Marital Vice – Episode 6
Deola watched Tolu as he focused most of his attention on the laptop screen, taking note of Niyi once a while.
‘If I ask him, it would look like I’m suspecting him or something. Let me just let it be,’ she said in her subconscious but heard a countering voice shut her up,
‘And you would just make him think he can get away. You should stop being silly and ask him who the lady was,”
The inner bickering continued for a while before she finally succumbed,
“Let’s just ask,” she said to herself.
Tolu looked up at her thinking she was addressing him, “You talking to me?” He asked her.
“No, but I also wanted to ask you something else,” she told him and went to sit on the sofa directly opposite him ensuring she got an eye contact with him.
“What’s that?” He looked back down almost immediately and prayed she hadn’t figured him out. He was still yet to get a call from Tayo to help him out and couldn’t think of anything to say to her in case she found him out.
“Okay. Well, our neighbor, said some lady came here and was disturbing the compound. I wasn’t sure if she was here to see me or you so I told her that I’d ask you when you got back. Did any lady come here looking for me?” Deola asked him, carefully framing her question to avoid him suspecting she was thinking of something else.
“No. Not at all,” Tolu shook his head not taking his eyes off the screen. He was scared she might find him out if he looked at her so he acted indifferently. And who the hoot was the neighbor that was keeping watch on him? He thought to himself biting his lip.
“I also told her she was wrong. I was right, huh?” Deola asked to clarify further.
“Of course. And when did you say you were set for delivery?” Tolu changed the topic feeling uncomfortable lying to her face.
“Two to three weeks.”
“Okay then. I would need to give this living room a new face,” he nodded at her and smiled.
Deola watched him closely and could read from his face that something was not right. He was certainly not ready to share, so she would just let it play itself out like a movie.
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Mrs. Ayanlola stood by the louvre window and looked out into the night sky. It was seemingly clearer that night with more stars twinkling brightly and threatening to explode in the milky way, she thought to herself.
But that wasn’t her present source of concern. She was worried about her son. He had so headily gotten himself into a huge problem and it was all thanks to that witch he had for a wife. She hated every single thought about Adeola, his wife who she was told and believed too had bewitched her son and caged him in Lagos. The exact reason she was against his marriage to a ‘sophisticated bride’ as she termed her. But no, Tolulope would not listen and would rather live in the illusion of being in love than face reality. The girl was no good for him. Would only succeed in taking her child away from her.
But she had just been handed her weapon in form of a priceless gift that afternoon. Her gift in form of a dazzling female. Lydia, she recollected her name and smiled. Why hadn’t she come sooner? All through the months she had shut herself in, sad about her son’s withdrawal from her.
But her coming now was also just as perfect. She would finally have her own daughter in law. One backed by her. And not the sophisticated witch Tolu called a wife. Even if she hadn’t known Lydia right from the onset, she was ready to be her post and pillar against Deola. She would frustrate the silly girl out of her son’s life.
She had been way overjoyed when she told her of her relationship with Tolu and had believed her earnestly when Seyi also told her it was Kayode, Tolu’s friend that dropped her off. She couldn’t be lying and moreover she had a great talent in sniffing out liars though her judgment could be clouded because of the strong dislike she harbored against Deola but she was definitely going to use this sword really well.
“Adeola is going out of that house,” she said loudly.
“What is it now? Are you not worn out yet? Tolu isn’t coming here again because of your constant troubles and you still choose to disturb the little peace we have here,” her husband answered from the balcony where he was seated which the louvre window his wife was standing looked down into.
Tolu’s mum hissed, “If mosquitoes bite your bald head and you start shaking from malaria, just don’t bother my life then,” she told him and began shutting the louvre blades.
“You like trouble too much, this woman,” he remarked and slapped his palm across his ear to get rid of an anopheles that was threatening his blood vessels in the open air.
“You just sit there, ki*ll mosquitoes for the rest of your life while I get creative on how to help my son,” she yelled at him and turned into the rooms.
Her husband called after her, “Did he ask for that help, eh?” He yelled back but only got a slam of the bedroom door as his reply.
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Chapter four
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Deola paced the bedroom with her arms across her bosom. She breathed in rapidly from time to time and paused in her steps at times. Her unsettledness was beginning to get her friend, Chris worried.
“Deola, come on, sit,” Chris entreated her tapping the bed space beside her.
“Chris, you really expect me to sit with all these madness their shameless family is displaying. Are you kidding me?” Deola said not changing her movements.
“Pacing is not changing anything. You need to calm down,” Tina insisted.
Deola sighed and finally sat with her head buried in her palms and her feet tapping restlessly,
“Chris, I can’t calm down. Everything Tolu kept rambling about is finally becoming reality. The whole family is obviously against me and they don’t give a freaking damn whether I just went through caesarean section to have this child,” she pointed at the newborn who was staring up at the ceiling and rolling over in the shawl she was wrapped in from time to time.
“They can’t do anything. His mother will just shout and shout. Tolu won’t kick you out as she has been yelling since she got here,” Chris kept reassuring her tense friend. She now wished Deola’s mother would show up as well as her oldest brother and come clear all these up.
“You think so? They’ve got guts to come here on my baby’s naming ceremony to pledge their dislike for me. Can you believe she said my baby’s birth is a mistake she wished she had put a stop to had she known I had been pregnant? Did she plan on killing me or getting rid of my child?” Deola exclaimed her disbelief.
Just then, they heard a knock on the door of the bedroom and Chris got up to check who it was.
“What is it? Have they ended the meeting?” Chris asked the young man who was Tolu’s cousin, impatiently.
“Not really. They want to give the baby the family’s ritual tribal mark on first daughters before the ceremony. So I was told to ask Deola to bring her out,” he told her peeking in to check Deola who had stood up from the bed.
“Okay. I will tell her,” Chris told him and shut the door behind him. She turned to see her friend already carrying her baby, ” Hey, did you hear just now?” She asked thinking Deola was going out with the baby bit was surprised when her friend threw the baby on her back and reached for a couple of cloths to hold her firm there.
“Let their family’s head come here to tell me some dumb rubbish. I would then show them that I might be looking like a dumb girl but I have got real madness in me. Family tribal mark, my foot! Idiots!” She hissed loudly and knotted the wrapper tighter. She had changed her clothing earlier into jeans and t-shirt when the whole fracas had began and was now ready to show them hell if they came close to her. Her mother there on time or not.
Chris sighed and rested against the wall. Now, she had ran out of words to say to her friend. Deola was really no longer a kid to be tossed aside whenever.
… to be continued
