Saturday was  the day and the time was 12pm. Mercy just finished doing his laundry and came inside to see Gina looking stunning on his green dinner gown and lemon shoe and purse.

“But babe that’s a beautiful colour on you; you are really looking great. I wish that I have an elder brother,” Mercy praised Gina.

“What will happen if you have an elder brother?” Gina asked with smiles.

“I would have suggested he come and check you out. You are a beautiful bride. “

“But you have a younger brother.”

“No!”

“But why no!  Age is just a number,” Gina said, with a  mischievous wink.

“My dear, that will be his decision to make. If he chooses to marry someone that is older than him; I don’t have a problem with it. I will support him. I don’t want somebody to say that I was the one that caused problems in his marriage. Though everything is about understanding and maturity. It is not always about age.”

“Mercy it is well o. At my former compound, our  neighbour married a woman that is about 15 years older than him. But they lived in peace. If the husband call his wife, she will answer ‘sir’ the thing was funny to us.

After a while, we started calling the man sir”

“Really?”

“Yes o. Till today, we all call him ‘sir’ and he answers happily. I don’t even think that he knows why we call him that”

“My dear different strokes for different folks. The one living in my compound  has a small stature. He still went ahead to marry a woman that has big stature, and is older than him.  Everyday, he is receiving beatings. You will be hearing ‘Neighbours come o, my wife wants to beat me to death o’ . It was so serious that we have to nickname the man ‘house boy’  though we don’t say it to his hearing. If he is talking with any of the girls living in the compound, and see his wife, he will run away.”

“Are you serious about this?” Gina asked as she was choking with laughter.

” The wife once came to our house to warn me to stay away from her husband. Her action got my father really upset and he threatened to beat her, if she try the rubbish next time.”

“Hmm! This life. But don’t worry, I will not beat your brother.” They both started laughing.

After a while, Gina glanced at her watch. It was time for the party but Ruby was yet to come.

“I don’t like what Ruby is doing. It’s time for the party and she is yet to come. I hate this attitude of hers, she is always late both for school and fellowship.”

“Why not call her on the phone?”

“I called her phone twice while you were washing clothes. She told me that she was already on her way.”

“Maybe you should try once more.” Mercy suggested.

“Hello guys  please forgive me for coming late” Ruby pleaded as she opened the door.

“Ruby, I don’t like this. What’s the time,” Gina asked in anger.

“I’m  so sorry please let’s start going” Ruby apologized.

“Don’t forget to bring a take home package for me,” Mercy jokingly told them.

“Have you forgotten that the food was cooked  by sinners?” Gina mocked her.

“You can say whatever you feel like saying, just be careful out there,” Mercy cautioned.

The event was already in progress before they arrived. After  a special dance by the celebrant, the next  programme  was  ‘My Birthday Tales’.

The anchor was Rose; Iyabo’s roommate. She announced that she was bringing out 5 ladies to narrate how they celebrated their last year’s birthday.

Gina was surprised when she pointed at her and Rubby to come out. She also picked other three ladies.

“What kind of thing is this?  Why did Rose bring me out? Has she ever seen me celebrating my birthday or does she just want to embarrass me?” Mercy thought to herself.

Their first assignment was to dance for 10 minutes. People were surprised that while the other three ladies were dancing, Gina and Ruby stood still.

Rose had told the DJ to stop the music.

“Ladies, why are you not dancing? This is one of the first assignment you are expected to perform here,” she asked

“We don’t dance to this kind of music, let the DJ play christian music for us,” Ruby answered.

“Really? If you don’t dance to this kind of music, what are you doing at this kind of party?” Rose asked.

Murmurs of mockery filled the hall. Iyabo had to quickly send someone to tell Iyabo to let them be. They quickly switched to ‘ My birthday Tales’. Microphone was handed over to the first  person to talk.

” Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name is Daramola, but my friends call me ‘Dara hot babe’. I want to give you a tip of what happened on my last birthday. I’m calling it a tip because I can’t say everything; lots of good things happened. The first was that by 12am, I received a phone call from my boo; my sugar boy. He told me that I am the best thing that happened to him in his former world, in this present world and it will also be like that in his next world,” she was gesticulating with her hand, as she was talking. Claps of praise and admiration filled the event hall.

Gina was sweating  like someone under a hot sun. Ruby kept wondering what was wrong with her . She could not understand how someone  in an air conditioned  hall would be sweating.

Rose called everyone to order so that   Dara could continue with her tales.

“By  6am I received a phone call. Could you believe that my sugar pie also paid the agents to call me on the phone, and tell me how much he loves me? Ah! It was so sweet.

 By 6:30am, I got an alert  of   500 thousand naira. Then He sent a message’ Babe this is my little way of saying good morning today. Please keep your phone on; because I will also say good afternoon and good night’.  I almost fainted in excitement because I know how he does his things. The afternoon alert was doubled. The alert I got in the night was triple that of the morning. I don’t want to say what my parents and siblings did for me on my birthday so that I don’t take much of your time. But if you permit me to say it, I will. “

“Go ahead, we have all the time,” they chorused.

**************

Watch out for episode 3