Actress Eva

ACTRESS EVA

As I stepped out of the car in a blue gown with black heels, irritation bubbled up in me. I was supposed to have gotten used to the paparazzi but they still annoyed me every time they surround me shouting annoying questions at me expecting answers. At least I wore a beautiful cloth today and it's not like this is catching me unawares. My name is Evangeline Dane and I am an actress. I am a 27-year-old Nigerian living in New York city. What annoys me most about the paparazzi is that it is the fact that I am a Nigerian that just acted in one of the hit movies in NYC that brought them on my case but they keep asking about my relationships and other questions that I feel are not their business not taking 'no comment' as an answer. When I go to church, they are following me, any public place I appear they are always there and trust me, it is very annoying. As a result of that I decided to suffer through a fifteen minutes’ interview with the paparazzi but in a calm manner like adults and in an agreed hall and they can take all the pictures they want. My bodyguard Paul helps me get out of midst of the paparazzi standing in front of my car door with no scratch and for that I am grateful to God because I've not been that lucky in previous situations with them.

I enter a hall and they all start to hound me. Another perk of this interview is that I can say 'no comment' and not say another word about that matter and they would accept. I was very happy about that fact because all the questions I've answered no comment to in the past have always being put as headlines in gossip magazines with all sort of answers from their 'sources'. I am a bit thankful that my family members are in Nigeria even if it means not getting to see them for years because I've been in NYC for three years because at least the paparazzi cannot hound my family members all the way to Nigeria like they like to do to other celebrity's family. 

I suffer through the fifteen minutes’ interview and surprisingly they asked reasonable questions like where exactly I grew up, which school I attended, what propelled me into a career as an actress in a big city like New York with the occasional unreasonable questions of am I dating the guy they saw me smiling at in the park last week. All in all, I will say it was a success and I hope they honor their word of treating me like old news but one can only hope.

I then go to the one place that the paparazzi has never found me, a cafe whose outside is enough to send an average earner far away from it. I'm actually a volunteer as a waitress in the cafe, it is called God's grace cafe. I love that place, aside from the fact that the paparazzi has never found me there mainly because the one that tried following me found himself on a back street he had never seen before where GPS did not work and I'm not afraid to do it again. I know it seems strange that I that have just been in the city for three years know the roads better than a paparazzi but the owners of God's grace cafe took great joy showing me roads that once you are on you feel like you are lost because it feels like it is straight from the 1800's, the other thing I like there is that the people that frequent the cafe know me as Evangeline, a volunteer. That is the place I go to when I want to feel like a normal person although it is mostly old people and people down on their luck that frequent there. 

As I entered the cafe, it felt like I was home, the smell and everybody greeting me was absolutely welcoming. I made sure before I entered the cafe that I changed my dress, I was now in a well-worn jean with a faded blouse and my brother's former canvas. All in all, I'm sure I looked nothing like the person whose face will be on almost all the magazines tomorrow. Thinking about that made me get annoyed again. I forcefully pulled down the anger I was feeling and walked to the counter to start work while remembering the verse in the bible that said' be angry but do not sin' and sincerely to me that verse is one of the hardest thing I've ever done because sometimes I use to feel like rolling down my car window and flipping them the bird but that would not glorify God and so I don't do it even though it will make headlines. I can already see it' Actress Evangeline Dane, the Nigerian actress in New York that is presently in the limelight and supposedly a Christian was found flipping one of our 'sources' the bird from her car'. I started smiling as I pictured that then Karen, one of the co-owners of the cafe asked me why I was smiling but I told her it was something I remembered. Karen and her husband Matthew are the only ones that know I am an actress. Karen was the one that gave me the idea of being a volunteer because according to her she understands perfectly how I feel though I've not yet found out how she understands.

The volunteer work is going smoothly and I’m enjoying myself serving people when a couple, newly married by the looks on their faces came inside. I was surprised to see them because their type doesn’t usually walk into the café. They asked to speak to Karen and Matthew and before the end of the day, we all knew what they came there for. They came for volunteer work like me but not because they were trying to avoid publicity but because they made an agreement with God that for the first year after marriage they were going to volunteer in a place that people do not know and they found God’s grace café and chose it. We were all relieved because even though I had the enthusiasm, it was difficult running up and down and getting what the customers wanted on time because there was no other waitress as a result of the look of the place. The couple started work that evening and it was obvious to everybody that had eyes that they were very much in love. I started feeling something within me but I did not analyze it because I was busy. It wasn’t until I was driving home in my beautiful SUV that what I was feeling came to me. I realized then that it was loneliness. It seemed funny because I was always the center of attraction especially from the press but no matter how popular I was, I had nobody to call my own in NYC apart from Karen and Matthew and they were like forty-five years older than me. I then made a vow that God willing, that loneliness was going to change starting tomorrow by living like I belonged in the city and stop feeling like an outsider.