MY DAUGHTER MY WIFE
Episode 21
It’s been over a week since Madonna left my house, and I didn’t get to hear from her as I imagined I would.
Chuks had been doing everything to ensure that I wasn’t lonely or had the time to think about some of the things he knew would worry me, but I had already made up my mind never to get hurt again.
Sola had become our mutual friend, so most times, the three of us hung out, talking about general stuffs and joking about so many other things.
On one of those days, Sola had told a story about how she had lost her entire savings to a man whom she thought she was engaged to, and got us all emotional.
From what she told us, they were engaged to be married a few months later, and she had agreed to his pressure of transferring everything she had into a joint account to enable them plan their wedding.
“But wait a minute Sola, in the part of the world where we come from, isn’t the man saddled with the responsibility of taking a wife and bearing the cost of whatever it takes to make the ceremony hold?
“Are two of you expected to co-fund the wedding? Because I don’t understand why you saw it imperative to send all your money towards funding a wedding where a man is meant to be the head” Chuks had asked, and I couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“You’re right Chuks, because from the little I know about your people, a man who intends to marry a woman, has to prepare fully because he who wants to be the head, must take the paddle even before the boat is made to begin it’s journey of oaring through the water
“It is not totally different here as well. A Yoruba man also takes pride in ensuring that the woman he brings to his house remains his wife, and not his business partner” I concurred.
“That’s true Andy. I knew he was meant to do what he had to do to get us married, but I also knew I was earning far better than him, and he wasn’t very confident as a man, plus there was no way his little savings was going to get us married, then I saw the need to give him a bokst.
“So the idea of the joint account was to create a financial pool for us, where either of us could draw from, without feeling lesser or greater.
“I loved him so much, and at that time, I felt I wouldn’t be able to survive for a day without him because he was my first and all.
“So even when I saw the signs of insecurities in him, when I noticed he was getting distant from me over time, I just didn’t want to give up because I believed things would change as soon as we got married, and I make him see how loyal and submissive I can be to him, even with my money.
.
“There were times iu even suspected he was having a thing with the girl he later married, but I just didn’t want to dig deep.
“I felt if I pressed a fleshy part of a human body too deeply, I would meet a bone, and I wasn’t prepared to see anything that could take me away from Biodun, so I chose to look the other way.
“Alas, that which I tried to run away from still found me! It was just like seeing a clay pot cracking so bãdly, and you keep patching it, hoping it would somehow magically get okay and hold water.
“You waste so much of the extra clay you could have used to make a new one, to try to patch that old one, only to still find it broken and totally out of use!
“Biodun dealt me a terrible blow with what he did, because not only did he break my heart, he broke my bank and made me start like a pauper again.
“It would have been a little less painful if Biodun hadn’t married that girl right in our neighbourhood and got people systematically mocking me and practically making a joke of my devotion to him, but I chose to see the positive side.
“It was a good thing that Biodun left me to be with someone he didn’t have to always be in competition with, because rather than try to complement me, Biodun was in a covert competition with me, always trying to bring me down, to ensure he was above, rather than strive to get better and rise above where I was.
“And that wasn’t what I needed. It’s not what I need as someone who wants to make a mark in the sands of the, while keeping my family where it should be, my priority!” Sola told us, making Chuks and I nearly cry, thinking about how some men make women see all men as scûms.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t end up with him Sola, you’d have ended up sending gold right into the hands of carpenter.
“Yes! You would have had a carpenter who knows nothing about how a gold should be treated or used have to keep it and that would have been tantamount to abûse” I said and they both agreed with me.
“Well, that good is better off left beneath the earth than getting exhumed only for the wrong hands to waste it” Sola said, her face mirroring her pains. We had to talk for so long, trying to make her see how everything that happens in life is for a reason.
When we left that bar we had gone to that day, Sola was feeling much better, and I could see that she felt lighter.
She drive out first, and because I hadn’t come out with my car, Chuks had to send me home before going home, himself.
Chuks told me as we drove in his car towards my house that he felt so bãd that he had also judged Sola so harshly before.
“It’s true Chuks, we often judge people so quickly, and conclude so easily over someone’s case because it’s convenient for us to do.
“And that’s why even as humans we find it so easy to complain about how someone has done something and why the person should have done it the other way, just because we’re not the ones wearing the shoes.
“I know how I’d have reacted to the story of a man impregnating and marrying his step daughter, but since I was the one wearing the shoes, I felt my actions were justifiable, and even up till the moment that girl took a walk, I still didn’t see anything wrong with a man keeping a girl for a wife, when her mother had been in his bed for years. That’s humans for you!” I told my friend.
We sat in his car at the entrance of my house and had some moments of talk, then he asked me the question.
“Andy, back in the States, did you truly kiss Sola?” Chuks asked, looking too serious for my understanding.
“Yes, why? You want to kiss her too?” I asked, trying to make a joke out of it.
“Yes Andy, I want to kiss her. I like that lady a whole lot, and I’ve been doing everything I can to get close to her, even before you two travelled.
“I gave up because she made it clear that she wasn’t ever going to give any man a chance to get close to her again, and I was even beginning t imagine that she may like girls, you know what I mean!
“But now that she has become this free around me, now that she is so accessible and ready to mingle with me, I was thinking, would you be màd if I asked her to be my girlfriend?” he asked me.
“Erm Chuks. I really did like her a lot and kissed her because I wanted her to want me the way I did back then.
“As a matter of fact, after I returned to Nigeria, I was wondering how I was going to keep seeing her face everyday in the office without desiring to kiss her again.
“But after all you told me about you and Madonna, after all I went through in the hands of Madonna, I don’t know, but I kinda developed cold feet towards getting intimately involved with anyone again.
“So if you’re asking to know whether I’m still interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with her, then the answer is no.
“I prefer to be alone than to get involved with another woman again. Another heart break may shatter this pōor heart of mine forever.
“Plus, I think being just friends with Sola like we are now, would be more rewarding than getting too close for comfort.
“So Chuks, you go ahead and tell her how you feel because whatever I felt for her back then, has somehow been relegated to a state of no relevance.
“When I’m ready, I’m going to opt for adoption. I won’t try to raise a child with the hope of it being mine, only to have my hopes thwarted again along the line” I told Chuks
He gave me a big hug and asked me to wish him luck, because he was going to ask Sola to be his girlfriend the next day.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Tales by Eve backup
*TO BE CONTINUED
