by Boadi, Lilly
“Everything is going so nice and smooth, more than I had imagined,” she said. “Know what? I gave him a surprise visit at the office today and we had a wonderful lunch together.”
“Oh yeah? I’m happy for you girl!” said Laura.
“Aha! And I met this guy at his office; his assistant or so. God, he was such a nuisance!” said Kelly with a grimace.
“Why? What did he do? Ok, let me guess: he was making passes on you, right?”
“What else? He was disgusting!” said Kelly spitefully.
“Is he handsome?”
“Very!” said Kelly sincerely, “But nowhere near Mellis!” she scoffed.
“Uhhh. Are you sure it’s disgust you feel for him?” asked Laura, chuckling.
“What are you insinuating?” asked Kelly sharply.
“Maybe he fascinates you rather,” teased Laura.
“Oh please! I don’t get fascinated by play boys of his kind!” snapped Kelly as she strutted to her room.
“I hope that’s true,” shouted Laura after her, and she chuckled the more.
Kelly lay in bed and thought. How right Laura might be, because she found herself thinking about Chad and it wasn’t disgust she felt, but pleasure. ‘Oh no Kelly, don’t go there. You can’t fall for him! For Christ’s sake he’s Mellis’ good friend!’ she thought.
EIGHT
When Haida got home from work, the vicar was unusually in the hall, watching the Tele. She greeted him and made her way upstairs.
“Haida…” he called after her.
“Yes, dad…” she paused.
“Come and take a seat. I want to have a word with you,” he said and Haida’s stomach churned.
He only beckoned her this way when he had noticed something unfavorably extraordinary about her for a long period of time. Haida sat reluctantly on the sofa, feeling quite edgy. The vicar took his time to take off his spectacles and laid it on the center table.
“How are you – I mean, your health, work, everything?”
“All is well, dad.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said, nodding slowly. “And Mellis, how is he?”
“He’s ok, dad,” she said vivaciously.
“How are things going between the two of you?”
Haida’s heart missed a beat. “Very smoothly!” she said, giggling away.
“Are you certain about that?” the vicar asked doubtfully.
“Yes, dad.”
“Then how come he doesn’t come around of late? It’s quite a while since he visited,” he pointed out.
“Yes, dad. It’s his work. He’s quite busy of late and we get to see each other quite often, so I guess that has made him lose sight of how long a time he’s been here,” she lied.
“Oh, that’s reasonable. When was the last time you saw him?”
‘Huh?’ thought Haida, horrified. “Err…yesterday. We…we had lunch together,” she stammered.
“I see…” he paused. “How soon do you think you will see him again?”
“Tomorrow, probably; I can’t really tell.”
“But definitely before the week ends, right?”
If she said no, then it would definitely mean she doesn’t see him often, yet she had just lied about that.
“Yes definitely,” she said.
“When you do, tell him I’d like to see him preferably during the weekend, and that is if he can make time. I’d like to have a tennis game with him too. So he had better be prepared. I miss my old days you know.” he put his glasses back on and fixed his eyes on the TV
“I will tell him, dad…” when she realized her father wasn’t saying anything more, she stood on her feet “I’ll be in my room then”
“Alright” he said
Was that all what the urgent call about? How wierd! Haida thought. All the while, the vicar had been talking quite grimly. He was serious, but how was she going to deliver this message? He has never given her such a task! Why now – now that it was so difficult to? Why wouldn’t he call Mellis and give him the message personally? Of course, he sounded skeptical as he was questioning her.
The following day, Kelly went to Mellis’ workplace, and they had lunch together once more. She found herself yearning to see Chad, but according to Mellis, he was taking up a task in town – some info they needed immediately before a meeting at 2pm with the board after lunch – and she felt disappointed.
Haida informed Kiara about her father’s whim and sought her assistance.
“Please call him Kiara and give him the message,” she besought.
“Haida, this isn’t right. Why don’t you take this chance and talk to him?” said Kiara.
“You know I can’t and mustn’t do that! What would he think – that I only wanted to talk to him and he’ll feel big in his shoes? Please spare me some pride at least. Kiara please do this for me.”
Haida was right. She needed to keep up her pride for now.
“Ok,” concurred Kiara and dialed Mellis’ number.
Haida waited nervously.
“It didn’t go through, his phone is switched off,” said Kiara and Haida sighed disappointedly.
They tried to reach him over and over till close of work, but couldn’t get through to him.
“It’s a sign that God wants you to talk to him personally,” Kiara teased. “Try reaching him in the evening. Swallow that pride of yours and call him. At least, that would save you more trouble with your dad. Or do you want him to know about all that is going on between the two of you?”
“Of course not!”
“Then you’ve got no choice than to deliver his message. You have already committed yourself and if you give him any excuse so not to give Mellis the message, it would make him more skeptical. Then he would have a course to believe there’s something really wrong, and then, you’d be in bigger trouble because you’d have to reveal everything. I don’t think you’re ready for that, are you?”
But when Haida called Mellis around 7pm and couldn’t get through to him once more, she detested the idea of trying again. If the vicar asked about it, she’d say she didn’t see him and couldn’t reach him. But she knew this excuse would not sound reasonable for the second time. So she had to find any means possible to deliver the message to him before Friday.
Kelly was in the house when Mellis got home. “I prepared your favorite dish – mashed potato with salad and chicken, since there’s no Piccadilly,” announced Kelly gleefully as she took off his coat and loosened his tie.
“Mmm…the talk of it is even appetizing. I’m really famished,” said Mellis, taking a seat beside the dining table.
“How was the meeting?” she asked.
“Splendid! It was a presentation, and Chad’s info was bingo!”
Her heart jumped out at the mention of Chad. “Thank God it went well!” she said, setting the table. “I guess he’s a competent assistant? I mean Chad?”
“Chad is such a mascot!” said Mellis, savoring the aroma of the delicacies before him.
“Where did he study?” she asked, dishing into his plate.
“He is an old school friend. We attended the same senior secondary. He studied commerce at UCC and he completed his ACCA here. He’s very brilliant you know; loves accountancy.”
“Is he married?”
“Oh no…” he said, with mouthful of potatoes.
He swallowed, “…in a relationship, but not that steady.”
“I see,” said Kelly, raising her eyebrows in pleasure. “I’ll come to the office tomorrow… hope you don’t mind?” she asked.
“You love the idea of coming to the office. Does anything fascinate you there?” he asked wittingly.
“Oh, yes! You do fascinate me a lot, and it is wonderful having lunch together you know. I wish we’d do this all the time till I leave,” she said sweetly.
“When are you leaving?”
“Next week. Wednesday to be precise.”
“We’ll definitely have lunch together till you leave,” he said,
enjoying every bit of the food. “Mm!” he nearly choked over his food. “That reminds me. I had an appointment on Wednesday, next week, which has been rescheduled to Friday that is next two days. Chad had to take care of that but we shifted responsibilities, he’d take care of the rest at the office. I’d have to spend almost the whole working day in town. I’m sorry I can’t have lunch with you then,” he explained. “But, don’t you worry, I’ll make it up to you during the weekend,” he said and winked at her.
Kelly smiled, “That’s ok, long as I’ll have you inside me the whole weekend,” she said and they smiled into each other’s eyes.
Truly, Kelly was healing his pain bit by bit.
***
As expected, the vicar demanded a feedback to his request before Haida could vanish from the house to work.
“What did Mellis say? Could you get to talk to him?” he asked at breakfast.
“No dad, I didn’t see him yesterday. I tried reaching him on his handset but his phone was switched off,” she said.
“His phone was switched off throughout the whole day?” asked the vicar skeptically.
“I guess so, because I tried reaching him the whole day but to no avail. It amazed me too,” she said sincerely. “Oh, that reminds me. I should have called him this morning to see if I could reach him. I’ll do that when I get to work. But hopefully I’ll see him today and I’ll deliver your message dad,” she talked herself out of impending trouble.
Soon as she saw Kiara, she besought her to talk to Mellis on her behalf. Mellis was in the office with Chad when his phone rang.
“Kiara! What a surprise. I haven’t heard from you for quite a while,” he said boisterously when he picked through. Chad’s face beamed when he heard Kiara’s name. “How are you?” asked Mellis. “Thank God,” he said.
“And how are you?” asked Kiara. Mellis sighed.
“Managing! Guess you know everything….”
“Err…Mellis I did not call to talk about that,” she repelled him politely.
“So, what is it?” he asked, quite disappointed. “Oh, really….oh I see,” he said with a grin. “Tell her I’ll talk to him personally, so she shouldn’t worry about that….Ok….Bye… take care.”
“You too,” said Kiara and the line went dead. “He’ll call your dad,” she said and Haida sighed deeply with relief.
“Was that Kiara?” asked Chad.
“Yes,” said Mellis, still grinning.
“What did she want? And why do you have that grin on your face? What did she say?”
“A message from Haida from her father;that he wants to see me, preferably this weekend, and that Haida was supposedly too busy that she had to deliver the message on her behalf! Childish talk!” said Mellis.
“Watch your tongue man! Don’t insult my woman, ok? It is your woman who is being childish here,” cautioned Chad.
Mellis watched him for a second. “I thought you said you didn’t love her, so why are you sounding so serious about her now?” he asked. Chad was silent, seemingly in thought. “I do love Kiara,” he said eventually.
“I think I have inside me this kind of unharnessed love for her; this strong passion which I believe if nurtured could blossom into some great love for her,” he sat upright suddenly, looking sober. “You know, sometimes you may have this deep-seated love for someone and you’d never know until you open up your heart and allow it to flow. That’s the best thing you can do with love right – to allow it to flow out of you?” he said rhetorically.
Mellis kept staring at him, astounded. “Where did you learn that?” he asked.
“From the master of love!” declared Chad.
“And who is that?”
“You!”
“What? Me?!” Mellis laughed richly.“Master of love! I see,” he chuckled. “You’d probably have to fit some saint with this name, like Jesus Christ, and not me,” he kept chuckling.
“You know one thing I’ve learned?” asked Chad, quite seriously. “That we all know about true love and feel it at some point in life, but we’re all guilty of the abuse of it. We cannot stop doing the wrong things even to the people we love – we take for granted and are taken for granted by those we love, we hurt and are hurt by those we love. We cannot always be good to our loved ones, but the beautiful part of it is that, no matter how it is expressed, when felt, love never fails.”
“Jesus Christ! What kind of books have you been reading? Love?” asked Mellis, finding Chad incredible.
“Not only books, but movies and stuff about relationships.”
“Blimey! I thought those thingswere for women!”
“This idea is why we have problems with understanding their needs and unable to get them to stop their naggings and troubles. We need to listen to them andunderstand them and learnwhat they want, and what they do not want, so that we will be better off ourselves. I do want to understand Kiara and make her my woman forever!”
Mellis gave a loud applause, “Bravo!” he said. “I think I need this lecture again and more. Truly it sucks when women nag. But haven’t you heard what a mystery they are –they can never be understood?”
“This is exactly why we need this education about them. What do you do with a mystery that’s close by you, that you see every day and that you definitely need and even love? You don’t need to know where it came from or how it came about, because, like you said, you’d never understand that. All you need to do is to know what to do with it once you get it to be yours and make it yours forever” said Chad and paused a while.
“We liken women as unto a machine, right – learn how to use and maintain it by learning the dos and don’ts about it, and it will get your work well done,” he said.
“And then, when it depletes, you get rid of it and get another. Let’s see; we have the complicated, sophisticated ones, and we have the simple ones, but the idea is that every machine gets work easily and quickly done. So, whether big or small, sophisticated or simple, they all have one common name and purpose which is to get things easily done.”
“Correct analysis!” said Mellis, listening critically.
“The same way, women come our way to make our lives easier in one way or the other. But to experience that depends on how you treat her. If you have a machine you don’t really cherish, you probably don’t care how you use or maintain it. You handle it anyhow, and if it goes kaput, you just throw it away. On the other hand, if you cherish your equipment, you would take good care of it and avoid doing anything that could damage it, right?”
“Right!” said Mellis agreeably.
“No man buys an expensive machine and abuses it. He even becomes hesitant about giving it out to another to use right?”
“Aha!” “In fact, you treat it like a saint and worship it like an idol, and you do anything to prevent it from becoming obsolete or destroyed….”
“You see, I told you this stuff is for women and not us,” interrupted Mellis.
“They’re the ones to make themselves expensive in order to be cherished. Second hand items are definitely not treated with much pride and care as compared with brand newones. The women should make us buy them before using them!”
“That is the marriage stuff, right?” asked Chad.
“Aha! Isn’t thatwhat you mean?”
“Not exactly… Partly anyway… I am talking about the woman you have not yet spliced up with; expensiveness in terms of how much valuable she is, and value not in terms of money, but character and virtue.
But for God’s sake a woman isn’t literally a machine – a machine isn’t mysterious anyway. You know how it came about and where it came from.
Secondly, a machine isn’t human and this is the important part: for God’s sake a woman is human, just like us, and we must treat them as such!” said Chad and concluded his lecture.
Once more, Mellis applauded “I like your lecture. Kudos!” he said.
“Bet you, I’ve learned that lesson really well!”
“Stop sounding li
ke a novice to this. I am the one who needed this lesson. I’ve learned to understand how valuable Kiara is, and I’ll never let her go.”
“For real?”
“For real! We’re not getting any younger and we need to mature – put all the fun with women away and get settled with a real one.”
“Now you are sounding like Apostle Paul.”
“Who’s that?” Chad was lost.
“It’s obvious you know nothing about the Bible,” said Mellis.
“See, I told you that you are better than me…oh…at least I know of ‘I and my Father are one,’”
“And where is that in the Bible?”
“Unless you help me out,”
“Even that?!” said Mellis, and they roared with laughter.
“Anyway, are you honoring the old vicar’s invite?” asked Chad when they were calm.
“This weekend? No way! I’ve got my hands full with Kelly. She’s leaving next week, and I need to treat her well before she goes to my mother full of complaints!”
“Have you already proposed marriage to her?”
“Not yet.”
“Then be sure you don’t. If you are really in love with Haida and want to make up with her, then don’t make another mistake of putting the idea of marriage into that woman’s head. I am telling you Mellis, don’t do it!”
“Yes, sir!” saluted Mellis amusingly. “You are my tutor now, and I’m ready to learn, sir!” he saluted once more and Chad sniggered.
“You are the one who taught me a lot. It’s good you showed up in my life again. Your presence really has turned my life around,” said Chad gravely.
“Will you stop flattering me?” said Mellis, throwing his hand in the air.
“No, I am not. You are a wonderful person, really…except the attitude of that thing in between your legs that can’t seem to rest for a while,” once more, they roared with laughter.
“After all that lecture you just gave me, do you think I’d watch it fly around again? Not again!”
“Oh really? Is that true?” asked Chad mordantly.
“Why? You don’t believe me or what?” asked Mellis, sounding offended.
“It’s not that easy, is it?”