Her Christmas desire - Season 1 - Episode 2

Episode 5 years ago

Her Christmas desire - Season 1 - Episode 2

The cab driver had been watching her, at first, he didn’t want to probe. But when the tears gushed out more generously, he found it difficult to ignore her.

‘Are you alright Ma’m?’ He asked.

Quickly she remembered she wasn’t alone. She found it difficult to cry in front of people, so she wiped her face and told the man that she was okay.

‘You can drop me here,’ her face brightened as she realized they had reached the airport. Spending Christmas alone in her current emotional state wasn’t advisable, and that was one of the reasons she had decided to travel home.

They both stepped down from the car. While the driver went to the trunk to get her box, she fed her eyes with the beehive of the airport. The International Airport was flooding with people. Some were coming in, and some were leaving.

A rush of excitement replaced the sorrow she felt earlier as she looked on, she couldn’t wait to set foot in Nigeria after seventeen years.

‘Here you go, have a safe trip.’ The driver flashed a smile which she returned.

‘Thanks, you too,’ She collected the box and advanced towards the waiting area, where she would stay just before her flight was announced.

A smile played on her lips as she remembered the first time she had travelled by airplane to America. She had been so young and afraid; her mother had kicked against it, but she had fought so hard to make her dreams come true.

Her smile faded another time as she thought about her family, her mother especially. She wasn’t too close to the woman, because of her arrogance towards their father whom she considered weak at times.

Eno was the first child out of four. She had two younger sisters, and a prodigal brother who had run away from home when he was just sixteen. Elvis was still alive, and the last time she saw him was on Television where he was being arrested for drug trafficking.

She thought of her younger sisters- Cassandra and Elena, whom she missed a great deal. Along the years, they had only communicated over the phone and social media platforms. Eno had made sure that she helped her family in the littlest way that she could do. If it wasn’t for their support, she wouldn’t have made it out here.

A gust of wind rustled her hair as she reached the waiting area, and she decided she had enough of the wintery torture. She had been fighting the urge not to battle the cold in her own way, but she had no option. Her fingers itched for a cig. Her body yearned for another kind of warmth that only a stick or more of Marlboro could offer.

She dropped her box gently and assessed the box like tent she had entered. She was the only one in there, and that made her plans more appropriate as some people were allergic to smoke.

Her fingers fumbled through her hand bag as she searched for the pack of Marlboro and her lighter. The urge to quench the coldness within her, and to calm her nerves increased with the frantic search.

‘Finally,’ she smiled as she found it.

She pulled out a stick neatly, and lit it without hesitation. Before taking the burning stick to her lips, she dragged in the seducing scent of tobacco and mint leaves, a mixture that always drove her crazy.

Eyes closed, ears shut to whatever was happening around her, Eno took the first drag and let the heat dance through her slender body. It was heaven. She felt like heaven. And she wasn’t going to stop in a long while.

“A beautiful woman and a Cigarette is one hell of a combination.” A deep voice whispered close to her, and her eyes cracked open at once.

She glared at a guy who was far from handsome, but had this aura of confidence around him. His eyes were sharp and arrogant, piercing deeply into her soul. She’d wanted to ignore him, but he walked towards her and took a seat next to hers.

‘You shouldn’t be smoking darling, it’s not healthy.’ He smiled and leaned closer to her. He was going to take the cigarettes from her fingers and she wasn’t going to stop him.

The Benjamins were all complete in the dining hall, in a few hours, Eno would return from the States and this would be a very great occasion. The hall was decked with roses and dahlias which were her favorite flowers. Yellow ribbons and white balloons were littered all over the floor, as the decorations weren’t completed yet.

‘You should hurry with those ribbons Cassie, we have a lot of things to do in the kitchen.’ Elena called out to her elder sister.

‘Whatever, where is mum anyway?’ Cassie fired back, while working on binding the ribbons and balloons together.

Elena rolled her eyes, ‘on the phone, she says she has a surprise for us and I’m wondering if it is dad.’ She sighed and moved over to arranging dishes in a vertical order on the glass table.

The sisters fell silent at the mention of their father, whom their mother had divorced five years ago. Mrs. Benjamin was a very materialistic woman who wanted a lot of things that her ex husband couldn’t afford.

Their marriage suffered a lot of hassles, which had roots in financial disagreements, until she finally took the decision to end things with him. At first, her children had been shocked, they had persuaded her, but all to no avail.

Her mind was made up and she wasn’t going to turn back. All of her children begged her to take their father back, except one, Eno.

‘Do you think father would come tonight?’ Elena, who was just twenty three, asked in a sad voice. She had loved her father very much and she shared a resemblance with him, but her life was empty and lonely without him.

She knew the consequences of visiting her father, and she wasn’t prepared to face her mother, who was now the breadwinner of the family.

Cassandra who was often called, “Cassie,” dropped the balloons and rose to her feet. She missed their father too, but there was nothing they could do to bring him back.

‘Ellie…’ she called her younger sister gently.
‘I want dad here, nothing is the same since his departure,’ tears welled up in Elena’s golden eyes but she blinked them away.

Cassandra felt his absence too, but tonight wasn’t about their father. It was about their elder sister who had worked very hard to give them a comfortable life. Tonight was about a selfless personality who had sacrificed a lot to make them happy.

‘I miss him too, but I don’t him he would be here. We have to be strong Elena. Every one of us is hurt except mum, because she never loved dad. We can talk about him some other time, but tonight we focus on our sister.’ Cassandra bit her lip as she remembered their brother Elvis was equally absent.

Elena knew exactly what she was thinking, ‘Elvis is fine, he sent me a message on Facebook. But he just doesn’t want to come home yet. He wants to be fully prepared to face mum.’