To follow this story from the beginning, please check out "Moon Girl: Part 1" [here]
7.30pm June 1, 2018
Morenike walked into the king-sized bedroom and saw her husband, Femi, propped up in bed reading a newspaper and as usual his eyeglasses were perched on the tip of his nose. He smiled at her, saying, “She came back safe and all is well, right? You worry too much my love”. Morenike did not smile back but laid down beside him and proceeded to stare pensively up at the beautiful ceiling. She had a lot running through her mind. She thought about how poor they had been before Diana. In fact, they had been so impoverished that they couldn't afford an apartment of their own and didn't even have sufficient cash flow for 3 square meals. Out of sheer desperation, they had been forced to live in the mud hut on her grandmother's farm, deep inside Okiki forest. There they toiled day and night, tilling the land and growing yams, maize, okro and pepper which they fed solely on and survived by. Those had been hard, hopeless times indeed! However, Diana's birth changed everything! It was as though the heavens had smiled on them because the very next day after she was born, they began to find weird-looking glittering stones scattered all over the farm. Within 2 weeks, Femi discovered the stones where diamonds in the rough and the tides had turned for them since then. They were richer than had they ever dreamed within a few months and the wealth continued to grow daily as their land continued to yield diamonds even as they continued to mine them. Okiki Forest had now become Okiki Industrial diamond mining estate.
"Why are you looking so gloomy? When will you realize that Diana is a very smart, resourceful and responsible girl? She has not been sighted in her luminous form in 27 years! Relax my love! She is fine. We must be grateful that the moon does not shine every single night or else it would have been much tougher to keep our secret safe" said Femi. Morenike continued her pensive scrutiny of the ceiling until Femi couldn't take it any longer. "Talk to me" he pleaded, "Please darling, talk to me". Morenike sat up to face her husband, unable to ignore his pleading tone. "This conversation is long overdue, so let's do this," she thought. She shook her head slowly from side to side and launched into a barrage of words, "Femi, don't you understand? Our girl is no longer a baby! She is 27! She'll need to settle down and get married and move out of the house. We can't hide her away from the world forever! She needs love, she needs a man to love her like you love me but what man would know the truth about her changing form on moonlit nights and would not be scared away?". Femi's face had paled visibly and he suddenly looked a lot older than his 55 years. He had never entertained the thought of his daughter leaving them or needing a man. He had simply assumed that since she was so special and so different, they would keep her well cared for and absolutely safe for the rest of her life. "Why is this suddenly an issue now," he asked his wife. "Diana has affection for a certain young man Femi. She met him last year and has been asking me a whole lot of questions about love" said Morenike, watching her husband lean forward in dismay. "She is falling in love?" he asked. Morenike replied nodding slowly, "Yes my love, I think she is". Husband and wife fell silent, gazing at each other in mutual dismay.
To be continued....