Against All Odds.

Mirabel and Sebastian stare at each other like they have just met for the first time; there are no smiles on their faces, just a set of peaceful faces with admiration in their eyes for each other. Mirabel brushes aside some strands of hairs getting to her face behind her left ear with her middle finger, she looks out of the window of the hotel room in a bid to hide the tears that are beginning to form in her eyes, but Sebastian is not to be fooled, he has seen it all. He had insisted they spend the week in one of Lagos’s best hotels, Eko hotel and suites.

Mirabel couldn’t stop thinking. Just yesterday, things had been different; different in the sense that she never thought she could end with the perfect man, the man who knows everything about her. he was there when she was crawling and wallowing in a swamp of maggots. And by yesterday, she means ‘twelve years ago’.

Now she is so cleaned out, sweet, beautiful, decent and classy; she has always been beautiful.
Sebastian goes down on his left knee and holds up a small box; even with her eyes out of the window, Mirabel could see sparkles from the piece of stone. She turns her head slowly to look at her man and a nerve wrecking sob escapes her lips. Her eyes are soaked and the tears have rubbed off the mild makeup on her face, leaving a trail down her cheeks.

“Will you marry me, Mirabel?”

Mirabel cannot stop the sobs from rocking her body, she shakes her head vigorously, tries to talk but nothing comes out; she cups her chin in both palms and looks straight into Sebastian’s dreamy eyes.

“Yes, yes I will marry you, Sebastian”

He gets up, holds her left hand, removes the ring on her finger and replaces it with the one in the box.

“Happy anniversary” he kisses her.

Please don’t be fooled; they have been married five years, and every year after their 'marriage' he takes her to a special place, proposes to her all over again with a new ring and spoils her to death. Five years is a long time, she should have gotten used to this by now. But no, it's still very romantic and gets her all emotional. Sebastian sure knows how to make her ‘butters’ fly and turn her knees to jelly.

Years Before.

Sebastian walked into the hotel to hand a briefcase of cash to his boss; Mr. Rowland was going to spend that money on women and drinks. Sebastian couldn’t but wonder why a man would labour only to waste the day’s profit on vain things. He is the only employee Mr. Rowland trusts. He walks into the room and hands his boss the case. Mr. Rowland smiled and throws him a bottle of drink.

“you know I don’t take alcohol, why not just give me just one bundle out of the many in the case you are about to waste on these three naked girls on your bed” Sebastian thought to himself as he walks out of the hotel.

Sebastian stops at the entrance of the hotel; he observes the money bags as they walk in with girls of all shapes and sizes with smile on their faces like they just won a jackpot and his mind runs to the thought of Mirabel. He looks into the starless sky and walks out. He is going to stop over to say “hi”; that is if she is less busy with no customer tonight. She is just eighteen and he is twenty two tomorrow. It starts to rain but he doesn’t mind; so long Mirabel is involved, it is alright.
The ear deafening honks from the traffic, swamped road and eye blinding headlights from vehicles did not stop Sebastian from walking to the brothel. He gets to the entrance, as usual, half naked teenagers and some elderly woman swarm the premises looking for customers. Just as he is about going in, Mirabel walks out towards him in the company of a man whose restless hand cannot stop playing with her buttocks. She sees him and lowers her head in shame; she dreads him seeing her like this. Sebastian stops walking and looks on at her; they lock eyes for some seconds and she walked out of the building into the waiting car of her customer.
Sebastian understands her even though he doesn’t support her choice of work. But since he couldn’t help her, he made up his mind to be there for her to keep her sane, to remind her why she is going down this road and never to commit permanently to this life style.

On one occasion, he had gone to see her in her room in the brothel, they had chatted and laughed about their childhood, how happy they were before the pipeline explosion that destroyed both of their parents’ houses and mega shops; both had lost their parents in the fire while they were away at school. Unlike Sebastian who was lucky to have a friend of his father’s come to pick him to work for him, Mirabel’s uncles only came for their brothers remaining properties and bank savings. They had all wanted to sleep with her before any help could be offered and she had gone through so much that she decided it was better to sleep with men she has no relationship with than settle for her own family. Madam Agnes had groomed her into a full time prostitute and now she is so good at it. Not that she enjoys it; the little girl believes she has no other way.
A customer would come while Sebastian is with Mirabel and he would get up and leave, sadness on both of their faces. He has always loved her and she,him. And life is really giving them a hard one to face. Sometimes a customer would go against the initial agreement and rape her without payment or even bring some of his friends to benefit from this free package. She would cry and call him when she cannot handle the tears and pain and like always, Sebastian would be there. A lot of painful memories that can never be forgotten; like the day he had decided to wait outside till she was done with a customer; he had her scream and this is not the type that come with pleasure. He had tried to stay put, but then she screamed again. He rushed matched the door open and there she was, on the ground with blood dripping from her right nostril. Till today, he cannot remember what he did, but all he knows is that the other man slipped into comma at the end.

“All these will be over in no time and you will leave this life behind to start afresh with me, I promise” he had whispered to her one day.

“It hurts me to know that I am hurting you, but i need to survive. I am a prostitute, that is what I am and you know it. So please stop acting like I am still that innocent girl you know”.

He looked into her eyes, “you will always be my sweet innocent Mira”.

“Stop it! Just stop it Sebastian. Few years from now, you will make money, meet a nice decent girl and forget that I ever existed. Stop giving me false hopes”.

He had laughed out loud for a long time that it pissed her off and made her punch him severally on the chest and they had ended up lying next to each other in bed till the next morning; he had never gone past her womanhood, had always said it would be an experience for the wedding night.
Several years had gone by, Mirabel had grown into a woman, still sells her body for money; Sebastian has relocated to another state with his boss and have not gotten in touch with Mirabel for the past eight months; she is gradually forgetting him even though it hurts; she has always known it would turn out this way, little wonder it hurts less.
Sebastian sits by his dying boss in the hospital, he had been ill for a long time now; the result for the test came through and he was HIV positive, hence, the relocation.

Sebastian has been by his side all this time. Now on his dying bed, he looks at his boy with teary eyes. “You are really a good boy, I wish you were my own son. Of all my employees, you are the only one who never stole from me, the only one I trust and the only who stood by me. For seven years you worked for me and I paid you nothing, yet you stayed true and honest. Now, to whom do I will all of my properties if not you?” Mr. Rowland stopped to cough and continued shortly. “I know you are smart and wise, don’t make the mistakes that I made. And, lest I forget, make sure you settle down once you find the right woman so you don’t die with no family like I will”
That was five years ago, all I know is that Sebastian went back in search of Mira when she thought he would never come back again and there, it happened; wasn’t easy though. She dropped her old life and he got her a big boutique while he managed his inherited business. And it took him another one year to convince her to marry him. And here they are today.
Some minutes before their departure to the hotel, he had held his four years old daughter and told her the story of her mother exactly how it went. She may not really understand, but he knows as the year goes by, she will. He looked up at the nanny and back at his baby girl.

“Remember, mummy never gave up on life and that is how strong I want you to be when you are grown”.

“And daddy never judged me by what I am, but by who I am. He fought and defeated the odds, and that is the kind of man I want you to look out for when you are grown”.

Circumstances make or break you.stay strong.

Chidera Reginald.