Øgbanjé. Part 6
The first night after we returned Obiageli back to the orphanage, my husband and I slept like babies.
We wrapped ourselves together like teenage lovers. The night was peaceful and calm.
I woke up early the next morning to prepare breakfast and get husband’s clothes ready for him.
We ate breakfast together on the dining table.
“Have a beautiful day honey”. My husband said.
“You too”. I responded. My husband kissed me on my cheeks and we bade each other good-bye.
My husband drove in two hours later. I was shocked when I heard the sound of his car. I rushed outside to meet him.
The look on his face was gloomy. He was groggy.
“What happened?”. I asked.
My husband didn’t say anything to me. He walked past me and went into the house.
With my mouth wide open, I followed him. My husband sat on the bare floor in the living room. His suitcase was discarded on the floor.
I knew the situation was critical. I broke into tears.
“Obim! Ogini? Talk to your wife, what’s the problem?”. I asked trembling.
“I was told my services were no longer needed”. My husband said. He tried to control the tears from running down his cheeks but the tears were adamant.
“Chimoooo! Why? What went wrong?”. I asked.
“No explanations. When I insisted on meeting directly with the CEO, they called the security on me”. My husband said. I could feel the pain in his voice.
“The dèvil is a liar”. I said.
“I have worked with this company for 10yrs now. I have never gotten a query. I got double promotions a month ago. I am so close on becoming the managing director. How could they do this to me?”. My husband lamented bitterly.
I sat close to him on the floor. I placed my hands on his legs.
“Obim, God will take control. You and I know this thing is not ordinary. They can only try, we’ll overcome”. I said.
My husband didn’t say anything again. After a while, he stood up and left for the bedroom. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep.
I prayed for a while before entering the kitchen to prepare my husband’s favorite meal inorder to make him cheer up.
I served him the food when he woke up but he refused to take as little as a bite. I kept petting him like a baby to please taste the food.
He finally took a Chunk of meat from the bitter leaf soup.
He was still chewing the meat when his uncle’s call came in.
“Chukwudi, there’s fire on the mountain”. His uncle said with a trembling voice.
My husband stood up immediately.
“Ogini? What’s going on?”. He asked with his eyes wide opened.
“Your building in the village collapsed. Four people are already confirmed dèad while five more people are still trapped in it”. His uncle broke the news.
My husband almost ran màd. I was the one that held him down if not, he wanted to run into the streets of Lagos.
I placed some calls to his family. Some hours later, two of his siblings came to the house.
The next day, we travelled down to the village to see things for ourselves. Truly, the house was gone. Two out of the five people trapped in the building dîed. Making the number of people who lost their lîves 6. The remaining 3 were badly injured. One of the victim’s leg was even amputated.
No one was able to pin point the actual cause of the collapse. We built the house in such a way that there was 3 flats for tenants.
My husband was inconsolable. I was also hurt but I needed to be strong for my husband.
We spent a week in the village before we travelled back to Lagos.
On our way to Lagos, we got another call that our compound was on fire. I fainted immediately.
I woke up in the hospital.
I was told that not a single thing was spared in the compound. I insisted on seeing it for myself.
Truly when I got to the compound, I fell to the ground. Everything was completely burnt Into ashes.
I cried and cried and cried.
My husband was a complete shadow of himself. Everything we worked so hard for were going down the drain. “How pathetic and painful”.
We squatted with my brother in-law for two months before we could rent another apartment.
We bought everything again from scratch. From bed down to plate and spoons.
The experience is something I don’t wish for my enemy.
My husband decided to sell off his car so that he could add the proceeds to his savings and start up a business.
He did just that.
He opened a spare parts shop.
Business was slow at first but it started picking up after a while.
One morning, my husband went to the shop and discovered that thieves broke into his shop. They completely swept the whole shop. Not a single pin was found in the shop.
My husband landed in the hospital.
To be continued.
Written by Judith Onyoyibo
