p@rt 25
“ISOKENE”
(St©p MY WIFE FROM SMILING)
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
Mr. Gbesan was spoiling me silly, with gifts, text messages and Love. Henry had started replying my early morning text to him, although it didn’t mean much to me, as Mr. Gbesan was the real deal.
One day he invited me over to his house so I could know where he lived, although no one could say they didn’t know where Mr. Gbesan was living in that vicinity as his house stood tall among all the houses in the environment. I knew he meant something dee-per, my de-sires and little devil in me, felt “What the heck?, Just once won’t hurt, at least that way, I will get even with my husband, he is having S-x outside marriage, having once won’t hurt”….the little devil in me called self was telling me.
I had started having de-ep longing for Mr. Gbesan, so His invitation was a long awaited one…It happened one evening after the day sales. Gold and Emerald were packing up and washing up. I told them, I was going for a stroll.
I went to Mr.Gbesan’s house instead. Obviously, Mr. Gbesan had seen me throu-gh his CCTV c@m£ra, because he was the one who c@m£ to open the gate by himself. You could see he was so excited to see me as he ushered me into his house. The living room was not tastefully furnished as I expected, but as he took me upstairs to his pri-vate Living room, it was literally heaven on earth.
We chatted and chatted about different things, he told me how much he loved his dead wife. He said he had not fallen in love with any other woman after her death, and I was going to be the first after seven years.
That brou-ght up all our pent up emotions, as he moved close to me, I was gone, no form of caution. We k!$$£d, k!$$£d, k!$$£d and I was so wanting more. We had done r0ûghly 10 minutes of de-ep k!ss!ngand R0m-ncing before he started un-bu-ttoning my shi-t which I didn’t oppose too, but he st©pped suddenly….
“No….I made a promise to Gold…I don’t want to hurt her” Mr Gbesan said
And unbelievably I said,
“She won’t know” I was enjoying the evil thing…
“I always keep my word Betty, I love and repect you, I am giving your husband 2 years” He said looking at me straight in the eye
Suddenly, I felt ashamed and bu-ttoned up my shi-t. I looked at my wristwatch as an excuse not to look into his eyes. 10:30pm….
Oh my God! I had spent over three hours without knowing the time was far spent, my daughters must be worried sick as I just told them I was taking a stroll… I jumped up, re-ady to dash down to my house..
“I will drop you” He said
“Gold will suspect….” I said as I rushed down his staircase
“That’s true, I will drop you off some blocks away from your place” He said running after me
I smiled to myself as I was amazed at how my Precious Gold had created her fear in the heart of a big man like Mr. Gbesan…
******
As we drew close to my house, I noticed a small crowd in front of my gate, what was happening? My heart started pounding, What was wrong with my girls?, Did Emerald have an asthma attack again? I told Mr. Gbesan to st©p the car as I raced to the house, I pushed the crowd aside only to find my Precious Gold on the floor.
From what Emerald was saying, when they had waited for me for over an hour and I had not returned from my stroll, they decided to go look for me, but Gold insisted Emerald should stay behind. It was just now, a group of women brou-ght her back saying they saw her on the floor in a dark corner crying…I saw red blood on her dress…
Oh No! my Precious Gold had been R@p£d, because of my stupid longing for intim-acy and thirst for wanting to get even with my husband…
p@rt 26
The next morning, Henry got to the outSk-irt at around 6am, I wondered what time he must have left the city.
All throu-gh the night, my phone was on fire, Mr. Gbesan was calling. I imagined him not slee-ping and blaming himself for what had happened, so I decided to call.
For stepping on the br@kes the previous day , he was a good man.
“Hello, Mr Gbesan…” I said
“Betty, I know you don’t want to speak to me, but I just want to apologize, I am sorry” he broke into tears….
“I don’t know why evil always follow me, Gold is too much of a precious soul for that to have happened to her because of me” Mr Gbesan said amidst tears and sobbing like a child
“It’s ok sir,I am the one to be blamed , but the good news is Gold has forgiven me, so I hold nothing against you sir. Thanks for being a good friend. I just wanted to let you know that we will be going to the city in the morning, my husband’s mistress has had her baby and my husband wants us to come back home” I said trying to end the conversation as fast as possible
Mr. Gbesan broke into tears…..
“Meaning It is all over? or are you coming back here?”
“I don’t know”
“Ok…May God be with you, plea-se don’t change your mobile number, plea-se…”
“I won’t”
“My time of happiness with you was so short lived , I love you Betty, I really do”
“I love you Mr Gbesan, but God loves us more and he knows what is best for us…”
I hung up and sat on the be-d. That was around 4:30am. I didn’t sleep till around 6 am when I heard the loud ban-g on the gate. Henry was around.
Gold jumped from her sleep
“That must be Dad”
My phone rang and Henry’s number was the caller ID…Gold knelt before me
“Mum, plea-se let what happened to me be our little secret, don’t ever mention it to Dad, I will be fine…it’s just one of those things that could have happened to anyone who lived in the outSk-irt. It is an experience I have added to my experiences of life. I will not let it control or shape my life, rather I will control it effects on me… Mum, God has started restoring your home, don’t let this be a distraction….” She said
Gold gave me a big hvg and ran to the gate, though I could see she was in pains. Over the years, Gold had been a very strong girl as regards dealing with pains…
The moment Gold opened the gate for her father, he literally carried her from the ground….
“Dad, congratulations”
“Yes, Gold, you have a brother, where is your sister and mother?”
Henry saw me standing at the balcony of the BQ, He walked really fast towards me…
“My heart, Good morning, I am very sorry”
“Shush…It’s ok, Old things are pas-sed away, Let’s go home and see our Baby” I said as I just saw life in a new way, throu-gh the eyes of Gold. Life was forgiveness…
Henry gave me a very big hvg, but Emerald let the cat out of the bag…
“Why are you here now, after you let Gold to be R@p£d?”
Henry’s b©dy immediately bec@m£ very stiff …he stepped back from me and looked at the three of us, but Gold being as precious as she was , cut in
“Emerald, don’t be a mood spoiler, it’s not Dad or mum’s fault, I was the one taking a stroll at the inappropriate time of the night, not to worry, I will heal soon” Gold said trying to make it sound very light
“You were R@p£d? By who?, When? Betty, where were you? Henry asked as he rested his back on the wall really weak by the news…
Gold quic-kly covered up again
“Mum, had taken a stroll , so when I was throu-gh with my plate washing, I decided to take a stroll as well and that was when some hoodlums R@p£d me!”…
Gold didn’t mention me going to Mr. Gbesan‘s house and Emerald didn’t say anything about it, since she didn’t know I was with him. That was between Gold and I.
“Oh God!, this is all my fault, I shouldn’t have brou-ght you here, I am so sorry Gold” You could see that Henry was so angry at himself, but Gold moved closer to him and said
“It’s ok Dad, bad things happen, but I don’t like to dwell on them, Let’s dwell on the good things that God does, like the birth of Diamond….I am more concerned about that, it’s bad enough I was R@p£d, but dwelling on it is ra-ping myself of joy and happiness”
I was just speechless at Gold’s maturity in handling the whole situation.
“So Dad, should we just pick up some few cloths” Gold said
“Few? No all your cloths, you are no more coming back here” Henry was distraught
Gold was so excited at the news of not returning to the outSk-irts that she screamed but Emerald was not showing any form of excitement, even when her father drew her close apologizing to her.
******
At about 8:30 am, we were throu-gh packing, Henry was surprised at my restaurant business, as people had started knocking at our gate as early as 7am to buy food. I told them we were parking… the news had spre-ad like wi-de fire, people c@m£ out of their houses, the little friends I had made c@m£ crying and telling me how much they would miss me… Wives I had given free counselling were also around weeping. They all as-sumed it was because of what had happened to Gold that had caused the relocation.
As we were leaving , at a far distance, I saw Mr.Gbesan’s car, when I looked towards his direction, he flashed his car light at me. I was about to go meet him, when Gold pu-ll-ed my hand. Henry noticed the move, which made him look at the executive car but he didn’t say a word…..
********
Margaret was so happy to see us at the hospital. An elderly woman was with her, who I later found out was her Step mum.
“His name is Diamond, just Like Gold wanted” Margaret said as she stretched the baby towards me. He was a total replica of my husband. I was so happy to carry him. I saw the Joy in Henry’s face. This had been his heart de-sire for a long time but I had been scared to give birth to another child, because of our genotype issue. We were both AS and one of the girls had the SS genotype and for years, I Had the fear of giving birth to another child with the SS genotype..
I didn’t know what made me ask but I popped out the question before knowing
“Genotype?” I asked
Henry answered quic-kly “There won’t be anything to worry about, Margaret has the AA genotype, so it’s either he is AA or AS”.
Gold took him from me…
“Welcome Diamond”..
Emerald also wanted to carry him.
As they were struggling over the Baby, I noticed something was not right with Margaret’s step Mum, I didn’t know what it was but I knew she was strange….
Very Strange…..Unfortunately I was told she would be staying with us to take care of the baby….Was she not going to be a stumbling block to what God wanted to do as regards my marriage?
Tbc…