UNMARRIED AT THIRTY
EP 7
After much begging, Tolu was ready to forgive him, from his explanation, she kind of understood him but when Titi slammed her for trying to turn her unborn baby into a fatherless child. Toluwani decided to licked her wound and let him go. Kolawale never accepted the child, it was tears, and sorrow for the three of them. When the baby was born, Kolawale had taken him away from her to his mother and adamantly refused to married her even though it was impossible to go back to Toluwani. He only accepted the baby after he born born and persuaded by the family. “It not a must to marry the lady but your child is innocent” Kolawale’s mother had advised him.
As Toluwani reminisced about this ugly past, rivers of tears streamed down her face. This fatal experience had contributed to her been unmarried today. After Kolawale, she had dated more than 5 Men but all of them were discarded before the relationship could lead anywhere. Kolawale had eaten deep into her brain that she sketched the picture of every man that came her way as Kolawale. After Kolawale, she had only had one relationship that lasted six months with two times intimacy.
When Mr Joseph made known his intentions to see her parents, Toluwani’s inexplicable peevish attitude made him reconsidered. She constantly compared him to Kolawale.
That was years ago, right now the society and the people around her are pushing her to the verge of collapsing. She became irritably sensitive to every single words people made about her. Toluwani wasn’t a maladroit type despite her size, she was always up and doing as a person but it seems like the society had closed its fairness towards her good sides unless her been unmarried.
“What is it to anyone if I’m clumsy, unmarried at 34 or 50. They don’t feed me, moreover everyone can’t get married at once” Toluwani had told herself one afternoon after returning back from the church. At the church the preacher had asked for a special seed sowing from those who want a miraculous marriage.
“Mummy, James said he was to marry me but i don’t want to get married ever” the tiny voice of a little girl of about eight years who sat besides her mother echoed. Toluwani heard her, she was shocked to hear a little girl talking with so much certainty about not wanting to get married. She had initially wanted to go out to sow the seed of miraculous husband but stopped after hearing that from the child. What struck her wasn’t the girl’s unwillingness to get married but the realizations that aside marriage, they’re more things a woman can be proud of in the society.
When she returned back from church service, around 4pm she changed into a white short and a simple polo shirts.
“I’m taking myself to the beach today” she told herself.
She entered her car and headed out. At the gate, the security guard, a young man of over thirty years neatly dressed in his navy blue uniforms saluted Tolu. Mr Yinka was a university dropout due to financial constraints when he lost his only surviving parents to kidney failure after spending everything he had on the prior treatment.
That was a year and a half ago. He used to work as a security guard at Toluwani’s office where he was paid thirty-three thousand naira.
It was his neatness that caught the attention of Tolu about six months ago. She had employed him as her gateman with a 45 thousand naira salary. He accepted the offer considering the salary difference and the fact that they would be less work in a single woman’s house.
“Good afternoon ma” he greeted as he opened the gate. Toluwani wound down his glass and had a little conversation with him. “Happy Sunday Mr Yinka. How are you?”. “I’m fine ma thank you”. She was about accelerating when an idea struck her. Going to the beach alone wouldn’t be very enjoyable, she needed to take pictures for memory sake. Last month she had mistakenly broken her snapping stick. “Mr Yinka, are you busy?”. “Hmm not exactly ma, do you want me to do something for you?”. “Yes, I’m going to the beach and i broke my snapping stick, I’m thinking if you don’t mind, you can come with me to assist me with taking pictures”. Yinka though wasn’t expecting something like that agreed anyway. He quickly changed into a suitable clothes and they zoomed off.
At the T-junction around Ahmadu Bello way, two irrational drivers were at a scuffs with each other.
“Oloriburuku, na crazy man you be” one of the driver spouted.
“Na Igbo wey you dey smoke dey worry you, idiot” the other snorted.
They rained abusive words at each other. The pim pom of different horns boomed everywhere as the two kanterkerous taxi and korokpe(small bus) drivers threw punches at each other forgetting they had blocked the road. Within few minutes, flies of cars lined ahead hooting loudly but those two men seems to have lost their senses.
Yinka wasn’t a small man, he had a good body built, he doesn’t look like someone to be easily bullied. He came down and approached the two arrogant men. This time ten’s of people have came down already demanding they stopped fighting and at least clear from the road first. “Clear well from the road first so that others can use the road too” Yinka said loudly amist the noise but no one paid heed to him. As he tried to separate them, one of the troublemaker slapped him hard on his head, he staggered and almost fell. His eye turned he, he felt sharp pains in his brain. When Toluwani saw what happened, she felt bad, she alighted heading towards them but what she saw next was unexpected. Yinka turned around and found the person that slapped him, he gave him an unapologetic slap, the man fell down holding his ears. “You entered your car and move it before i descend on you” Yinka
TBC.
I’m Victor Achegbulu Oinu
ยฉ Oinu 2023
****** The first step to happiness or a fulfilled life is to understand that sadness is not a curse, it’s part of life.
The second step is to accept your mistakes, accept your present and agree with your past then keep moving ahead.
