#Surpriseawaits 2

I couldn't settle down,I kept prancing up and down the entire sitting room,Karl asked me to calm down as Mom would eventually come home and tell me where I'd  landed this job which from the tone of her voice earlier, sounded like somewhere really major.

I sat down half-heatedly,taking deep breaths to help calm my soul,I whipped out my phone from my pocket and pressing a shortcut button to my music playlist, filtering out was the sonorous voice of beyonce's "XO" which felt like  soothing balm to my frayed nerves .

Time slowly dragged by  until early evening when at the blare of the familiar sound of her car horn,I sprinted to the gate as a smiling Mom drove  in a crescent through the interlocked grounds of the compound to park the car in the garage,she stepped out of the car with a spring to her step,beaming excitedly, she told me she knew I must have almost died of suspense,my eyelids fluttering in mock-anger with my lips in a pout,I quipped,

"ofcourse mother! You just left me high and dry,it's unfair na"   


 She laughed and holding my hands,she paused,as if drum rolling in her mind...and mine then she broke the news,

"It is NIMC,the parastatal responsible for the production,distribution and everything relating to national identity cards"

My dilated eyes gently turned into a panic-stricken peepers,Mom gave me a calming nod,telling me to calm down and not be frightened by the sound of the name,we walked in and while having dinner,Mom talked at length about the place while we all listened and while raising my head up to shovel a heaped tablespoon of food into my mouth,I thought I noticed a slight dissent in QT's countenance,slightly twitching the edges of his lips and had his head faced down to his food,acting like he couldn't be bothered with what we were saying,everyone said congrats but he didn't and when Mom asked him why he wouldn't offer me his  felicitations,he mumbled it through gritted
teeth,almost inaudibly,a smirk creeped into my lips,I wasn't judging him or sulking at his let down,I totally understood,a heavy silence descended on us as everyone saw and understood what had happened and it sort of made the air quite tense,one by one,we all left the dining table for our rooms. I was the first to get into the room I shared with Karl,I felt quite lazy to take a shower before bed,more so since the weather  was getting a little chilly with strong winds blowing outside in an indication of impending precipitation and I couldn't heat up some water with the heater on the voltage of the inverter so I just changed into my beige, floral-patterend, feather-weight pajamas and rolled into bed,turning off all lights except the bedside lamp while I sat up to read a novel which I had earlier that morning,left the page I was on turned down on the bedside table and promptly started reading with my nerdy glasses perfectly balanced on my nose. A while
later,Karl barged in which disrupted my attention,raising my head to scan whoever it was that came in as my pupils were blurry from the ray of light which flooded my eyes and he seeing my illuminated face from the bedside lamp against the backdrop of an all dark room,he smiled,turned on the light and asked if I was alright,

"I know you must have felt a little stung by QT's attitude for not felicitating with you on the job...you are strong and mature Maj, please don't take it to heart."

I smiled,taking off the nerdy glasses I was putting on and with a shrug,I told him I was ok,

"in fact,I was expecting it..."

I shrugged again and continued,

"we would be fine...right?"

I asked with a forced smile across my lips somewhere between sadness and thrill,Karl nodded,saying he is positive we would all bond and move past it. The next day,I got dressed up to take my credentials to NDE then collect my posting letter to NIMC, Mom had a huge grin plastered on her
face,sitting on a stool in her short nightdress in my room while watching me dress up,I told her to go away but she stayed,giving me tips on being confident and professional in my utterance as a way for her to stay put and watch me dress up,Hamz and Karl were in the room as well,the former giggling seeing as I was getting ready to starting my professional work journey when QT walked in,an awkward silence suddenly descended upon the room again which unconsciously made me slow down in dressing up,he smiled and came over to me to pat and hug me,wishing me all the best,I smiled and expressed my appreciation for that gesture.

Armed with my charming demeanour and credentials,I set out to leave for NDE office in central area of Abuja,Mom called me back,asking me to pray before I stepped out and I did...I got out of the gate to our house,trekked to the main road and flagged down a cab and was soon on my way to the NDE office,while on my way,my thoughts soared
away to thoughts of what working would be like,what my would-be colleagues looked like,their attitudes,would I be happy? What would happen to writing for kuwda if I end up having a killer schedule? Those thoughts and more juggled against each other in my head till the taxi driver alerted me that we were at NDE office,

What happens next?

KEEP UP!