Before I begin, I am glad to inform you all that this blog has been nominated in the 2012 Nigerian Blog Awards. 'The Geebee Chronicles' was shortlisted in the 'Best Personal blog' category. I thank you all for your efforts in the nomination stages that made this possible. Coincidentally, this blog was nominated in this same category in the 2009 and 2010 editions but unfortunately didn't clinch the spot on both occasions. Hopefully, it would be different this time around but that's only gonna happen if you vote. Please, go ahead and vote for my blog and your other favourite blogs by clicking HERE. Thank you! That said, let's continue with our series.
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“Hello, are you there?” BG asked worriedly.
I could not tell what she was
worried about. Was she worried that her sister might be missing or that her
sister might be with me?
“Yea-yeah I’m here,” I said in a
stutter, my gaze fixed on Cher in total confusion. I tried unsuccessfully to
communicate with her with my eyes. She was busy on the computer chatting with
my maga and appeared uninterested in
my phone conversation to my utter disgust. She should have been the one
receiving BG’s call if only her blasted phone was not turned off.
“Has Cher called you?” BG asked
again.
I was at crossroads on what my
response would be. If I told her I had not heard from Cher, it would cause more
agitation on her part if indeed she was worried about her sister’s whereabouts
and I didn’t want to put her through such mental trauma considering her
condition. On the other hand, if I told her that Cher was with me, she would
probably smell a rat and wonder why Cher had not bothered to call her after meeting
me or why I had not called for that matter. It would also cause more mental
pressure for her. It was a case of two roads leading to one unpleasant
destination. I needed a few seconds to talk to Cher to determine what my
response would be. I ended the call abruptly and hoped to grab as much time I
could to talk to Cher before BG called again.
“Cher, BG’s been trying to reach
you. She says your phone is switched off.” I lashed out, trying really hard to
suppress my anger.
“Oh really? Yeah, I turned it off
earlier on. I totally forgot about the phone!” she responded lamely.
I was sure it was another lie but I
decided not to push it.
“Okay. Well, she’s calling me now
and asking about you. What do I tell her?”
She smiled. “Are you asking me? You
can tell her I’m here with you.”
I felt my head was going to
explode. “Really? You want me to tell her that?” I said, looking at her
disbelievingly. “You ought to have called her to tell her that yourself earlier
on!”
“Sorry” she simply said.
“So what next?” I asked, wishing I
could slap the taste out of her mouth. “Why don’t you just turn on your phone
now and call her so you can tell her whatever you want. I really don’t like
what is happening right now.”
She was going to say something but
my phone rang. My heart froze.
“I think you should pick this call,
Cher.” I said and stretched the phone, still ringing in my hand to her.
“And say what?” she asked. “It’s
your phone. You talk to her.”
I could feel my blood rising as I
accepted the call.
“Hello baby. Sorry, I think there
were issues with the network.” I said.
“Okay. I was beginning to . . .”
“Cher is here with me!” I said
suddenly.
The shock on Cher’s face was as
clear as crystal. I held her gaze and managed not to smile. Apparently, she had
expected that I would ‘cover up’ again like I had done earlier but I was
already neck-deep in fury and was ready to damn any consequences. The truth
was, I half expected myself to come out so straight with BG at that moment but
I did it anyway, more like the words jumped out of my mouth. Cher’s expression
revealed obvious disbelief and I could sense a tinge of apprehension. I had
successfully turned the tables with one sucker punch and I was glad to savour
the moment.
“She’s with you?” BG asked. “And
you guys could not even call me?”
“Sorry babe,” I said. “We are in
the café now anyway.”
“But I’ve been trying to reach her
since and . . .”
“Yeah, she said her phone is
switched off . . .”
Cher snatched the phone from me in
a flash and put it to her ear. I was sure she had been scared that I would go
all out to tell BG all her antics previously and she had quickly decided to
save face. The truth was, I wouldn’t have done that but I was glad she was
scared.
“Hey lil sis,” she said into the receiver.
Her gaze met mine and she eyed me
with obvious disgust. I wasn’t in the least bothered. In fact, I had to hold
myself back from bursting into laughter. I sighed in relief and settled down to
face the computer screen. The ball was in her court now.
The call lasted for about six
minutes and while I chatted on the computer with Petr, a prospective maga, I listened to Cher’s side of the
conversation with her sister. I was awed by her smartness and how she easily
got herself out of the dicey situation with a convincing tale on how she got
stuck in traffic and how her friend’s brother played games on her mobile phone
and caused the battery to go flat. At a point, BG asked her if it wasn’t
getting too late considering the time. It was already past seven o’clock at
that point and her home was another two hours drive away. Cher simply told her
she would be on her way soon. Meanwhile, Petr insisted he would like to see me
on webcam because he had heard a lot of bad stories about Nigerian scammers. I
decided it would be a perfect time to allow Cher begin to perform her duties as
the ‘face’ of my Yahoo enterprise. I was due to receive a call from Luke Pine
that evening after I had sent him the call numbers to the phone I had
previously given to Cher. I was yet to brief her on the modalities of how she
would respond to his call but with all the drama that had happened that day, I
was already starting to wonder if bringing Cher in wasn’t a grave mistake.
“So . . .?” I said as she ended the
call.
“Get lost!” she said angrily.
I was amused. “I’m sorry Cher but
you pushed me that far.”
“You should have known I was just
messing with you all along,” she said and she sounded so sincere that I felt
very guilty. “I play a lot of games. That’s just me.”
“Well, that was a very expensive
one. I’m sorry I overreacted.” I said, meaning it.
Cher shrugged. “It’s alright.” She said, facing the computer screen. “So
let’s make this money sir! Is that still the guy I was chatting with? What’s
his name again?”
“Petr,” I said. “However, I think
it’s getting late. Don’t you think you should get going?”
She frowned. “Geebee, I’m a big
girl. I can take care of myself.”
We remained in the café for more
than an hour more and after much persuasion on my part, she finally agreed to
leave. As we got to the bus stop where she would take a bus home, she suddenly
gave a cry of despair.
I jumped. “What’s it?” I asked
concernedly.
“My folder!”
I remembered I had last seen the
folder when she had come to my place that afternoon.
“Where’s it?” I asked, already
hating the fact that I would have to rush back to the café to get it for her.
“I left it on your table while I
was reading your magazines!”
I wanted to scream. I looked at my
watch. It was almost nine o’clock and the traffic had already started building
on the road back to my place. It meant it would take at least an hour to get
back to my house.
“Oh God!” I said. “Don’t worry.
I’ll bring it home for you tomorrow.”
She winced. “You can’t. There’s an
assignment I wrote in it. I’m to submit it in school tomorrow morning.”
I sighed in frustration. I had no
choice. We were going back to my place. It took another twenty minutes for us
to get a bus headed my way and just as we settled in and I was cursing myself
and the powers that be for giving me such an evil day, my phone rang. It was BG
again!
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF THE
GEEBEE CHRONICLES.
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