Chapter 116: In the Dream
***IN THE DREAM***
I really could not believe that mom could ever concede or even approve of going to a native doctor, she had always advised against it, together we had even criticized people who condescend to such places, I wonder why she must accede to going to a native doctor, I wonder how that place will look like.
"Tomorrow is Monday, I would have suggested that we go tomorrow, but I'm not sure how possible it will be."
Aunty Paula said.
"If you can make it tomorrow, I'm in. I'll just call the office stating that my boy is ill, and I took him to the hospital. So are we going tomorrow?"
Mom inquired. Seriously? Mom just accepted to miss work. This was when it became apparent how serious this matter is to mom, mom will never miss work, no matter her health condition. Before now I've known that the situation was a serious one, but I never thought it to be a matter of such urgency.
"Ok... Hmm... We will leave in the morning. The place is far. She said that the man stays in Dutsen-Alhaji."
Aunty Paula said.
"Where is that?"
Mom inquired.
"Hmm... The place is quite far, it's around Kubwa and Bwari. I know dutse quite well, but I don't know how to locate the native doctor's place, so we have to go early so as to come back on time."
Aunty Paula explained. Mom had no issues about that, she agreed with the suggestion of leaving early. After they have concluded with their dialogue, aunty Paula finally noticed that I have been eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Juliet. Your boy is listening, is it ok? Why didn't you ask him inside?"
She asked.
"My dear, where ever he is, if he wants to hear he will hear, that is his personality."
Mom responded hastily...
"What? So he has been listening to all our discussions?"
"Hmm... He is not entirely like us, he can even hear your thought if he wants to."
Mom said.
"It's a lie... Is that even possible? So he is hearing my thoughts all these while... So knows I'm scared of him."
Aunty Paula whispered looking even more terrified.
"My dear, I think it's very apparent that you are afraid of him, your recent behavior since after I told you about him is so obvious that you fear, so he doesn't need to read your thoughts in other to know that you fear him. But as for mind-reading, he does not read thoughts within this house... It's prohibited."
So mom said.
"Hmm... My sister, it's not like I'm scared but... You know na, I'm still in shock."
Aunty Paula explained.
"I understand everything, I'm not blind to reasoning. So tomorrow it is, right?"
Mom concluded. I was still in shock, how could mom possibly accede to going to a native doctor's place, I never believed that she could ever concur to such a thing.
That day after their discussion, and after aunty Paula had gone back to her place, mom called me to explain some things to me which she never truly did, but she promised to explain after this ordeal. I knew she will, even before she said it because I also had it in mind to confront her after the ordeal. That evening I'll say was the most intimate time we had since she found out about my swimming. I just couldn't wait for the trial to pass so we could go back as we were. I wished things really went back but it never did, that was how we drifted, this experience pushed me more and more towards the sea and to my father leaving my mom to herself, I regret all the troubles, lonely times, and heartaches that I put her through.
That very night, I remember mom suggested that I should sleep in her room, she thought I was actually scared judging from the circumstances, but I was not, I totally had confidence in her. So that night as I slept in my room, I had a dream, a strange dream, one so confusing. I saw this wild-looking handsome man by the waterside, who looked like someone who was missing his way, the strange thing was the feeling I had towards him in the dream.
In the dream, I found myself around a beautiful seaside, it was a lonely, serene, and tranquilized sea just like a beach. The waster was so blue and gentle. I was just lying on the bare sandy shore of the seaside when I saw this graceful-looking man who wandered around the saw as a lost sheep. Before then, as I lay on the sandy shore just around the place where droplets of water could meet me whenever the current broke, I lay with my head facing the sand so I could feel the coldness of the sharp sea sand and the sweet mild smell which tickled leaving me with goosebumps. Now I noticed the man's presence cause his shadow was cast upon the sand which I sniffed, I raised my head to see the wanderer who stared at me like a man with questions...
"Good evening sir..."
I greeted him as I raised my head, but he aired no words to me, he rather stared at me continuously with his beautiful blue eyes, I could swear that the man was familiar, he looked to me like someone I know, but where did I know him from was the question I asked myself in that dream. His gold-colored hair flowed down his shoulders to his back, I would have believed that I've my the future me but there is something that convinced me that he wasn't and will not be the future me, and that is the fact that the man was fairer than I am. He was tall, well built, nice broad chest, and got most of my physic.
"Who are you, sir? And why are you perambulating the entire shore?
So I asked on seeing how he stared at me like he had found that which he sought.
“Goldrich...”
He said... It took him quite a while before he uttered the name...“Goldich?”
I raised myself on one elbow and looked up at him.
“Do you mean a rich gold?”His gold hair was straight and with waves like he just got out of a hairdressing salon, his husky blue eyes which were identical to mine seem to deem and scared of the sunlight, I felt like he must be an indoor man because he kept squinting under the tiny beams of sunlight that probed through the limbs of the coconut trees that seemed to be strategically planted for the beautification of the bay. He shook his head to say no, with his left hand he rubbed the space between his eyes, and with his right, he beat his chest.
“No… I am Goldrich.”
He said.