A NORMAL DAY

Mofe straightened her brown cotton skirt and used the back of her hand to wipe sweat off her brow. The sun was hot and it's heat was burning through her carton brown coloured top. The heat making perspiration leak from her face, down her neck and stoppinh at the thin valley between her breasts, settling there.

Her armpits felt undeniably sticky with sweat, and she was pretty sure that a dark patch had formed underneath her armpits. She walked rapidly her black flat shoes slapping on the tiled floor with every step that she made. It took all of her mind will not to break out in a run. She was late.

You have a good excuse Mofe, no need to be scared, she assured herself.

But no matter how much she tried to tell herself that she would be fine. She couldn't help the feeling of dread that came along with it.

She was breathing rapidly by the time she got to the front of the brown mahogany door that signified the office of her boss. She raised her hand in a fist and knocked twice. Holding her breath, crossing her fingers hoping to hell that he was not mad, at least not as mad as he usually was.

She had been working as a secretary for the firm for about three years. She was crazily over qualified for the position of a secretary with her accounting degree. She had bagged a solid second class upper in BSc. Accounting from the University of Benin and had been the top of her class at accounting school in Jos, but the terrible Nigerian economy had made her settle for being a secretary to a a very annoying boss.

"Come in." Said the rough voice from inside the office. Mofe took a deep breath and walked in. On seeing her boss's hard look, all her earlier confidence flew out the window.

"You are late!" He said, stating the obvious. Mofe had the urge to roll her eyes, but that wouldn't help her not at all.

"Yes Sir," she said instead. Her boss Mr. Peters, was a middle aged Ibo man and according the Mofe and the rest of the staff, a pain in the ass. She was just the unlucky fellow that had to work directly with him.

"Just go to your post," he said in a tired voice, as though he was talking to a child. It infuriated Mofe, and she wanted to fight back but she held her tongue, he was her boss after all.

Mofe sat on her very uncomfortable chair, the one that hurt her bum and made her feel that her bones were making contact with the wood. She moved her butt around the chair, hoping to derive some sort of comfort. When that didn't work, she resigned to her fate and opened the company's signature computer. The model was outdated like everything else in the office.

She went on to check her emails when something caught her attention. It was an invitation, one that inviting and so she clicked on it.

You are cordially invited to the Standard High School Old Student Association, Reunion.

This year will be hosted by the Pindar Graduating Set, in commiseration of their 10th year anniversary of Graduation from our Great alma mater.

It will hold for one week from the 16th to 18th of December, 2020.
Venue is Riverside Hotel, PortHarcourt.

She looked at the invitation and sighed. She had seen one like that every other year. It was just an opportunity for her secondary school classmates to show off their newly found wealth, their sparkly degrees, their beautiful wives and handsome husbands and to rub the fact that she didn't have all of that in her face.

Funnily enough, she still kept contact with some of her classmates, just a few though. She looked at their pictures on social media, but that only reminded her of how much of her dreams she hadn't achieved. It reminded her of how she hadn't gotten far at all, how it seemed like she was stagnant. It only made her feel bad about her self and she had no intentions at all of going back to that.

She moved her cursor to the 'x' and clicked on it. There was no way that she would go.

The rest of the day, her mind was troubled. She got shouted at by her boss five times, which really wasn't anything out of normal, but those times she actually messed up.

When she finally closed by 5:30pm- her boss had given her overtime - she was glad to get out of the office. She immediately stopped a blue and white keke and hopped in. Her poor bottom was yet again subject to torture as unfortunately for her, the seat of the tricycle were even more worn out that the one in her office.

The driver who had an Igbo laced accent complained about the bad state of the road and the dark and thick woman by Mofe's side agreed with him, shouting all her profanities while releasing droplets of saliva on Mofe's body. The woman oddly reminded Mofe of an elephant with the trunk releasing water into the air.

By time they were finally at her stop, their conversation had somehow drifted from bad roads to rich yahoo boys, the elephant like lady had started telling them the story of her two nephews that had become yahoo boys and had lost all interest in education as a result. Not wanting to comment, she simply came down from the rusty vehicle and gave the Igbo man a crumpled two hundred naira note and started walking inside her street.

Mofe was one of the lucky few that actually stayed close to her working place, though that meant still living with her mother. It wasn't actually abnormal for a twenty six year old to still live with her mother, there were some ladies that were more than forty but not married that still lived with their parents, but that was not what Mofe planned for herself, this was certainly not what she wished for herself, ten years after graduating from secondary school.

"Da Ma," she greeted her mother as she entered into the house. She tiredly sag on their brown sofa, that had tired white lines running on the skin. She pulled her flat shoes of her feet, stretching her toenails which were painted bright pink and had been held captive by the shoe ever since.

"Do otomi," her mother said looking at her with a bit of sympathy.

"Isn't that boss of yours over working you?" She asked, her voice laced with concern.

Mofe had no words to tell her mother. She felt deep inside that she had disappointed the woman who had done everything for her. She couldn't buy her a car like everyone else was doing. Se knew her mother felt like everything she did was super, but Mofe knew that she was very normal. She knew that if she left her job because of the stress, that it would be terribly hard to find someone else that would hire her.

And so she said, "No, not all, today is just one of those days." Not waiting for her mother to question her more, she picked up her black flats and walked into her room. She immediately took off all her clothes and took a long bath. When she was finally done and about to lie down for a while, ehe heard the familiar sound of her ringing tone.

She groaned and fumbled her brown bag for her Android phone, finally fishing it out. She pressed the green button even without looking at the name.

"Mayuku Ukunoritsemofe Favour!" Besidone screamed from the other end of the phone, and Mofe moved the phone as far enough from her ears as she could. Dhe could trust her closest friend to scream her full name.

"God, Done. Fo you want to burst my eardrums? Don't you want me to hear again?" She asked her closest friend, she was met with silence and she could tell that Done was rolling her eyes.

"Whatever, didn't you see the e-mail, the biggest party is in a month. What are you wearing?" Her friend demanded, Done had the tendency to be a bit forceful at times.

"I am not going," Mofe said.

"Why?"

"Oh, is it because you are scared you will see a certain some body?" Done asked and Mofe couldn't help the shy smile that rested on her face as the thought of him.

Stop it Mofe, it has been years, like ten whole years, stop thinking about him, it is clear that he isn't thinking about you, she chided herself.

"No, I am over him," Mofe said to her friend in a hard voice hoping it conveyed enough hardness to convince her.

"Whatever you say," Done said in a sing song voice, clearly it didn't work.

Author's Note.
Sorry, sorry, sorry this chapter took long, and it isn't long at all, basically just a filler.

In case anyone is confused this is thirteen years from the first chapter and she is now twenty six, she was thirteen before and ten years from their graduation.

Please let just ignore my music choice when I am writing the secondary school part, though it would be 2007, you might see 2013 or 2014 music.

Glossary

Keke- tricycle

The reason that is blue and white is because that is Delta State's colour.

Da ma- an Itsekiri greeting for older women, meaning Doh Mama.

Do otomi- is the response unlike Da ma which is for women, do otomi is for all sex, it means, doh my child.

Done is short form of Besidone, Done is pronounced Dawn - e, the e is as in elephant.

Okay till next time, vote, comment and share.

Loads of love,

Timeyin