Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Chapter 18.

My heart is throbbing in my chest. As I head to the living room. She rarely calls me unless that guy Harrison is here or maybe wants to give instructions on something else. I don’t think the former will work here because Harrison just left and I am almost sure that he couldn’t have come back here.

Aliana has been so good to me that I want to see her prosper further. Most of the time, I feel like she is treating me like a daughter or someone she treasures. I may be thinking things ahead but hey, it’s okay to have hopes, she’s obviously gonna be my bridge to success. First, because I landed in her house when I came to the city and second because it has given me time to learn and when I spoke to her about my dreams of becoming a fashionista, she was very supportive and all. She even suggested that I save some money then she will introduce me to someone who can teach me a few tips here and there.

She is standing, holding the handset in her hands. She passes me a small smile before she hands me the handset.

‘’It’s your call, Clara.’’ She says in a whisper I nod at her then stretch out my arm to take the handset from her and she smiles at me yet again before she turns on her heels and disappears away.

‘’Hello,’’ I call with a shaky voice.

‘’My daughter!’’ I recognize the voice immediately. That’s my dad. Mr. Jerald, he has remembered his daughter. I love my dad, so much. ‘’Are you there? Did you forget about your father, the old man and the family? Or are you still mad at me about the bet?’’

‘’Hello, dad. I am here. I haven’t forgotten about you neither am I mad at you for anything. I have you and our whole family in mind. How’s everyone? Clare, Job, mum and Carly?’’

‘’Thank you for asking, my daughter, everyone is okay. They are all missing you so much. Carly was asking when you will come back and we had to assure her that you will real soon.’’ My tears were just waiting for that. My baby sister must be feeling so lonely. ‘’How is work?’’

‘’Work is okay, dad. I am working super hard and doing my best always.’’

‘’Thank you, my daughter, may God bless you.’’ He says and my heart leaps with happiness when he says that. ‘’Clare would like to talk to you.’’

‘’What’s up, sis?’’ her sweet voice flows to my ear from the other end.’’

‘’I am okay, sis. What are you up to? How are you coping up with your studies.’’

‘’Everything is well, I am doing very well and I am sure I will be joining you in the city soon.’’ She says and it hits me that I am or rather should be getting my own place soon, just so that I can accommodate such people. My little sister who is also my very good friend.

‘’You welcome sweety. I am hoping I will have gotten my own place. I will always be willing to accommodate you. Okay?’’

‘’Thank you sis. I love you.’’ The excitement in her voice is evident.

‘’I love you too, sweet sister. Say hi to everyone okay?’’ I say enthusiastically before I disconnect the phone then walk to the kitchen.

I totally don’t understand the discrepancy between being rich and being poor. Why some people are on the higher or even the highest end while others from the lower or even the lowest end. Does it mean others woke up before others ending up in the high-end places? Where all of us not created by one God?

Anyway, as they say, our fingers are never equal.

My mind shift swiftly to Harrison’s home. They live like the kings, queens prince and princesses of this world. They live in what a layman’s language would refer to as a palace. But what of people like us? Dad is wallowing in debts and poverty, not because he wants or did he choose that life for his family?

No idea.

I hope I will be able to change my and our entire families’ lives at some point.

That’s my dream.

Well, dreams are valid, right?

‘’So you are here? What are you doing here, babe?’’ I hear Tabby asking and when I turn to look at her, they are standing there at the kitchen entrance together with Janet. I try smiling but the tears that I didn’t know I was holding fall. I let them. After all, shedding tears doesn’t make one a weakling, but it could be one of the ways of expressing oneself and personal feelings.

Each person has different triggers and different ways of dealing with the outcome. I look away really quickly and wipe my tears very fast. I don’t want anyone to see me crying.

‘’Are you okay?’’ Janet asks concern lacing her voice and I turn to look at her, nodding with a smile. I am glad when my smile seems real. ‘’You look like you just got fired from your newly found job.

‘’Really? Is that how I look, babe?’’ I ask Tabby who is busy biting her lips to keep the laughing at bay. She looks at me for a few seconds before she nods.

‘’Unfortunately, that’s what it is.’’

‘’Guys, I am just happy that I just spoke to my people. They are all doing well and I am glad they are.’’ I explain patiently. ‘’Right now, I am super happy and if you see any tears, it is tears of joy. Nothing much.’’

‘’Wow, how is uncle doing?’’

‘’He’s okay. He says that I have taken long before speaking to them. He thought I had forgotten about them. You know that’s not true. Usually I want to speak to them, but since I still don’t have anything to offer, it is hard.’’

‘’I don’t agree, babe. You have yourself to offer to them. You cannot just say you don’t have anything to offer. In a few years, you will be running up your own businesses but we all know that that has to come with patience, right?’’ I nod at her. She is right. I want to be the best fashionista in the world. I will be the best designer of haute couture.

That’s my dream and I will live to make my dream come true.

‘’Your dream is valid. Mine is and all our dreams are valid. Just like I want to model someday, I know I will make it in life. I will show my dad that I don’t have to be around his money to become the best. Sometimes, you can make it in life and all the people who think or rather thought you were useless will be wondering how you made it’’ Janet explains and I am sure she is sad about her dad.

That’s very true. Besides, not everyone who’ve been able to make it in life was a genius or had money. Some of them just don’t give their stories in public but some that I have heard or read about like Thomas Edison who had to work super hard to make it in life. He never woke up rich but he never gave up either.

He could have easily decided that it was too much of an impossible goal. After all, he failed at it like 1000 times. Maybe you’re thinking that Thomas was simply destined to be successful and that he breezed through life with his amazing skill and intellect. Well, actually Thomas had to work harder than many of us.

During school, he had trouble learning the traditional way. His teachers even told him that he was “too stupid to learn anything.’’ Later, he was fired from his first two jobs for being too “unproductive”.

Despite his difficulties and failures, Thomas never stopped fighting for his dream.

”Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas Edison

Thomas always kept trying!

He is now one of the most successful and influential people in the world, having invented the light bulb, phonograph, moving camera along with many other things.

It is actually safe to say that Thomas Edison was one of the most determined people who ever lived. He is just but one of the many examples that one can give to inspire others. Life can offer different opportunities. It is your work to grab them and make them whatever you have in mind.

Well, I want to try and fail, than fail to try completely. After all, Failure to try is usually planning to fail. Some of us, or maybe some of these successful people in the world have been termed or maybe viewed as goofy kids in the times when we or the others were growing up, that however shouldn’t deter us from jumping higher and grabbing that ‘impossible opportunity.’

You could be having setbacks and failures but your hard work will eventually pay you off someday.

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed" -Michael Jordan

Well, I will make it in life. Because nothing makes me different from all those people who tried just one more time and they made. I will never give up, I will work with determination and I will make it just like Colonel Sanders, Steven Spielberg and many others whose history I have read.

‘’Babe,’’ Tabby holds my shoulder shaking me lightly and I turn to look at her. ‘’You have gone back to the village. Can you please come back to the city now?’’ I shake my head to try and understand her Janet bursts out a peal of laughter and trusts me I laugh at that too.

She is really funny.

‘’Now, guys, let’s go to the market. I am running out of vegetables and that’s not a good thing. Let me get some money from madam Aliana, then we can go, okay?’’ she starts to walk away but she changes her mind mid-way. ‘’Hey, Clara, you go to her and get the money.’’ She says as she hands me the list of things that we will need to get from the market. ‘’I know she will view that as proactivity and that will be good for you.’’

‘’Sure.’’ I turn on my heels with the list at hand. I am somehow feeling proud of myself for accepting to come to the city. I have met friends and maybe, I will meet my love here. I smile despite myself. I am not looking for love. That’s not my priority but if it comes, I will appreciate it.

‘’Hey, please take her tea with you.’’ She says and I take the flask full of tea and a tea mug. I put them nicely with a few pieces of cookies in a tray and walk away. I am aware of their intense stare on my back but that’s just fine.

I don’t know yet what I feel for Harrison but it may not even be him. I am walking up the stairs to her bedroom. This house is super enormous and if I ever get to this level of highness, then I will be able to accommodate my whole family in it.

I smile sweetly at that. Well, that will be a dream come true. I will be able to smile, meet all these elegant people, and so on. I will make sure that Harrison's mum is invited because she has to come to terms with all that one day. I cannot wait to witness the shock that will be created on her face. Another slight smile curves my lips and I know for sure that I will make it.

When I finally get to the landing of the said floor. I look back and tell myself.

‘I will climb the ladder to success just the same way I just climbed the staircase.’ I feel satisfied with whatever I am doing at the moment but I will definitely not live in my comfort zone forever.

Definitely not.

He door is slightly open and she is on phone. I decide to hang around because honestly speaking, I cannot interrupt her phone conversation.

‘’What do you mean you cannot locate him? I pay you a lot of money, you have to find him. I have no peace at all, I am willing to pay you fortunes but just locate him for me.’’ I cannot hear the other side of the conversation but I decide to listen further. She pauses for a little while before she continues. ‘’Have you interrogated her?’’ another pause. ‘’what do you mean who? It’s Clara of course. What’s your job anyway?’’

The moment I hear that. I don’t know how fast things happen but the tray falls from my hand and everything falls apart. The tea spills everywhere as the mug shatters and smashes into pieces. My palm goes to cover my lips as I watch the mess that I just caused. I stare blankly at the floor. I just ruined it. I wonder if I will have a place to sleep in today.

I am officially jobless.

‘’What is going on here?’’

Her voice startles me and believe it or not, my feet wobble and grow really weak, they give way and boom! I fall on the floor and the last thing I hear is her scream as I zone out.

I hear nothing else after that.