Only Daughter

Lanre left the hotel very early even before dawn. She did not want to be noticed when leaving. So she left even without notifying her mom. It was the best she felt she could do at the moment. She did not want to see Ify. She feared she could end up hating someone she has come to love like they were sisters.

She had taken a bus back to Ibadan. Lanre had planned on calling her mother when she was sure her mother would be ready to leave. But she forgot. She forgot to remove her phone from the “do not disturb” feature she had put it in. She had also forgotten that her mother could be worried and searching for her. She arrived home on time and just went to sleep.

It was after she woke up and had wanted to ask her mom of something that she realised her mother was not home yet. Lanre hits her head with her palms. She grabbed her phone and called her mother.

Meanwhile, Lanre’s mother, Mrs. Olayinka has been in Lagos searching for her daughter. The woman had cried a lot thinking something bad has happened to her daughter. She would not even be comforted by those who gave her comfort. Even Mrs. Okafor was frightened. While Ify felt guilty. Mrs. Ochuzi could only sympathize with the wailing mother of her daughter’s friend who would not be comforted.

“Lagos is a bad place o! Lanre is not familiar with Lagos even though we live in Ibadan. What am I going to do if my only daughter is not found? What of they have killed my daughter? Hey!” The mother would exclaim after saying words that suspected a bad event had met with her daughter.

Ify had informed K of Lanre’s disappearance. She kept begging him to find Lanre. K felt weak. He wondered if she was actually missing. If she was, then he was not going to forgive himself. He kept calling himself a crazy bastard for going that far.

“I fucking did not know she was this frail at heart. I thought she was an iroko (known as the tallest tree in African forest. One is believed to never fall under harsh conditions) it comes to matters like this”. K said. Christian was the only person by his side at the moment. Christian told him to find her and marry her since he loves her.

“I do not love her. I just want to punish her for rejecting me! I did not plan for this, her going missing?” K said. He immediately told Christian to cover up for him.

“If my parents call, tell them I had too much to drink and has ended up sick. I can’t say a word! Remember this”. K said to Christian before leaving.

K would call Lanre often to see if someone would answer, but the phone was not reachable. This made matters worst for him. He had no clue where he would start looking for Lanre, but he just drove around.