MY SPIRITUAL WIFE
EPISODE 5
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My father always took my stepmother’s side in a story, regardless of how hideous an act she was perpetrating.
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My stepmother had initially attempted to cook up a story but since my father didn’t let her, as such, cutting her shut before she could even complete that thought, she went all out to retort.
(I bet on a second thought, she believed she had no reason to coat words. Besides, this man is still the same man she’s known all these years na).
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“Honey! Can you imagine this useless son of yours? He urinated on my bed; my expensive bedspread this morning. As though that was not more than enough, this stupid boy washed the bedspread and left it outside for…” she charged towards me in an attempt to continue from where she’d stopped, before my father jumped in-between us. “…for sun to kill it for me.” My step mother completed.
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I stood there trembling; unsure exactly what to expect.
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Well, if I am being completely honest, I’ll tell you that I was expecting deafening slaps to rain on me, from all angles (courtesy of my father) as soon as my step mother finished her story.
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Though the old man had “charged out” upon hearing my step mother beat me earlier, countering every word she attempted to spit but I still couldn’t allow any of those to fool me.
“This man and his wife are five and six Paul. It’s a trap” I said to myself in some sought of “reality check”.
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“Okay. But you still haven’t answered my question, Ireti”. My father said, with a very straight face. “I said, what has Paul done right now to have deserved this kind of beating, even while still in his school uniform?”
“Ehn…he did not know to come back home earlier; to take my bedsheet inside the house. Was it his plan to allow my bedsheets fade from too much sun?”
“Was he not in school? You expected him to leave…”
“…but he could have been able to do that na; during one of his break times or even in the middle of whatever classes he was receiving. It’s not as if he even knows anything sef.” My step mother said, rolling her eyes. “Well, since we are on the topic, I think it is about time we start looking for other alternatives to schooling, for this foo…”
“…you think it’s about time we did what?” My father inquired, in a semi calm tone.
“I think it’s about time we looked for another alternative for this useless boy’s schooling situation, honey. He cannot be wasting our money all in the name of school fees na, and besides…”
What happened next was what even in my wildest of imaginations, I couldn’t have dared to imagine.
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Before my stepmother could finish that thought, a deafening slap have clamped her face.
It sounded more like a tire in motion had busted.
My father didn’t give my stepmother a chance to recover from that first slap before he began to rain slaps on her.
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I’d never been so terrified in my whole life.
I couldn’t believe what was playing out right in front of me.
I outrightly assumed my father must have mistook my face for my stepmother’s, hence the slap.
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My eyes were shut the whole time (out of fear).
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Slaps had been raining for quite some time now.
It was indeed a heavy rain.
It took a couple of agonizing minutes for my brain to reset.
“How could a rain be this heavy; I’d been inside it the whole time and yet, not even a single droplet have touched me?” I wondered, still with my eyes tightly shut.
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Then I decided to take a peek; to open one eye.
I did; I opened one, then the other eye to a sight that shook me to my bones.
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My father had by this time, mounted upon my stepmother, doing the unbelievable.
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By this time, my step mother’s children had run inside the room for fear of possible transferred aggression. If I knew that this beat down didn’t feature me, I was more than certain that I would have been long gone too.
I probably would have found a very nice spot under a bed to have hidden.
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My stepmother’s face became unrecognizable in just a couple of minutes.
Daddy had beaten this woman as though she was his mate.
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If she hadn’t run out of the house, I believe Daddy could have ended up doing even worse.
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My step mother sprung out of the house shouting at the top of her voice “Paul! Your own don finish for this house.”
“Ha!”
To be continued…
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Moshood Avidiime
