AN ILLITERATE TURNED FASHION MOGUL:my bizarre story

          I came to the city few days after my mum died of a strange illness. Before she died she told me of an uncle of mine whom I have never met. She gave me some money and told me to go and look for my uncle and never return to Umuodo village.
         

          In the middle of the night mama's body was as cold as ice. I let out a loud scream. The neighbors came rushing in. mama is dead. She was buried the next day.
      

     

 On Tuesday 30th September 2005 I left for the city. I found my uncle at the address my mum gave me. I introduced myself; he hugged me so tightly and went on how I have grown into a big woman. I told him my mum was dead.

             He lamented on how my mum wasted her youth with my drunken father. They ended up in the village and now left a desperate girl child in this horrible world. He made me feel at home
When I asked after his wife and children, he said he married a white woman in his quest for the infamous green card. His wife and children live abroad and he visits from time to time. It sounded like a sordid tale told at the village square.
   

           My uncle lived alone in his big mansion with only his gate man. Most time he was on business trips, other times he brought girls as young as I am to the house. Don’t ask me what they do. The girls scream all through the night. The thought of a man, older than my father and a girl as young as me always horrified me to sleep on time.

            By the second month of living in my uncle’s house, he had already made two futile attempts to sleep with me. He claimed he wasn’t really my uncle, That we were not directly related. I couldn’t fathom what he was babbling about .if it was the two bottles of Andre he just had that was messing with his brain or he was actually insane.
  

But this day was different from other days he was shouting at me,  yelling to throw me out if the house if  I didn’t share his bed. He was violent. He yanked me by the hair and pulled my body close it his. I felt the urge to vomit. The stench of alcohol from his body can kill a Lagos rat.

He threw me on the kitchen counter and spread my legs. He was pulling up my clothes as I struggled with him . He pinned me down with his macho body. I knew this was the end. If I am violated like this! I would probably not live with myself.

I screamed oyah wait.

 Allow me to remove my clothes, so he eased off on me. Quickly I grabbed the closest kitchen knife I was using to cut the vegetables for dinner and jabbed it on his neck. As blood oozed out, I ran out of the kitchen, out of the house and into the street. I didn’t know where I was going by this time of the night all I knew was going to run and never look back.

As I ran, bang… I passed out. (Don’t ask me how I knew, )

I woke up at St Philips hospital. what happened. You ran into a moving car, I rushed you to this hospital thinking you had died because of the blood on your clothes(my uncles blood
I just hope he is not dead, shameless man with obodo oyibo wife)

My name is Yvonne Ajimodu, she said I am so sorry for the accident i was a little tipsy, that's all.
Well I am not going back to where I am coming from again, so I will have to stay in your house.

I already have house helps. (oh this woman is rich ok)

I will report to the police then, that it was a hit and run

After 3 days at the hospital, I went home to Mrs. Yvonne’s house.

This house fine die, was all I could think. Sandra, Mrs. Yvonne’s house help came out of the back to welcome us. Mrs. Yvonne introduced me as the new house help. Sandra gave me that weird smirk, that says this one na karashika.

She showed me to my room and reeled out all the house help instructions,- house help tutorial 101, 102 and so on.

Seriously I wasnt even listening to her most of the times.

Things went on smoothly as I have turned into Sandra the house help, she now send me to do the chores while she watches real husbands of Hollywood.

Dora dora ooo this girl is now deaf, hian come and get me some water, quickly…

Sandra o o I am washing clothes outside.

Come inside and get the water joor, karashika.

One day a weird thing happened, Sandra never allows me to sit in the parlour to watch t.v in that 72 inch plasma tv that scare the hell out of me. How can a t.v be so large.

Dora come and sit down and watch this film (igbo geh)with me. what’s the name , she ignored me and said just watch.
When the name of the movie appeared do you know what It said  karashika. what is the meaning of this.

It’s a good movie and I like the name that why I call you karashika. well I watched it after all I wanted to enjoy the plasma t.v .i might never get another chance.

As days rolled into weeks, I decided to do a tour of the house; Sandra has gone out to buy things for the house.

The rooms looked lovly, each with different designs and wallpapers. Then suddenly I walked into this room. My heart stopped

Blood rushing through my veins I could feel my body getting warmer, my body began to feel lighter, I felt drowsy, It was as if I was going to faint.

Suddenly everything came alive. The clothes and designs in this room came alive. I thought of a thousand ways to complete the unfinished sketches.

In that moment I held Mrs. Yvoone's pencil and sketched the most amazing gown I ever saw. i didn’t even know I could do it..it just felt right from the heart.

Doarthy ooooooooo, that's Mrs. Yvonne calling, she was back 

again drunk in the middle of the afternoon. i served the bathing water for her, she fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

 Sandra was back with her troubles.

I unloaded the things she bought, sorted and cleaned them up. In the mansion, we only shopped once a month. So you can imagine all the things Sandra bought, and she left me to do all the work , as she  hurried off to go and call her Danfo driver boyfriend.

I finished the chores, climbed the bed and slept like a rock, till Sandra's voice woke me up.

 Did I tell you who Mrs. Yvonne was, !listen in the whole of west Africa there are three best designs  Monique, GQ and Vonne. Vonne was Mrs. Yvonne’s cloth line. That means she is very rich, was what I said, as she gossiped about Mrs. Yvonne.

Our madam was up in the morning, zealous to finish her latest design, what she saw startled her. In a million years  she could never sketch a gown like this!

Then who did?

She was lost in the following thoughts when Franca, her design manager called her that she was running late for an early morning meeting with investors.

She grabbed the strange design and headed for the office. After the long meeting with the investors, Franca what do you think about this design?

Well madam you will never cease to amaze me! With this design you can reclaim the number 1 spot of fashion in West Africa. You think so, yes Franca nodded.

Thanks

Then back home, I was searching the whole room for my sketch, I couldn't find it anywhere. What happened to it. So i decided to sketch another one. I was almost done

Then Sandra walked in.

Bia this girl are you mad, what are you doing here, I will tell madam.

wait first, Sandra grabbed the paper,

She was shocked, na wa oooo she exclaimed! 

Who teach you how to draw for your village, hian the [palm wine tappers, I don’t know what she thought was funny in this moment,

Nobody taught me, I just entered this room and started drawing. You dey lie this small girl

Oya draw am again make I see , abi u don steal madam drawing, as Sandra watched, she knew whether dora aka karashika learnt how to draw from palm wine tapper, she was born to draw, well not only draw but sketch.

They both left the room, as Sandra promised not to tell madam, till she found a good opportunity.

For the first time Sandra, had respect for the village geh,.

Mrs. Yvonne came home washed up and slept, she kept on wondering who has drawn this sketch, the lines were not as clean and precise as an expert,so they were drawn by an amateur. So who could it be, may be one of the new interns slipped the sketch into her bag or desk. 

She can't place how the sketch got on her drawing board, but she wasn’t going to ask for who own's the design, unless the person comes out to tell her.

In her mind she was wishing it never happens. As a designer she was having a hard time coming up with a new design and this strange sketch that landed on her drawing board was her miracle. 

And she was not going to lose too easily.

She was going to source, materials and quickly start production before anything else happens.  Yes! she is going to do that. She thought as she dozed off to sleep.

The following week she started the production of the design, she can’t risk anything. If the owner shows up demanding design rights then it will be too late.

One fine morning , Sandra was calling out to Mrs. Yvonne to come out that Franca was around. Sandra thought maybe she didn’t hear her calling.

As she opened the door to the designing room, what she saw shocked her

Sandra what is it, sorry ma! Franca is here to see you.
Dorathy (this was the first time Sandra ever called me by my first name)

She dragged me to the designing room, this geh is this not your drawing. That one you drew for me.

Yes it is, but this one is the missing one, what do you mean Sandra asked.

As I explained everything to her, she gaped in astonishment.
This madam eh. Come lets go.

We never talked about what happened in that room, for few days.

Then on the 5th day Dorathy! Sandra was yelling this time.
I saw my design. 

Mrs.  Yvonne  has already produced them. I was angry, Sandra saw it in my eyes. But I was helpless.

That day, I became angry at Mrs. Yvonne.On a second thought I really didn’t blame her. Maybe she didn’t know it was my design. Funny enough I wasn’t going to confront her about it.

Sandra woke me up in the middle of the night that her danfo boyfriend broke up with her. She was weeping profusely, when I asked what happened .she said he was married

Babe you didn’t know he was married before ni!. 

From the boyfriend gist we entered Mrs. Yvonnes gist,  Sandra advised me to approach her about it. But I wasn’t going to do that I strongly replied. Sandra became angry, but I didn’t know exactly why she was vexed. Maybe her boyfriend, Mrs. Yvonne or me . i slept off feeling all taunted and stressed.

I went back to Mrs. Yvonne’s design room. I took her pencils, drawing pads, and stationary case. She has so many of them, and wouldn’t notice if anything was missing. I ran sacked the whole room looking for anything that was going to help me sketch. 

Sandra stood by the door  watching me. At that point she understood my pain.

Months passed so quickly, and my drawing pad was nearly filled up, with the most amazing sketches I would  never have  thought of! Mrs. Yvonne was calling, yes ma! This girl what are you doing inside the room.

Mrs. Yvonne was preparing for an awards ceremony, so she said, so all the house was preparing with her. But we weren’t invited. 

After all the rukus about her dress fitting and how the makeup artists and designer messed up the house , I and Sandra had to do the cleaning and prepare the house for her arrival.

Sandra was saying that it was a sure winning for her. She was a nominee for the best trend of the season. So when cleaned up the house for the celebration party.

Around 4 o’clock the show started, we put on the plasma tv in the parlor. Now it felt like we were inside the venue. Awards were given and it was impressive the designs that got the awards. Then something spectacular happened it was time for best trend this season, we were excited for our madam, then the nominees and clothes were brought out.

 Mrs. Yvonne won the award with my design. What has happened .Sandra looked at me? Sitting on that Italian sofa in that 2 km hectare mansion a business relationship was formed. Mrs. Yvonne has done terrible deed and she was not going to get away with it.

My anger turned into vengeance. But it didn’t prevent the award celebration party that took place in the mansion. She was all smiles celebrating her awards.
Sandra took everything happening differently. In my mind I had other designs and I will make it definitely one day, If I try. 

Sandra thought my design has already won an award and there was no need trying any more. I had already won. So she decided I was going to plan a hostile takeover.

Imagine two illiterates planning a hostile takeover of one of the best design brands in West Africa. I thought in my mind that Sandra was obviously crazy .

 I explained to her how it was impossible. She shunned me and said she was the brains of this operations. 

Sorry dearies to be continued ! There is part 2...