The night everything changed, Mr. Chike and his wife Ugo took a cab to the Seaside Restaurant. They were going to have dinner with their only son.
The cab pulled up before the entrance of the hotel and the couple stepped out.
"At last," Ugo muttered as her husband paid the fare, "we get to meet his mystery girl."
Sony, their son, had been in a relationship for over six months but had been reluctant to show the girl to his parents. Always giving one excuse or the other. But with his mother's persistence, he had finally set up a dinner date.
Chike turned as the cab reversed and drove off, he offered his elbow to his wife and she slipped her hand through it, "let's go see this girl that has stolen our boy's heart."
She chuckled at that, "it's about time."
Chike was about to say something else when he suddenly sucked in his breath.
"What the..." Ugo started to say but stopped as she followed his gaze. "Oh boy..."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Up ahead, just about to walk through the swinging doors of the restaurant were the Okoli's. They have been sworn enemies for generations.
"Oh! Come on!" Ugo rasped in exasperation as they stopped before the couple. "Not tonight, please."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Mr. Okoli asked them.
"How is it any of your business?" Chike fired back, "last I checked, you don't own this restaurant. You don't own anything for that matter."
"Oh please. What do you know about ownership? You and your families are peasants. Have always been, will always be. Even though the world thinks different."
"Says the guy who sells junk and scraps to people in the name of cars. You should be arrested, just like your forefathers before you!"
"Please," Ugo spoke up before Mr. Okoli could speak. "Can we not do this now? We are both here for dinner, can we not have it in peace? After all, we are not eating on the same table."
"Over my dead body." Chike simply said, "I would never eat anything under the same roof with this man. I'm kind of addicted to breathing, honey."
Mr. Okoli laughed darkly, "yeah. I will also breath better if you were out of sight. Since my lovely wife and I were here first, I suggest you go find another restaurant."
And before Chike and his wife could react, Mr. Okolo took his wife's hand and they walked through the door. Mrs. Okoli smiled apologetically at Ugo who only shrugged.
"Idiot! He-goat!!" Chile cursed when they were alone at the entrance, "call Sony out here, we're going to another restaurant."
"What? Hell no!"
"I will not have my son eat anything under the same roof with those blood suckers. Fine! I'll call him myself!"
"I don't think so." Ugo took his phone from his hand and slipped it into her purse, "it took us six months to convince Sony to let us meet his girlfriend, I'm not gonna let you and your family feud mess it up for me."
"Oh, come on! Ugo..."
"We're going in." She said with a note of finality. She could see his stubbornness ebbing away.
"There is no way I'm walking through the same door as an Okoli. Never." He folded his hands over his chest and frowned, pouting like an angry child.
Ugo wanted to scream in frustration, but it wouldn't do. She took in a deep breath instead, "fine. We'll go through the back door."
She dragged him round the restaurant till they got to the back door. This door was open only to staff, but with some begging and bribing, they were allowed to pass through. The door led into the kitchen.
"You know what?" Ugo said as they walked among busy cooks and chefs, she had to raise her voice so Chike could hear her. "I'm sick of this feud between your family and the Okoli's. Both families are filthy rich and dominate different aspects of the industry. Why on earth do you hate each other so much when you have so little in common?"
Chike said nothing as they walked out of the kitchen and into the storage room. They were surrounded by bags and cans of raw food.
When her husband remained quiet, she said, "you don't know, do you?"
"Well, my grandfather hated his grandfather. My father hated his father. And I hate the idiot."
Ugo rolled her eyes walking round a bag of rice dumped in the path. Her husband was speaking as if all the hate over the years justified everything, "so you're just carrying baggage you know nothing about, huh? And now, you wanna pass it onto my son, I won't allow it."
"Ugo..." He muttered, feeling chastised. He walked faster so he could stay in pace with her. She was in mood, and whenever she was in one she walked really fast. "Don't say that honey, you know you can never trust the Okoli's."
"But you don't know why they can't be trusted."
"They're bad people, it runs in the blood."
"I just want to spend time with my family and Sony's girlfriend. Don't spoil my mood."
And she walked out of the store and into the restaurant.
It was quiet and peaceful. This was a five-star restaurant frequented by the high echelon of the society, just like the Okoli's and the Chike's. All conversations were muffled and there was soft music playing in the background.
When Chike got out of the store, he found his wife standing as still as a stone.
"Hey honey, what's the..." His voice trailed off as he followed her gaze this time and found his son.
"You've got to be kidding me!" He said for the second time that night.
Sony was seated, before him was an elaborate display of intercontinental dishes. His girlfriend was there too, a beautiful girl who looked to be in her mid twenties. They had really put in a lot into the dinner.
But the efforts were lost on Chike as he saw that the girl had also come with her parents.
"The Okoli's!!!" He rasped, he felt faint. It could be an heart attack or a cardiac arrest.
Ugo turned to look at him, his face was red. And then she began to laugh. At first, it was dry and humorless, but it quickly gained momentum and soon she couldn't help herself.
She walked to the dinner table to see the stunned faces of the Okoli's. As Chike got to the table as well, Mr. Okoli and his wife got to their feet.
"What is this?"
"Dad, Mum, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend and her parents."
"If your son is a comedian, then he's a poor one." Mr. Okoli muttered, "because this isn't funny at all."
"Dad," the girlfriend spoke up, "he's telling the truth. We love each other deeply and we're going to get married."
"Young lady, don't be silly. Do you know who this boy is?"
"It doesn't matter, Dad. We've talked about it. The feud is between you and his father, not between Sony and I. And we would not let it come between us."
"I'll not open my eyes and--"
"Dad, * Somy cut his father off mildly. "Please, don't make us have to choose. Because we'll choose each other."
And then, before the eyes of their parents, Sony and his girlfriend linked hands, showing their parents they were now an item.
Ugo began to laugh again. She couldn't control it, she lowered herself into the seat and laughed out loud. Causing other customers to stare at them. Then after subsiding, she took the bottle of champagne from the ice bucket.
"Uhm... Mum... That was supposed to..." Sony shut up as she popped it.
She poured out a generous quantity into a glass cup and then poured into another cup. She held it out to Mrs. Okoli.
There was silence and tension as the other woman stood for some seconds, looking at the hand. The children and their fathers watched with bated breath, the outcome of this could change their world.
Then she accepted the drink. Neither woman noticed as their children beamed like headlamps. The women linked their glasses and drank the wine. Then Mrs. Okoli took her seat as well.
Both men stood shell shocked, wondering what the hell was going on. How could things have gone so out of control so quickly?
Sony and his girlfriend smiled at each other, they had expected a worse reaction. But since their mothers were on their side, they were off to a great start.
The End.
Image Source: Pixabay
Thank you for reading.
