Father Jose was leading me to my room on the third floor. He informed me that the servants lived in a different building opposite this and the both of us would be the only ones staying in the mansion.
He said that although the servants come Into the mansion once in a while to clean up and to do other stuffs, they were not allowed to get to the third floor as he cleans his room and library himself.
He was trying to let me know that I could have my privacy and I deeply appreciated his concern for me.
I looked at my mom lovingly as we walked together hands intertwined like best friends. A mothers bond was indeed the greatest. She had been with me through it all and I could not be more grateful to her for her love and her patience.
~~~~~~
"Do you like your room?" Father Jose asked, pulling me out of my thought.
The past few months had gotten me used to drifting away in the middle of almost every conversation. Sometimes even in class.
My therapist said it could soon end if tried to help myself stay conscious to my environment, but I didn't know how to.
Jose was standing by the doorway his eyes fixed on me, it felt like he was capturing my being, taking to note every single detail of my soul, his eyes were intrusive, searching me, watching me.
"The room is beautiful." I gushed walking in. My eyes took in every minute detail in the room to see If there was anything I would like to change.
The room was painted grey, grey walls, grey bedsheets, a grey rug. Everything was grey reminding me of his library. Although grey was my best color his obsession with it was making me curious.
"Easy Mira curiosity kills the cat. It has killed you once. You do not have nine lives." My mind warns but I ignored it.
A King's size bed stood prominently in the middle of the room with many pillows on it. This will be a good place for pillow fights I thought smiling to myself, remembering when I used to play such fights with my brothers.
Two wardrobes stood on both sides of the room and a big white teddy bear at the other end. There was a beautiful lamp stand resting by the bed side table and a picture of Jesus by it.
The room was simply perfect and I loved the rugs more, they were Fluffy, perfect.
I hadn't seen the bathroom yet, but from what I could see from the room the bathroom would certainly will be beautiful.
I needed a place I could waste away to nothingness thinking about him and I just got it.
"You love the colour grey so much." I pointed out turning to face him.
He looked down at his feet avoiding my eyes. He could stare at me when I was not looking but he couldn't look me in the eye. Interesting.
"Because I believe in neutrality, I believe that there are two sides to every story and nothing is either white or black. I believe that no one is purely evil except the devil and purely good except God. Every human has good and bad in them, any part they show must have been triggered by something, hence grey symbolizes neutrality. I think people are like grey, a mixture of white and black, a mixture of good and evil. Grey is also a symbol of long life, old age and wisdom. Grey means that everyone has a story even, a criminal."
I nodded and cleared my throat. I was deeply touched by his philosophy, he still had hope in humanity, I wish I did too. "I agree with you. That's why I didn't study law. The law is the law but the truth is subjective and things are not just black and white. Sometimes, sometimes nothing is as it seems." I uttered.
"Aren't you a smart one." He praised.
"Not exactly." I replied, chuckling. "Grey is my best colour too, but then I never thought about it like that. I just know a lot from living a sort of adventurous life."
"I see." Jose smirked.
I looked away from him, glancing at my mum who stood awkwardly by the door. "Mum what do you think, the room is nice right?"
"I love it! whoever designed this house has a very nice taste." My mum replied, clasping her hands together. She didn't just look happy, she was happy which made everything worth it.
I started to see how worried she must have been about me all this while. Thank God I did as she asked me to without much arguments.
I didn't want her to be sad not when I suspected she was pregnant even though she won't admit it. Maybe she was scared that Mr Chidalu didn't want another child or that I didn't want another sibling. But I wanted a little brother or a baby sister whichever one would do.
I wasn't going to push her to tell me if she doesn't want to yet, whenever she wants to she can. It is her story to tell. Her secret.
The three of us made further small talks and laughed.
My mum asked to stay behind in the sitting room while father Jose took me for a tour round the compound.
He kept blabbering about things that were important and things that were not.
Once when I wanted to see a painting behind him I moved close to himx but he quickly moved back like I was fire, wild fire.
I wondered if he was scared of me?
The first place he took me to was the garden.
The garden was filled with beautiful flowers: rose, hibiscus, tulip. I loved them all. It was well attended to, the gardener was watering it when we walked in.
Then he took me to the gym which was stocked with all kinds of machines. I wondered why he was so unfit if he had a gym so good, but It was not in my place to ask him.
I thought again about learning how to fight because knights in shining amours were so outdated that's if they ever existed.
A girl had to defend herself and not rely on anyone. Because sometimes your angel could be your demon disguised in make up and a black jacket.
Father Jose introduced me to his workers, the gate man Mr ojo who I had already seen before. The cleaners who were twins_ Peter and Paul.
They were identical but one was marked on his forehead so they could tell the difference between the both. They didn't look exactly alike though, the eldest one was fatter and shorter than the younger one but they were both dark and good looking.
I asked them why their parents gave them marks if they didn't look so much alike. Peter the eldest proceeded to tell me stories of how they deceived people when they were much younger, and and the tricks they played on their teachers and parents. How they fooled them all into near madness.
According to him they looked very much alike when they were little but as they grew up there features began to differ slightly. The mark which was just a small cut above Peter's eyebrows made him look even cuter. They were both married and They looked happy.
He introduced me to the gardener who was an old, short, bald man. He said little and never smiled. Sometimes old people could be very annoying. I never saw any of my grandparents as my dad never took us to the village for reasons he never told us about, and my mum was an orphan.
The last workers he introduced me to were the Cooks and I instantly hated them. They were best friends but they both looked evil, and smelled evil and cunning. My spirit did not agree with them.
Sarah was the taller one with a silly open teeth and a sillier hair and makeup. Rita was short and plump but facially she looked just like Sarah or I just couldn't tell the difference between them because I didn't care. They were both fair but I knew they bleached their skin as their black knees and knuckles was well highlighted under the sun.
They weren't happy to see me, that much was evident on their faces. I wasn't happy to see them either so the feeling was more than mutual. Much as I would like to keep to myself they better not Cross my path so I won't be forced to put them in their place.
After the long interesting tour, we ate dinner and my mum and I retired to my room to sleep after a long day.
Jose looked rather sad when we said our good nights. Poor thing. He looked so lonely.
My mum slept with me that night that's after we had played pillow fight although she mistakenly put her hands in my eyes once when she wanted to hit me.
I ended up crying as she pet me, soothing my back. There wasn't a reason to cry m, but I guess I just wanted to be a baby for a night. Just one night now that she was with me.
"You know I don't know how to play all this kind of play you have with your brothers." She whined as she patted my back softly, making me burst out into a full blown laughter amidst my aching eyes.
Staying together was a habit the therapist had advised us to have so that we could be sure that the other was safe. It had really helped with the nightmares after that night.
Before my mum left for her appointment she made arrangements for all my things to be brought into the parish house by tomorrow. I was overjoyed.
I could finally get to see my baby, my pure White Range rover. I had really missed her since I travelled home in Mr Chidalu's private Jet hence I couldn't take her home with me for the holidays.
I made a mental note to save up and buy a Lamborghini.
I needed to start learning how to race if ever I was going to be good at it. I wanted to learn how to drive fast, badly. I needed to learn everything that could make me strong enough to fight for myself.
My mum left the next morning after bidding me good bye and pumping thousands into my account through mobile transfer
I told her times without count that the money she gave me was too much, but she insisted.
She said that I was the reason she had it all in the first place so I had every right to enjoy it.
I secretly didn't like to be reminded of how I got us to have the money. But the end did justify the means.
The funniest thing about my mum giving me so much money was that when I spent the money the way I wanted to she would complain about me being extravagant. What am I supposed to do with the money if not spend it?
I know that she didn't want to say it but it was always there in her eyes. The fear that she had lost me to pain. It was there.
I didn't go back into the house until her Black Range Rover was out of sight.