Marital Vice – Episode 10
The tension burning in the car was beginning to consume Lydia as she glanced over at Tolu who took a quick swerve and headed to the busy street fully focused on his driving. He hadn’t given her so much as a single glance since they took off from his mum’s after the latter had insisted he dropped her off at home.
His cold attitude now was a source of concern to her as she wasn’t even sure he meant anything he said to his mother earlier. He could just be playing them both to get his mother off of his family.
Clearing her throat, she broke into a series of coughing to get him to look at her but got nothing. He didn’t so much as blink and just kept driving so she continued coughing until she nearly coughed up her lungs and puke her insides out before he finally looked over at her,
“What is wrong with you?” He yelled at her and slammed his palms on the steering wheel.
Lydia sat back and got a hold of herself beating her left hand over her chest in a bid to calm her coughs,
“I’m a little sick,” she told him choking gently.
Tolu looked at her, hesitant on whether to believe her or not before reaching for a bottle of water beside him and holding it out to her without saying anything else. She could be a great actress and he wasn’t ready to act by her script.
“Thank you,” Lydia muttered and took the bottle from him to take a sip still coughing gently in between.
The silence and coldness then returned with both of them looking away from the other. Unable to stand it any longer, Lydia finally burst out,
“Why are you being this way? Do you think I’m an idiot that can be fooled by your perfect acting of prodigal son?” She said in a fury making Tolu cast a quick glance at her and then smirk,
“Why? You didn’t buy what just played out this afternoon?” He asked her in a mock tone.
“So it was indeed acting? Telling your mother you were sorry for making her stressed up because of you,” Lydia asked him in disbelief and shook her head when he said nothing to her, affirming her prenotion, “You are so unbelievable. To think that I believed your promise to take responsibility of me for one moment,” The same gullibility that had gotten her pregnant was what she found herself drowning in all over again.
“You should still have believed,” Tolu said quietly.
“What? Did you mean it?” Lydia asked him impatiently wanting him to tell her to her face that he was ready to have a family with her. That was all she wanted from him right from the day she had met him at the bar with Kay, his friend. He had fit perfectly into the portrait she had mentally painted for a husband and she had threw herself at him without blinking about what she was heading for.
Tolu nodded and remained silent all through the rest of the drive. He had reached a resolution and he was going to do it this way.
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Tolu turned off the car’s ignition leaving the fm radio to be the only source of life in the vehicle as Timberlands’ apologize was playing on the DJ’s spin on City 105.1 fm which he had the radio tuned to.
He didn’t know whether or not to go into the house as he saw the his wristwatch tick ten p.m. He had only just left his mothers’ after feeling the necessity to sort things out with her. She was right in saying he had a responsibility to fulfill over Lydia even though whatever they shared was purely a mistake. One he regretted deeply and wished could wash away but unfortunately never would.
Now that his mother was not addressing him as an invalid son any longer because he showed up just as she wished, he was feeling really hesitant to walk into the house. That was purely because of his altercation with Deola the previous night. He didn’t know how he was going to face her and tell her it was all because of his state of mind. But her words were indeed provoking and though he regretted it leading to him slapping her, he couldn’t put aside the fact that their differences were becoming much more obvious. So much for the ‘wife material’ lecture Tayo had given him. He only felt trapped now.
He suddenly heard hard taps on the car window making him raise his head from the seat headrest, cursing whosoever it was that chose that time to cut in his meditation. Tuning down the volume of the radio, he wound the window down to know see the person’s face,
“Baba Niyi, I hope all is well,” It was Baba Sade, the next door neighbor that was the violator of his peace. The man who was with his shirt off and had his last child hung across his shoulder, stood there smiling with a seeming look of concern on his face.
“All was well until you intruded my peace,” Tolu nearly barked at him as he flung the car door open and stormed off cursing as he went.
“Ahn….ahn! For what reason are you yelling now? I was only checking if you were still alive shut up in your car,” Baba Niyi called after him. He wasn’t going to let a young ‘boy’ like that insult him.
He had always been looking forward to an occasion where he would get to speak to Tolu and get to know more about who he was but this scene showed him that his hopes had been for nothing and Tolu was just as his wife painted him-A silent killer, she had said and he was more tempted to believe her now. He only pitied the young lady that was married to him. If her husband couldn’t control his temper with an outsider then he wondered how he was going to do that with his wife.
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“Daddy, I can write 2”, Niyi said excitedly holding up a pencil and a notebook to his dad where he had scribbled all over the whole page hanging open.
Tolu nodded at him and wiped his face of the dripping water with the towel over his shoulder. Immediately he had walked in that night, he had gone straight to the bathroom ignoring his son’s continuous chants of ‘Daddy’ and avoiding Deola. He was not ready to take responsibility for his action with her yet and couldn’t stand looking at her lest apologizing.
“Niyi, come in to sleep. It’s late and you’re going to school tomorrow. I also have an appointment and don’t want to be late so hop hop into the bedroom,” Deola said walking out of the kitchen and Tolu turned slowly to look at her.
Niyi looked up at his father expecting him to say something to buy him some more time to spend with him. Tolu smiled at his son and told him to go in to sleep since it was way past his bedtime.
It felt awkward the minute Niyi went into the room leaving him standing almost opposite Deola especially when she smiled and told him his food was served on the dining table and it was running cold. He looked over at the set table and was tempted to say something but held it in, proceeding to the dining table.
He was about opening the dish when he turned around abruptly and his eyes met hers with her still standing there and not taking her eyes off of him. Like she was waiting for something to happen.
“Thanks,” he muttered slowly expecting it to have a magic effect on her and make her leave. He was feeling terrible enough as it was.
Deola nodded not taking a step away making Tolu more uncomfortable. He should definitely be uneasy for having guts to want to eat the dinner I prepared, she thought as she noticed his discomfort. If his discomfort was going to be her source of revenge on him for him now, then it was satisfying enough and she was going to enjoy it a little more.
Tolu opened the plate covering the dish with ewedu soup and a couple of meats and reached for the water in the bowl beside it to rinse his hand and settle to his meal of Semolina and ewedu soup. He still felt Deola’s eyes on him but this time she was turning to leave for the bedroom already. He had taken up a morsel and dipped it into the soup about to put it into his mouth when he threw it back into the plate abruptly.
Deola turned around hearing the clatter of the plate which Tolu pushed aside with a look of surprise on her face.
“What did you put in it?!” Tolu shot at her making her take a few steps back, unsure she heard him right.
“What?” She asked flabbergasted.
“Stop acting like some saint, Deola. If you planned on getting your pound of flesh by poisoning the food then try harder,” he ranted on.
“Wow! You’ve really lost it,” Deola shook her and hissed. She was in no mood to listen to gibberish from him. Her mother had made her promise when she was leaving never to let things get out of hands and to tackle the worst with calmness. She had broken that promise once and wasn’t in for the same mistake again. She might end up with a scar on her face if she stood there as she wasn’t sure what next her anger and frustration might cause her to say. She had turned back into the bedroom when she heard Tolu pick up his car keys and storm out of the house banging the door behind him.
“What is all these madness about?” She yelled angrily at no one in particular but only got an engine start for a reply.
“Mummy, Sonia is crying,” Niyi called her attention to the baby who was crying at the top of her voice. She had probably woken half the neighborhood with her screams.
Deola looked over at the girl and hissed, ” This isn’t the future daddy always assured me of,” she said looking back at Niyi who went to pet his sister, not sure how but knowing fully that his mum wouldn’t.
… to be continued
