It was the only way. I stared into his face and after holding his eyes for some time, I shook my head.
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“She didn't go to the competition, I asked her to go get me a new charger for my phone. When I'm done I'll go and meet her at the electronics shop and we'll both be going to the market.”
My youngest cousin, Princess, who I always said was my younger sister had always been good with dough and flour since she was a child but her father had said she was going to be a doctor and was even trying to work her admission into the Federal University of Owerri, FUTO. Meanwhile, all this poor girl wanted was to become someone who would turn the magic from flour and dough into something tantalizing that people would love.
Three weeks earlier, she saw a flyer for a baking contest that came with a scholarship to a prominent baking school for the winner and she told me about it. She knew I was the only one who could help her lie to him about it so she asked me to come over to the house and stay with her for a while.
So I picked up some of my stuff and went to her house on Friday since the competition was on Saturday. We were supposed to go out together and tell her father that she was going with me to make my hair but she said the plan wasn't foolproof and her father may eventually come looking for us if we took too long.
Especially since he knew that she didn't go far away to get her hair done.
I suggested then that she tell him that she was going to one of the markets that were really far away so she could get things for a doughnut delivery that she had the following morning. The contestants had to be at the venue of the competition at 8 am so she left the house at 7:30 when her father had gone for morning prayers in church.
I stayed back to get chores done. Even if her father wanted to be mad that we went out, I felt he shouldn't be mad that we left the house dirty as well.
He was supposed to be back at 9 so I was surprised when at some minutes past 8 am when I was still mopping the house, he knocked on the door.
I knew I couldn't call Princess to let her know what was going on, so I just did the one thing I thought could save her from walking into trouble. I lied.
He looked at me with those dark, piercing eyes of his and it was almost like his eyes were boring holes into my face. I know I am an actor but that day, I was finding it difficult to keep my hands steady and my lashes were blinking furiously.
When he turned away from me silently and went into his room, I rounded up the mopping as fast as I could and ran into the bathroom. It took all the courage in me to tell him that I was leaving for the market and that Princess and I would be back soon. Thankfully, he didn't say anything.
I hurried over to the competition venue and when I arrived, I was told that the competition would begin at 10 am. I knew that the only way her father would believe me was if I came back with items from the market so I headed over to one of the small markets around me and purchased as many baking items as I knew about.
The competition was over by 12 pm and I couldn't wait to head home. When I showed her the items I bought to make my life foolproof, she threw her arms around me and thanked me profusely.
This was the only chance she had to do what she always loved and if she didn't get it, she would have to go to FUTO to become a medical doctor. She was going to throw her life away for 7 whole years.
We got back to the house by 1 pm and her father was already crossed-legged at the door, obviously waiting for us to return. We greeted him as casually as we could, I saw that his eyes were following the big bag we brought along with us and when we got in, we headed straight for the kitchen to begin the doughnuts order.
We were all in the sitting room watching television exactly one week after that incident when the competition came up on the channel we were watching. We both exchanged stunned looks as neither of us expected that the competition would be broadcast on TV. With the way she looked at me, she too wasn't aware of such an arrangement
According to them, she came in third place. That meant she didn't get the scholarship but she was given prize money, a certificate of participation, and some baking ingredients.
It was then that we both knew our cover had been blown.
Her father turned to look at us and I went down on my knees immediately, begging that he should forgive us.
Strangely, he said he suspected all along but didn't want to say anything about it until he saw the outcome. I felt really bad that I had deceived an elderly man but it was for a justifiable reason and I was glad that he said he forgave me despite expressing his utmost disappointment.
I knew that I was wrong so I made a decision not to ever lie like that again, no matter how justifiable the reason was. I felt even worse that the reason I lied was not even achieved but eventually, her father told her that if she graduated with good results, he would let her do whatever she wanted.