My parents were always overprotective of me, I’m not exaggerating at all, just imagine how many times I got upset when none of my classmates came to my birthday party, and it was all because instead of caked, canned coke and chips, my mom expected my guests to eat healthy fruits and vegetables. Everyday, my parents brought me to school and picked me up immediately after classes, because according to dad, I could get into an accident on the school bus. “And don’t forget to fasten your seatbelt”, Dad warned I’m Romoke.
Long story short, My Parents were afraid of absolutely everything and controlled my every move. They believed that if they turned away for even a second, a maniac would immediately attack me or l would catch some contagious disease.
It is a wonder; they weren’t afraid of aliens kidnapping me, although, as you might have guessed, my classmates made fun of me and i had no friends. “We better not invite Romoke to hang out with us or her helicopter parents will come running and ruin everything”.
That year, I graduated from high school, and found my first part-time job in a cafe. I finally felt like an adult! And i hoped that my parents would also stop treating me like a defenseless child. “Sweetie, we will try very hard not to meddle in your personal life”.
I was carrying an order to a cafe visitor, and got distracted looking at the TV screen that was showing a new movie. You see, I had been dreaming about being an actress for a long time, but i didn’t dare tell my parents because they would have immediately started to dissuade me.
Anyway, I was so caught up in my dreams imagining myself and the place of the actress in the movie that i stumbled and accidentally dropped the entire tray with the order on the visitor, Oops! ” I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”. I grabbed napkins and began to brush the spaghetti off the man’s jacket.
I was hoping he would forgive my clumsiness, I really hadn’t done it on purpose and could happen to anyone. But he got up frowned and began to complain. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man at the far table putting down his Newspaper, I saw his face and it turned out to be my dad. He approached the visitor and began to defend me. “What are you grumbling about here she apologized and your jacket didn’t get any worse from it”.
The man gaped in surprise, however, I hadn’t expected to see my dad at work. I took him aside and sternly asked him what he was doing here. Dad lowered his eyes guiltily and confessed that he and Mom sometimes came to the cafe in secret and watched over me so that no one would hurt me. I was terribly angry with my parents, they hadn’t even tried to keep their promise and leave me alone..
At home, I found a gift with a note of apology from them. What I saw in the box was the last straw for me. There was a doll and a pretty dress lying there. Then I realised that Mom and Dad would do everything so that I wouldn’t grow up and stay their little girl, “I’ve had enough I’m moving out”.
I packed up my belongings and savings, left a note to my parents that said; “I was already an adult and could take care of myself”. And left while they were at work. I decided it was time to follow my dreams.
“Nollywood wait for me”.
I found a place to stay and went to auditions to win over famous producers with my acting skills.
But, the thing was “oh dear, thanks for making us laugh, your acting is okay for school productions, but you are overacting too much to be cast in a real movie”.
The same thing happened at every audition, but I didn’t even think about giving up, I wanted to prove to my parents and even more so to myself that I was an independent adult.
In the evening, I went to the supermarket to buy groceries for dinner, the queue was moving so slowly that I got bored and decided to watch a movie on my phone. I was lost in my thoughts again, i did not notice the queue moving forward and stayed in place a man standing behind me.
He accidentally pushed me with his cart. I lost my balance and fell forward crushing all my products and at the same time breaking some cans on the counter. “Oh no! I could wave goodbye to my dinner, I hadn’t even got up yet”. When the store manager ran up to me and started waving his arms; “Who will pay for it all….”? I was about to burst into tears in front of everyone because i couldn’t afford the extra expenses.
But then, the man who had pushed me with his cart helped me up and kindly agreed to compensate for the damage to the store. “Ok, I’m sorry! Let me pay for your purchases, after all you fell because of me”.
Of course, I had fallen because I had been distracted but I did not refuse such generosity, my last savings would have been spent on those products.
I was returning home and noticed that a strangely dressed man was following me. If I speed up or slowed down, he did the same. When he turned into an empty alley after me, I got so scared. I started running and I managed to lose him.
Soon, I forgot about that incident and continued to stubbornly go to the auditions, but no one offered me even a tiny role. I was left penniless.
The time to pay rent for the apartment had come. “Are my parents right? Do I really need someone to take care of me”? Then I remembered the incident in the supermarket and immediately, had a brilliant idea; I have seen Dad repair plumbing in the kitchen many times, so i easily loosened a valve in the kitchen and got a couple of things wet.
I put on a real show in front of my Landlord; “just look at it all my things are ruined because of faulty plumbing”. “It doesn’t look like a pipe break and i don’t see any damage”, my Landlord replied. “Oh, is that right? Then I’m moving out immediately, I don’t think after my review of this apartment, someone else will risk renting such a terrible apartment”, I said.
The landlord was so scared that he allowed me not to pay rent that month as compensation. I couldn’t believe it, my plan had worked. I was happy, i’m an excellent actress.
That same day, I went out to the parking lot, slightly dirtied my clothes and I stood by a small puddle. When my neighbor drove over it, I began to act heartbroken and cried that my clothes were ruined because of the driver’s carelessness; ” I just bought this expensive dress yesterday and now I won’t be able to go to an important meeting in it”.
The neighbor jumped out of the car and scrutinized me she started saying that it was my fault for staying on the roadway. But I acted so convincingly that she felt ashamed the woman apologized and offered to pay for my dress to get dry cleaned. Well, aren’t I clever?
I was walking in the park, when I noticed that suspicious man, who had been stalking me again. He was peeking out from behind the trees and started taking pictures of me from afar. I was afraid that he would start following me again, and I approached a passerby to ask for help, but while I was waving my arms and telling them about my pursuer, he had already disappeared into the crowd.
For a couple of days, I was afraid I would see that strange guy again, so I didn’t leave the apartment, but when I accidentally caught on a hook and tore my dress, I realized that it was time to earn money for a new one. I went down to the cafe, waited for the right moment and bumped into some guys and then I acted perfectly; “I caught my dress on the clasp on your clothes and it tore, what am i supposed to do now”?
But instead of taking out his wallet, the guy suddenly laughed; “your dress was already torn you’re a bad actress, but if you want to learn cool tricks and become convincing let’s go for a walk”. I was so stunned, the guy had seen through my plan. But I wasn’t even angry, of course his words intrigued me and I agreed to take a walk in the park.
The guy introduced himself as Benson, and said that he was the creator of an agency for solving unusual problems. He explained further, he and his team helped those who were in awkward situations. I still don’t understand anything. “You’ll see for yourself”, Benson said assuredly. I hadn’t noticed that while we talked, we had reached an inconspicuous building without any sign on it.
Benson suggested I come into their office. At first, I thought it was a joke and we had come to some bad house, the office was in complete chaos, a girl was sitting at a table and talking to someone on the phone, a man was gluing a mustache to his face and pulling on a wig and another man was making faces at the mirror while looking at some paper. ” Don’t be scared, we just have a very important task.
We were hired by a girl who wants to break up with a guy but is afraid of hurting his feelings, so the actors from my team will play her crazy family, so that he would want to break up with her himself. Benson suggested I practice my acting and become part of their team, especially since they needed more people preferably girls.
I was delighted with the opportunity, of course, it wasn’t a role in a movie but the agency was paying well and i could learn a lot from those professionals.
The responsibility was much higher because if I failed, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to reshoot. A bad take my acting had to be flawless.
I watched the work of the team for a long time before Benson suggested I play my first role.
The agency was contacted by a guy called Effiong, he… let me just say he didn’t date girls, his parents didn’t know about it and he was terribly afraid of their reaction.
So he planned to fake his own wedding, so I need to introduce my parents to a lovely life and then I’ll just move to another state with my boyfriend Effiong.
I was very worried but was happy about the oIportunity. I spent the whole evening before the fake wedding rehearsing and then suddenly noticed that, stalker in the window, he was standing in the parking lot and taking pictures of my window, it was so creepy, I closed the curtains and tried not to think about him anymore.
But in the morning, while going to work i ran into him at the door. The man wasn’t watching me from afar but came up to me and tried to grab my elbow. I pulled my arm back in horror, the man was shouting something after me, but i had already managed to run away and didn’t hear him.
Everything went according to plan, the team from the agency mixed with the guests and acted like my relatives. Effiong and I also never broke character and portrayed happy lovebirds. He introduced me to his parents they looked at each other meaningfully but i think they liked me. “What a nice girl, son where have you been hiding her all this time”, they said to each other.
Finally, the wedding march began to play. Benson who was watching me from the sidelines nodded approvingly, and I solemnly walked down the aisle everything was going perfectly too perfectly, even right when I was about to say yes to the fake room. Someone unceremoniously, broke into the church stop the wedding; oh no those were my parents, they ran up to the altar grabbed me from both sides and dragged me to the exit right in front of the shock guests. My attempts to escape were unsuccessful.
And my parents sat me in the car. The unpleasant surprises did not end there, inside, I saw that creepy guy who had been following me. I was about to scream in panic but my parents explained that it was a private detective they had hired. He was the one who had brought them to me.
My parents brought me home and started to lecture me saying how terrible my choices had been and that nothing bad had happened to me only by miracle. I felt awful and was terribly upset that I had let Benson and Effiong down. The worst thing was that my parents didn’t believe me when I said I would become a part of a cool team and failed an important task because of their suffocating care.
“Don’t be silly this scoundrel took advantage of your naivety and you foolishly almost married him you’ll thank us later”, they said to me. Then the doorbell rang, it was Benson, I was afraid that he’d come to tell me off for the failed job. But suddenly, he smiled and told my parents the truth that; ” Romoke is really cool, she not only earns money with her talent but also helps people and she has also grown a lot as an actress during the time she spent with our team.
But my parents still didn’t believe me. And then it dawned on me, “Mom! Dad! Have you even looked at the photos the detective took while stalking me or the videos”?
My parents looked at each other in surprise, and began looking through the detective’s materials.
It dawned on me that; at first i really had acted like a child hoping to get everything at once and deceiving others for easy money. However I had then learned to be responsible and independent. But my parents agreed that, such an experience was necessary for me and finally sincerely promised not to interfere in my life.
“Since everything is clear now, are you ready to keep working with us”? Yes was my reply to Benson; “of course, I’m ready, but isn’t parker angry that everything turned out like this”? Benson said that everything had turned out even better than they had hoped it turned out, that his parents had been suspicious of the sudden wedding and the two young bride, so they had been only too glad that the wedding had failed. Effiong told them his little secret and set off to travel around australia with a light heart.
And as for me, I returned to the agency and eventually gave back the money to everyone I had deceived. Of course, I understand that my parents took care of me out of love. So, i’m happy that now they have complete confidence in me now.
I work in an agency and am preparing to enter the acting department.
What do you think about me? Write in the comments down below.
Now She knows better