To Chase A Rat

A young lady, Miss T, living alone in Abuja, sometime last year, got a call from a friend who told her about her friend.

According to her, this friend once lived in Abuja, but things got a little tough for her and she had to return to her hometown in Kogi State. However, last year, she wanted to return to Abuja to try her luck again, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a place to stay or money to rent an apartment.

Miss T, being compassionate and understanding, agreed to let her friend’s friend come to her apartment. The agreement was for this extended friend to stay for just one week so that she could find a place for herself or a job, at best.

We will call this lady Peace.

On arrival, Miss T was a little surprised that Peace came with a huge box of clothes. She had expected to see a small box, being that it was just for a week. However, on a second thought, since Peace was relocating back to Abuja, she probably just wanted to get started on it already. In fact, Peace told Miss T that as soon as she gets her own apartment, she would go back to Kogi to bring the rest of her belongings.

Miss T understood perfectly.

Miss T did not only accommodate Peace, she also took responsibility of everything. Miss T was responsible for cleaning and cooking every single day, as Peace didn’t lift a finger to do anything in the house. She slept and woke up like a queen, and lived like royalty all day. Sometimes, Peace would suggest they go out and have some fun.

One week extended to two weeks, and to three weeks, and before Miss T knew it, she was counting months of Peace being in her house. Miss T didn’t know how best to tell Peace to leave her apartment without sounding mean or heartless. She noticed that Peace wasn’t making active efforts to find a job. While Miss T would leave the house early in the morning to her place of work, Peace would stay at home, having a swell time. The days Peace would eventually leave the house would be to hang out with friends or some of her Toasters.

• LinkedIn
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• WhatsApp

“Why are we sitting in the house and rotting away?” She would ask.

After cajoling Miss T and convincing her that going out was good for them, Miss T would succumb. However, Peace would not pay a dime for any of the expenses incurred in such outings. Miss T always handled the bills, and initially, she did excuse Peace because she didn’t have a job, but when it was becoming too frequent, Miss T had to quit indulging her, especially when her bank account was taking the blow for every outing.

One day, Miss T returned from work earlier than usual. She wasn’t feeling too well so she came back home to get some rest. When she got home, Peace had gone on one of her dates as usual. Miss T wasn’t bothered, until Peace returned a while later. Miss T heard her over the phone when she came into the compound, and instinctively, she got up to meet her by the door. The moment Miss T opened the door, she saw Peace swiftly taking off her wig and trying to hide it.

Miss T had no idea that Peace had been borrowing her ‘stuff’ without her consent.

What broke Miss T’s heart was the fact that of all her wigs, Peace chose to go for the latest and most expensive one…the bone-straight wig. Miss T hadn’t worn that wig since she bought it, which was a recent purchase, and yet, Peace was already rocking it to her dates. That was when it dawned on Miss T that Peace had been taking her things without her permission, and she had no idea about this because she was always leaving Peace in the house. Not wanting to raise dust as a result of this, Miss T shipped the wig to her younger sister in the East.

Instead of a stranger to use what she bought with her hard-earned money, she would rather give it to her biological sister.

Peace became a bone in the throat that Miss T couldn’t cough out, or swallow.

When she became frustrated and tired of her presence, Miss T tried every means possible to start a big fight that would lead to a split, but Peace never indulged. She became extremely peaceful towards Miss T, making her more frustrated and confused. She wasn’t looking for a job. She wasn’t making any plans to leave, and she certainly wasn’t making it any easy on Miss T.

When it got to about nine months, Miss T could no longer stomach it.

She travelled to the East to visit her mum who was feeling sick, leaving Peace in her apartment. While she was on that visitation, Miss T kept on thinking about the right approach to make to get Peace out of her house. So far, all effort had proven useless as Peace was determined to continue living with her.

How one week turned into nine months of having a roommate who wasn’t contributing anything was a mystery that Miss T couldn’t explain.

Finally, an idea struck! Without wasting time, she texted Peace.

 “My mum’s health has deteriorated. The doctor has said she needs an urgent surgery which cannot be carried out in the East, so we have been given a transfer letter to a hospital in Abuja for the surgery. However, because I am always going to work and will not be able to keep watch on her, my aunty will be coming with us to Abuja as well, and she has a baby. The apartment will not be able to accommodate my sick mum, my aunty and her baby, and the two of us, so I suggest you find a place to stay. We will be coming to Abuja in three weeks time, so you have enough time to find somewhere else.”

It was a lengthy message filled with excuses, but Miss T didn’t have any other option. It was a lie, obviously, but she intentionally added her nonexistent aunty and her baby to make it more complicated. Then, to make it more believable, she had to also text her friend who introduced Peace to Miss T and fed her with the same lie.

It was a triangular friendship, and Miss T wanted this to work this time around.

Anyway, by the time she returned to her apartment in Abuja, Peace had already moved out of her apartment, much to Miss T’s relief. When her friend asked her about her mother, she went ahead to cook up another lie; something about plans being changed.

Then Miss T’s friend went ahead and told her that Peace, in narrating her own side of the story, tagged Miss T as cruel and mean; the exact names she was avoiding. She went on to state that Miss T asked her to leave her house in her most difficult phase in life, making it seem like Miss T just asked her to leave her house without prior notice. Over a conference call initiated by Miss T’s friend, Peace didn’t have anything nice or appreciative to say about/to Miss T.

Miss T felt bad about how everything turned out, but she was glad that she was eventually able to get Peace out of her apartment and get her space back.

For Miss T, never again would she be falling for such. Visitations to her apartment have been limited, and she has made it very clear to her friends, and she has been standing on business ever since.