CHRISTIE'S STORY
16:18:00
An episodic short story written by Adedolapo. With great use of flashback. The short story is about the travails of a privileged young lady in a troubled nation; Nigeria.
CHRISTIE'S STORY
A SHORT STORY
"Again!"
“Jesus Christ!” Christie exclaims as she firmly grips the receiver of the white telephone, so for it not to slip off her soft and sweaty palm. The cracks emerging on her eyeballs reveals how terrible she feels about what she’s just heard over the phone.
"The three of them?"
"O my God"
"I'm feeling terrible right now” she says
Christie gets so nauseated by what she just heard on the phone that she feels something cold swimming up her gullet, to her mouth and it’s of great exigency that she lets it out.
“Excuse me Shade I'll be back in a moment" she drops the receiver. Perspiring profusely, she dashes through the well illuminated hallway. Everything seems absolutely vague in Christie’s sight, as she forces her way to the restroom and tries as much as possible to let the moving stuff out, prodigally disgorging, the bread and the dark brownish coffee, she had just consumed some hours ago. As she rinses her face, and stares at the mirror.
She cannot see herself reflect on the basin mirror. She can only see herself sitting at that round table covered with a red piece of cloth, she can see her, young, radiant, beautiful and tender self, facing Lawrence her brother whose Mephistophelian beam would always make one remember THE JOKER of the batman series.
“what would you like, ma?" she can now remember the voice of the black, beautiful and voluptuous waitress, with alluring cat eyes, holding the bill of fare. The waitress whose bust bulges out of the upper unbuttoned part of her white uniform as if it is straggling to force its way out, is one of those Nigerian graduates that have chosen menial jobs as last resort, after futile efforts to get a good job. Most of them choose to work in hotels, restaurants, clubs, and, bars on Victoria Island so they can ingratiate themselves with the Big Men that come to patronise them and they can get "tipped" for telling the men how beautiful their outfit is (even if it isn’t), and all sort of head swelling compliments, this leads to some of them telling the Big Men what led them to their "groveling" state.
"Sir, I'm a second- class lower graduate of Accountancy, I finished from UNILAG ," the waitress had told Christie's father Mr. Gilbert Ojo a "Big Man" too, he owned some of the biggest industries in Lagos, his biggest ones were located in Ilupeju, Ikeja, and Agbara. His fifteen storey, five star hotel stands out gracefully among other skyscrapers, beside the BAGATELLE RESTAURANT on the commerce friendly Broad Street in Lagos Island. The elegant and classy structure of the hotel brings the image of the brilliant BURJ AL ARAB of Dubai, for the structure of CHRISTIE HOTEL which was named after Gilbert's mother takes the shape of a palm tree because of his mother's obsession with palm trees.
"So I took my application letter and my C.V. to Pearl Bank that year… … …” the waitress had continued.
“After much ‘go and come backs’, I was at last granted an interview on the fifth month of visiting the bank”
She told Gilbert how the manager had invited her to his house after the interview for ‘drilling’, which she had thought to be like tutelage on the way the bank operates.
”He raped me, sir” she finally said and paused.
Christie had expected her to be lachrymose after relating her story, but the waitress had forced herself to smile, with the smile being so real, that it looked like that of the lady on the antiseptic commercial, who gives a broad smile after saying the "if I don't take care of them, who will?" Phrase.
"Unfortunately sir, I wasn’t offered the job” she said.
"The manager said he wanted another round for me to start the job" she added.
Christie, now washing off some of the puke that had splashed on the sides of the pure white bathroom sink remembers how Gilbert, became stupefied by the waitress' story. Gilbert moved by the waitress’ story, gave her his business card and invited her to his office. The waitress looked around like a thief that is being chased before collecting the money Gilbert had offered her. She then fell to her knee to thank Gilbert for the money he had given her, with prayers flooding out of her mouth.
"John who collected money from a guest last week was fired by our boss , Sir", she told Gilbert, after he asked her the reason why she collected the money timorously.
"Iya mi, please eat your food", Gilbert had urged Christie, who was 17 years old at that time to eat the Cassoulet de Toulouse which Her mother, Mrs. Funmi Gilbert had just ordered for her since she had refused to talk when the waitress asked her what she wanted. Gilbert called her "Iya mi" which means "my mother" in Yoruba language, because his mother had once said that she would reincarnate as a fair complexioned lady because of her tar black complexion. She by had told Gilbert to take good care of her transmigrated form just as he would take care of her. When Christie was given birth to, “this one is the duplicate of Her Grandmother" was what Gilbert had said, the only divergence was the difference in complexion, and that was even enough to convince him.
Christie, still staring at the mirror reminiscences, the feeling she had had that day. The day her father had told her the reason why he called her ‘Iya mi’, the abstract swelling she felt in her head that made her burst into laughter, her father too seeing this started laughing intensely. She recalls what her father had said when she asked him the reason for his laughter
"Well, I'm laughing because happiness looks so nice on your sheen face and that’s my greatest joy, and I promise to do anything to make you happy always"…………….
"Daddy! Lawrence has been a pain in the ass," she remembers what she had said after much pleading from her father to her on her eating the Spanish dish her mother had ordered for her.
....... To Be Continued Tomorrow.
CHRISTIE'S STORY
A SHORT STORY
"Again!"
“Jesus Christ!” Christie exclaims as she firmly grips the receiver of the white telephone, so for it not to slip off her soft and sweaty palm. The cracks emerging on her eyeballs reveals how terrible she feels about what she’s just heard over the phone.
"The three of them?"
"O my God"
"I'm feeling terrible right now” she says
Christie gets so nauseated by what she just heard on the phone that she feels something cold swimming up her gullet, to her mouth and it’s of great exigency that she lets it out.
“Excuse me Shade I'll be back in a moment" she drops the receiver. Perspiring profusely, she dashes through the well illuminated hallway. Everything seems absolutely vague in Christie’s sight, as she forces her way to the restroom and tries as much as possible to let the moving stuff out, prodigally disgorging, the bread and the dark brownish coffee, she had just consumed some hours ago. As she rinses her face, and stares at the mirror.
She cannot see herself reflect on the basin mirror. She can only see herself sitting at that round table covered with a red piece of cloth, she can see her, young, radiant, beautiful and tender self, facing Lawrence her brother whose Mephistophelian beam would always make one remember THE JOKER of the batman series.
“what would you like, ma?" she can now remember the voice of the black, beautiful and voluptuous waitress, with alluring cat eyes, holding the bill of fare. The waitress whose bust bulges out of the upper unbuttoned part of her white uniform as if it is straggling to force its way out, is one of those Nigerian graduates that have chosen menial jobs as last resort, after futile efforts to get a good job. Most of them choose to work in hotels, restaurants, clubs, and, bars on Victoria Island so they can ingratiate themselves with the Big Men that come to patronise them and they can get "tipped" for telling the men how beautiful their outfit is (even if it isn’t), and all sort of head swelling compliments, this leads to some of them telling the Big Men what led them to their "groveling" state.
"Sir, I'm a second- class lower graduate of Accountancy, I finished from UNILAG ," the waitress had told Christie's father Mr. Gilbert Ojo a "Big Man" too, he owned some of the biggest industries in Lagos, his biggest ones were located in Ilupeju, Ikeja, and Agbara. His fifteen storey, five star hotel stands out gracefully among other skyscrapers, beside the BAGATELLE RESTAURANT on the commerce friendly Broad Street in Lagos Island. The elegant and classy structure of the hotel brings the image of the brilliant BURJ AL ARAB of Dubai, for the structure of CHRISTIE HOTEL which was named after Gilbert's mother takes the shape of a palm tree because of his mother's obsession with palm trees.
"So I took my application letter and my C.V. to Pearl Bank that year… … …” the waitress had continued.
“After much ‘go and come backs’, I was at last granted an interview on the fifth month of visiting the bank”
She told Gilbert how the manager had invited her to his house after the interview for ‘drilling’, which she had thought to be like tutelage on the way the bank operates.
”He raped me, sir” she finally said and paused.
Christie had expected her to be lachrymose after relating her story, but the waitress had forced herself to smile, with the smile being so real, that it looked like that of the lady on the antiseptic commercial, who gives a broad smile after saying the "if I don't take care of them, who will?" Phrase.
"Unfortunately sir, I wasn’t offered the job” she said.
"The manager said he wanted another round for me to start the job" she added.
Christie, now washing off some of the puke that had splashed on the sides of the pure white bathroom sink remembers how Gilbert, became stupefied by the waitress' story. Gilbert moved by the waitress’ story, gave her his business card and invited her to his office. The waitress looked around like a thief that is being chased before collecting the money Gilbert had offered her. She then fell to her knee to thank Gilbert for the money he had given her, with prayers flooding out of her mouth.
"John who collected money from a guest last week was fired by our boss , Sir", she told Gilbert, after he asked her the reason why she collected the money timorously.
"Iya mi, please eat your food", Gilbert had urged Christie, who was 17 years old at that time to eat the Cassoulet de Toulouse which Her mother, Mrs. Funmi Gilbert had just ordered for her since she had refused to talk when the waitress asked her what she wanted. Gilbert called her "Iya mi" which means "my mother" in Yoruba language, because his mother had once said that she would reincarnate as a fair complexioned lady because of her tar black complexion. She by had told Gilbert to take good care of her transmigrated form just as he would take care of her. When Christie was given birth to, “this one is the duplicate of Her Grandmother" was what Gilbert had said, the only divergence was the difference in complexion, and that was even enough to convince him.
Christie, still staring at the mirror reminiscences, the feeling she had had that day. The day her father had told her the reason why he called her ‘Iya mi’, the abstract swelling she felt in her head that made her burst into laughter, her father too seeing this started laughing intensely. She recalls what her father had said when she asked him the reason for his laughter
"Well, I'm laughing because happiness looks so nice on your sheen face and that’s my greatest joy, and I promise to do anything to make you happy always"…………….
"Daddy! Lawrence has been a pain in the ass," she remembers what she had said after much pleading from her father to her on her eating the Spanish dish her mother had ordered for her.
....... To Be Continued Tomorrow.
0 comments
Comment