I couldn't sleep the whole night. I took three good cold shower but still found no relieve in it. On one side, I was happy that I shared my problem with my parents but one the other side - the bad side - I was scared that i'd exposed their life to danger and that other side was the side that was giving me the headache.
I later fell asleep around 4:00am and woke up to the sound that was coming from the door. Someone was knocking on my door and I concluded it was going to be my dad due to the roughness of the knock.
I checked my wristwatch which says it was 7:45am and I lazily forced myself into a sitting position. I was awoke but half conscious of what was happening around me until my dad's voice sounded through the door.
"Taoseo, are you awake?"
"Yes, dad" I replied lazily but loud enough because I knew he wasn't going to leave my door until he heard my voice. " You don't have to worry anymore, I'm fully awake"
I heard the sound of his footsteps fading as he was making his way to the kitchen. I got up few minutes later and made my way to the bathroom.
We got to the police station and I was ushered to the interviewing room and was asked a lot of unreasonable questions. I answered the ones I could and left the others hanging in the air. It was an anonymous interview which made me relaxed a little bit, but that doesn't mean that Chun jo wouldn't know where that arrow was coming from.
My dad's plan was that we'll be leaving the vicinity for a month or until - the - criminal - were - caught vacation to an hotel in Busan, which sounded like a great plan to my mom. I don't know if it was me imagining this but it seems like going on a vacation for criminal stuff was making my mom to act like an heroine.
It was up to three weeks before all of them were caught, and it such a great shame for my own old - best - friends face to be shown among the criminals. I received a lot of calls from work, old school mates that we still got along including Jeremy and people that knew me with her.
Three years have came and went and I was still mourning the absence of Cynthia. Cynthia absence was the worst thing that ever happened to me and I always blamed our fate for not given us a chance to be together.
Micheal had been talking about his elder brother's wedding for good six months, which was going to be held in Nigeria, which I must attend even though I wasn't going there wholeheartedly, because why should I be attending other people's wedding when my own fate had denied me the privilege for one, but Michael was a good friend and I knew accompanying him back to Nigeria was going to make him happy.
We landed in Nigeria a week before the wedding because Micheal wanted to give me a good tour round his city. It was such a great pleasure to be around his people who were funny and treated me like a prince.
Micheal family lived in Lagos but the wedding was going to be held in Ibadan because that was where the wife's family lived. So, on the fifth day of our arrival, we moved to Ibadan and prepared for the ceremony.
We woke up few hours before the beginning of the ceremony on Saturday, which was the day of the wedding and helped in the last minute packing. I wore the native dress which Micheal had planned for me, which looked funny on me compared to how it looked on others. The wedding was divided into into three parts - the engagement, the church service and the reception. The first part which was the engagement started at 7:30am. The engagement was conducted in their own language but I joined in when people laughed because I don't want to feel left out.
The church service started by 10:00am and thankfully it was in English so I don't have to fake laughter.
I've hardly seen Micheal since we arrived at the hall today but it doesn't bother me because I knew how much he missed his people.
When it was time for the arrival of the bride, we were told to stand up, which we happily did for the soon - to- be - wife. Everyone turned their heads to the back entrance of the hall which I also did. I stiffened immediately because someone else caught my attention. Among two black girls that was smiling at the third girl's joke, there was a girl that looked familiar. She looked like an older version of a girl I've seen before. I immediately turned my head back to the front, trying to compose myself. I took my phone out and cross checked the picture I drew myself. It was a picture from my dream and the dream was still as fresh as an early morning spring in my brain. The bride coming in was out of my focus and I could hear nothing that was going on around me. I turned back slowly, trying to see if if the girls weren't going to be there, maybe it was me that had imagined it, but they were still there, talking to one another.
'This can't be real. I think I'm seeing things' I thought because among these three girls was Lilly and even if I was wrong they'd to be related. Few seconds before we were told to sit down, she looked at my direction and I smiled back at her which made her diverted her attention back to her friends. I knew I looked stupid smiling at her that way, as if we knew each other but I couldn't help it.
I got seated when we were told to do so but found no relieve in it. I was sweating but it had nothing to do with the temperature in the hall. I checked some faces that were nearer to me but none of them resembled Cynthia. I started checking the girl at my back every five minutes to make sure she was still there but I was running out of patience, so, I called Michael, who didn't picked up. So I texted him: I need your help with the hope that he was going to be here in the next few seconds.
Micheal arrived thirty minutes later saying he just saw the text. He sat down on a chair a woman just vacated and looked at me as if I was sick.
"Tao seo. What is wrong? You look as if you've just seen a ghost"
"Yes. I saw something but it's not a ghost"
"And what is that?" I handed him my phone and his confusing made me talk.
"Check that picture out" he looked at my phone and raised an eyebrow.
"I've seen this pictures several times"
"I'm not saying you should check the pictures out, I mean this one in particular"
"Okay and how may I help you with it?"
"What if I tell you that she is in this hall" I whispered.
"What do you mean in this hall?"
"Just check the fourth row, to your left, at our back and you will see what I'm talking about"
"There is no one that resembles her there"
"What do you mean 'there is no one that resembles her there'? Check it very well, there are three girls at that row by your left"
"The only girls that I see in that row are mothers"
"You gat to be kidding me" I said and turned my head back to the girls direction but to my surprise, she wasn't there and neither were are friends. The last time I checked on her was few seconds before Micheal's arrival.
"I mean it. She was sitting down there. An older version of her was sitting down there" I said which almost sounded like a whisper. Why the fuck do I take my eye off her. I was angry for losing her but I wasn't going to take that blame.
"It was all you fault Dickson" the few times I'd used his surname was when I was pissed off at him and right now I was more than pissed off, I was fucking angry.