End of days

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"Shebi you are the one that went to open the door for him?" Amaka grumbled as she reluctantly stood up from the bed and came to assist Jane in carrying Dele inside.

"Let's see if we can place him on the bed" Jane said, after they had managed to take him inside.

"Bia this girl, it's as if you have too much strength. You saw how difficult it was for us to carry him inside, now you want us to put him on the bed?"

"We can't just leave him on the floor, he might catch a cold, let's put him on the bed please"

"Then, where will I sleep? Where will you yourself sleep?"

"You both can stay on the bed, I can manage the couch"

"You are not serious, leave him on the floor. When he comes to his senses he will go to his house"

"Amaka please help me carry him to the bed, remember he nursed you back to health just few days ago"

After much persuasion from Jane, Amaka finally begrudgingly helped her in carrying Dele to the bed.

"Let's just hope he hasn't broken any bone with the way you kept pulling at his arm angrily" Jane said as she went into the bathroom to wash up.

When she came out of the bathroom, she found Amaka sitting on the couch watching Dele sleep. Jane joined her and they both sat watching him.

"Only God knows what would have made him this drunk" Amaka said.

"You of course, he must have taken your rejection badly"

"I doubt that, there must be more to it"

"How do you mean?"

"While you were in the bathroom, he kept mumbling something about his parents forgiving him"

"What do think we should do?"

"We have already done our best, we forfeited our bed for him. Now I will have to watch him crash all night"

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't leave him to sleep on the floor"

"No problem, just know if I come down with a migraine at the office tomorrow, I'm holding you responsible"

First thing the next morning, Jane called Rayford to come pick Dele who was still sleeping like a dead man on their bed.

When he arrived, Dele was still sleeping. So he had to wake him up.

"Dele wake up" Rayford tapped him gently until Dele stirred and opened his eyes. "Guy wake up, you need to go to your apartment. You have already deprived the ladies of their sleep, at least let them have back their privacy"

Dele sat up slowly as he took in his surrounding. "How did I get here?"

"You passed out last night, so they took you in, come on let me take you home" Rayford helped Dele to stand to his feet and walked him to his car. "You will have to come back for your car when you are much sober. Don't forget you left your other car at the lounge too"

After Rayford had helped Dele into his car, he went back inside to apologize to Amaka and Jane. Amaka was in the bathroom taking her bath so she could prepare for work.

"I'm truly sorry babe, he has been going through a lot recently, but that is not an excuse for what he did. I apologize on his behalf, and I promise to make it up to you" he held Jane on her waist as he spoke.

"It's fine, it's Amaka I'm pitying actually, because she has to go to work and she barely slept. As for me I can sleep during the day"

Rayford kneaded his temple. "Please tell her I'm truly sorry, I can speak to her boss to give her the day off if she wants, he happens to owe me a favor"

"Yes Rayford that will be very much appreciated" Amaka screamed from the bathroom.

"Amaka I thought you were having your bath?" Jane asked.

"I was, until I heard Rayford talking about me getting the day off"

"Alright Amaka I will talk to him" Rayford promised as he kissed Jane goodbye and left their apartment.

An hour later, Rayford called Jane to ask her to tell Amaka he couldn't reach her boss so she would have to go to work, but promised her a spa treatment over the weekend.

"This your Rayford sha knows how to treat a woman, not like all those monkey men that don't have any iota of care in them. Please let him know I will take the spa treatment abeg, I even prefer that one" Amaka said as she hurriedly got dressed and left for work. While Jane decided to rest, since Michael has given her the week off.

After Rayford had left, Dele decided to take a shower and go visit his sister Ming. They were supposed to visit his parents' graveside at the cemetery later in the evening. He was going to tell her he won't be coming with them.

"Look who we have here" Ming said to her baby who was sucking when Dele arrived.

"Good afternoon Nitee" a nickname he always loves to call her whenever he needed a favor.

"Hi Dele Welcome, how are you doing?"

"I'm good, how is William?"

"He is fine, but you don't look fine at all. What happened? Were you hit by a truck or something?"

"Nothing happened, I just had too much to drink last night'' he sat on a couch opposite Ming. ''Anyway I came by to tell you, I won't be going with you guys to the cemetery for mom and dad's remembrance"

"I called it off already"

"Why?"

" Rayford called to tell me you weren't coming, so I decided to call it off. Probably it was time we stopped the tradition anyway. I mean, we can always go visit their graveside, but it mustn't be on the day they died"

"You have a point"

"Yeah, it's like we open the wound afresh every time we go there on the same day they died, because we keep remembering everything that happened that morning before they embarked on that trip"

On that particular morning, Dele wanted to go on a road trip with one of his classmate and his family, but his father had refused. So he decided to go speak with his mom to help him talk to his father.

"Dele, you need to understand that I am with your father on this one. You can't go on that trip"

"But why mummy? I have always wanted to go on a road trip, this is a good opportunity"

"You can't go Dele, we don't even know this family well enough. If it were to be the Ademolas I wouldn't even bat an eyelid. Besides if you go, your sister will be left all by herself"

"Mummy Nitee will be fine, she will always be going for her holiday lessons so she won't even feel it. What if I call my friend and ask him to give the phone to his mom so you can speak with her?"

"The answer is no Dele, stay at home and look after your sister. When we are not around that responsibility falls on you"

Dele walked out of his mother's room angrily, and when they were leaving for the airport, he refused to come out from his room to say goodbye to them. Even while they were at the airport, before their plane took off, his mother called the house and after speaking to his sister, she asked to speak to Dele but he refused answering the call. An action he will forever regret because the next call they got from the airport was to inform them to come and identify their parents' body.

A week later he heard his friend's family, were involved in a ghastly motor accident on their way returning from the road trip.

"Dele you need to forgive yourself, you did what a normal child your age would have done"

"I was being stupid, and because of that I missed the only last chance I had to see and speak them" Dele held his head in his hands as he spoke.

Ming called the nanny to come take William who had fallen asleep on her breasts. She got up and sat on the arm of the couch Dele was sitting and placed her arm around him.

"Even if you had said goodbye to them before they left for the airport or taken that call when mummy called, do you think it could have prevented the plane crash?"

Dele shook his head "I don't think so"

"Then why are you beating yourself up? If you think mummy and daddy were angry with you before they left then I don't think so, because they said to tell you, that we were going to have our own road trip once they returned and that they loved you"

"Really they did?" Dele raised his head to look at his sister.

"Yes mummy told me that when she called from the airport when you refused talking to her or daddy"

"How come you never told me?"