All Chapters of The girl from my past: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

We lived in the worst part of Lagos. A place called Ogbelende. Everyone in Lagos pretended to be ignorant of the exact location of it. They were all clearly fooling themselves. If a new comer was to ask a child for directions, the child was sure to flee immediately to the safety of his mother. If an adult was asked, the adult was definitely going to pretend like no such place existed.I hated the fact that we lived there. It was in contrast to the sort of place I hoped for my family. We lived there not because we couldn’t afford to live elsewhere but because mum claimed that it was her only link to her husband – they were both orphans, raised themselves and grew in the streets as I was told. The house was a two bedroom flat. My mother and my sister shared one room and I slept in the other room. About five other apartments were in the compound but weren’t as kept as ours. We minded our business although everyone struggled to use the only two restrooms in the compound especially

Bisola Emmanuella Oduduwa popularly known as Bisi was the sweetest sister anyone could dream of having. I counted myself lucky for having her as my sister. She was the output of the ball in my mother’s stomach. From the depths of my memory, before Dad travelled, I used to think mum was carrying a big ball in her stomach. She was heavily pregnant for Bisi then. He wasn’t there to hold her hands when his replica was born. I kind of held a grudge against him for this but mum insisted that she encouraged him to proceed with the travel back then.The day Bisi was born; I was watching my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoon series on our white and black television. Suddenly, mum came into the room and was panting. I was barely two years then but I could tell that mum was in grave distress. Through instinct, at least according to the family’s myth, I rushed into the house of an elderly woman, who was single and had never married. She was a retired nurse even back then. She’d never moved ou

Life had really given us its worst blow. I didn’t see the essence of living anymore. The thing in me that needed to blame someone was titling towards the direction of mum. I wondered why she gave birth to us only to leave us as orphans. I didn’t see reason for the struggles anymore. It had been two days since she died. We didn’t leave the hospital anyway. The hospital authorities brought psychologists to brace us up for the future. All three of them who were sent to us sounded surreal. It didn’t seem like they were really talking to us, or at least talking to me. Bisi wouldn’t speak to me. Her silence was beginning to hurt. I didn’t want to be hard on her by asking her how she felt. The solitude between us was even perfect. The worst moment of my life was when after 24 hours of her death, the same doctor that announced that she was in coma stepped into the room once more and told us that mum had been certified dead and her body was to be sent to the mortuary. I pushed hi

The two days Dumebi stayed with us made me see what care actually felt like. She never left my side. She did virtually every work; dishes, laundry, cooking and was perfect in all. I was yet to see her flaws, that is, if there was any. Her stay was really a relief to Bisi too. It helped in easing the tension between us completely. I was suddenly developing a fondness for her, especially when she slept beside me. But when I remembered that she was a leopard and I was just a bird, my spirit dropped. She could tear me easily, limb to limb.It was through her I got to find that there were actually a lot of people with dual nature like us. Most of them were scattered all over the world. It was rare for to meet one’s kind. Meeting her was actually a rare privilege because most people like us never mate throughout their lives. I got to find out that some of us had really grown to hate it to the point that they never wanted to turn back and it became a very recessive gene and after som

Our people say that sweet moments do not last. The day I dreaded and equally expected finally came. It was a Friday afternoon, Bisi was out with Obinna, they were officially dating and I could see that they were genuinely in love. I was lying down on my bed, listening to the radio, when a knock came. Dumebi had gone for two hours and I wasn’t due to see her until the next day.I wondered who the boring Friday afternoon visitor could be. Then I checked and was surprised to see a mail delivery man at my doorstep. It wasn’t like it was a rarity at these parts to receive mails but I had all my personal mails delivered directly to my school. And ever since I graduated, I hadn’t received any mail. “You must be in the wrong house sir.” I said to the middle aged man.“No, I am very certain am not. I was adequately provided with information on the house I was to deliver the mail to and this house matched the description perfectly. By the way, I am looking for a certai