The Private Driver - S01 E03

1 week ago

The Private Driver - S01 E03

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 3

The Private Driver (The 3rd Month)

"I have arrived in your house but it's only your housemaid that is at home. What happened? I told you I was coming this month. How come you are not at home? This is not good. I have missed you and I rightly called you to inform you I was coming last month. You should have told me to stay back if you were not interested in hosting me. I have waited endlessly for you to return, but your housemaid kept saying you would soon be back. Yet, there is no trace of you. Dami where are you please?" Dami's mother-in-law asked her over the phone. The woman had grown inpatient and even upset after waiting for almost twelve hours to see her daughter-in-law and there was no sign of Dami anywhere.

"I'm so sorry ma. I went out to the supermarket but something came up. I was called that my mother was sick so I had to rush to my family house to see her. I was thinking I would be able to make it back home, but I couldn't. The illness is very serious and I decided to spend the night here to help with some things. I'm sorry ma, I will be back first thing tomorrow morning. Please, don't be angry with me." Dami tells her mother-in-law. What she said was a lie, but she thought it was a necessary lie to cover up her pregnancy. She was actually aware that her mother-in-law was visiting so she made up her mind to leave the house. Her mother was never sick. The truth is that she decided to go to a hotel and stay with her private driver because she knew her mother-in-law would discover she was pregnant.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Dami, I did not know your mum was sick." The woman said.

Dami started rubbing the phone on the bed, making 'shiki shiki shiki' sound to pretend she was no longer hearing her mother-in-law due to bad network issues. She hung up afterwards and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to keep hiding it? Pregnancy is like the moon. It can never be hidden. No matter how much you try, one day it would come to the open and everyone would see it. So my question is are you going to keep on telling lies about the fact that you are pregnant?" The driver asked. He was sitting on the edge of the hotel bed, looking directly into Dami's eyes as he spoke to her. She looks confused and worried.

"You really think it is that easy? You want me to walk up to my mother-in-law and let her know I'm pregnant with another man's child? You think it is so easy for me right? What do you think she is going to think about me? What do you think she is going to tell my husband? You think she will throw a party for me? Common Ken, you should understand that this is hard for me. I have to keep telling lies until I find a way to fix this." Dami said as she sipped her wine from the glass cup she was holding. She was very worried and her heart was beating very fast as if she had been running on a tread mill. For many days now, she has been trying hard to come up with an idea on how to fix the trouble but nothing meaningful has crept into her head. Her brain was as empty as tabula rasa.

"You didn't answer my question. I asked if you are going to keep on telling lies or at some point, are you going to own up to the fact that this is not going to change. You are pregnant and that is a fact both of us have to deal with. At least, I'm happy you are pregnant with my baby. It is not like the baby would be fatherless. I have taken responsibility of the pregnancy and I think you should too. There is no need hiding it or beating about the bush as if we are some kind of teenage boys and girls." Ken said forcefully. He was trying hard to motivate Dami to take up the challenge and forget what people would say and also embrace her pregnancy.

"It is so easy for you to say. You are not the one who would answer questions from my husband. You are not the one who would face the shame when my mother-in-law starts broadcasting it in the whole town, telling people that her daughter- in-law who she trusted so much is carrying another man's baby. You won't be there when I will be facing the heat in front of a family meeting. The heat would come directly to me because I'm the one carrying the baby, not you. I don't even know how I found myself in this ugly situation. If I had known that what we did would result to pregnancy, I would have slept alone in my room that night and managed my loneliness." Dami said pitifully.

"You are not alone in this. I'm with you in shame and in glory. The baby belongs to me and there is no way I'm going to abandon you. You are my woman and the baby in your womb is mine. I'm not leaving you alone. I'm just saying we can't keep hiding. At some points, people will find out anyway, so why not just open up and own up before it is too late? That's all I'm saying. Of course, I will be with you at every point of the journey. It is no longer about the pregnancy alone. I have fallen in love with you too." Ken tells Dami who lay on his chest with tears in her eyes.

"This is so hard for me. I don't know what to do. Dami said.

"It is okay to be afraid, but I'm telling you that at the end of the day, everything will be alright. All you need to do is to be strong and courageous. Own up to your mistakes with your full chest." Ken said to her, but it appears all he was saying poured on her body like water poured on the rock. Just then, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw that it was Ojo, her husband. It was that time of the night when they usually speak over the phone before going to sleep.

"My love! Gow are you?" Ojo asked with a tender and caring voice.

"I'm very fine honey. How is London today and how is your studies going?" Dami asked with a voice that was a little bit shaky.

"I'm good and London is very cool. Your voice does not sound well. Are you sure you are okay?" Ojo asked with concern.

"I'm fine. I'm just missing you. I wish you are here with me tonight. I wish I could hold you tightly. If wishes were horses...." Dami said with a pitiful tone.

"It's okay my love. I clearly understand what you are going through. It's not easy for me too, but I did not want to miss this course. It would help me become better in my professional career. Please, bear with me. We have a few months left before I will be done and I will rush back to Nigeria to pick you up. I'm promising you this. Just stay strong for me." Ojo said in a bid to cheer his wife up. He did not know that she was in the arms of another man.

"Alright my love. Please, stay strong too. Good night my love." Dami said as they ended the conversation.

"I'm in a serious mess. My husband is obviously thinking I'm keeping myself for him, not knowing that I could not even stay for 24 hours after he left Nigeria. I messed up! I messed up big time!" Dami said tearfully.

Ken stood up from the bed and played Black Sherif's Kwaku the Traveler. "Of course I messed up. Who never messed up?

Hands in the air, no hands?" Dami asked as she sang along. The song went up and softened Dami's heart but her problem remained unsolved.