I should have stayed in Surulere.
Maybe if I had stayed at home, I would have been sitting on my father’s old sofa, listening to everybody argue about the family problem. Maybe I would have been miserable, but at least I wouldn’t be hiding inside Madam’s wardrobe in Ikoyi, afraid to breathe.
Let me explain.
I wasn’t even supposed to be working that weekend. Madam had told me herself.
“Oga is traveling, and I’m going to my family’s place. Just take the weekend off.”
I had been happy, very happy. Two whole days without work, two days without ironing clothes that cost more than everything in my father’s house combined, two days without Madam asking me whether I had remembered to arrange the flowers in the guest bathroom… very very happy indeed.
Then Sunday came and family trouble happened. I just don’t understand why some people can’t just handle their business…no, they just have to bring in innocent people into it, just annoying.
By afternoon, I had had enough, I couldn’t stay there. So I packed my small bag and returned to Ikoyi. Technically, I was not supposed to resume until Monday, but I thought nobody would mind. The house was supposed to be empty anyway.
Upon getting there, it was completely empty. I dropped my bag, walked around and checked the kitchen. I suddenly remembered about the cameras…wait…they were being serviced. The security people had mentioned that the surveillance system would be temporarily unavailable. For some reason, that made me smile. I suddenly felt like I had the whole house to myself.
Then I had an idea…Madam’s room. I had always wanted to explore it and not just clean it. The room is simply beautiful as everything about it screamed money. The perfume bottles, the shoes, the handbags, the dressing table, the huge mirror, and even the bed looked like nobody had ever been allowed to sleep badly on it.
I opened her wardrobe and gasped in excitement, there were clothes everywhere…beautiful clothes and expensive clothes…clothes I had only seen people wear on Instagram.
I touched one, then another, and then found myself smiling at my reflection, “Let me just try one.”
One became two, two became three, and I started taking pictures. I posed, turned, adjusted my hair and pulled one face. I was having the time of my life.
For those few minutes, I wasn’t a housemaid, I was just Chisom, a nineteen-year-old girl who looked beautiful in expensive clothes. I even started imagining what it would feel like to have a wardrobe like this one day.
Suddenly I froze. I thought I heard laughter. Of course that can’t be possible, it must be coming from outside. So I thought to myself.
Then I heard footsteps…inside the house. My smile disappeared, someone was coming upstairs. I looked toward the bedroom door…two voices…a man’s voice and….wait…a woman’s voice.
I looked at the clothes scattered across the bed, “Jesus.”
I grabbed everything, one shoe fell, which I quickly picked up… a dress slipped from my hand, I grabbed it…I nearly tripped over the stool… and I ran into the walk-in closet. It was almost the size of my entire bedroom. I pulled the door almost shut and stood completely still.
The footsteps came closer, I then heard the woman’s laughter. My heart stopped, I knew that voice…Madam.
I stared at the tiny gap in the wardrobe door…No, it couldn’t be. Maybe someone sounded like her. But when the voice came again, there was no mistaking it, Madam was in the room.
But with whom? The man said something which made her laugh, and then came another sound…A kiss.
I immediately covered my mouth as my eyes widened…Oga?…Had he returned? Maybe the trip had been cancelled, that had to be it.
Who else could it be? I waited for him to speak, instead the man laughed. I frowned, something about that laugh bothered me. It was familiar, very familiar. I tried to place it.
One of Oga’s friends?
No
A relative?
Maybe.
Someone from the estate?
Possibly.
But why would any of them be upstairs with Madam? I stayed still as I didn’t want them to know I was there. Whatever was happening outside that closet was none of my business, at least that’s what I kept telling myself.
The conversation in the bedroom became quieter. I heard Madam say something to which the man replied and followed by more laughter.
I looked at my phone and considered calling someone.
But who?
What would I even say?
“Hello, I’m hiding inside my madam’s wardrobe and I need your help?”
Even I knew that sounded ridiculous, so I stayed. Minutes passed…I heard footsteps…The sound of something being moved. Then the man said something that made me realise they were clearly not discussing business.
I closed my eyes, “Chisom, mind your business.” I whispered it to myself, “Just mind your business.”
Eventually, the room became quiet. I could hear the man moving around and Madam laughing again, even the man laughed with her. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.
But that laugh…that same deep, familiar laugh. A thought starts forming in my mind and my stomach tightened. I knew that laugh but can’t just place it. I had heard it before, but where?
I started going through the faces in my head…
The driver.
No.
The security man.
No.
One of Oga’s friends.
No.
A family member.
My breathing became shallow.
The man then spoke and suddenly my entire body went cold. Thats it!
I knew exactly who it belonged to. My hand flew over my mouth, “No…”
The word barely escaped as my mind refused to accept what it was already telling me. I then heard him call Madam by her name casually and intimately, like he had every right to be there.
I stared into the darkness of the wardrobe. My heart was beating so loudly that I was convinced they could hear it.
It couldn’t be, it absolutely couldn’t be.
How could he? How could they?!
I had seen him in this house and he was never supposed to be there.
I pressed my back against the wardrobe and my hands began to shake. I was no longer thinking of Madam’s beautiful stuffs, instead, I was thinking about how quickly a secret could destroy a house, and also wondering what would happen when the door finally opened.