"Congratulations on your victory in the gubernatorial elections and on your show of sportmanship..."A reporter on TV was speaking when i walked into the living room. The elections, I heard, had taken a peculiar turn this year with PDP unable to secure landslides as before. I scarcely follow up on politics and elections so i didn't have the details but I was glad my grandfather did because it got me some millions at the WWTBAM game show four years ago. Life had turned out very interesting after that time.
I sat on the floor sipping my special concoction. My sunshine of a husband had left the house much earlier while I was praying and I didn't get the chance to even say our usual, 'love you more', so I sent him a text message saying just that. I was still holding my phone when a call came in - It was Ebere Jennifer Anah, my PA and close friend. I picked it.
"Bugatti 012, good morning. How are you?" I was certain someone standing at my front door could also hear her laughter coming from my phone.
"Nano 012, I am fine. For goodness sake, why are you so outdated?" It was my turn to laugh. She just called me Tata Nano and carried on talking, "I'm on my way to your house with the driver. What are you doing right now?"
I looked at the wall clock - it was ten minutes past seven. I knew better than to tell Ebere I was sitting on the floor in the middle of my living room with a cup of half-empty moringa tea like a jobless housewife, while still in my night wear. I had to analyse my chances of avoiding her verbal spikes.
"So where are you now?" I asked as I stood up casually and went to the kitchen.
"Fifteen minutes away from your front door and I should meet you waiting when I get there," she replied with her tone sounding like I'll get fired if she met me otherwise. Thank God I'm the boss and bosses still called the shots.
"See ya then." I hung up.
Verbal spikes were on their way no doubt, but I had just bought my ears extra time.
The hardest decision I had to make almost every morning was that of what to put on. It's an age old chore, although I admit I always came out looking more stunning afterwards.
As I stood before my wardrobe fifteen minutes later, I whispered a 'thank You' to God. Stretched out before me was a ten-feet long wardrobe stocked with my style of clothings numbering over fifty and I still had a closet with more clothes and accessories. Compared to me of few years ago, this was certainly a miracle. I was still considering what combination to wear when I heard footsteps climbing up the stairs.
"Ebere please pardon me. I'm dressing up now. Just wait a few minutes," I echoed out the bedroom door assuming it to be her footsteps.
"Is there no one else in this big house yet?" It was the voice of one of my siblings.
"Ah! Troko what an early surprise. I don't have a maid if that's what you mean. Just a few minutes, I'll be with you." I knew she meant otherwise. She and most of my family members just refused to understand and accept the decision of my husband and I to delay breeding until two years after marriage. My mum was the ring leader.
I was now looking at the mirror and rounding up my drama. I picked up my bag and left the room closing the door behind me.
"Sis, good morning. What's up?" She said as I walked up to her and gave her a hug. "I thought you said you leave the house at noon on Fridays?"
"Yes, but today is another exception. I have some important things to do this morning. My friend should be here any moment to pick me. No work today?" I was already walking down the stairs as I spoke because it was twenty minutes to eight now and I heard a car drive in.
"There's work and I'll be very late." She replied nonchalantly, following my queue.
"If I were your boss, you'll get a suspension for that remorseless response." I looked around to make sure I missed nothing.
"Oh please, it's friday and I work for the government. Please I need to use one of your cars tomorrow. That's why I stopped by."
Typical of this my sister: ever demanding; hardly requesting. That 'please' she added to her sentence was just as useless as it would be if an armed robber pointed a gun at someone and said 'Please hand me your wallet' - I felt like turning her down.
"Tokunbo Nano! Aren't we leaving? We're late." Ebere called out, standing by the front door.
"I'll think about it and give you a response before noon. My friend is already here. Shall we?" I excused her and she walked out then I double checked the living room again before going out of the house.
I had no idea what lay in store for me that morning as I left the house and even if I saw it in a dream, I may still have doubted. The day was really nine-months pregnant and in labour.
So we dropped my sister, Troko, at a junction next to her office and the driver entered into the Aba express way. We were discussing about the exponential growth IPAKIS NIGERIA had experienced in the past four years and some leads I had gotten for our sales teams when suddenly the car jerked hard with a 'cRaSh' sound from behind - this was somewhere between Presidential Hotel and GRA junction but closer to GRA junction.
Ebere exclaimed the usual 'JESUS!' while I just gasped, holding my hand to my chest, then I looked behind me and saw a blue hilux, like one of those kind that lead convoys.
My driver, Moses, came out of the car and went to check the extent of the damage while a mobile police officer, apparently from the hilux, approached him, alongside the driver of the hilux.
The car windows were winded up so I couldn't make out what they were saying but, what happened was that there was a little traffic just before the junction - the traffic warden had just stopped the line to make way for cars entering GRA, so my driver slowed down but this hilux car, still on speed didn't slow down on time and hit our car.
"I think we should remain in the car, let Moses handle this and let's see how this goes," I told Ebere who was just as calm.
A few minutes later, another mobile police officer tapped on the window by Ebere's side, gesturing for her to wind down. She did.
"Good morning madame. Please don't be offended, my boss wants to speak with you." He said confidently addressing Ebere.
She in turn looked at me and I nodded signalling her to reply him.
"Good morning sir. Please don't be offended too but you don't expect me to come down and go see your boss to hear him. I mean, it's his convoy that just hit this car. Can you see that we are ladies?"
"Madame you are right. Don't be offended. It will be taken care of right away, just come with me please." I nodded again and she obliged him. As she stepped out of the car, I could hear the voices of more persons at the back of the car. By this time, the traffic had cleared and cars were driving by, with people looking in our direction. I checked the time, it was 8:45. I called the MD at the office immediately to report the situation and a probable delay since we had a brief meeting scheduled for 9am. I also sent my sunshine a text message informing him about the developments and asked him to call me if he was less busy. He called back instantly.
We were still talking when Ebere returned. I tried to read her facial expression to tell if all was well. She looked flushed to me.
"Sunshine, I'll call you back later. She's back. Let me know what's new. Ok. Bye love." I ended the call.
"Debby.. this was an accident made in heaven!" she blurted out and I raised eyebrows. "Do you know who that was?"
"What happened to the car?" I asked, more concerned about my meeting and this prolonged delay.
"The lamps were smashed, bumper bent and rear dented but who cares? I called the office and another is coming to pick us, while Moses is taking this one to the mechanic. Someone else's insurance is covering for it." As she was talking, the hilux drove past with an entire convoy behind it - six cars in a row. I turned and saw that a mobile police officer and another man were still with my driver and they were coming to us, so I winded down my side of the window.
"Moses, please stop a cab immediately. We can't wait for company vehicle." I turned to Ebere, "Call them back to tell the driver not to bother - I smell a rat."
"What rat?" she asked giving me a quizzical look.
"Paparazzi rat." Then i gestured for her to look at the direction of GTBank. A reporter - no, three reporters had just come out of a car and were heading towards us; one with a camera.
Luckily, Moses got a taxi almost immediately and we came out of the car and entered the taxi. At this point, the reporters had already arrived and very prepared. I had informed Moses and the others not to utter a word in response to anything they say.
"Hello madame, please can you give us a few minutes?" one reporter called out, as I was entering the taxi.
"We heard your car was damaged by one of the cars in the newly elected governor's entourage. Was it the very car carrying the governor?" another reporter requested coming closer. Meanwhile the one with the camera was busy taking photos of the 'damaged' car.
This time I winded the windows up and the driver drove off. Moses drove off after us.
"Annoying Paparazzi! See how they just took the surprise off my gist." Ebere spoke up as soon as we were clear.
"Yes. The Governor. So give me the details - what happened when you left?" I asked with a bit of excitement. I was conscious of the taxi driver.
"As I followed the officer, we walked to that second SUV after the hilux. When I was getting closer, the window came down and there was 'the man' looking at me." She narrated, getting into a frenzy as the tale went on. "I greeted him and he apologised for the accident before asking who I was. I told him, adding that my boss was the other lady in the car. Here's his card." she continued, flashing a very rich-looking complimentary card in front of my face before handing it to me.
From the inside mirror, I saw the taxi driver take a glance at the card. He had been stealing those glances at us since we got into his car.
"Wow! Babe! Give me gist abeg." My own excitement increased at the sight of the card. Maybe because as a sales person 'the card' was reeking of 'Eau de Prospect' or maybe it was the open opportunity to build a one-on-one relationship with the next Governor staring at me in the face, or maybe it was both, but I was really excited. This whole accident and delay was worth it.
"So as I was saying," she snatched the card from my grasp to get my attention, "Pay attention. He then asked his PA to dispatch some persons to take the car to his mechanic and make arrangements for a vehicle to take us to our destination but, I told him that wouldn't be necessary because an office car was on it's way to pick us. He even went further to invite us to a dinner party happening in his residence tomorrow evening. The PA took my card - said he'll send the invitation to the office later today." She finally paused, and all the while I was just staring at her, both listening and trying to picture her story in my head like I was seeing it happen. I do that a lot, so much that someday I may not even be able to tell if she told me this story or if we both followed the mobile police officer to the car.
"This was really a blessing in disguise, and I just can't believe it's happening to me - to us I mean. Plus dinner party? Babe we don hammer o'" I said and slammed her a 'high five'.
The driver finally spoke and seriously, I was taken aback at his quality of spoken english - "Madame, sorry to intrude in your discussion but please would you need another chauffeur to take you for the dinner tomorrow? I'm available for free."
Ebere and I looked at each other, surprised. Then I responded. "I don't think we need an extra chauffeur tomorrow, but I think you could send in your resume if you'll like to work for my company."
"Thank you ma. I'm very grateful ma. I will send it in today." He said with genuine appreciation. He was a graduate with a second class honors I later found out.
We got to the office about 9:30am and the rest of the journey down there was full of plans on the dinner party. It was only after the meeting it occured to me that I hadn't informed my hubby about my invitation to the newly elected Governor's lodge. That day, just before we eventually got the invitation, I prayed that it'll be an invitation for couples and it turned out so.
To cut the long story short, I did not only meet the 'man of the state' at the dinner party the next day, I had a good rapport with his wife who was just a few years older than I was. I met other top government officials and their wives and girlfriends. As a salesperson concerned, I made sure I gathered enough acquaintances and I encouraged my hubby to do same. Ebere was there with her spouse as well and we had a night to remember.
THE END
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