The Second Wife – Episode 21

The Second Wife – Episode 21

© Onyinyechukwu Mbeledogu

Dienye sent Nengi’s personal effects to her parents’ home after much pressure from his brother, best friend and surprisingly, Nengi’s parents and it had clearly hurt him to do so. Although it nearly dented their budding ‘marital’ friendship Soki was happy that Nengi’s things were no longer there in her home.

Three days after he’d got rid of Nengi’s things, Dienye left for a conference in Los Angeles. He was to be gone for five days and her birthday fell within that week. He called her twice but not on her birthday. There wasn’t even a message from him! She received gifts and messages from friends and relatives and her parents-in-law treated her to dinner. Soki felt Dienye’s absence all the same.

* * * * *

7:21pm

Saturday, 24th July 2004

Oroma Estate

Dienye had a training opportunity while in the States and stayed an additional week as a result before returning to Nigeria. His connecting flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt was delayed by an hour but he made it home before dark. He bought Soki a few gifts, mainly souvenirs from his trip. Although she loved the gifts and thanked him profusely for them, she informed him that she would really appreciate it if he called to tell her exactly when he would be home so she could at least fix his meal even if she wasn’t the one to pick him up from the airport.

‘I told you I would be out for a week or so,’ he reminded her as he settled into the couch, dressed in a t-shirt over his combat shorts.

She had waited until after he’d eaten and rested a bit before approaching the issue.

‘You did say so but I was worried when I didn’t hear from you.’

He turned to face her.

‘You had no reason to be worried, babe. Remember, I’m an adult. I haven’t had to account to anyone for my movement in four years.’

‘For four years you had no one to account to,’ she reminded him. ‘I’m here now.’

‘I don’t need a reminder of that fact. You don’t need to worry yourself unnecessarily.’

‘I can’t be indifferent when you travel.’

‘I didn’t ask you to. But two weeks isn’t enough for you to worry about suddenly finding yourself as a widow. Besides, I have a God who watches over my going out and coming in all the time.’

Her eyes narrowed.

‘You need to call more often if you don’t want me to worry, even if it is for just a minute for each call. You missed my birthday and made me worry when you didn’t show up when you had initially said you would. I was wondering if something had gone wrong and no one had told me about it.’

‘I missed your birthday?’ he looked surprised at the information.

‘Yes. It was last Thursday.’

‘Why didn’t you send me a reminder? After all you had my contact.’

‘I couldn’t call you.’

‘Don’t you mean that you didn’t bother calling just so you could have something to hold against me just like you did when you failed to tell me you were done with your examinations.’

‘Don’t even go there, Dienye. I didn’t call you because the network was terrible. But you are the one who chooses to have a selective memory where I’m concerned.’

‘I forgot about your birthday because I’m human.’

‘No. If it was important to you, you would have remembered,’ she told him. ‘Besides, you would have remembered if you had taken me to the States with you.’

‘So that’s really what this is all about. You’re upset because I left you behind.’

‘No. But if that is the angle you want to take this then let me tell you that I feel hurt that you never go anywhere outside Port Harcourt with me, well outside the Area B conference last month. It’s as though you are ashamed of being seen with me.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Am I? I haven’t met a lot of your friends, except your Jaycee friends who drop by every now and then, I’ve asked if we could play host to them one weekend but you’ve never accepted. I don’t mean to nag but-’

‘Then don’t.’

‘I can’t help it. I have to remind you of everything when it concerns me. But you don’t have to do that for me because I know your birthday and those of my parents-in-law. I know when you opened your businesses, the Home, etc. I know your favourite meal, your favourite aftershave and cologne. I know your favourite stations, movie-’

‘Let me guess, you asked?’

‘Yes, because I’m interested.’

‘I have a lot of things to do with my time.’

‘And that’s why you know next to nothing about me.’

‘I know what turns you on during sex.’

‘We are not talking about sex, Dienye. I’m just trying to make a point such as the fact that if I changed out of these clothes you wouldn’t even remember what I had on.’

‘And the point is?’

‘Nothing about me interests you unless we are in bed together.’

‘And there are lot of broken marriages simply as a result of the couple not being compatible in bed,’ he reminded her.

‘And I’m sure you know that just being compatible in bed doesn’t make a marriage perfect,’ she returned.

He settled on a leather chair and flicked through the channels, settling for a sports channel.

‘I just need you to show more interest in things that affect me,’ she told him.

He looked at her for a long moment.

‘I can’t deal with your emotional outbursts right now, babe,’ he responded.

‘I got a trainer in squash and lawn tennis while you were away,’ she informed him, adding when he said nothing, ‘so I could join you every now and then.’

‘What’s your favourite sport?’

‘Sprinting,’ she responded.

‘Well, we both know that at my age I cannot start taking lessons in sprinting.’

‘I don’t expect you to,’ she said exasperatedly.

‘Then what exactly do you want from me.’

‘What I’ve been saying for the past ten minutes, for you to show a little interest in me besides the sex.’

He arched his head backwards and looked at her.

‘We would get on really well if you don’t play the emotional card, babe.’

‘You married a woman not a stick, Dienye. I love sex with you but I also want to know that you care about me beyond what we do in bed and giving me allowances.’

‘Last Thursday was what 15th July, right? I’ll note that down so I don’t have to get into an unnecessary argument with you every year.’

Without thinking she started listing the birthdays of his grandmother, parents and siblings in addition to his.

‘I have them in my head.’

‘Congratulations. If I didn’t have so much in my brain that I had to cram birthdays then we wouldn’t be living here, would we?’

‘Meaning I don’t have anything meaningful up there?’

‘I didn’t say that. And please I don’t want to deal with your nagging right now.’

‘My nagging.’

‘Yes. Give me some space. I don’t owe you an apology for not remembering your birthday, if that’s what you want. I’ll get you a late birthday gift later in the day or tomorrow.’

‘But-’

‘I need my space,’ he cut in before she could complete her statement.

‘Just because-’

‘Don’t you dare mention Nengi’s name,’ he cut in sharply. ‘Don’t you dare! I have emptied her room and sent her things to her parents against my better judgment so you don’t go around looking like a miserable wife and having my brother and best friend questioning me on things they have no right to do. That should be more than enough for you. I don’t want to ever hear her name on your lips.’

‘But I wasn’t referring to-’

‘Nwasoka!’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘You’d better be. Now if you’ve got nothing better to do with your time, then nag I suggest you either sit and watch the game with me or go to the other siting room and watch one of those soaps women love so much.’

She stood there for some time while he ignored her, his eyes on the television screen. She had clearly been dismissed.

‘I’m going out,’ she told him just to get his attention.

‘No problem,’ he responded without looking at her.

‘Don’t you want to know where I’ll be going?’

‘Not particularly. But I’m sure you’ll tell me anyway.’

Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits and she turned and walked away from the sitting room. He didn’t even notice as he concentrated on the soccer match he was watching. Fuming, she went into the master bedroom and changed into a pink top and knee length jean skirt, pushing her size 38 feet into her pink sneakers. She took her time with her makeup although it wasn’t necessary. Her channel O earrings dangled as she moved to pick up her purse.

On her way out, she paused at the sitting room door to call out gently, ‘Dienye?’

‘What?’ he snapped without looking at her.

‘Never mind.’

She had intended to inform him that she was meeting up with a few classmates at the Obi Wali Cultural Centre in Town.

*****

Soki had a wonderful time at the Cultural Centre with Tari, Ibukun and a few other course mates. This would most likely be their last hangout before they had to leave for Law School. Elechi Amadi’s ‘Concubine’ was being shown and a mutual friend who was a graduate of Theatre Arts from the University of Port Harcourt featured in the theatre version of the play. She had sent the invitation to the girls the previous week.

They had met Esohe through her boyfriend Efosa, a Mass Communication graduate of RSUST. Esohe had played the part of ‘Ihuoma’. And she was a great actress. Soki was certain that Esohe had a bright future in the theatre. Soki could sing but act? She wouldn’t be able to keep a serious face long enough to play her role, she thought with a smile as she made her way back home.

She had never watched a drama in the theatre before and this made her look forward to visiting the National Theatre in Lagos, if, hopefully, she was sent to the Lagos Campus of Nigerian Law School.

She walked into the house with a huge grin, humming a love song. Dienye who had just stepped out of the master bedroom was surprised to find her all dressed up and coming from outside. His eyes focused on her face.

‘Where are you coming from?’ he asked.

‘Outside.’

‘Where exactly?’

‘Now he wants to know,’ she said sarcastically. As she made to walk past him but he caught her wrist in his hand.

‘What! When I tried to tell you I was going out, you snapped at me. Now you suddenly want to know where I’ve been.’

She tugged her hand free and headed for the kitchen, dropping her purse on one of the table tops.

‘Now, he knows how that feels,’ she thought.

She fixed supper, half expecting Dienye to come into the kitchen but he didn’t. She thought he had given up on his inquiry until after they’d eaten supper and he raised the question once more.

‘Where were you?’

She was silent.

‘I always tell you where I’m going,’ he reminded her. ‘And I expect you to do the same. It’s not as if I try to stop you from going anywhere.’

‘You didn’t even notice I was gone until I returned, so why on earth should I tell you where I went?’

‘You should have said something, just in case someone came along.’

‘Not even for your own consumption. Chai, Nwasoka ndo (sorry)!’

‘I’m still waiting.’

‘I’m not telling you anything. If you really want to know then you will have to ask nicely.’

‘Why won’t you tell me where you were?’ he asked.

‘I can tell you where I wasn’t. And that’s with another man.’

‘I know that much but I still need an answer. I know you didn’t go to Belema’s place and you weren’t visiting your parents.’

‘And how did you know that?’

‘I spoke with them.’

‘So we’ve established that I was neither with Belema nor with my parents. So where do you think I was?’

‘I am not Sherlock Holmes.’

‘Then sorry love, I can’t help you.’

‘You’re being difficult.’

‘I’m being difficult? Look who’s talking. You’re the one who wasn’t interested in where I was going. So since you really aren’t interested, I’ll save myself the trouble of talking to you about it.’

He glared at her and she glared back.

‘So you’d rather be evasive?’

‘Yes and it’s all your fault.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I made a complaint and rather than apologise you snubbed me, snapping at me like I were some noisy dog in a neighbour’s backyard. I do all the apologising here while you act like it’s your entitlement.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘And you act like it’s your right to do whatever suits you and it’s my privilege to pretend nothing happened and just look the other way. Until we got married, no one had ever accused me of nagging.’

‘You do nag.’

‘It’s never been in my nature. I tell you when you’ve erred and you either tell me to quit whining or quit bothering you.’

‘That’s because you bring up issues at the wrong time.’

‘With you there is no right time. Maybe you expect me to fill a form to see you at work stating the purpose of my visit before granting me audience.’

‘You have an overactive imagination.’

‘Do I? We are married and yet you accuse me of making more out of our relationship than there is to it.’

‘You are.’

‘I am not here just to warm your bed and make babies for you!’ she told him, her voice rising. ‘I could easily just accept your gifts, give in completely to your loving and pretend all is well, but you know what will happen: it will easily become a lifestyle and once our kids come I would give them all my love and attention and soon forget all about you. That’s the exact future we would be creating with what you expect from me. I am your wife and not a kept woman.’

‘Stop acting like a neglected wife.’

‘Perhaps that’s what I feel like. I’m not after your money. I am a young woman with emotions and a very bright future.’

‘Of course you are or I wouldn’t have married you. But you just have this bad habit of always demanding for apologies for something that you shouldn’t even make a big deal out of, like me genuinely forgetting your birthday.’

‘You forgot your wife’s birthday and you don’t think it’s a big deal. No problem. Forget about it.’

After a moment without a word from him, she continued. ‘I miss the Dienye who was my friend. I do not recognise you one bit.’ And when he said nothing, she added. ‘I and a few of my course mates met at the Obi Wali Cultural Centre today to watch Cyprian Ekwensi’s Concubine.’

The doorbell rang and Dienye quickly went to see who it was. It was Oroma and Biobele.

* * * * *

‘I’m so sorry for coming here so late,’ Oroma apologised.

Soki had taken Biobele to the other sitting room where she turned on the cartoon network channel and served her biscuits and juice. She has chicken chops and a drink for Oroma.

‘But I had to come around. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘It’s B.B. He offered to buy my daughter for N2, 000,000.’

‘And what did you say to him?’

‘I rejected his offer. I know that money can make a great deal of difference in my life but I can’t live without my little girl. He’s given me 72 hours to either give him complete custody and forget about her or give him joint custody. If I don’t make a decision by then he’ll take me to court and rake up my past and no judge would let me have custody of her.’

‘You should consider the option of the joint custody. Bio needs to have both parents in her life even if you two are not married.’

‘You know your friend. He’s going to gradually take her away from me. When I went to see him two days ago, he took me to the courtroom and made me watch the proceedings so as to give me an insight of what he could do to me.’

Dienye had to hold back a laugh. Trust B.B to do that. One moment he was cursing and swearing that he could never have fathered a child with Oroma and now that the paternity test had confirmed that he was indeed Biobele’s father he was trying to get into the role. With the way he felt about Oroma’s past Dienye wasn’t surprised at his reaction.

‘A few months ago you wanted him to get to know her, Oroma. You should accept the offer for joint custody and trust that Biobele loves you enough not to let you out of her life.’

Oroma clearly considered his opinion a betrayal.

‘That was before he threatened me. In the past I would have agreed but not now. Biobele doesn’t want anything to do with him.’

‘She knows he’s her father.’

‘And his rejection cut deep. She’s a very sensitive child and he had no excuse for hurting her the way he did. She’s moved on and is getting used once more to not having a father. I should never have agreed to that paternity test.’

‘You owed it to B.B and your daughter.’

‘I didn’t owe B.B anything. Everything I did was what I felt was in the best interest of my little girl. Do you know that the day I took her to his home to meet with him, he said all sorts of things about not taking another man’s left-over. I had no idea Bio had heard him until we got home and she wouldn’t eat. She lay on the bed and cried her heart out. I hated B.B at that point. He broke my little girl’s heart that day. She had been looking forward to meeting with him although she had told herself that he might not find her good enough to be his little girl. She wanted to know if there was something wrong with her and it took a long time for me to convince her that it was his loss not hers.’

‘I’m not trying to take sides but you also need to see things from his own point of view too. Biobele wasn’t actually conceived as a love child and the circumstances of the conception are something I’m sure even you are not proud of.’

‘Certainly.’

‘So you should understand why he felt you were trying to hook him with another man’s child. He was a fool for requiring a paternity test in order to prove what was so obvious. Her resemblance to Nengi, his sister, is uncanny. Irrespective of what happened in the past, a joint custody will be better than having to settle this in court. Even if it is a private hearing, it would not be in the best interest of your daughter because you both will be putting her in the centre of this.’

‘Every girl’s first love is her father and although there currently isn’t a relationship between B.B and Bio, it will happen if given the chance. B.B may have his faults but he would never go out of his way to hurt Biobele.’

‘Even to spite me?’

‘Not even that. He has a problem with you but you know he would never hurt your daughter. Any judge faced with your past will find you unfit and likely consider you a bad influence on your daughter and then all you will be entitled to are visitation rights.’

Oroma was silent for a full minute.

‘I don’t want to lose my daughter. She’s my life. I may have ended my life a long time ago if I didn’t have her in it.’

‘And she might not survive a clean break from you,’ Dienye concurred. ‘Which is why the problem easily resolves itself: a joint custody. You and B.B can agree on how to share custody. You do not need any kind of court order for that.’

‘I still have my doubts about him letting me have any form of custody. That’s why I need you to talk to him. He believes I would go back to prostitution. He’s so certain that I crave a man’s touch so much that it wouldn’t take much for me to get back into the streets.’

‘Then it’s your duty to prove him wrong. You have a good job now.’

‘I’ll never go back to prostitution,’ she swore. ‘Even if I have to stay celibate all my life.’

Dienye smiled.

‘You don’t need to convince me. You can take Monday off and talk to B.B. Call me when you’re done to let me know how it went. That would determine whether or not there is any need for me to talk to him on the issue.’

‘I’ll do that,’ Oroma said, rising to her feet. ‘Thanks so much.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Dienye saw Oroma and Biobele off to the estate gates and hailed a cab that would take them to the Home, paying the fare.

* * * * *

While Dienye saw Oroma and Biobele off, Soki had a quick bath and changed into her nightshirt. She had been distracted by her conversation with Biobele as they watched the cartoons but as she lay on the bed, the events of the evening came back to her. What was happening to her and Dienye? There were days when they were a loving couple, talking and laughing as friends and then he seemed to become a stranger.

Dienye walked into the room moments later. He had grudgingly accepted that he was wrong. Before he’d travelled, she had actually told him not to forget to get her a birthday gift while he was in the US of A. That should have served as a reminder but he had conveniently forgotten about it concentrating on the trainings that had earned him a lot of money in hard currency.

He found her on the bed, her eyes closed but he knew she was awake. He took off his t-shirt and lay on his side of the bed.

‘I’m sorry babe,’ he told her.

She didn’t utter a word at first. And then she said: ‘you’re under no obligation to apologise, D.D. you know I’ll never deny you my body even if I’m upset.’

‘I know that. But I mean it. I’m sorry. I should have called you to let you know I’ll be staying longer than intended. And I shouldn’t have forgotten your birthday. As your husband that date should be of importance to me and engraved in my memory.’

She smiled and looked at him.

‘And I shouldn’t have given you a hard time about my birthday,’ she admitted. ‘After all, you were only being a man.’

‘Excuse me?’ he arched an eyebrow.

‘Men rarely remember birthdays and anniversaries and have to be reminded all the time.’

‘Perhaps it’s because we have a million and one things going on in our heads including trying to come up with ways to keep our women constantly happy.’

‘And a woman doesn’t have a million things in her head?’

He laughed. ‘I didn’t mean that as an insult. I have five sisters, numerous female cousins and other relatives and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a woman’s brain can absorb much more information that a man’s. That’s why you can remember all the birthdays, anniversary dates etc. without losing other information contained in your brain.’

‘Correct guy!’ she smiled, rolling to his side and straddling his lower body. ‘On behalf of all the females in the world, I say ‘Thank you’.’

‘I’m still trying to get used to us,’ he told her, ‘I need you to be patient with me.’

‘I need you to communicate more with me. That’s all I ask.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ he promised.

‘Good. And I get to be in charge tonight,’ she said impishly.

‘I’m all yours,’ he laughed. ‘Let’s see how much you’ve learned so far.’

‘I am so going to make you scream tonight,’ she said and before he could counter her words, she lowered her head and caught his lips in a kiss that took his breath away.

To be continued

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