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?Mmesoma’s Dilemma?
“I do not want to marry Afam, but my parents do not want to listen, and that means it is time for the drama to start”
Mmesoma does not want to get married yet, and when she wants it to happen, she must be the one to choose her husband. But her parents have other plans and to make matters worse, the boy they have chosen is so NOT her type and he is her ex-boyfriend’s elder brother.
Well, she is not one to fold her hands and let life happen to her, she is making a plan B, a plan to make Afam break the engagement himself, at this point, anything that can happen had better start happening because things are about to get steamy.
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?Mmesoma’s
Dilemma ?
©️Ebosereman
Chapter 1
“Mmesoma! Come here now or are you now deaf?”
I groa-ned as I lay in bed, I was so close to falling asleep but my mother just had to call me. Only God knew what she wanted. Last I checked, we were having visitors and she had warned us to stay in our rooms, something I was doing happily.
Now, I had to figure out where she was since she could be anywhere in the house. I went to the most likely place she would be in – the kitchen – and she was not there, but my younger brother, Dozie was, he was rinsing some gla-sses.
“Dozie where is mummy?” I asked him.
“She is in the parlour with daddy and the visitors”, he said and had left the kitchen when his words registered.
“The visitors are still here?!” I shrieked to an empty kitchen.
I groa-ned, wondering what to do, I was too scruffy to meet the visitors. My hair was still on rollers, I was wearing my stay-at-home outfit: shorts and a worn out Tee shirt and worst of all I was not wearing a bra . I could not go to the parlour like this; at least I ought to wear a bra.
My mother though.
“Ezinne, go and call your sister, does she not know she is keeping us waiting?” she screamed to my younger sister, who immediately began running to my room.
I left the kitchen immediately and we met at my room door, she shrieked when I tapped her.
“Biko shut up! Who are the visitors and wait for me to change, I am not going there like this”, I said.
“They are some old family friends like that, mummy introduced them as the Chibueze’s. Sha dress fast before mummy kills the both of us, or I would go and tell her you are coming”, she said, stepping inside and closing the door.
I put on a maxi gown and used a shawl to cover my hair while ignoring my grumbling sister
. She was just being dramatic, if she left without me, my mother might yell at me but I would yell at Ezinne, it was one of the cool perks of being the older sister.
We quickly walked to the parlour in silence while I racked my brain for any Chibueze’s, the only one I could remember was a cla-ssmate in Primary 6 and that was not his surname.
“I hope they are not nosy parents who have rude children, like the Rotimi’s, instead let them be like the Shittu’s, who were really nice people”, I thought to myself as I remembered Lanre, the Shittu’s older son, he was the kind of Yoru-ba demon you would willingly let break your heart.
“I pray they are not annoying people o”, Ezinne muttered as we stepped into the parlour, we exchanged a knowing smile.
My parents were laughing in the parlour with the guests, their hostessing skills were topnotch, while I only related well with those who were nice to me, Ezinne, who was 16, had zero patience for others, Dozie, who was 13, simply did not care while Dubem, the 5 years old baby of the house got along with everyone, he was too adorable for words.
“Thank God o, they have finally decided to grace us with their wonderful presence”, my mother said when we got there. I stifled the urge to roll my eyes but Ezinne groa-ned beside me and I knew that groa-n came with an eye roll, but mummy had not noticed, so all was well.
“Mummy we are sorry, it was my fault, not hers”, I immediately said to save the situation. There were 5 visitors in the room, 3 of them had their backs to me while I faced the 2 who were the parents.
“I am sure that the both of you were busy gossiping upstairs”, she continued and Ezinne murmured something, this time though mummy heard and she furrowed her brows, though she chose to ignore it because there were visitors to impress but I knew that the argument they would have this evening was something to look forward to.
I concentrated on the parents, raking my brain for a memory of them but there was nothing coming up. I looked at Ezinne for help but she had abandoned me.
Left alone, I put on my perfect smile, the one I gave visitors and strangers, I stood by the kitchen door, not putting myself in the limelight and ready to bolt if necessary.
“Good afternoon sir, Good afternoon ma”, I greeted the smiling parents.
“Mmesoma has grown o! It is so good to see you my daughter!” the man said and I smiled and nodded.
“Chai! You are almost done with the University now ba?” the woman asked.
“Yes ma, I am in my Final Year”, I said.
“So what course are you studying and what are your plans for the future? I hope you are still a Virg-in?”
I struggled not to roll my eyes at her weird questions, she was definitely one of those nosy people who had a questionnaire in their head.
“I am studying International Relations and Diplomacy”, I answered only the first question. She could die with her other questions, ru-bbish.
My mother, being the sen-sitive hostess she is, spoke up.
“Tobe, ahan won’t you greet your friend again?”, she asked and all 4 parents laughed.
I wanted Tobenna to greet me too, I wanted to see who my childhood friend was.
One of them stood up and faced me, it happened really fast, one of the throw pillows even fell down as he stood up, but that singular action su-ck ed the air out of my lungs and placed my world in slow motion.
? MMESOMA’S
DILEMMA ?
Chapter 2
I was not exaggerating when I said my world went into slow motion.
Tobenna Chibueze, my worst nightmare, was standing in my living room with his stupid expressionless face, showing that he had known this was my house. I was the only one being thrown off-guard here.
We stared at each other for what seemed like the longest seconds, and as the craziest thoughts raced throu-ghmy mind, I began to make wishes. I wished I could disappear, I wished I had gone with aunty Ginika to Asaba, I wished I could kill this boy and get away with it.
“Ahan, why are you people having a staring contest? Abi you know yourselves from somewhere?” my mother asked and ended our stare war.
“Yes ma, we attend the same school and have the same friends”, he said with a calm voice . I rolled my eyes, mimicking him in my head. For someone who I once loved very much, I found him disgusting so right now.
“Wow! So you are still friends sef, this world is such a small one o”, his mother said and the parents laughed. The joke was however lost on Tobe and I.
“Ada, why are you still standing, come and sit down na, we have so much to talk about”, his father said and I obliged, trying to pretend my heart was not about to explode. Whatever it was they wanted to talk about with me, I doubt it would end well for me , and this made me very nervous.
I willed my feet to move and thankfully it complied, I sat down on the only empty chair, the one beside Tobe, so I too was facing the parents.
. Now I could see the last 2 members of the Chibueze family.
They were good-looking young people. The lady was someone I had seen at school before and the young man was unfamiliar. She was wearing an Ankara dress I wanted to sew and really cute sandals, her eyes were concentrated on her phone and she seemed very tense. The man looked like Tobe, but he was the older, beard-gang, rugged version of Tobe, who was really cute, but in an adorable, younger and slightly effeminate way.
The man was dressed as though he had just finished an important business meeting and snagged a huge deal too. It was a good look for him, however, what stuck out most was his smug smile, he seemed to be finding something very funny and I hoped I was not the centre of the joke.
“Meso, these are Afam and Ada, the Chibueze’s older children, Afam is the eldest”, my father said in his calm voice.
“Welcome to our house”, I greeted them with a for-ced smile, she returned a tense one and he returned a smug and cynical one and I can swear he gave me a visual a-ssessment that made me shudder, as though he found me to be below his standard.
I wished the Chibueze’s would go already, so far they had only brou-ght me less sleep, annoying questions, an ex-boyfriend and anger. Sadly, reality does not work the way I want.
“Meso, I know you will not remember them”, my father began, ending my wishful thinking.
“But they are some of our oldest family friends, we were really close, even when we lived abroad but we lost touch some years ago. Thank God for business deals and Facebook, here we are today”, he punctuated that with what Ezinne called the ‘rich Igbo-man laugh’, it was a de-eper, short laugh, were the person laughing, usually an Igbo man, would pat his belly and everyone too would laugh with him.
In this case, only the older generation was laughing, Tobe, his siblings and I just stared on in silence, nothing was funny here.
“We thank God we are friends again, if not we would have missed such an amazing opportunity to discuss something so important”, my father finished with a smile and a serious look in his eyes.
“So Mmesoma, how is life generally?” Mr Chibueze asked, and I could not help but marvel at how he and his wife had a knack for asking weird questions. I looked up to find all eyes concentrated on me.
“Fine”, I said. Abi, what else is there to say?
“So no details? Life is just “fine”?” Mrs Chibueze asked, a mischievous smile on her face.
Oh, God! So, what kind of answer is okay for this kind of question?
I took a de-eper breath and began.
“Well, life, in general, is fine, I am alive and healthy, doing well in school, looking forward to my future, I have amazing friends, a loving family. I mean, what else could a girl ask for?” I
Their smiles said this response was far more suitable.
“I can think of something else a girl could ask for o, something that completes her and makes her a woman”, Mrs Chibueze said and my mother laughed, the men just smiled. Again, I did not get the joke and I knew I was the centre of it which made it really annoying.
“Yes o! You are right! There is something important that she has not mentioned”, my mother said with excitement.
“And what is it?” I asked, curiosity killing me, I just hope she would not say se-x, oh, or it would get super awkward.
“Well, a girl can always ask for a husband na”, Mrs Chibueze said and the four adults burst into laughter, with the women, who sat beside each other, giving high-fives.
And I could not help thinking “Twitter is right, it be your own mouth that mess you up”.
The laughter ended and we sat there staring at each other. I was waiting for someone to say exactly what this important discussion was to be on when my father spoke up.
“Well”, he said calmly and looked around.
“We are here to finalize the wedding arrangements because we can see that the both of you are ready for marriage, so there is no need to wait for old age to get to you people or for someone to start getting promiscuous”, Mrs Chibueze said, looking directly at me when she mentioned the promiscuous part.
Na wa o! Shebi I said this family gathering would not end well for me?
I glared at my mother but she did not look at me. I really wanted to yell at her for doing me like this.
See, ehn, un-derstand that I knew this marriage discussion would happen one day. I just did not think it would be before I graduated from the university, these people are so impatient, they could have at least waited for me to turn 21 first, but I was just unlucky.
Arranged marriages were not new to me, they were like business deals within my family’s circle, most of my cousins had gotten arranged marriages, even my parents’ marriage was arranged and with the way my mother had always relentlessly informed me that boyfriends existed to waste a girls time, I always knew that my marriage would be arranged.
The shocker, however, was getting married before I turned 20, I was still unprepared for marriage, the concept of love and being with one person till death was definitely not what I wanted or needed now.
“Ada, we want you to meet Afam, your husband-to-be, we want both of you to get to know each other very well, while we, the elders finalize other things”, my dad said with a smile.
I looked at the face of each parent and they were all smiling at me, they honestly believed that I was just going to agree happily. Such nonsense!
I looked up to see Afam sm-irking at me, Ada was looking at her phone with such determination and Tobe was angry, I knew because he was pinching the chair he was sitting on and it was funny that he was so angry. The last time I saw Tobe that angry, he actually punched someone and landed myself, himself and some of our friends in trouble.
I did not know who to look at or what to say but clearly, someone had to say something because this silent game was getting really awkward. I wanted this visit to end, so I could get back to my room, get some sleep, and then think of a way out of this wahala. I did not want to get married, but I knew for a fact that I would not be able to break the engagement myself without embarra-ssing my family.
“Mmesoma, say something na”, my mother said.
“What is there to say again? Shebi it has already been decided?” I responded calmly.
My mother raised an eyebrow, she knew I was up to something, it was literally impossible for me to just give in to anything without putting up a fight. I smiled at her and we stared at each other for a few seconds, until my father spoke.
“In that case, let us allow the both of them to step out and get to know each other, as we as the elders have a lot of catching up to do”, he said and the men stood up and went upstairs. I knew they were going to my father’s study to discuss the other important unions, such as the marriage of their businesses.
The mothers stood up and went upstairs too, right after their husbands, they would be heading to mommy’s room, she did not sleep in there instead she sto-red her new clothes and jewellery there. It was like a walk-in closet, maybe they would be discussing wedding plans and grandchildren names. It is sad that I want to put sand sand inside their garri.
“Mesoma, do you want to talk outside for a minute?” Afam asked and I looked at him.
Honestly, I wanted to have this conversation and actually get to know what kind of man he was because it would really help the plan that was forming in my head.
I stood up to follow him out and I can swear that I heard Tobe mutter “What the fu-ck ?!”
Well, Tobe darling, I am thinking exactly the same thing, but don’t worry, I would definitely get out of this, I cannot become Mrs Mmesoma Chibueze.
Afam and I stepped out of the house and settled down in the gazebo. For the first 5 minutes, no one said anything so I simply enjoyed the breeze, wondering if our mothers were watching us. I knew that Ezinne was definitely watching us, she must have listened to the conversation in the parlor.
“So, what do you intend to do for a living after graduation?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t know yet, I have a number of plans though”, I said with a shrug.
“That is interesting and a conversation for another time. Now though, I must say that I am glad we all agree that this marriage would be ideal for everyone, especially your family”, he said calmly.
I took a de-eper breath as I prepared to reveal something that would definitely change everything.
“Afam, I do not have anything against marrying you, but I believe you should know something very important”, I began. I was really afraid.
“What is it?” he asked, looking irritated.
“I am HIV positive”
Tbc…