THE PEN PAL SERIES (EPISODE 4)

RECAP

She was the only girl and since she was casualmanda, a nickname she was given by her bully brothers, she wasn’t really treated in any special way, just the usual way a last child would be treated. She hadn’t earned it. She wasn’t exceptionally pretty. As a matter of fact, she was pretty ordinary. She was one of the pack, her father’s pet, her brother’s prey and her mom’s pet project.

EPISODE FOUR

 

Her mom refused to believe she was not girly enough to want to do all the girly things she wanted. Whenever her mom wanted to go to the boutique, Marylyn just wanted to stay home. When mom wanted to go to the saloon, Marylyn just wanted to stay home. When mom wanted to go grocery shopping, Marylyn just wanted to stay home. So basically, she just wanted to be at home all the time. 

She wasn’t lazy, on the contrary she was a really hardworking child and her mom was grateful for that every day since all her sons were too manly to want to assist her with any of the chores. Marylyn was simply a shy child who didn’t have much friends. She was the daughter of a rich man so there were always teens eager to be her friend but she just didn’t know how to communicate with them. 

She had drowned herself in her books so she had good grades and it was with these grades and hope that she had taken a bold step to walk up to her father on one fateful day to have ‘The Conversation’.

“Dad, good afternoon” She said as she entered his study. He looked over his reading glasses at her, causing him to take his attention off the prints on the daily newspaper he had been in the process of reading. She always wondered why he liked doing that. It made him look like some sort of professor. Her dad would have made a great professor due to his stern reputation in the house and in his profession.

He was a Surgeon, a renowned one who had won many awards and written even more books. She had never finished any of them. They were bombarded with so many biological names that her brain always turned to mush somewhere in the process of reading. 

He was a well-built man of 6ft 2inches and towered over her mother’s 5ft 7inches frame. He was blessed with a fair complexion which her brothers had inherited. In his days, he had been popular among his peers. On the contrary, her mom was a petite woman but was also a fair lady. She was also pretty.

THE PEN PAL SERIES (EPISODE 3)

She glanced briefly at her phone screen and saw two missed calls from Arnold. She sighed and thought, He’ll call back. Ten years. Had it been that long? She could still recall how they met – not physically, obviously. She had been sixteen at the time and had just purchased her first canon camera after an endless phase of saving her allowance from school and also money gifts from relatives.

She was finally done with secondary school and wanted to give a test drive to her many years of suppressed passion. She was tired of using smart phones from her parents, begging her brothers for theirs, using her Motorola flip phone and she was also tired of begging her neighborhood photographer to allow her use his to practice. She wanted to capture memories, messages, and images, everything she could.

She could tell her mom was proud of her and how this showed responsibility on her part but her dad just gave her a look. He had probably thought she was joking when she said she wanted to be a photographer just before she graduated to the senior secondary school. After all, she was his little doctor. The one he expected to be just like him. He had succeeded in indoctrinating one of her brothers with the advantages it had in the society and as a child of God.

Her twin brothers, Obinna and Emeka, who were 7 years older than her were graduates of Engineering and Law, respectively, from a prestigious school in Nigeria; while her other brother, Kelechi, who was just 4 years older than her was presently studying Medicine at the same school the older ones had graduated from.

She was the only girl and since she was casualmanda, a nickname she was given by her bully brothers, she wasn’t really treated in any special way, just the usual way a last child would be treated. She hadn’t earned it. She wasn’t exceptionally pretty. As a matter of fact, she was pretty ordinary. She was one of the pack, her father’s pet, her brother’s prey and her mom’s pet project.

THE PEN PAL SERIES (EPISODE 1)

Marylyn stretched her arms above her head and sighed in relief just right after she had typed in the last period in her weekly article for Vogue Magazine. She had one more article to write for TWMagazine before she could officially call it a day. Getting up with her coffee wielded with a sword-like grip in her right hand, she strode to her studio window and examined the scene with the expert eye of a renowned photographer. She had purposely chosen to live in this part of Lagos state where she could experience the real hustle and bustle of the city, Lekki just didn’t cut it. The life of an Islander was just not a part of her, although she had had to detour several times for her many projects. Sitting on one spot for too long had become a luxury for Marylyn who hardly ever had time for anything else but work. As she observed a cooperate beggar following a passenger who had just alighted from a tricycle, she tried to recall what had prompted her choice to move down to this part of Lagos, Ojodu Berger. Not many people knew where she resided or who she was, the benefit of having a professional name that varies from your real identity. She was known as Calypso in the industry, inspired by the British bred Artist, Sia, who hid her identity behind her wigs. Too bad, Marylyn wasn’t a fan of wigs else she would have explored the wig way of life. She was like the normal casual girl you would walk by on the street, there was simply nothing special about her. At an average height of 5ft 7inches with a caramel complexion, chocolate natural hair that she carried in a fro look and a dark brown eyes.

Marylyn didn’t have much going for her in terms of drop dead gorgeous. She had an unsuccessful trail of relationships in the past that she always seemed to end due to her insecurities but she did have a fiancé that she believed she loved enough to want to spend the rest of her life with – Arnold. His native name was Tunji but he always seemed to prefer the English name, Mr. 21st century. She was being hypocritical since she went by her English name too but she did like her native name, Amanda and only one person besides her parents called her that, Gabe.