Love with bitter tears episode 13 & 14

LOVE WITH BITTER TEARS

 

EPISODE 13

Just as they were about driving out of the gate, they sp©tted Sammy walking with such a drooling shoulder that was almost tou-ching the ground. Richa-rd was so relieved that without turning off the ignition, he opened the door and ran to his son who got startled out of his wits when he was scooped up all of a sudden. He struggled to go down until he saw that it was his dad.

Sammy: “Daddy! Daddy!!” he could not get the words out of his mouth.

Opha: “Richie…lets go inside, people are staring at us” she said placing her hand gently on his shoulder.

Richa-rd : “Yeah yeah we should. plea-se can you help me bring the car in plea-se?”

Opha: “Yeah sure”

When they got inside, Richa-rd noticed for the first time that his son reeked of sweat and tears. his eyes was bloodsh0t and yeah he was alone.

Richa-rd : “Where is Annie?” he asked gently holding him at arm’s length.

Sammie: “Daddy it was my fault. I am not a good brother. Mum will never forgive me” the tears flowed freely from his face, his dad was confused and scared.

Richa-rd : “Sammie what happened to your sister?”

Sammie: “Last night, when we were waiting for you to come back home, Annie started crying because she was hungry and my hand could not reach the shelf. I decided to go and wait for you outside the gate but as soon as we stepped out, some men on okada c@m£ and snatched Annie from my hand and ran away. Daddy I don’t know what to do, I prayed to God to bring her back to me but He didn’t since she hasn’t being returned yet. I have walked around searching for the men, asking people but no one know them. Daddy plea-se get my sister back for me” he dis£ngaged from his dad and knelt down as tears and sweat mingled together on his face.

It was like a terrible lightening had struck Richa-rd , he sat unmoving staring into thin air. Opha noticed this and walked up to them slowly. She place her hand on his shoulder again.

Opha: “Richie are you okay?” she asked with a quivering voice.

Richa-rd : “My daughter is gone and you are asking if I am okay? Tell me how I can be okay, how? This is my fault, I should have been home but I got whisked off to jail disgracefully leaving my children unprotected. Tell me what kind of father I am?” he stood up and started pacing around.

Opha: “Let’s get to the police station, this requires urgency. We must act fast” she said urging him to follow her.

Richa-rd : “I swear I am never going to forgive the man who got me arrested. I wish I even got to see him or got to know his name. But I will find him, I swear on my dead wife that I will find him” he gritted his teeth.

Opha: “Then you don’t even know the reason you got arrested?”

Richa-rd : “I don’t! Can you imagine that? He instructed them not to tell me”

Opha : “Oh Thank God!” she heaved a sigh of relief. “Okay let’s go dear”

Sammy: “I am going with you dad. I must be among those to search for her, I promise to do my best”

Richa-rd : “It is too risky so just stay here okay?”

Opha: “You want to leave him all alone again? Let him come with us at least we will be able to keep an eye on him. I am just afraid to even leave him alone” she said wryly.

#########

Ralph and his friends were at a loss as to what to do with Annie. The three of them lived together in a three be-droom flat at Oluyole Estate in Ibadan. They met at an MTN internsh!pprogram in Abuja when they were first seeking for job, they were all picked and as-signed to the same br@nch in Ibadan. They got the ap@rtment together, took a room each and used the living room together. They did everything together and nowhere will one of them be found that the other two would not be found there also.

Paul: “What do we do with this baby whose name we don’t even know? I am really not good with babies and that’s why I asked my last girlfriend to have an ab-ortion when she told me she was pregnant”

d!¢kson: “Let’s take her back to the police station and tell them we cannot keep her”

Paul: “You want to go throu-gh police wahala bah?”

d!¢kson: “Okay should we take her to the orphanage? I really don’t have money to waste on another person’s baby. I alre-ady have enough responsibility as it is”

Ralph: “Let’s keep her. Let’s help this helpless baby at least it’s just for the main time, her parents will soon come for her. plea-se guys? Just look at how innocent and beautiful she looks. She reminds me of my little sister whom we lost to small pox back then” he said pleadingly. Find the time to stay with her from? She has not even started sitting up yet. Seriously guy, use your head now”

d!¢kson: “I strongly agree with Paul. We are bachelors and none of my girlfriends will want to help out. We will be on our own”

Ralph: “So which orphanage do we take her to?” he asked resigning to fate.

Paul: “we will ask around for any orphanage in town. Then we will drop her with a matron there. Very simple”

Ralph: “Okay then. Let’s do that”

They bought new cloths for her, bathed her and dressed her up in a pink go-wn with head band to match. Ralph could not help but fall in love with that little cutie. Her smile could lit up a whole dark room and he wondered who could be the parent of such a lovely baby and how much they must be searching for her at the moment. He shook his head as he watched Paul take snapsh0ts with her, throwing her in the air and hvgging her ti-ghtly.

They all took it in turn to take snapsh0ts with her and finally set out in their car. They went from one orphanage to another but none of them accepted her. Each time they heard police was involved, they become uncomfortable and start cooking up excuses. By the time they got back home, they had visited all the orphanages google had to offer within the vicinity and yet they still went back home with Annie.

Ralph: “Imagine how much fuel we have wasted today?”

Paul: “What do we do now? Look at the way she is slee-ping, even she is tired. But to think of it, she is really gentle or she is trying to bribe us into letting her stay here?”

Ralph: “Seriously, I am in love with this baby. Can’t we just let her stay with us? When we are going to work in the morning, we will take her to the day-care centre down the road and besides we do night sometimes too so we can still have time to take care of her. Imagine having a baby girl in this house? Its intriguing friends” the excitement on his face could not be mistaken.

d!¢kson: “Well, what can I say? The orphanage rejected her and we cannot throw her away like that. Let’s just keep her till her parents come for her”

Paul: “Okay. Then we have to give her a name? What should we call her?” he said looking from one to the other.

d!¢kson: “Kemi”

Ralph: “Kemi ko, komi ni, let’s give her a nice English name jare”

d!¢kson: “Uhnnnnn! What of Nikita? I love that movie ehn?”

Paul: “I am really shaking my head for you. That’s why you want to name her Nikita? I don’t want Nikita. Think before you suggest again o”

Ralph: “What of Annabelle?”

Paul: “What does it mean?”

Ralph: “It means ‘beautiful’” he said plea-sed with himself.

d!¢kson: “Well I like it. We can call her Anna or Annie for short”

Paul: “Yeah! It is Lovely. Where is Annie baby? Annie” he mimicked calling out her name.

Ralph: “Wake her up you hear? Annie…” he jeered at him.

 

LOVE WITH BITTER TEARS

 

EPISODE 14

Weeks pas-sed into months and all of their efforts to find Annie proved ab-ortive. They had gone from one police station to another, even Radio and Television stations yet there was nothing from anyone. No one called to say they had seen a baby looking like her, people only called to sympathize and pray for them. Richa-rd started having a phobia of losing people he loved. He was more afraid of losing Sam and Opha who bec@m£ the centre of his world. He was sacked at the firm he worked at with his wife but then got another job at bank as an accountant. It took him months to land himself that job and it was thanks to his colleagues who had friends in that bank.

He and Opha sat at home that Saturday afternoon, talking…

Opha: “Haven’t you noticed how Sammy behaves ever since Annie’s disappearance?”

Richa-rd : “I did! Losing a sibling whom you love so much is not that easy. I know how much he loved her. He basically lived for her and now she was snatched right from his hands. Who would be able to live with such guilt?”

Opha: “I just hope he wouldn’t do anything silly to himself. I think you nee-d another nanny Richie. I am afraid I will have to get a job soon and that might limit my coming here a lot” she said remorsefully.

Richa-rd : “Or you are looking for an excuse to st©p coming here?”

Opha: “well you re-ad me quite well. I think I have done my p@rt now, I have been waiting for you to make a move but seems you are waiting for me to go on my knees and propose to you again which I am not going to do”

Richa-rd : “plea-se don’t leave dear. We still nee-d you here…”he rose up, di-pped his hands into his pocket, brou-ght out a small box tied with a pink ribbon, went on his knees, opened the box and said “Will you marry me?”

Opha: “Oh my God! Yes I will marry you” she said with relief sweeping over her. “What took you so long Richie?” she asked as he sli-pped the ring into her fourth f!nger.

Richa-rd : “Was waiting for the right moment” he said smiling, he rose up and swept her off her feet in a ti-ght embr@ce. “Thanks for being here baby” he said and k!$$£d her and she k!$$£d him back. He led her by the hand into the be-droom and locked the door.

Richa-rd : “I have waited for this day since I was given birth to” he said moving closer to her with the aggression of all the pent up de-sires he had had for her since they met. His man-hood protested inside his bo-xers as its length kept increasing. Opha looked at it in awe and quivered frightfully. “Don’t worry babe, remember I promised to help you throu-gh it?”

Opha: “Yeah yeah sure! “She said as his mouth went down on hers as he li-cked and savoured the taste of her mouth. He pu-ll-ed her t©p over her head and bent down to svçkher br£@st but to his consternation, it wasn’t ha-rd like it should but he su-cked it anyway and she m0@n ed sweetly. He turned her around so she backed the be-d and la-id her down gently, re-moved the shorts she had on, looked down at her and said “you are beautiful” his voice sounded so husky she could ha-rd ly hear him. He quic-kly re-moved the barrier between him and her and bent down over her again. He k!$$£d her ha-rder and fas-ter, she arched her back towards him asking for more. He k!$$£d her n£¢k down to her bo-ob s again and this time, her n!ppl!s were so ha-rd they intrigued him. She reached out and gr@bb£d hold of his erection and flin-ched at how ha-rd and hvge it was. She started teasing its ti-p and he quivered and m0@n ed with his eyes shut ti-ghtly. He slide away from her hands gently and bent to the centre of her h0tness, b!owing a gentle breeze into it. He di-pped out his ton-gue and tea-sed her cl!ts with it. “Do you like that?” he asked with his ton-gue still teasing and su-cking.

Opha: “Yeeeeeah!” but she closed her eyes pretending it was Gloria doing the su-cking, she m0@n ed when she saw Gloria’s Immaculate b©dy in her mind’s eye. He felt her ¢v-m into his face as she quivered and gro-an ed loudly muttering “oh Glo! Glo!! Yeeeah!!!” he was confused as to what that meant but he was too busy to give it much thought. He turned to her side and slide into her from the back using the spoonful style. He noticed how ti-ght she was and went gentle, he timed his thrû-sting until she was no longer as ti-ght then intensified it. She clung unto his n£¢k gro-an ing painfully, she felt him going fas-ter and fas-ter until he stiffened and bec@m£ gentler again. He slide out of her gently and embr@ced her so ti-ghtly.

Richa-rd : “Thank you honey. I enjoyed every bits of it. Thank you” he said again and placed a lingering k!sson her forehead as she smiled weakly.

############

Two months later, they got married at the Lagos Mainland Marriage Registry and their marital journey began in earnest. She missed Gloria whom she hadn’t seen for months. She started cooking up every form of excuses in order to avoid having S-x with Richa-rd , at first he thought she was just not used to having S-x and would get used to it with time but as days went by, her dislike for it kept growing to the extent that he found himself nursing the thoughts of forcing her.

Sammy noticed his dad was becoming unhappier every pas-sing day. He disliked Opha with Pas-sion, the way she looked at him made him uneasy. She seemed to be nursing a bad thought in her mind. He tried as much as possible to avoid her anytime they were at home alone. That evening when he c@m£ back from school, as soon as he had stepped in, he heard voices emanating from the be-droom and paused to listen. He could not hear any words in p@rticular so he decided to check. He opened the door slightly and his step mum and another lady k!ss!ngpas-sionately and c@r£ss!ngeach other’s bo-ob s, he quic-kly closed the door but that made them aware that someone had seen them. She quic-kly dressed up and went to check who it was. When she found out that it was only Sam at home, she heaved a sigh of relief and went over to him.

Opha: “How are you Sammy?” she said forcing a smile but he said nothing. “Aren’t you the one I am talking to?”

Sammy: “I saw what you and that pregnant woman were doing and I am only waiting for my dad so I can tell him. Don’t talking to me because no matter what you say I will still tell him” he said folding his arms across his che-st contumaciously.

Opha: “You will not dare it!” she started yelling but checked herself. “But what exactly do you think you saw?

Sammy: “Ehn? So you think I am dumb? I know what it is of course: you were doing with a lady what you are supposed to be doing with my dad. What did my social studies teacher call it again o…”he put his second f!nger on hisl-ips trying to recollect what he learnt in a social studies clas-s. “Choi! I can’t remember now, but she said it’s an abomination and infact it has been banned in Nigeria, any lady caught doing it will be s£nt to kirikiri prison. Sebi you c@m£ to replace my mum! Sebi all you do is shout at me in this house. You will be going to prison very soon” he said giving her a ton-gue out.

She thought for some time and remembered how he had used his sister’s disappearance against him several times and decided to see if it will work again.

Opha: “Have you forgotten so soon?” she said in a whisper, sitting down gently beside him.

Sammy: “Forgotten what?”

Opha: “Have you forgotten that Annie’s disappearance was your fault? I am going to your school tomorrow, I will tell everyone in your clas-s what a terrible brother you are. How you could not even take care of one tiny baby. I will also tell your dad about it so he can start blaming you too just the same way everyone in school will blame you. You will no longer have any friend and people will start running away from you. You know I can do it right?”

Sammy: “Aunty I am sorry, I will not tell dad what I saw so don’t tell anyone this plea-se?”

Opha: “Then from now on you will start doing everything I ask you to do without complaining to anyone? Just imagine how much Annie must be suffering now because of how terrible a brother you are? She might even be dead. God I pity poor Annie” she said pretending to be very sad.

Sammy: “Don’t ever say she is dead again!” he yelled on t©p of his voice.

Opha: “Hey! No screaming at me from now on no matter what I say to you otherwise the whole world will hear about how cowardly you are. Do you get me?”

Sammy: “Yes but plea-se don’t say she might be dead, I know she is not dead, I am praying very ha-rd for her” his voice quivered with sadness.

Opha: “I guess we have a deal now. That’s my boy!” she said patting his head. “Gloria you can now come out, we are good now” she called out to her friend who remained in the room so she could take care of the situation. She c@m£ out clutching her bag in front of her.

Gloria: “I have to go now. I have something I nee-d to tell you so come by the house whenever you are free okay?”

Opha: “Okay! Take care of yourself for me” she said wi-nking at her embarras-sed friend as Sammy scrutinized her from head to toe.

Sammy: “I can’t believe she is pregnant and still doing that abominable thing. As far as my teacher taught me, women cannot get women pregnant. Hmmmm! My dad is in trouble ” he thought to himself and shook his head in disgust.

 

The next day, she prepared and went to Gloria’s place. She met her husband who was preparing to go out. He eyed her suspiciously when he saw her, the memory and doubts of that day still lingered on in his mind. He was never comfortable with her, he thought it was because she was too beautiful but now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

Gloria made signs to her to wait for her husband to leave so she sat down quietly watching music videos on h!ptv. She sprang up as soon as Johnson had left and went to meet her friend, hvgged her at arm’s length because of her pregnancy and place a light k!sson herl-ips.

Opha: “So you said you wanted to see me? Here I am” she said spre-ading her arms.

Gloria: “Yes I said I wanted to see you. I don’t know how you will take it but I still have to let it out” she said looking downcast.

Opha: “Hmmmmm! What is it?”

Gloria: “plea-se don’t take it the wrong way. I want you to know this is breaking my heart too but I don’t know how to keep it up. I want us to st©p what we are doing right away. I want to be a good mum to my child and a good wife to my husband”

Opha: “What are we doing that nee-ds to be st©pped? What are you talking about? It’s not like I am st©pping you from being a good mum and wife to whoever you want so what are you talking about?”

Gloria: “I want us to put an end to this relationsh!p”

Opha: “What? What are you talking about? If it’s a joke plea-se st©p it cos it’s not funny” she sobered up immediately.

Gloria: “I am serious dear. I really am. I can’t do this anymore. Let’s break up, you should face your new home too and find a way to start loving your husband too. I know how much I made mine suffer, Richa-rd is a nice guy, and so plea-se be a good wife to him”

Opha: “Breaking up with me is one thing but don’t ever lecture me about how to run my own marriage. How can you break up with me now that I nee-d you the most? How can you?”

Gloria: “I am sorry dear”

Opha: “you promised me your husband will not get in the way of our love, have you forgotten so soon? Have you forgotten all the moments we share? I don’t think I can live a sane life without you. plea-se reconsider your decision? If you want me to wait till you give birth, I will but don’t tell me we are breaking up okay?”

Gloria: “Well I mean it. We are over from now on. We can be friends but nothing more. If that is not okay by you then I will have no other option but to cut all relations with you”

Opha: “I swear you will regret this. You will regret this” she said, picked up her bag and dashed out of the house blindly.

 

Richa-rd noticed that his wife was even more withdrawn than ever. She acted like someone who was heartbroken and he could not remember ever doing anything wrong to her. Each time he tried talking to her about it she’d shun him down but one thing he could not still fathom was why she was so rigid on be-d. All she did was lie down while he worked his guts out, he could not remember the last time he enjoyed ma-king love to her. That night after a bout of boring and unsatisfying love ma-king, he rolled to his side of the be-d, looked at her and realised she had turned her back to him…

Richa-rd : “Honey! What exactly is happening between us? I can’t seem to remember ever doing anything to warrant this kind of treatment from you. What is going on? plea-se talk to me, your silence is killing”

Opha: “You don’t know what you did? Your offence is not letting me be, I hate having S-x with you, I hate your stupid ha-rd b©dy, I miss Gloria” she thought to herself as tears flowed down her face. “Aren’t you satisfied with the one you just did now? Should we go again?” she asked unemotionally.

Richa-rd : “You are getting me wrong baby. The S-x is one of it but what I am mostly alarmed at is your attitude towards me. Did I unknowingly do something wrong to you?”

Opha: “Yes you did! I lost my heart because of you and that Johnson, I hate you two with pas-sion” she thought but ignored his question. He was becoming more annoying with each pas-sing minute.

Richa-rd : “Aren’t you the one I am talking to madam?”

Opha: “Richie you did nothing wrong to me. Can we just sleep now?”

Richa-rd : “Fine then! Just know that this is really frustrating, put yourself in my shoes and you will know how terrible I feel these days” he said feeling so disappointed and forlorn. She said nothing even though in her mind, she felt sorry for him but she just was too heartbroken herself to meet anyb©dy’s expectation of her at that moment.

To be continued…