The Puzzle – Episode 1
By Moyoso-re Teniola
THE EVANS
It’s 7:00am on a cold Saturday morning. It just rained, the weather is so cool that one may not want to get out of be-d easily. The environment is quiet and still as if all the inhabitants of the estate had travelled. It is a small estate mostly occu-pied by the academic staff of a Federal Government University in the city. Some of the houses are also owned by a few bank workers and entrepreneurs who could be considered successful in their businesses.
The Evans’ flat is just right in the middle of the estate . One could easily identify theirs because Roseline Evans is a lover of flowers. As busy as her schedule is, she still devotes her weekends to watering and trimming the beautiful flowers she had earlier planted at the front of their flat. The flowers which are of various colours pres£nt a row of plea-sant array, a beautiful sight to behold, thereby ma-king their own flat distinguishable from the rest.
Roseline sat at the edge of their matrimonial be-d with her head bowed, her f!ngerslocked into one another. Slowly, she raised her head and stared into space, not looking at anything specific, she had a far away look in her eyes. David turned in his sleep, then opened his eyes lazily. The light from the slightly opened curtain of the room caught his eyes and he quic-kly shut them, wishing he didn’t open them in the first place
. Then he thought he just saw a figure seated at the edge of the be-d. He opened those unwilling eyes again, then sat up reluctantly when he fully realised it was his wife of course but he was surprised because even though Roseline was an early riser, she usually stay in be-d on Saturday mornings till around 8:00am. That is because she wakes up early on week days and goes to be-d late, so she takes her time to rest well on weekends.
“But why is she awake alre-ady?” David thought to himself. He yawned and said, “hello Rose, how was your night? I hope you are alright?” He was about lying down on the be-d again. Roseline gave no response. She only stood up and started pacing. She walked the length and bre-adth of the big be-droom, ignoring her husband. David being a man of few words simply got up and stood before his wife. “What is it Rose?” He gently asked.
. He is not the type that uses endearments for his wife. He simply calls her Rose except for whenever he was angry, he would say Roseline! And immediately the wife would know that trouble was brewing.
Roseline whirled around to face her husband. She gave him a pene-trating look as if she was searching throu-gh his thoughts… “Yes, Honey, don’t you have something to say?” She asked.
David was a bit confused. “Something to say like? I don’t un-derstand Rose, I was the one asking you why you are up so early with this agitated look in your eyes.”
Rose gazed into her beloved husband’s eyes and after some seconds, spat out the few words David had always dre-aded in their marriage. “It’s my birthday David and you have forgotten again, just as usual!” She threw up both of her hands and dropped them immediately as if she had surrendered to fate.
“Gush! I did it again, I am so…” David started but was interrupted by his wife. “Never mind, I have gotten used to it,” she lied. Even though in her mind, she never got used to it, she felt hurt each time it happened and really wished her husband turned a new leaf.
She left a confused David in the room and strolled throu-gh the hallway that leads to the sitting room. A few drop of tears escaped from her eyes. “When will this man change? Oh God!” She cried…
The Puzzle
By Moyoso-re Teniola
Episode 2
HUBBY’S BACKGROUND
“Happy birthday Mommy! Happy birthday Mommy!” Debbie screamed as she sighted her Mum entering the sitting room
“Oh Angel! You are up alre-ady?” Roseline sounded surprised, she quic-kly wiped her tears. She is such an emotional being.
“Oh yeah, Mom. I decided to be the second person to wish you a happy birthday after Dad,” she said in a sing-song voice, then pres£nted a little piece of cardboard to her Mum . It was a small greeting card which she had made herself for her mother’s birthday. The words were simple but lovely.
“Happy birthday to the best Mommy in the world, your dear daughter loves you!”
“Oh Debbie, this is so cute! Who taught you how to make a greeting card?”
“I’m glad you like it mum, we did it at school. Our Creative Arts teacher taught us and she also helped out with this very one.”
“That’s so sweet of her” Roseline replied gleefully, momentarily forgetting her nonchalant husband. “God bless you my sweetheart.” She hvgged her daughter, and felt so happy to be a mother especially to a lovely girl like Debbie.
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David Evans is a good husband but a very boring one. He is a godly man, a practising Christian but he is not ro-mantic in anyway
. He is one of those men that grew up in a home where everything is just business as usual, no extra fun activities. He was raised in the slums. His parents were illiterates but they placed so much value on education that they spent nearly all they had to ensure that all their children went to school despite the fact that they were poor.
Being the first born, he has four younger siblings, two girls and two boys meaning they are five in all. Their parents were farmers who depend on profits made from the proceeds of their farm for daily survival. Their mother took food items such as vegetables, tomatoes, oranges, potatoes, etc (in accordance with their seasons) to the daily evening market near their home. Their father did bricklaying as a p@rt-time job during the time of the year when farmers are considered to be less busy.
. The children helped with hawking food items after school hours. Such things as extra or pri-vate lessons were luxuries which their parents could not afford. They only manage to re-ad a little with their keros£ne lantern inside their one room and a parlour ap@rtment in the evenings before dosing off…
Theirs was the type of family in which such things as birthdays or wedding anniversary were never observed or celebr@ted. Most times, they don’t even remember their birth d@t£s not to talk of celebr@ting it. To them, they are just like any other days.
They do not have the time and resources to go on family picnics either. David in his childhood days never went to a fast food, neither is he used to places like the Zoo, Amusement Parks, recreational gardens, pool side and so on.
So, whether it was Easter, Christmas or New year, they spent it in their house, after they might have killed a big local chicken (all they could afford) or they go visiting friends and families. Asides that, no more, no less.
In David’s home, mother is mother and father is father, no such words as mom or dad. Mother simply called her husband, Baba David (David’s Father), while Father calls his wife Iya David (David’s mother) and that was all. No endearments!
You may say they are uncivilized but they love one other only that they don’t practise any form of open show of love. The parents don’t hold or hvg each other… Maybe they only t©uçh each other whenever they were re-ady for S-x.
So because David was used to such a life where r0m@nç£wasn’t practised in broad daylight, when she married Rose, he brou-ght in the same model he knew best – ‘his father’ such that in the second year of their marriage, Roseline was nearly choked up by this boring and unro-mantic husband of hers…
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So, what do we think? It is clear that David is a nice person, he is only living the kind of life he was used to.
Is this supposed to be an issue?