THE BLACKMAIL EPISODE 1

The Blackmail Episode 1

Mrs. Jackson’s resident looked so quiet and calm that Monday evening. Its quietness was the ripple effect of poverty that has ravaged her and her two daughters: Jane and Janet. Life was in disarray, comfort to her seem outdated and no longer a word that could ever come to reality again. The darkness seems brighter than the light, the trees could feel her crying. The whole of nature seems to be against her and her daughters. Relatives were a no-go area since they were the architect of her current predicament. She wondered whom she offended in the whole-wide-world that life was so painful, mean and unbearable.

Mrs. Jackson lost her husband two days before the 15th birthday of her twin daughters, Jane and Janet: almost at the same age, she lost her own parents. Her husband was a wealthy and generous business person although limited by his level of Education. He could not go beyond primary school owing to the fact it was the highest educational qualification his father could give to him. Been a determined person he took a decision that affected his sense of reasoning and his thought line. Although he had two elder brothers who were lazy and not ready to think of a way out of the clinches of poverty and starvation, he still made up his mind to be different from them.

 He decided that he was never going to be poor in life like his parents, who could afford him only primary school certificate and he would do his best to ensure that his children attained the highest level of educational qualification in life but little did he know that, the cold hands of death would crush the dream.

Mrs. Chioma Jackson, on the other hand, lost her parents at a tender age of 12 years, and her elder brother who was 23years of age took over the responsibility of catering for her needs until she was 18. The age difference between them was a result of bareness her parents suffered after giving birth to their first son Mike. Chioma toiled through in the city of Lagos hawking oranges and other fruits when she turned 18 while her elder brother managed a little business he was doing to fend for himself and his wife.

In the midst of her hawking business and raising some cash for herself, she stumbled on Jackson but she been a girl was not ready to be attached to any man, in spite of her challenges; she ignored all his passes and persuasion to have a little talk with her. His disturbance wearied her soul and she gave in but discovered he was a different man who was not after everything on a skirt.

Few months after courtship they got married Chioma been 21 and Jackson 26years age. She conceived immediately after marriage with a set of twin Jane and Janet but suffered the same bareness her parents suffered and never gave birth to any child again.

It was two days to the 15th birthday of her daughters that her husband who was a businessman that travels in and out of Lagos State to get goods for his business had a fatal accident and died.

THE BLACKMAIL EPISODE 2