writen by EMA

It was Valentine’s Day. And she had a blinding
headache and a report to finish and submit.
Valerie Chibuike sat behind her office desk,
wishing she had a magic wand; then she would
magically cure this throbbing pain on her temple
threatening to split her head in two. And just
maybe as a side bonus, drown the excited voices
coming through the door.
“Hey you, happy Valentine’s Day.” Kelechi’s
laughing voice rang out at the hallway.
Valerie groaned, God, what was it about
Valentine’s Day that had people going all bubbly
and excited?
She sighed and shook her head. Giving the typed
report one last frowning assessment, she clicked
the Print icon on the laptop. Print, read again and
submit, she ordered herself as she walked over to
the Printer to pick the document as it slide out.
She knocked down the dustbin as hurried back to
her desk.
“Damn it!” She swore tossing the document on the
desk. This is bound to happen when you have a
clustered tiny room for an office, she thought
crossly as she picked up the scattered trash.
Throwing the last rumpled paper in the dustbin,
she huffed back to her desk. She swore again,
more explicitly this time, today was turning out to
be a nightmare. The report she’d tossed on the
table was now going wet at the edges from water
out of the plastic cup she’d dropped earlier, with
the plastic cup now doing a great imitation of
swing low swing chariot.
“Great.” She sighed picking a serviette from the
pack on her desk, she tried to wipe away the
wetness. The top paper scratched at the edge.
“Now why the hell did I ever think that wiping was
what I needed to do?” She muttered. Swearing and
cursing bad luck she dashed across the room.
Squeezing herself between the water dispenser
and the double-seater sofa, she raised the three
page report towards the air conditioner.
A minute later, she brought down her hand and
was just about to heave a sigh of relief when the
thump sound stopped her, she looked at the paper
just beneath the air conditioner, a massive
wetness covered the centre of the report.
Valerie stared at the report, opened her mouth to
curse, no sound came, instead she did something
she hadn’t done all day…she laughed. Just threw
back her head and laughed.
It was Valentine’s Day and amazingly enough her
birthday. With a now wet-in-the-centre report
added to a still scratched edge front page in her
hand, Valerie laughed at her stupidity, walking
back slowly to her desk. What had she been
thinking of, trying to dry an already scratched
document under an air conditioner?
She sighed deeply as she sat down, clicked on the
Chop N’ Munch Folder on her desktop, selected
the particular report. “Just reprint the damn
document and go submit it.” She mumbled to
herself.
She turned as she heard the door click open. It
was Mama Bee. She almost groaned aloud, she’d
come for the report.
Beelolari Olaitan entered the small office. She was
a petite voluptuous woman, just about five foot,
fair in complexion and quite pretty. And also a no-
nonsense woman who had no patience for
sluggishness and tardiness. And since she was her
boss, Valerie sprang to her feet guiltily.
“Valerie, I’ve been waiting for the last thirty
minutes for a simple report.” Her bright red
painted lips were pursed. “Mind telling me what’s
taking so long?”
“Ah … I’m sorry.” Valerie apologized rubbing her
throbbing temple. “I just got delayed.” She
grabbed the report from the printer, stapled the
papers together and walked over to Mama Bee.
“Here it is.” Trying hard to block out the throbbing
pain in her temple.
Mama Bee took the report, her dark brown eyes
narrowed as they scrutinized Valerie’s face.
Instead of turning and leaving, as Valerie had
hoped, she walked into the office, straight to the
sofa, sat down and patted the seat on her right.
Valerie looked at her for a moment with sheer
admiration in spite of herself. Mama Bee was a
woman who knew what fitted her small full-figured
frame, she was looking amazing as usual in her
knee length black coloured chiffon skirt and shawl
collared turquoise blue three button jacket top.
Valerie saw the speculative look in her eyes, the
love and concern. Sighing, she walked over and sat
down beside her. Though she wasn’t really in the
mood for a stop-allowing-this-get-you-down
lecture, Valerie sat in the vacant space on the sofa
and proceeded to listen, because
Mama Bee was not only her boss but also her
best-friend’s mother and above all an important
part of the two people that made up her family.
“Bad night?” Mama Bee asked looking Valerie in
the eye. She noticed the flash of pain as she tried
to raise her head. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
Valerie looked down at her hands, squeezing them
together. She wanted to rub her throbbing temple
but didn’t want to draw attention to it. That would
only mean more questions, more reproofs, more
worries.
“Yes, I did.” Her voice sounded croaky even in her
own ears. She coughed a little to clear it. “I am just
tired, that’s all.”
Mama Bee had no patience for sluggishness or
tardiness but she had a whole lot of it for a
grieving broken heart. And this heart she knew had
been grieving a long time, for a really long time.
She looked at the beautiful young woman sitting
beside her, fighting hard to hide the pain she was
feeling, in her head, in her heart.
She sighed and took Valerie’s clenched hands in
her own, unclenching them by her gentle touch.
“So, it is Valentine’s Day and also your birthday
and once again your heart break into tiny little
pieces.”
Valerie bit her lips, hard. She wanted to shake her
head, deny the pain in her heart. But this was
Mama Bee, there was no deceiving her.
So eyes dark with pain and shimmering with tears,
she looked up at the woman who was both a boss
and a surrogate mother. “It’s so hard, Mama Bee,
it’s so hard. And it doesn’t get any easier.”
Mama Bee nodded. “It is hard, very hard I’m sure,
and yes it doesn’t get any easier.” Her eyes were
firm and resolute. “But it won’t get any easier until
you decide to let it get easier.”
Valerie withdrew her left hand, wiped her tears.
“Mama Bee, do you think I don’t want this to get
easier? You think I don’t want this to end? You
think I don’t want this … this anguish, this pain,
choking me … right here.” She touched herself just
beneath her left breast. “You think I don’t want the
constant aches and pains to end?”
Mama Bee’s heart twisted as she watched the tears
flow freely down Valerie’s face. It broke her heart
to see them, she wanted to wipe them away, end
this pain, by leaving the issue … but she knew it
was time, way past time.
“I think that unless you make the decision to let go,
you will always be haunted by this.” She told her in
a firm voice.
“How can I let go, Mama Bee?” Valerie cried not
bothering to wipe the tears as they gushed out
now. “How can I let go? It was Valentine’s Day and
my birthday and all I wanted was to go for a stupid
show … and they all died.” She broke down.
Mama Bee stretched her hand to grab the serviette
pack from the desk close to the sofa. She passed
them to Valerie.
“Sweetheart, I think you have cried enough … for a
life time.” She picked out a serviette, swapped it
gently, tenderly across Valerie’s cheeks, watched
as the forlorn head drooped again. “Baby, you
have been crying for the last twenty years and
that’s more than enough for a life time.” She
placed her fingers under her jaw and nudged
Valerie’s head up. “It is time to stop crying.” She
said gently but firmly.
Valerie stared at her through red rimmed brown
eyes. “Can I ever stop crying?” She asked piteously.
“Yes you can.” Mama Bee told her in a soft voice.
“You just have to make up your mind to stop and
to begin to accept what happened. Above all, hear
me when I say this to you again …”
She smiled tearfully when she saw the girl-I’m-not-
playing-with-you look.
“…you were not responsible for the tragedy that
happened. It was just the will of God and you have
to finally learn to accept it.”
She nodded, clenching her fists to the tears flowing
again. She’d heard that before. Heard it a
thousand times but still cannot comprehend it.
“How can it be God’s will to take my whole family
from me in just one single moment?”
“I don’t know.” She took the clenched hands again.
“But I do know this … they would want you to live
again, really live again. Don’t you know that you
are the only link they have left to this life?” She
cocked her head to the left.
Valerie smiled a little sadly. “Mama used to angle
her head just like that. She was so fair, so
beautiful.”
“And her daughter is just as beautiful… if not more
so.” She patted Valerie’s hands. “Valerie it is time
to live again. It is time.” She gave her one last look
before getting to her feet.
Picking up her report, she headed for the door.
Valerie watched her as she swayed her pretty
highly-packaged body to the door in a graceful
catlike manner, she was a woman who knew how
to carry herself, she thought, loving this woman
who her best friend’s mum and her own mother
now.
Mama Bee turned just before she opened the
door, pointed the report at Valerie. “Go home,
young lady and that is an order.” Opening the door
she threw over her shoulders. “I’m told there’s a
wild party planned for tonight.” The door clicked
shut.
Valerie’s brows shot up as she stared after her
open-mouthed for about a minute. Then her lips
curved in a smile. Getting to her feet, she grabbed
a couple of serviettes, wiped her face as she
strolled back to her desk. With a decisive touch of
her forefinger she clicked the Shutdown icon on
her laptop and waited a bit for it to finish the
logging off process, then picking it up, dropped it
into her backpack.
Grabbing her dark peach handbag on one hand
and the black leather backpack on the other hand,
she headed for the door, opened it, marched out
and left it to click itself shut as she strolled towards
the back exit door of the restaurant.
It was barely four p.m. and she was already
heading home before the close of work at the
express order of her boss. It was Valentine’s Day
after all and also her thirtieth birthday. Valerie
smiled to herself.