The Pain – Chapter 6

Abayomi got to the Oaks Hotel and Suites at exactly 6.25pm. He brought out his phone and called Dele.

“Hey man” Abayomi said after he picked up. “I’m at the Hotel now. Where do I go from here?” He asked.

“Hey birthday man” Dele replied “You can come in to the reception. I would be coming out to meet you now” He said.

“Okay. See you in a bit” Abayomi said as he cut the line.
He got down from the car and walked up to the reception. Just as he was about to take a seat, he spotted Dele coming in.

“Birthday man Yomex!” Dele hailed as he walked up to Abayomi and hugged him “Long time man, long time! How are you doing?” Dele asked after they had disengaged.

“DeeDee my man!” Abayomi responded as he playfully slapped Dele on the back “I’ve been good o and It’s so good to see you again. I can’t complain cos life has been good.” He said smiling.

“Of course, look at you, you look good. You mustn’t complain o. Its obvious life is treating you real good” Dele agreed wholeheartedly as they both walked towards the restaurant.

Oaks Hotels and Suites had one of the best Chinese Restaurants in Lagos. Almost every weekend, it would be so full that in order to eat inside one had to either pre-book or order a take away. The restaurant had a general area for customers to eat and several inner rooms for more private and intimate meetings. They both stepped into the restaurant and Dele led the way to one of the inner rooms. Just as Dele opened the room and stepped inside, Abayomi got the shock of his life.

“SURPRISE!!!” screamed over 10 people – Motun, his parents, two of his favourite cousins, Emeka (Motun’s cousin), Bayo, Femi, Laura, Salewa, Lolia and Chidi, his friends from childhood.

“Wow!” was all Abayomi could say. He was pleasantly surprised and couldn’t imagine he was totally clueless about the whole thing. Just then, everyone rounded him up and started to congratulate him.

“Happy birthday” They all said as they took turns to hug him, shake hands with him and greet him in other ways they deemed fit. Some of them, he hadn’t seen in months and he was so happy to see them all. Finally, it was Motun’s turn. She looked absolutely beautiful in her attire and staring at her right now made something in him stir. Wow! She was really beautiful, he thought. She looked absolutely breath-taking and he was almost having funny thoughts just staring at her. Her hair was let down in long silky curls, an hairstyle he hadn’t seen before on her. Her dress was a knee length fitted sequined black sleeveless gown with a low neckline. She wore fuchsia heels, fuchsia studded reflective earrings and a fuchsia necklace to complement her look. The pink suited her perfectly. From his vantage position, he had full view of her cleavage to which he looked away from quickly. He stared into her eyes and he saw something there that he had never seen before. It seemed she was completely taken by him.

“Happy birthday Abayomi” Motun said with a wide smile on her face as she moved close to him and gave him a hug.

“Motun, so this was you!” Abayomi said as he returned her hug and wagged his finger at her afterwards. “I can’t believe I let you fool me” He said with a grin as he moved towards the big table that sat everyone.

Everyone watched and was chatting excitedly as Abayomi sat down at the head of the table with Motun seated at his right hand side. His parents sat on his left.

“Wow! Thanks so much guys” Abayomi said “I’m so overwhelmed by this. I know this had to be Motun’s idea, but what I don’t get is how Dele was the bait used to lure me here. You both don’t even know each other” Abayomi said as he gestured towards both of them. “You have an explanation to make woman.” He said as he folded his arms and relaxed into the chair the chair.
Everyone in the room burst out laughing as Motun smiled and began to speak.

“Firstly, I’m so grateful to everyone who made it here today. Thanks so much for playing along and not letting our dear Abayomi know about it” Motun said as she winked at everyone. She turned towards Abayomi and said “Abayomi, it’s being a great privilege knowing you and I’ve seen how far you’ve grown and how far you’ve come in your faith walk with God. I’m so proud of you and I can’t wish for a bestest friend than you. You’ve also helped me grow in various areas as well and for that, I’m so grateful. You’ve been a great friend I have leaned on over the years and you’re just a darling.” She said as she gazed into his eyes lovingly as the ladies in the group ‘aawwed’ and ‘oohhed’ at the seemingly romantic gesture displayed in their very eyes.

“Now, to how we worked all these out!” She said as she clasped her hands together gleefully, grinned at him and winked at the others. Everyone started chuckling as they watched as Abayomi rolled his eyes at Motun.

“Well you see I’m the main brain behind this as you’ve guessed. I thought, uummm how can I do something to appreciate my best friend without him knowing about it? And I came up with this idea. You’ve had several birthdays in the past with nothing special about them, so I decided to give you one you would never forget.” She said with a smile. “When you told me you were coming to Nigeria, I was a little bit crushed cos I had planned to have the surprise party hold in the UK. But I recovered quickly and planned something I believed could work here in Lagos. I didn’t want it to hold after your birthday either, cos if I did, I would have waited for you to come back to the UK.” She explained. “Anyway, I had it all planned out before coming down to Lagos and Mike was to be the bait to lure you here. ‘Unfortunately’,” She said as he raised her hands to indicate the open and closed quotation marks. “My plans were foiled when we met at that filling station on Thursday, just as I landed Lagos, coming directly from the airport” She said as she rolled her eyes in exasperation, trying to show how she felt that day. “At that point, I knew there was no way Mike would be the bait without you suspecting I was behind it. By the way, Mike is on his way. He had some things to do and he’s in traffic.” She said answering Abayomi’s unasked question.

“Excuse me please” She said as she paused briefly to switch off her mobile phone alarm which had starting ringing.

“So, as I was saying before the mosquito bite” She said as everyone burst into laughter. “I was totally destabilized when I saw Abayomi that day and I had to consult Mike again to see what I could do to change plans. And that was where Dele came into the picture” She said as she turned towards him and gave him a smile. “This is my first time of meeting you, Dele. Thanks for helping out on such a short notice.” She said gratefully.

Dele gave a small courtesy bow as he smiled at her comment. “You’re most welcome.” he said as Motun continued.

“Mike told me not to worry as Dele was one person Abayomi had always wanted to see in a long time. Fortunately for both of us, Dele was in Lagos and was just the perfect person to lure Abayomi here. I knew Abayomi could never think I had anything to do with it cos he knew I didn’t know Dele.” She said as she grinned teasingly as Abayomi, as he shook his head in response. “So, that was the plan and my reason for coming down to Nigeria. Never underestimate the power and determination of a woman, and happy birthday to you again!” She finished with a smile.

“Wow!” was Abayomi’s reaction to all he just heard. “You got me practically clueless about all these! I never suspected anything till I got here. I really underestimated you sha. You’re just a very naughty girl!” He said as he waged a finger at her while she stuck out her tongue at him in return as everyone in the room started laughing. He stood up from his seat addressed everyone.

“Thanks so much everyone. Words cannot begin to describe how overwhelmed and loved I feel right now. God bless you all.” He said. “I can’t even believe my parents played along with this as well.” He said as he went over to hug them again.

“Dele ma man, so you were into this shrouded plan against me, ehn? I would retaliate soon.” He said jokingly as he slapped him playfully on the back.

“No problem Yomex” Dele replied. “Just make sure my own surprise party holds at Burj Al Arab, Dubai. But ensure say you do am yourself o. No get help from anybody o so I wouldn’t need to retaliate.” He said with a straight face as everyone, including Abayomi burst into laughter.

Just then, Motun gestured to the waiters that it was time to take everyone’s orders. The waiters who were dressed in formal white and navy blue uniforms came over and handed out the menu. Everyone chatted excitedly and made small talk as they chose what they wanted to eat and handed the menu back to the waiters. There was Karaoke available in the room, so most of them participated in it while they waited for their orders. It was so much fun as some of them tried to mimic the artists who sang the songs but they failed woefully. In less than 30 minutes, their food was brought in and everybody began to dig in hungrily. Nobody remembered about Mike as they all ate and chatted away excitedly.

Tina opened her eyes and felt numb all over. She tried to get up from the bed, but couldn’t. Just then, she looked around and saw Mike standing some distance away from her bed talking frantically on the phone having this huge bandage on his right leg and blood stains on his arms. She looked around her and realized she was in the hospital. She tried to talk, but her voice seemed to have stuck to her throat. Her throat felt patched and she was very thirsty. She was suddenly tired and felt very sleepy. She thought about why and how she got there as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

Mike was on the phone talking to Tina’s elder brother, Remi. Remi had been one of his closest pals since childhood as well. In fact, they were like brothers. He was a medical doctor by profession and also a very good businessman. They hadn’t seen in a while, but they kept in touch very regularly. Mike had just broken the news about the accident to him and Remi sounded really worried and said he was going to tell his parents and be on his way as soon as possible. He was glad Remi had decided to tell his parents himself because Mike couldn’t even bring himself to call Tina’s dad about the accident. She was her dad’s favourite and he was very protective of her. Mike cut the call as he turned towards Tina and watched just as she slipped back into unconsciousness. He hurriedly moved to her side just to confirm that she was still breathing. Mike heaved a sigh of relief as he realized she was in fact still breathing. He was really scared and worried for Tina. He knew all he could do was to pray for her and hope Remi or her parents got there in time. He wasn’t going to call his parents yet he thought as he began to pray in the spirit.

They were brought to Gbagada State Hospital after the accident by the Lagos State Emergency Services. The accident had been quite nasty, and Mike was glad they were alive. It hadn’t been his fault at all, but the fault of the truck driver who came from behind and hit them on the side. The truck driver had been trying to overtake a vehicle, and being impatient as most of them usually were, he had gone ahead without thinking twice. He had felt he could bully any driver out of his lane without paying attention to rules or other vehicles on the road. Unfortunately, he was unaware of another car which was moving at snail speed a few metres away from the vehicle he wanted to overtake. In fact, he had been cursing and making angry gestures at the driver of the vehicle he just overtook that by the time he regained concentration, the only thing he could do instinctively was to swerve to his left to avoid colliding with the car in front of him. His bad timing and impatience had led to the accident. The annoying thing was that the truck driver had escaped unhurt. He had even tried to run away (as if that was possible), but was apprehended by some witnesses who handed him over to the authorities when they got there. Mike sustained a few injuries here and there and was lucky his wounds weren’t worse. However, Tina wasn’t as lucky. The impact the truck made on his car had affected her directly. She had a swelling on her head, and cuts and bruises on her body. The right side of her body was particularly affected as that was where the truck had hit. She looked like she was in a very bad shape and he felt so bad and guilty for talking her into following him to Abayomi’s surprise party. If only he hadn’t called or persuaded her to come along he thought.

They had been in the hospital for almost an hour and the way they were treated was very pitiful and annoying. Tina was brought in unconscious, and the doctors and nurses seemed not to be in a hurry concerning anything. It was also very frustrating watching Tina lay helplessly on the stretcher without anybody attending to her. It took what looked like ages to get Tina a bed and what seemed like an eternity to even start treatment on her. He had been very frantic and almost hysterical with the carefree nonchalant attitude of the hospital staff when he met this particularly nice nurse who eventually helped them out. Within a short time, they were properly attended to. She was God-sent as she took charge of the whole situation almost as soon as she knew what had happened. The emergency side of the hospital had been unusually full as a result of a serious of accidents that occurred earlier that day at Gbagada. Some of the patients were even being referred and transferred to LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital). She got the doctor who attended to Tina, and she had handled Mike’s case personally. She directed some other nurses to help out as she took charge of the situation in the Emergency ward. Mike, with his wounds dressed, could only wait and hope that everything turned out well eventually. He picked up his phone again and sent a quick sms to Motun. He had to let her know he would not be making the party at all. The sms read:

“Hi Motun, I wouldn’t be making the party tonight as planned. Some things came up beyond my control. My regards to Abayomi and Dele. Have a lovely evening. Mike”

The message got delivered almost immediately and Motun’s phone beeped at the incoming message. Motun read the sms more than twice and wondered what could have made Mike decide to stay away. She felt somewhat guilty that she could have called to ask where he was. It had been almost 2 hours since he called her. She felt something was definitely wrong especially from the tone of the message. She decided to call him to find out what was wrong. She excused herself from the table, walked a few meters away and called him. His phone rang out with nobody picking. She tried again, and the same thing happened. By then, she was getting really worried. She decided to try for the third time and he picked.

“Hello” Mike answered tonelessly.

“Hi Mike” Motun replied carefully. “I just got your text, I hope you’re okay.” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks” He replied blandly.

“You don’t sound fine to me Mike. I thought you were almost here. Why the sudden change of mind?” She asked. “I’m kinda worried cos it’s really weird that you would just decide not to come any longer” She continued.

“Yeah, I know and I’m really sorry. There’s nothing I can do about that right now.” He said “Just send my apologies to everyone and a happy birthday to Abayomi. I would explain when everything has settled.” He continued.

“Okay then. I will” Motun replied not wanting to press. They weren’t really close and she didn’t want to sound like a nag “Take care of yourself” She said.

“Yes, I will.” He answered “Have a lovely evening.”

“And you too” She said as she cut the phone and made her way back to where the party was. Her face was etched in worry as she settled down in her seat and continued eating. She was not convinced about Mike’s story at all, and she felt something was definitely wrong. She really hoped everything was okay with him.