
reception, she tried to pull herself
together. She visibly shook at the fact
that her son hated his parents. Mrs.
Akpan had filled his heart with hatred for
six years. She felt so much despair. How
were they going to turn things around?
Oleng felt blazing anger towards her
mother. How dare she turn things around
in her own favour? She could understand
the fact that she still thought Eric had
abandoned her but she had been the one
who had given Eric up for adoption. She
removed her phone from the pocket of her
gown and with shaking hands called Eric.
“Sweetheart, it’s worse than we thought,”
she said immediately he answered the
phone. “He hates us…both of us…my
mother has spent the…last six years or so
poisoning him against us,” she said in
between sobs.

“Sunshine, please calm down. Please.
You promised me no more tears,
remember? You’re barely coherent…blast
it, I’m coming over!” he said in
exasperation and ended the call.
She couldn’t stop him from coming. She
needed him right now. She needed his
safe and secure arms around her. She got
a hold on herself when she noticed people
were looking at her, some pityingly.
Maybe they thought she had lost
someone there. Well, it was as bad as
losing someone if your own child hated
you.

When she felt calm again, she walked
slowly to the room. She was surprised to
see her son eating with the help of an
orderly. He didn’t spare her a glance. She
smiled her thanks at the elderly woman as
she picked her hand bag.
“Eric, I need to go now but I’ll be back. I…”
She felt lost for words and uncomfortable
because the orderly was staring at her.
“Please remember your promise. I want to
see my grandma; that’s if she’s in town,”
he said, still not looking at her and as an
afterthought said, “Thank you.”
Oleng nodded and left the room. She
waited in the parking lot for Eric. She
quickly entered the car when he parked it
beside her. She went straight into his
arms and burst into tears again. He
comforted her silently. She recounted her
entire conversation with their son to him
in between sobs.

To be continued