“Where are we going?” The taxi asks as he looks at Neriah through the front mirror.
“Surulere,” she replies.
The drive-through was long and a little tiring as usual, but it was worth it. Surulere was far off the island, which is Ikeja where she lives and even Shawn does not know she would come this far to look for a house. But she’d gone this far to not face anything like eviction again. Surulere is so far off that Cainan won’t think it wise to buy the land, hoping to invest in it. She also knows this will take her away from Shawn, but she knows it’s better now than later. After what happened to her this morning, Shawn was very terrified and even though she tried to tell him not to be. Going far away is the only way she can avoid Shawn and keep the truth from him.
She is dying, and she knows it and as much as she wants to keep fighting, she’s given literally everything she had. Her dreams, hopes and ambitions and now she fights to see another day.
When she was diagnosed with a brain tumour five years back, her family had to give up everything they had just to make sure she beat it, but now it is back and she knows there’s no saving for her this time.
One year ago, when she was told the cancer was back and at stage three, she had a lot on her plate, a lot yet underachieved and one year later, they were still underachieved. Her dream is to leave the mark of her existence before dying and finding a suitable house to stay in while she creates her clothes and designs is the only way. Life isn’t as rosy as she thought when she first came. There was hard work involved, and she was ready for the hard work until she found out about her fate from the doctor a year ago.
“We are here,” the driver announces, breaking Neriah out of her deep thought.
She looks out the window, and he’s right, they are already here, “Thanks, here you go.” she hands him his money and gets down from the car.
The house is just a few walks from here, and she walks it. After the first minutes, she feels exhausted as if she’d walked an hour; she knows it’s her condition that makes her feel this way, so she just keeps walking until she gets there.
She’s a few minutes late, but she makes it anyway and there is the landlord, Mr Aja a fifty-something-year-old man with grey hair and glasses, wearing a long, white caftan and the caretaker, Mr Bassey, a man in his early thirties with bald hair in Ankara top and black trouser already waiting outside the apartment before she arrives.
“Sorry I kept you waiting,” she apologises. “shall we go in? Seems it’s about to rain.” She requests and they enter the apartment.
Once inside, Neriah takes out her purse where the rent money for the house is, but before she can hand it over, Mr Aja speaks.
“I’m sorry, Miss Gomez, we got warned to not give the leasing of the house to you.”
Neriah’s heart skip a beat as yet again her worse fear comes true, “I don’t understand, who warned you against leasing the apartment to me?” she asks, her voice on the brink of shattering for pain and unshed tears.
“A man came over here last night and told us that someone named Cainan is going to buy over Mr Aja’s house if we give it to you.” Mr Bassey explains with a helpless tone.
“I’m really truly sorry, but this house has been with our family for a long time and I don’t plan on losing it soon.” Aja furthermore explains with an apologetic tone of voice.
Neriah wipes off her tears and nods, “I get it, thanks for your time and have a wonderful day.” She gets up to her feet and makes her way to the door.
“The storm is coming, won’t you wait for it to calm before you leave?” Aja asks as he hears the brewing of the clouds.
Neriah shakes her head, “No, I’d like to keep going, thanks.” She says before opening the door and walking out. She walks down the road, hoping to find a taxi back home.
She ponders upon the response she’s going to have to give Shawn when he’ll ask. And she also thinks about where else she might go in search of a lease. She knows Cainan will not let her be, not until he’s done frustrating all her efforts and Shawn was right when he said he wouldn’t let it go.
The thunder clashes in the sky and she watched as the few people on the street run for cover so that the rain doesn’t descend on them, but she keeps walking.
She feels pain in her head and she rubs her head to help ease and soothe the pain. As the pain reduces, she looks on the road for a taxi, but she sees none coming. Instead, she notices a black Ferrari with a black tainted glass at the corner of the road.
Following her instincts, she heads for the car and on getting there; she knocks on the wind-up glass of the car door. After the second knock, the window rolled down and inside sat her worse nightmare, Cainan.