Marital Vice – Episode 9
Deola zipped the Mickey mouse school bag shut after throwing in a couple of books and stationery. She put the bag aside atop the school uniform on the ironing board at the corner of the room and went to check on her baby who had been moving uncomfortably on the bed and had her face in a frown now about to burst into tears,
“Hey, don’t cry, sweetheart. My Sonia is a big girl that doesn’t cry, hmm,” she said picking the baby up and checking if her diaper was wet.
“What does she want?” Tolu asked her as she finally noticed him even though he had been at the door for a few minutes, just watching her.
“I don’t know,” she said indifferently though she had cursed him under her breath for showing his face to her. They had been doing so well avoiding each other for the past few days.
“You’re taking Niyi to school?” He continued pointing at the school uniform and bag.
“He’s starting school tomorrow,” Deola simply told him, expecting him to take a walk now. She wasn’t ready for a conversation with him. Her days of yearning for him to talk to her were now over.
Tolu wasn’t ready to leave just yet. He was going to keep trying to talk to her as not having a conversation was killing their relationship,
“Which school is that? I see you’ve got a uniform for him already,” he continued moving closer to her.
Unable to take him standing close anymore, she broke through the fragile frame of anger she had been holding within her, “Stop acting like you care so much. This is no longer your family, right? So let me train my son in my own way so he doesn’t end up like his father whose mother never trained,” she spat angrily.
“What crap are you saying? Since when have you gotten the balls to insult my mother?!” He shouted back at her, angry she was choosing to deal with it this way. He had tried talking to her but she just wanted him to stay away and now she was turning it back to his mother. His mum was wrong but Deola lacked guts to insult her this way.
“Wow, so what? Did I say something wrong? Did your mother train you? Or she very well taught you how to be a son of a bi-tch?!” Deola yelled back holding her baby tight.
Tolu then inched forward, totally angry and not really knowing what got over him and landed a resounding slap across her left cheek. He had slapped her already before staggering back, more mad at himself for being an id-iot and hitting her even with the little girl in her hands.
” You are nothing more than an animal and I hate you,” Deola burst out as the baby began crying aloud, kicking as she kept crying making Niyi stir in his sleep and also join his sister, crying.
Tolu looked from the baby to Niyi and back at Deola who though had tears in her eyes was only staring back at him, defiant but weak also. He felt a rush of overwhelming guilt and stormed out of the bedroom. The last Deola heard was him kick start his car and zoom out. She then put the baby beside her brother and sat there on the floor, her face flooded with tears.
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Chapter six
“Good evening, sir,” Lydia greeted kneeling in front of Tolu’s father. She wanted to be in his good terms and had been left to the task by her ‘mother in-law’ who simply looked away when her husband failed to respond to Lydia’s greeting.
Lydia knew the man didn’t exactly like her and he wasn’t going to accept her overnight but she could only try so she said again, “Good evening sir,” she said the greeting with more emphasis and louder to push aside the excuse of her being inaudible.
Tolu’s father looked at her with a frown of disgust and stood up from the sofa. If he wasn’t there in the first place, she wouldn’t have guts to greet him.
“She has been greeting you since but you would rather watch a pregnant lady kneeling in discomfort other than to smile and put her mind at rest,” his wife said now and hissed.
“What sort of greeting would that be, huh? Should I pull her in for a hug for feigning respect? Sometimes, I wonder where you throw your senses,” he finished shaking his head at the both of them and leaving the house. He wasn’t ready to be part of an unsavory discussion.
“That’s your problem, Baba Apari….bald headed man. We don’t even need you to start saying garbage here to start with,” Mama Tolu called after him with a loud voice that ended in a hiss.
Lydia who had already been on her feet calmed herself that he was seemingly the only cold one to her though the last born, Seyi also wasn’t being so kind to her but Kay had told her to call the bluff of the ‘others’ as long as the mother was on her side.
“What would I do about the way he sees me? I didn’t do this all by myself. Tolu chose me when he pulled away from his wife and was I supposed to ask him if he had a wife already when I saw that I brought him comfort?” Lydia said in a tone of regret and eyes filled with tears that she could have fooled the devil himself with her look of ingenuity.
Mama Tolu moved to comfort her, “My dear, I’ve told you not to bother yourself and that I am in control of these. Isn’t he my son?” She said and Lydia nodded, reaching for her handkerchief in her handbag on the sofa. She would just have to believe this woman since no one else was coming to her aid. Her parents didn’t care what she was doing in Lagos as long as she sent them enough money for their upkeep monthly. So she was in this alone and had to fight till the finish. Until Tolu gave up and accepted things the way they were meant to be.
She had barely sat when a car was heard zoom into the compound and the occupant open and shut the car’s door.
Still wondering who it could be, mama Tolu also went to the window to check who just drove in and smiled to herself,
“Omo oko ni e…..you are your fathers’ son indeed,” she said and waited for Tolu to walk in to the house. If she had thought of this method earlier, things could have been saved right from the onset.
“Mummy, good evening,” Tolu prostrated the minute he walked through the door to see his mother standing there in the living room.
“Stand up, Tolulope. It’s just about time,” she told him while Lydia watched, a little puzzled on how the woman got him down here when she was already losing faith in her. He was indeed her son after all, she said in her subconscious and looked up at him till their eyes met. Lydia tried holding his gaze but he looked away almost immediately. A miracle hadn’t happened yet but it was more possible now that he was here. And hopefully ready to accept her.
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Deola put a pacifier in Sonia’s mouth and turned away from her to continue sorting out the documents she needed to apply for a job. Her big brother had spent nearly an hour on the phone with her that morning telling her to get a life and stop putting everything she held in one man who wasn’t even worth it. She had at first cried her eyes out when he finally hung up promising to come around over the weekend when he would most likely meet Tolu at home and then speak to them both.
She had cried not because her brother had turned it on her staying back at home and playing housewife while her husband took up the role of playboy perfectly played, but because he was right after all. Remi hadn’t even wanted her to get married immediately after her youth service at twenty four and had said straight to Tolu’s face then that he wasn’t in support of his sister sitting around being the bride when she had a certificate and could build a future for herself. She had thought he was being unreasonable and she was happy about being Tolu’s wife even if staying with him was all she was to live for but she could have exerted more patience and looked into the future. She could have seen then that she was never wanted by Tolu’s family right from the start of it all.
Frustrated, she threw the folder aside,
“I don’t even know where on earth to start from?” She said staring at her certificate from the University of Lagos where she had obtained her Bachelors degree in Pharmacy.
She reached for her phone as she heard it beep a message notification. She stood up as she read the message from Christina,
“I hope you’re home because I’m coming over with Jummy. She wanted it as a surprise but I didn’t want you to get caught unawares so do me a favor and try smiling to the door.”
Deola went over to the living room and looked out to see a blue Hyundai Accent drive into the compound.
“Really short notice, Chris,” she said to herself and gave a quick look round the living room. She had not cleaned the place in her frustration since that morning and now went to take away Niyi’s shoes and toys which were the only odd things there.
She had barely dropped them off in the room when she heard two female voices become more audible as they approached the door. One was clearly Christina’s and the other……it was indeed Jummy’s, her course mate and friend at school. They used to be roommates once before but after convocation, everyone seemed to disappear. Glad they were both there, Deola went ahead to open the front door to usher them in.
Jummy nearly screamed on seeing her,
“Oh my god! Is this really my own Deola? You already look like a mum, girl,” Jummy who was a slender fair complexioned short young lady, barely five feet tall but was in heels which made her as tall as her friends and had her hair braided and curled up, threw her hands out in a hug for her friend.
“She is a mum,” Christina said and smiled at Deola and then went on to sit in the living room. Deola and Jummy came behind her.
“I expected that you’d be really bigger by now and not this thin girl I’m seeing. You don’t eat anymore?” Deola remarked as she led her friend into the living room.
“I couldn’t find a better cook to make me want to eat. Lost the ultimate chef after graduation,” Jummy replied her and went to sit on the sofa opposite Christina.
“Yeah, right. I thought I’d never see you again and this is indeed a surprise to me,” Deola continued glancing over at Christina who feigned ignorance. Jummy had met her the previous day at a mall and swore she had to see Deola. She couldn’t have spilled then that their friend was having a hell time in her home and needed a break so she just had to succumb when Jummy showed up with her car that afternoon and asked to be taken to see Deola. Good thing she was on a sick leave at work, she would have evaded her otherwise.
“Yeah, I told Tina I wanted to surprise you. We only met yesterday and she said you have two kids already. Deola, when did you get married that you have two kids already?” Jummy asked in exclamation.
Deola smiled back, “One of those things,” she said simply. One thing about Jummy was that she talked a lot. Too much at times and couldn’t be a confidante, she’d just turn the whole situation around and make a blow of it. One reason she never bothered keeping contact with her. Now that she knew her home, Deola silently prayed that she would just leave without finding out how ‘rosy’ marriage was for her.
“Where is Niyi?” Christina asked her looking around.
“Hmm…oh! I took him to school this morning. About time he troubled a schoolteacher,” she told them.
“And your baby? I want to see the baby. Is it a boy or girl? Come on, Deola,” Jummy started looking from Deola to Christina who only shook her head.
“I thought I told you it was a girl. Wasn’t it Omolayo she was named?” Christina chipped in and looked back at Deola who got up to get the girl and some refreshments for her guests.
“I’m calling her Sonia,” Deola corrected Christina who raised an eyebrow. Deola was starting with changing the name that was unanimously given to the baby by her husband and his family? Well, interesting, Christina thought.
“Pretty name,” Jummy remarked and got up after Deola, “Can I come with you?” She asked already moving towards where she thought would be the bedroom.
“Of……..course,” Deola managed to say and looked back at Christina who just shrugged.
… to be continued
