ADSactly Short Story - Racing to the Aisle
Amy, Thandie and Jane had been friends for as long as they could remember. Even though they did not play in the sand as toddlers, they just could not remember when they did not have each other or what they did before their friendship began. The three girls met in secondary school when they were in their first or second year. Theirs was a Federal Government Girl's College. Jane was the smallest among them back then but, she had a knack for getting in trouble with the seniors, and she was easily the most popular junior in the school.
Apart from being so little when her mother sent her out to the boarding school, Jane was also one of the youngest, having skipped two classes in primary school. So, she had neither the capacity nor the willingness to participate in the process of having her ready for school. Armed with the school prospectus, Mrs. Angela Olu went to the market to buy the essentials listed in the brochure for new students. Among them were sanitary pants. Mrs Olu must have had some difficulties finding sanitary pants for an eight-year-old or perhaps she just found it more convenient to buy her daughter a set of multicoloured children's pants. For whatever reasons she bought those pants, they were the reason for Jane's popularity when her schoolmates discovered those pants. The pants earned her nicknames like Multicolour, Coloured Pants, Small Pants, Jane the Small Pants. At first, she protested that her name was none of those but each time she did so, the girls would go through the list. The person that liked the names more than everyone else was Thandie.
"Multicolour," Thandie would call out.
"My name is not Multicolour," Jane would respond.
"Jane the Small Pants," Thandie would try again and she would not stop until Jane answered. Jane could not tell who created the name but since Thandie would not call her anything but any variance of the names, and since she liked it so much, she decided that Thandie must have been the originator. Before the end of the first term, Thandie and Jane agreed, though unofficially, to stick to Small Pants. After a few weeks, Jane did not find it offensive to be called Small Pants since most of the people who called her that were people she could have sworn really loved her. Thandie proved her right one night.
It was a Saturday night and it was time for prep. Most students were in class reading when Jane asked Thandie to follow her back to the dormitory. On their way, Thandie whispered in Amy's ear and Amy joined them. Behind the class was a garden shielded by mango and cashew trees. The three decided to follow that route so they can avoid detection by the seniors. As they tip-toed with their small torch, right in the middle of that garden were two seniors, Amaka and Stevie. The garden was pitch black and the girls did not expect to find any person there by that time of the night. Jane had the torch so as they turned a corner and flashed it, there they were; Amaka and Stevie seated at the base of a mango tree. It was not clear to Jane and her friends what the seniors were doing there but the seniors seemed to think they have been caught off-guard by a junior that was in a place she was not supposed to be. Jane took a while to process what was happening and by the time she looked back, her friends had run away.
"Come here, you little rat," Stevie called out to Jane even though she was only a few feet away from her and Amaka. "Who were those girls with you?"
"I don't know. The girls saw me as I was walking and followed me because I had a flashlight," Jane lied.
The seniors took Jane back to the class where they supposedly read. Jane was asked to go under the desk and ensure that no mosquito would bite either of the seniors until they decide to return to their dormitory. They promised her a much bigger punishment if she allowed any mosquito to bite either of the seniors. And she was expected to do that job while huddled under the small desk and she must kill the mosquitoes without touching the legs of those seniors. She was about twenty minutes into the punishment when her friends showed up and offered to take turns. It did not make any difference to the seniors so Thandie took Jane's position under the desk and Amy after her. When the night was over, Jane asked Thandie why they returned and she just answered, "You got caught."
Jane, from that moment, knew that she had found herself loyal friends. Years later, after they had completed their undergraduate degrees, hers in optometry; Thandie in electrical engineering and Amy in law, they reunited again in Lagos and decided to live together. Thandie's boyfriend had rented a luxury apartment for her in the heart of the city.
"Small Pants, come oh! I have an apartment now. No, this one is a house. Come and stay with me," was the text Thandie left Jane. Jane had only started her internship at a military hospital. Her salary was not enough to pay rent close to work so she lived with her brother about an hour drive from work. So when she heard that her friend had an apartment some walking distance from the military hospital she had to see it. It turned out that Thandie was not lying when she said it was a house. Jane was blown away by the quality and beauty of the apartment; no expense was spared. She knew that Thandie could afford it since she worked for a multinational oil exploration company but it seemed to her that Thandie went a little bit overboard with the furnishing. By the time Jane closed from work and found the apartment on Friday evening, Amy was already there. When Thandie returned from work with three friends, it became a party. Within an hour there were more than fifteen people in the room, among them were four guys: Sammy, Eugene, Kosi, Max and Andy. According to Thandie, it was Andy that got her the apartment as a birthday gift and it was not even her birthday.
Jane was never much of a talker so, most times, she just sat and observed people. The body language of the men in the room suggested that they all wanted Thandie or were somehow romantically involved with her. She could not understand it: how could a girl have four men that wanted her in the same room while flaunting one of them as her boyfriend, whereas someone like herself did not even have a boyfriend? She went to the mirror and looked at her image. She wore a white gown with brown-and-green stone embroidery on the neck. She thought that she looked beautiful. After they had a few drinks, Sammy tried to flirt with Jane.
"Hello, sweet thing," he said, standing a bit too close for Jane's comfort.
"Hi," Jane replied, torn between telling him that she was not a sweet thing and, letting it pass. She let it pass. Her friends had told her more times than she cared to recount how much she needed to "loosen up".
Well, Small Pants has loosened up, she thought.
"How are you doing?" he continued, feeling his odds were getting better.
"Oh, wonderful. How are you?" Jane asked.
He did not answer, instead he just kept looking into her eyes, and suddenly he suggested they should both go out to the balcony and get some air. Jane agreed. But as soon as they both left the room, Jane realised that going out to the balcony was a bad idea. She felt a bit queasy due to the few glasses of wine she had drunk. In the landscape, she could see Hotel Bellissimo with beautiful neon light. The sea breeze coming from the Atlantic hit her face as soon as she stepped out on the balcony and it felt so good that she quickly forgot her feeling of discomfort for coming outside with that fine specimen of a man.
For the first time, she really looked at him: he was very handsome. He had a strong well-shaven jaw and smelled of a woody perfume. His strong shoulders were visible through his red-and-brown checkered shirt and he stood a good three inches above her. She should be attracted to him but she did not feel anything. Physical proportions had never done it for her. She needed time to get to know someone before she could decide whether or not she liked them. She was lost in thought and did not realise that Sammy had leaned in to kiss her. She felt the heat of his body and turned around as their lips brushed against each other. She gave him a gentle push to create space for her to go back into the sitting room. She left him without a word. As she was leaving, Thandie opened the door from one of the bedrooms that led to the balcony.
"Baby, there you are," she said to Sammy. They kissed.
"Am I not the luckiest man alive?" he asked. Thandie laughed and linked her arm to his as they walked back in.
Thandie insisted that Amy and Jane stayed for the weekend. They were not prepared for it but she provided everything they needed and, they were in no condition to drive that Friday night. Over the course of the weekend, Jane learned that Sammy was really Thandie's boyfriend, which was confusing because the guy just tried to kiss her the night before. She wanted to tell Thandie about her experience with Sammy but she considered how her friend would feel and decided that nothing really happened. She let it go. Jane went home on Sunday morning and returned to Thandie's place on Sunday evening carrying her suitcase. Amy moved in a week later.
Thandie's job seemed to keep her very busy or something else was, because she was seldom home to enjoy her beautiful apartment. As weeks turned into months Amy and Jane confirmed what they suspected; Thandie was romantically involved with all those men that came to that party, in one way or the other. That love web did not seem to lose her any sleep because she saw each man when she wanted, where she wanted. They were not allowed to sleep over in her apartment especially as her friends moved in.
After breaking up with her boyfriend from her university days, Amy had difficulty connecting to anyone else except some of her old male friends that she could talk to sometimes. Most men she met were just not the kind of people she was used to. She deeply suspected that they did not care about her. She wondered if that had anything with most of them being ex-patients and patients since they were all made to know her due to circumstances and not by choice. Since she moved in with her friends, only one seventy-year-old man had been asking her to dinner. He kept going on and on about how he loved young people, about how Jane would love to meet his son, Kay. Against her better judgement, Jane decided to have dinner with the man, hoping that he would bring his son along. He came alone. Jane endured the dinner amongst sniggers from neighbouring tables in one of Lagos's most luxurious restaurants. When she thought she had successfully managed the situation without an outburst, the man placed his hands above hers and pleaded:
"I would like you to be my girl. Make an old man happy and I promise to take excellent care of you."
Jane lost it and could not contain her anger.
"You are the most self-absorbed, selfish old man that I have ever seen. Instead of you to introduce me to your grandson, you are here looking for a girlfriend my age. Shame on you!" she screamed as loud as her voice could carry, dropped the napkin and stormed out of the restaurant.
That night, Jane returned home to find her friends both jumping on top of the couch and shouting at the top of their lungs. Sammy proposed to Thandie and she said, "Yes!"
As she joined the celebration, she could not help but feel a little jealous of her friend who seemed to have everything she wanted. By the next morning, she decided to speak with Thandie about Sammy.
"Do you really think he loves you?" Jane asked.
"Does it matter? He is rich and his family is loaded. He can take care of me, so it matters not if he loves me or I love him."
Jane did not speak more on the matter. She was happy for her friend but she was also a bit worried because, even though she was also searching for a life partner, she would not settle for someone like Sammy knowing what she knew. The wedding happened very fast with lots of fanfare and camaraderie. Amy and Jane cried tears of joy as they watched their friend and her new husband drive away to their honeymoon.
After Thandie moved out of her apartment, the rent which Andy paid expired seven months later and the two girls had to fend for themselves. They had underestimated the cost of the apartment. However, Amy was doing well at the law firm where she worked and, Jane had received permanent employment after her internship. Between the two friends they were able to renew the rent, but the apartment had become a desolate place since Thandie left. There were no more parties and the two friends hardly received visitors. It did not take long before they started feeling sad that they had no love in their lives. Between the long working hours and heavy traffic, the girls hardly had time to socialise.
Jane was beginning to lose hope of ever finding someone who would love her the way she knew that she deserved when she reconnected with a university buddy, John. He had not changed at all. She met John when she dated her first love and she never saw him as an object of romance. When they reconnected, she discovered that he had a flourishing business in a city about seven hundred miles from Lagos. They spoke many times every day and maintained good communication. The only problem was that he could not relocate to Lagos and she could not leave her new career. But it was more than she had before and she was grateful.
When Amy broke the news of her engagement to get married to her, Jane was terrified for one moment before she realised how happy her friend must be and quickly congratulated her and showed her excitement. Before that news came, she had the notion that men preferred bad girls. When she heard about the Sherry Argov's Why Men Love Bitches she just couldn't resist reading it because that had been her opinion about men. She had experienced it many times that the girls who were considered wild cards are the ones who get to walk the aisle much earlier.
Jane tried to be that girl. She bought the dress, dressed up and went out with an old classmate of hers that knew the life. That night, they drove to an exclusive nightclub in Ikoyi where you would find the Elite of Lagos. There she met Akin. It was apparent to her that he wanted her. The look in his eyes showed that he had undressed her a thousand times as they danced. She knew that she needed to go with the flow, but she quit that night and ran away from his hotel room. She had asked herself why she did that but all she could come up with was that she just was not cut out for that life.
As Amy got married, it shattered her theory of men loving bad girls. Amy was a kind, gentle girl that believed that romance was sacred. As far as Jane could tell, Amy had been faithful in all her relationships. But why don't these things happen to me? Jane thought. She was twenty-six and did not consider herself old, but the society put so much pressure on young ladies like her that if you achieve everything in life except marriage, all your achievements are often treated as nothing. Now she felt like she had lost another friend because even though they tried to keep in touch as much as possible, she could feel them drifting apart as each one got married and had to build a home with their spouses. She complained to John about this and he said, You guys are now unequally yoked. It is to be expected.
One Tuesday morning, Jane woke up to her ringing cell phone. It was Amy and she was crying so hard that Jane could not make out what she was saying.
"Where are you?" Jane asked.
"I am at Hanks Memorial Hospital," she managed to say.
"I'm on my way," she said and quickly dropped the phone.
Jane wore a pair of jeans and a polo shirt and ran out of the house. She took the stairs three at a time only to realise that she had left her car keys in the room. She called a Taxify as soon as she was on the road, not sure that she was in any mood to drive anyway. As she sat in the car, she wished she could make the driver go faster, but the man politely told her that he had to operate within limits. She called Thandie but her number was not available. She ran into the emergency reception at the hospital and asked to see Amy Thompson. The woman looked through her records and could not find any Amy Thompson in it.
"I am sorry, we do not have that name on record. What is she here for?" the attendant asked.
"Never mind," Jane said as she called Amy. A few seconds later, Amy ran into Jane's arms and sobbed.
"Thandie... Oh Thandie. Oh God, please save her," Amy said as she clung tightly to her friend.
"Oh, my God! What happened? Where is she?"
They both walked hand-in-hand to the room where Thandie laid. There were stitched cuts all over her body, and her head was wound with a bandage. She was barely recognisable. Amy attempted to narrate what she found out about the incident. According to neighbours who heard the fight between Thandie and her husband, Sammy caught Thandie cheating on him. He went into a murderous rage, throwing the man off the balcony of the fourth floor of the building. Before the police arrived he had beat his wife to a pulp. Apart from the bruises on her body, she also lost her baby and one of her fallopian tubes.
As Jane listened, tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she watched her friend barely clinging to life. As she watched Thandie lying there alone with tubes all over her body and machines aiding her to stay alive, suddenly people's opinion about her being single did not matter anymore.
Jane called her medical director to inform him that she would not be coming in to work. After about an hour, she returned John's calls.
Later that day, the police came to ask Thandie some questions but she was still unconscious. They however, informed the two friends that they had Sammy in custody. Amy and Jane thanked them and they left.
John had never heard nor seen Jane as distraught as she was when she called him in the morning. He was worried so he quickly prepared and flew to Lagos. Three hours later, he was standing in the hospital holding Jane in his arms. What do you know, she thought, There is still hope for future happiness. As she looked into his brown eyes, she knew that he could never do anything to hurt her. Even though they had known each other for more than a decade, that was the first time he was holding her so close that she could hear his heartbeat and the words they said were, "Everything is gonna be alright."
Authored by: @churchboy
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As always, you leave the reader with a reflection, with the question of what can be done in some circumstances, @churchuboy. This story speaks not only of unconditional friendship, but also of the search for love in these times. Some people by taking into account the economic or power over feelings, can make very bad choices. Even if they think the train is gone, they take the first one without knowing where they are going. Here we see how Jane tries to imitate Thandie's behavior and thank goodness it didn't work out for her because then she would also have been an unhappy woman. If you realize, this is a generalized behavior among friends: there is always one who leads and one who follows, who seeks to imitate. What I didn't like is that Jane wouldn't have told Thandie about her husband, because maybe that could have saved her from the misfortune; although with that comment she could have ended the friendship between them. Well, the best thing is that in the end you leave us with the hope that sincere love can exist and can be breathed into the air. Nice day for you!
The title of this story should have been, There is Nowhere it Won't Hide because according to Shania Twain, that's the thing about love. Everyone is gonna get their share and there is no predicting the way it would go. Unfortunately, our modern life is so competitive as many now live their lives on social media, showcasing the very best part of their lives to their friends while keeping the ugliness well wrapped and hidden behind the scene until something as horrible as what happened to Thandie would occur and there would be nowhere to hide.
But before then, friends such as Jane whose lives have been less than perfect for a long time would be under enormous pressure to conform that, if they do not exercise due care, they would land themselves in troubles they cannot easily get out of. Luckily for Jane, she was patient and it seems that love found her eventually.
Thanks a lot @nancybriti, you make me feel like a star and I appreciate you for it.
All the best to you.
You leave me speechless by your complete understanding of these things. As always I appreciate your comment very much. The long comment I wrote you with my life wiped out so just know that you are appreciated beyond the measure of words.
All the best @nancybriti
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, @churchboy! I really appreciate it. A big hug;)
Lmao!. "small pant" this post goes to show us how we are automatically given a nickname without our consent maybe out of mistake or something being done deliberately in other to mock. These names have either a positive or negative effects to students, positive effects in the sense that if it was given for good it is a huge booster to our academic life negative effect in the sense that it may lure into skipping classes and avoiding friends so we don't get to hear those names. However it came it beamed it Search light on friendship not just friendship but true friendship that lasted and waxed stronger by the day.
I find this article interesting and with lessons too. Yet another masterpiece from @churchboy
And most grateful to @adsactly community for sharing this.
Keep it, i will resteem it so other readers will enjoy and learn from it.
Yes, these things do happen and yes, I know someone whose nickname is Small Pants even though I am not sure how that came about. Nicknames are difficult to get rid of but invariably, no matter the circumstance that birthed the name, those who use it mostly do so with love and so be it with Small Pants.
I think that ladies are under too much pressure to conform to societal standards that they often marry the wrong people or marry way beneath themselves, so to speak. But this need not be the case. One can always choose to ignore the outside pressure and focus on one's life. It is better to be single and happy than to be married and in a death bed and that is the point that this story tries to make. Of course it is also possible to be married and happy at the same time and that should be the goal of everyone that wants to get married. Our paths in life must be different, therefore we should not attempt to live as anyone else.
Thanks for such a wonderful comment. I only wish I could have replied it earlier. All the best man. :)
The hug of love. One can easily feel the heartbeat when held so close and lovingly. Finaly Jane got what she was looking for since years. Simetimes, lifes bring out best for you, but take little time . Jane was alone for long and looking for someone special and he get it after waiting for so many years. She had been bullied upon since schooldays thank god during her bulliness she find good friend in Amy and Thandie who accompanied her till so many years. She should have told Thandie about Saamy. Still it give some lesson.....good work @churchboy.
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Thanks a lot. I believe that she wanted to tell Thandie. However, recall that Thandie herself had four men that came for her that night so she was not a picture of fidelity, so to speak. Plus ladies don't take kindly to these things once their mind is made up. I suppose that Jane decided to keep her fingers crossed for Thandie while chalking up Sammy's behaviour to drunkeness.
Thanks for your comment. All the best.
Wow, can't believe the mosquito punishment and the support thereafter. Typical of many friends all over the world. Thanks for the share.
Lol. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks to so many beautiful things, a beautiful collection of stories for us to share with us is actually a very beautiful story which can actually awaken human mind.
And I think that within each of your stories, it can give an education and this can be done for the better future of man.
And I think every story of your story is beautiful and I think that Serek is in my own house.
And actually, a beautiful story from Nigeria, it is impossible to share with us and restore it, and I can make your writing clearly and very common.
So I think every person should write a biography or a storytelling in a simple language and everyone can read it very well, and this can actually tell the fidelity of a writer.
Sir, I more specifically I appreciate that every day is not so nice way of your story and your every stari of us to share and really this community is actually a very valuable person, which is great for us comes in handy in which to share our For.
Thank you
Kk, @churhboy now you've turned a lover boy right.
Love is good but only when you can relate with. What more can I say. This story passes a good lesson out there to out ladies and gentlemen who loves cheating on their spouses. Definitely, men love bad girls just as Jane taught but to be realistic, men love baf girls only for the night!!. You can hardly find a bad girl stick to a men for a long period of time as that's just a clear example of what happened to her friend thandie.
Sometimes we don't play the role of a true friend. Yes, Jane as scared of killing her friends happiness but she was able to save her friend from what she getting herself into if she had told thandie what happened between her and sammy that night. One thing we must learn, save your friend from disaster even if it means costing her, her happiness. Definitely at the last she'll be thankful to you because you've saved her from disaster and then she'll realize that you have won happiness for her/him !
Hahahahaha @lilkeszi, you know, love is the only thing that makes sense in this place called life. It is only by how we loved that we are measured when we have breathed our last. Sure, Jane could have warned Thandie about Sammy but really, nothing happened between them and they were both under the influence of alcohol so I am sure Jane thought there was no need to spoil a good thing. In addition to that, Thandie had multiple men at the same time. Jane, being of a more reserved disposition could have thought that such behaviour was not strange in Thandie's world. If you recall, the man that paid for the apartment was different from the one Thandie did marry. But that night, they were all there.
I appreciate you for taking the time to read the story and even leave a comment. That's the definition of awesomeness and I owe you a debt of gratitude.
Thanks for sharing this story.
'The Story Bisaid My Window' by Mou at the Russian Film Festival
BY FATEMA MALEK
JULY 22, 2018
'The Story Bisaid My Window' by Mou at the Russian Film Festival
Short film titled 'The Story Biseaid My Window' has been nominated for 'Dasam Kazan International Youth Film Festival' which will be held in Russia.
Hope awakened. So thrilling and inspiring. Thanks
Thank you.
I upvoted your post.
Keep steeming for a better tomorrow.
@Acknowledgement - God Bless
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You have very nice comments in front of us which we can use in our life. The stories you share or share in the post are very educative. There are no educational issues on each of your issues that will bring us into the heart in the future. These are actually a very important thing in future, your posts are arranged so beautifully. That is what is beautifully amazing, this is the learning point of our life