Must Read: Three Women (short story) - Season 1 - Episode 17

Episode 6 years ago

Must Read: Three Women (short story) - Season 1 - Episode 17

It was a Saturday, December 22, three days to Christmas; Dapo was at home, trying to clean up the house. He had been avoiding telling Lola about the whole thing for days now. He was cleaning the inside of the car when she came and sat beside him.

“Dapo, what’s up?”

“Nothing much.”

“You know what I’m talking about.” She said and moved closer to him.

He kept silent for a while not knowing what to say. He guessed he had come to the end of the road, and he couldn’t keep her in the dark any longer. He had to tell her.

“Let’s go inside.” They walked sluggishly into the house. Lola got a yogurt drink out the fridge and Dapo declined her offer for one.

“Mrs. Cole and I…we dated back in the days.” Lola was curled up on the couch right next to him now, and he was sure she could feel the vibration of the couch which was caused by his heart beat.

“I’m not dumb; I already figured that part out. I just want to know if there is going to be any problem in the present…I mean with us right now.”

“Okay. I wouldn’t say…”

“Dapo, let me re-phrase; is there anything Mrs. Cole can do now, or her presence around can cause, that would do us any harm?”

“Lola…it is a long story.”

“I have all the time in the world.”

“I really don’t know where to start.”

“Start from the very beginning and please don’t leave out anything. Remember that I’m your wife; for better for worse.”

Dapo told her every detail of the story, but left out the part about Anu being his biological daughter.
Lola looked down and played with the bottle in her hand al the while.


“So what happened to the baby?” She asked when he got to the end of the story.

“I don’t know how to tell you…”

“Just give it to me straight.”

“She had the child, but she never contacted me. Lola…the child…that child is Anu.”

The truth sank in, and it was like all the color had been drained from Lola’s face. Dapo almost couldn’t recognize his wife again. Without saying a word, she walked out of the room. He didn’t make any attempt to follow her; all the energy in him was gone.

After lying in one spot for about two hours; watching his wife go and come into the room more than a dozen times in silence, he got up and went out to the living room. He saw her standing by the curtain and walked over to meet her. As he embraced her from behind, she burst into tears. All the 3 years he had known her, he had never seen her cry before, and it hurt him that he had to be the cause of it.

He lifted her off the ground, after she had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and carried her to the bedroom. All of a sudden, he realized he was hungry and went off to the kitchen. There was a pot of spaghetti that was still warm and he took a bowl full.

He was half way through it when his phone rang; it was Mr. Cole.

“Good day M.D.” That was the way he usually referred to Mr. Cole.

“Can you come over; I really need to talk to you.”

“You mean right now?”

“If you are not too busy, it is important.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll be expecting you.”

He got to the Cole’s mansion about an hour after they had spoken on the phone. The gardener was trimming the flowers, and the other parts of the garden had some Christmas decorations. Kate, the maid appeared and ushered Dapo into the living room. He saw Mr. Cole with a TV remote control in hand flipping through cable channels.

“Am I interrupting?” Dapo asked and Mr. Cole looked up and smiled.

“I knew I could count on you.” He said and the two men shook hands. “So how is Lola?”

“She’s fine.”

“I really wouldn’t want to waste your time, so I would get straight to the point.” The man said and took a deep breath before continuing. “We just made up our minds to spend the Christmas in America; we are living tomorrow.”

“Wow!”

“Yes. Wow!”

“Well…You guys would have fun.”

“I hope so. So…the thing is I haven’t talked about this whole thing with my wife and you, and I wouldn’t have a nice time if it was hanging on my shoulder.”

“Okay.”

“Another place, another time, I’d still like to have known you; so it is funny that we had to get to know each other through this predicament.”

“Maybe it is a blessing in disguise.”

“Nicely said; thanks for putting it that way.”


Mr. Cole said and looked into space for a while.

There was a little silence, then he continued. “If I can fool everybody, I can’t fool myself. I’m dying; I feel it every day. I feel death coming closer.” There was silence again. “Whatever happens, take care of Anu.”

“I will do that.”

“I can’t ask too much; I really don’t know what to say on Kike’s case, but please keep an eye on her for me.”

“I’ll try.”

“How does Lola feel about the situation?”

“To be straight with you, she is broken hearted.”

“I understand why she would feel that way.”

After that being said, he got up from the couch “Yep! I got to go; I don’t want this to get any more emotional than it already is. I have a meeting in about an hour, thanks for coming again.” He said and the two men shook hands.

“No problem.”

“Kike and Anu went out shopping, they would have kept you company.”

“Okay.”

“Say hi to Lola for me.”

“I will.”


He drove out of the house behind Mr. Cole’s Mercedes Benz S 600, and they took different turns at the end of the street.

Lola was awake when he got back; he met her watching cartoons. He held her from behind. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Where have you been?” She said, turning her head to get a better look at him.

“I had to go to the Cole’s” Her disposition changed as he completed the sentence. It was now like a nightmare anytime Lola heard the Cole’s name mentioned around her.

“How are they?” She said, after about a minutes of silence.

“They are fine. I actually went to see Mr. Cole. The whole family made a late decision to travel to America for the remaining part of the holidays.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and he thought we should know.”

“Hmm! Good for them.”


Dapo sat beside her on the edge of the couch. “Lola, I need you to walk with me through the whole nine yard on this one.”

“Okay.” She said, but there was no sound of emotions in her voice. It was more like she said it because she knew that was what he wanted to hear, but never really meaning it.

“Please!”

“Okay. Okay.” She said with a forced smile on her face
“So how is junior doing?” He asked as he rubbed her belly.

“Why are you concluding that it is going to be a boy?”

“Am I concluding? I don’t know…I’m just so excited.”

“Me too.”

They stayed indoors throughout the day, and talked very little of the cloud that come over their house-hold in the last couple of days.