28 - WHAT A TIME
Her mother’s burial was somewhat scanty; she had only but few friends and a few surviving distant relatives who were present at the burial. Then, there was the priest who said the sermon next to the coffin before it was lowered into the freshly dug grave at the cemetery.
Lola was the first to throw sand in the grave, and the rest followed before it was a final goodbye. She dropped a flower on the grave and watched the few persons present drop theirs and walk away from the cemetery.
She spurned to walk away after a long stay in the cemetery, but she saw Salmon. He was there behind her; his face saddened and his eyes red with tears.
She gave him a nod and fell into his arms.
“Don’t worry, it’ll get better,” he said.
“She was everything to me,” Lola whispered sadly.
Her heart was heavy and twisting in pain, her first love had just been put six feet below.
“Yes, but I’m your new companion now,” he said and she broke the hug.
What business does he have with such, to be her companion in what way, or was he there to declare an interest of friendship, or to occupy the space of a father to her? her brows had a lot to pose.
“I resigned from Shawn’s place,” said Salmon. “I couldn’t bear the injustice. I couldn’t bear the fact that your best friend is the new lady of a house you should have ruled if only Shawn was sensible enough.”
She beamed a sigh.
“What will you do now you resigned your job for my sake?” she asked.
“I will stand and retire as your new parent if you don’t mind,” said Salmon. “I understand you don’t have any more family, and I, on the other hand, don’t have any family, either.”
Lola nodded in consent.
“I don’t have money, but I’ve got a place where Shawn wouldn’t lay claim to, and, in case it will be enough for the two of us,” her face broke into a smile. “I can get another job as well to keep us both afloat.”
Salmon smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Listen, I won’t be a liability to you,” he said, “I’ve not spent a dime from my savings for twenty years of active service as a five-star cook. It has run into millions. You will have all that.”
Lola smiled. “It hasn’t gotten to that, sir,” she said, “You are not old yet, you can still find a wife and make a family of your own, and your money will be of great use to you.”
He looked around. There was no one left in the cemetery. It was just the graves and nothing else but them. I slipped his hand in his pocket and fished a paper out of it.
“This paper has something you wouldn’t like to hear about me,” he passed the paper to her, “but I’d like to say it before I join you at your place.”
Lola unwrapped the paper, but Salmon was fast enough to speak before she could spear a glance at the words on the paper.
“The doctor said I have just a year,” his voice came slow and sad, “been keeping it from everyone, but I always knew you are the only one whom I can trust with all my earnings, you can pay off your debt to Shawn with my money, and by the way, I wasn’t planning to pack in with you.”
Lola was dumbfounded.
“I will head to the state hospital while you have to head to the bank this very moment with this,” he fished an envelope from his pocket. “This is a cheque; it has everything you need to settle your debt and be free to find a man who’s more responsible than Shawn.”
“You don’t have to…”
“You don’t have to protest, Lola,” Salmon’s fingers braced her cheek, “you have to free yourself from debt and live your life the way you should.”
***
In the good days, she wouldn’t have to knock twice before the door to Shawn’s house would be thrown open for her, but this time, she had to wait for an hour before she was considered liable to walk into Shawn’s compound.
“You know for sure, ma’am, that you are no longer welcome to this property,” the guard at the gate was brutal with his words.
“I want to see your boss,” said Lola.
The guard raised a brow. “Indeed, he knows you are here to plead with him to take you back to his arms because life had not been fair after you called the police on him over a crime, he wasn’t guilty of.”
Lola moved her lips. Shawn has done a good job with whatever he told his domestic staff about her, and what he had made them believe was his damned reason for cheating on her in her room.
“Tell him to come meet me then,” Lola said without further ado. “I demand to meet him right now.”
“You don’t order me…”
“Shut up and call me your boss!”
“You don’t have to shout at the imbecile,” came Shawn’s voice. He was at the doorway with his new fiancée, Kamari.
Lola turned to them and met them with a million smiles on their face. They had beaten her ass down to the pits after they won the madness at Stalingrad’s desk after they were arrested and dragged to the police chamber for the murder of Lola’s mother.
“Have you come to accuse us of the death of your lazy sickly mother?” Kamari asked.
Lola made faces and raised a cheque to their face. It had a figure that ran into a million and a half. The exact amount she owed Shawn for all his expenses so far.
“I’ve come to pay up my debt, Shawn,” she said.
Shawn laughed. “You know you can’t pay for all I did for you and your mother.”
“I checked the receipts,” Lola snapped. “I took the total of all you’ve spent, and I have them here in this cheque.”
Shawn narrowed his eyes.
“When you are ready, come pick your money on the floor, and don’t ever come looking for me.”