THE TRAGEDY!
Episode 17
When I got to the be-droom, Miebaka was alre-ady awake. He had not seen me beside him.
Me:”Look what I saw” I handed him the letter, waiting for explanations.
Miebaka:”Where did you find this” he asked, looking as shocked as I was
Me:”Beneath the door. I heard a knock so i went to check but no one was there”
Miebaka:”What were you thinking going there all by yourself? What if you were killed? plea-se don’t do that again, honey. If such occurs again just wake me up…”
Me:”I am sorry. i felt u nee-ded to rest. But who could have written this? Do you have anyone in mind? ”
Miebaka:”Honestly I can’t guess” he said to me
“Or could it be Ope?” He asked
Me:”Who is Ope?”
…………………………………….
He had told me the story of his second girlfriend. After he left Hajiya Badmus’ ap@rtment he had met Ope, a First Bank staff, about nine years older than him. According to him, Ope provided everything he nee-ded, she made sure he was comfortable and showed him so much love. But each time they made love, she would cry bitterly because he only mentioned my name.
Even though he would apologize afterwards, she would always threaten to destroy our relationsh!pif it ever worked between us. He had called her to say it was over the day he found me.
Miebaka:”She threatened to come and poison your mind after I told her I had found my love.i thought she would un-derstand” he said After his explanations I told him what he had done was wrong; if I were the one who was treated that way, I would have made the same threats. “But can she really go this far?” I asked Miebaka
Miebaka:”Human beings are unpredictable” he replied
We were becoming very conscious of our environment and the people we let into our lives. The Marriage Counsellor had advised us not to involve the police; he had told us to pray about it and all will be fine. We let go by believing him
Few days later, Miebaka got the same kind of letter on his desk at work. He had st©pped by the police station to make a report on his way home. He as-sured me that everything would be fine as he had told the police everything about his ex girlfriend, Ope and the strange letters.
…………………………..
Few weeks to our wedding, I had lost so much weight from the ups and downs; I never knew that preparing for a wedding was that demanding- maybe because I had no family. The Marriage Counsellor’s wife and the wives of Miebaka’s colleagues helped me out with few things. I had insisted I would rent the wedding go-wn instead of buying. ..everything fell in place just as I expected.
==
Meanwhile Miebaka had informed the police about our doubts regarding the safety of lives during the wedding. I advised him to at least inform Mr.David, his father, that he was getting married but he warned me not to mention the name again and that Mr.David seized to be his father the day he R@p£d me.
The church looked so colourful, as I walked down the Isle, I remembered Papa and Mama, I cried like a baby. I was sad, who could have thought I would have had that kind of elaborate wedding? Miebaka was indeed a good person; almost everyone showed up for our wedding. The old couple in church acted as Miebaka’s parents while Pastor walked me down.
At the end of the church wedding was the reception. I was the happiest woman on earth; my husband whispered so many ro-mantic words into my ears as tears of joy rolled down my eyes while we danced. Wiping my tears, he encouraged me to be strong and that everything was going to be fine in the end. I was really tired, I told him to inform the MC to make the event quic-k but Miebaka begged for few more moments
“This is our first slow dance you know” he whispered into my ears. I smiled as tears ruined my make up.
We held each other so ti-ght as the “Oruka” song kept pla-ying repeatedly, it was my favorite since Sunny Neji re-leased his albu-m. Our slow and soft ro-mantic moment was interrupted when the song abruptly went off.
We both looked behind, and to our greatest surprise, a dark skinned young lady, in her late thirties or so, was with us on stage, holding the microphone. I saw my husband looking at her with his mouth wi-de open…I was confused too
Lady:”Good afternoon everyone. My name is Ope and I am supposed to be wearing the go-wn this pr©st!tût£is wearing” she pointed at me, staggering with a bottle of alcohol in her left hand
Miebaka:”Ope! Ope! What is wrong with you? What are you doing?” He left me to walk to her.
I held him back, I was scared of what might happen
Me:”Sweety, you might not know if she’s armed or if she has plans. Let’s get out of here. The security officials will handle it” I whispered to him
Miebaka:”Did you hear what she just called you? I can’t take this!” He went to her and dragged the microphone from her hand
Before we knew it, the stage was filled with young men, trying to take her out of the stage. I was embarras-sed, the crowd was whispering; I knew they were gossiping about us. My husband too was furious
Miebaka:”What is the ess£nce of giving the police money when they won’t do their jobs? Nons-en-se! ” he cursed as he walked to me. “Imagine if she was armed, this is how she would have killed us, free of charge! ” he looked towards the direction where Ope was being carried out
“I am so sorry for this embarras-sment. This was supposed to be our happiest day. I am sorry my darling. I will make it up to you” he hvgged me
The MC went back on stage, apologised to the guests and announced that everything should go back to normal. I had not recovered from the embarras-sment, didn’t want the crowd to know I was affected by it, so I pretended and danced like never before…the guests, impressed, stood up and applauded me. Then c@m£ another drama, Ope was back into the hall, this time running and holding a knife towards my husband, like an athlete about to throw the javelin, was this lady so invisible that no one saw her coming?
The few guests who had seen her were finding their way out, I ran to her, my dress sweeping the floor, held her hand and began to give her the beating of her life. I made sure I pinned her to the ground. I could hear Miebaka and other men trying to drag me off her, I managed to take the knife out of her hand, and as they finally pu-ll-ed me off her, she stood up to retaliate. ..then we heard several gun sh0ts from nowhere.
Standing directly opposite me, Ope had received two bullets on her head and fell like a log of wood. I went down immediately, Miebaka, on the floor, dragged me un-der one of the tables on the high table. I could feel the friction bruising my legs, but what mattered most was my life. I heard people running and screaming for help, the sh0ts kept coming, and in one minute, the hall that was filled with people and voices went mute.
We la-id un-der the table in fear until we heard the police siren very close, we knew the police had arrived. Miebaka instructed me to remain un-der the table while he got out to see what was happening. I peeped, the whole hall was empty, with Ope’s b©dy lying on the floor. The police had taken her b©dy and asked us to accompany them to the station.
With my dress looking very dirty and ripped, Miebaka led me into the station. We were asked so many questions and later allowed to leave after we explained in detail the occurrence of the events. On our way home, Miebaka cracked jokes about how he had seen the pastor running for his life when the sh0ts were coming
Me:”Oh because you believe he’s a man of God you expect him not to run when there’s danger?” I laughed
Miebaka:”Yes now. A whole pastor running away” haha haha. “Naija pastors no dey carry last” he laughed more
We got home and went back to our previous mood. We could not explain what had happened at our wedding, but we knew there was a mix up somewhere. I left my husband in the living room, and headed straight to my room to have a cold shower.
“Honeymoon indeed” I said to myself
Before the wedding, I had imagined our honeymoon.I had told him I didn’t want to go out of the city; I pictured a honeymoon where we would visit new places in town and still return same day.
After having a long cold bath, I looked at my dressing table, in search of my weavon brush and then I saw a small note,
“Shiber yogurt. That was a narrow escape. Next time, my boys won’t miss…”
Me:”Alhaji!” I mentioned in shock
Miebaka:”What about him?” He asked, standing by the door
Me:”Nothing sweety. I just remembered something funny about him” I lied
I quic-kly folded the piece of paper and put it in my drawer.
Hmmmm!
To be continued!
QUESTIONS
Will Alhaji succeed in destroying Shiber’s marriage? Will Miebaka find out that Alhaji is responsible for the threats? Why is Shiber not telling her husband that Alhaji is behind the threats?
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