Mystery of Life

MYSTERY OF LIFE

    “Oh Lord,” Lola soliloquized in a state of solitude. “I have waited so long for this!” She lamented ungratefully.

    Mrs Lola Adegoke, a 39-year-old mother of four who was yet to conceive a male child, had been faced with enormous unbearable matrimonial pressure that she was forced to speak to her creator just like an ingrate would. No doubt, her 10-year-old marriage to her childhood friend Mr Seun Adegoke had made the said young man to see life as an unfair situation, thus each moment of his ‘miserable’ life was preoccupied with agony and unbridled emotional seizure. His unending sad mood became so annoying that one could wonder if a female child didn’t worth it, or what actually was in a male child that couldn’t be found in a girl child.

    “Please, my Lord,” she continued. “Just give me a male child so that my husband would be happy.”

    She was actually seated on her matrimonial bed, her face faced upward directly toward the room ceiling.

    “Just a male child, Lord.” She landed, gushed out tears.

    Few seconds later, Seun walked in, sat close to her. “Lola,” he called, without minding the fathomless tears on her face. “I have a plan.” He hinted.

    She stared at him, surprised. She wondered if the situation had gotten to a point that her supposed hubby would never mind her sorrowful physiognomy. “What do you mean?” She managed to utter.

   “I have been thinking.” Seun rode on, staring at the cemented floor.

   “Thinking of what?” Lola enquired, quickly wiped out the tears with her bare left hand.

   The pink single wrapper she tied up to her chest level could sense that all wasn’t well going by Seun’s countenance.

    “Something very important.” He answered vaguely, continuously tapped his right leg that was in a brown lather slipper on the floor.

   “I am all ears.” Lola informed apprehensively, wore a weird face as if her mind could absorb any news regardless of its gravity.

    “Well,” the sad looking Seun uttered. “I have decided to bring in another woman.”

    “In this house?”

    “Yes, of course.”

    “Besides,” she retrogressively said. “What kind of woman are you talking about?”

    “A second wife, of course”

    “Second wife…?”

    “You heard me,” Seun frankly cleared the air, paused. “Isn’t it clear you can’t give me a male child?” he asked rhetorically.

     Lola gushed out tears again.

    “This is not a matter of crying.” He thought aloud. “You just have to see reason with my intention.”

    Therein, she wept bitterly and helplessly.

    “You have been nice to me since I got married to you,” he confessed. “But, ten years isn’t ten days, neither is it ten months.”

    There was absolute tranquility.

    “We can’t continue like this,” he continued. “Can’t you see?” He landed, looking into her pitiable eyes.

     He attempted to wipe her tears with his hands. “Leave me alone.” She ranted, stood up and walked away.

    One week later, Seun tied the knot with Titi. Practising polygamy was something he forbade right from childhood, but he had broken that vow.

    Those who knew his person from Adam wondered why he couldn’t wait for at least a little more time. Besides, they were of the opinion that a woman gave birth to what her hubby inserted into her womb.

    Funnily enough, four years on, Titi couldn’t conceive even a child let alone the awaited gender. It was like a mirage to the entire Adegoke family including Seun’s aged parents who persuaded him to pick a second wife.

    Consequently Titi accused her sister-in-law, Lola of being responsible for her purported barrenness; the abrupt accusation aroused uncontrollable uproar in the family that Seun got estranged with her (Lola), though she alongside her children was still living in the same house with him.

    Prior to the aforementioned estrangement, Seun had gotten married to another lady, his third wife. The separation occurred barely three weeks after he brought in the third woman, Funmi who was already impregnated by him before the marriage.

    Fourteen days after the misunderstanding between Seun and Lola, the latter was confirmed pregnant for her fifth child; no one could imagine that the former was still sleeping with her having gotten married to two other different women. The intriguing game men play.

    Subsequently, Seun overlooked Lola’s pregnancy with the view that she would still deliver a baby girl when due, thus he was only mindful of Funmi’s pregnancy. What she (Funmi) needed to do was just to name her want and it would be delivered at her doorstep within a twinkle of an eye. The scenario proceeded unabated that Lola couldn’t bear the humiliation any longer; her four female children were her solace as the intimidating circumstance lingered.

    Eight months on, Funmi the third wife successfully gave birth to a baby girl. The news was a big shock to Seun who anxiously waited at the hospital’s waiting-room prior to the childbirth. The awful reality, which befell a nervous wreck on his person, kept him speechless several days afterwards. 1987, which was the year of the incident, appeared to him like twenty years back, 1967 precisely, when he lost his two siblings to a road carnage in broad daylight.

    As God would have it, one month later, the heavily pregnant 43-year-old Lola delivered a bouncing baby boy. Her estranged husband, Seun couldn’t believe the news regarding the mystery of life the moment it was brought to him in his matrimonial home. He hastily ran to the hospital, which was situated very close to his home, in only knickers and bathroom slippers to embrace his ‘lovely’ wedded wife whom he had forsaken for a longtime. Amazingly, on her part, Lola forgave him as soon as she caught sight of him in the distance while in her hospital bed.

    At this point, Titi who couldn’t fathom the miracle was still purportedly barren. She needed not an interpreter to notify her that her presence or services were no longer needed.

    Thereafter, Seun outrightly divorced the makeup wives, Titi and Funmi having renewed his matrimonial vow with Lola. However, he promised he would be remitting alimony to the latter for the upkeep of her baby girl till she grew up.

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Blessing in Disguise

BLESSING IN DISGUISE

    “Guy, how far?” Kanu greeted, sat down.

    “My man, I dey ooh.” Emeka responded in vernacular.

    Kanu and Emeka who were two jobless graduates resident in the ancient city of Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria had been best of friends ever since they came across each other four years back in the said city. While they await white-collar jobs, which weren’t forthcoming, they could indulge themselves in any menial job just to make ends meet. On the above mentioned occasioned, Emeka  who was living just a stone’s throw from his friend was already seated in one of the restaurants named HotZone situated within their places of residence prior to Kanu’s arrival; HotZone was where they usually had their meals on a daily basis as well as their relaxation corner whenever time permitted. Aside foods coupled with drinks, other assorted and cultural dishes like pepper soup, ‘Nkwobi’, among others were as well sold at the joint.

    Emeka who was seated alone at one of the spots in the magnificent restaurant before Kanu joined him was already devouring a plate of white rice and stew accompanied with a piece of meat.

    The moment Kanu had his seat directly opposite Emeka who was making use of one of the red plastic tables in the joint, he requested for a plate of Fufu and Egusi soup to be garnished with a piece of fish. “How long have you been here?” he enquired as soon as he received the meal from the waitress.

    “Let say…, fifteen minutes.” answered the chocolate-skinned Emeka who clad in blue jeans, green polo and black leather slippers, took a sip of a sachet water that was positioned on the table.

    It was about 6:15pm on Saturday 17^th of March 2007.

    “How far nah?” said the dark complexioned Kanu who dressed in a similar attire but different coloured. “Any show?” He added.

    He was, as usual, actually referring to job opportunities.

    “Guy, nothing dey oh.” Emeka replied in their common language.

    “But, come to think of it,” quoth Kanu, took a bolus of his meal. “How long are we going to continue like this?” He lamented.

    Both of them who graduated from different polytechnics had been in the labour market for over eight years.

    Emeka took a spoon of his stewed rice. “God’s time is the best,” he asserted. “That’s all I know.”

    “Since you said so,” Kanu who wasn’t that religious as Emeka responded sceptically. “Let’s continue waiting till God’s time.”

    “We have no choice, my dear.” Emeka declared, rounded off his meal and quickly requested for a bottle of malt to dilute it.

    “Did you watch that match yesterday?” Kanu changed the topic referring to a football competition.

    “Yes, I did,” Emeka said. “It ended 2-1.”

    “That’s what I learnt,” Kanu said. “But, I was told Adjei Reuben didn’t perform very well?”    

    The moment he dished out the enquiry, Emeka received an SMS on his cell phone. He hurriedly opened the mail; wow, it was an invitation for a job interview scheduled to hold in Lagos State. The proposed interviewer happened to be one of the telecommunication firms where he had earlier applied for a job. “My man, I don get job ooh.” He elatedly announced as he scrolled down.

   “Are you serious?”

   “You remember that telecom firm I told you of?”

   “Yes.”

   “Guess what?”

   “I’m not good in guessing,” Kanu informed. “You know nah.”

   “They just called me for an interview.” Emeka informed joyfully, handed the phone over to him to read for himself.

    “Oh, this is good news,” Kanu exclaimed as he read the message.

    “You can say that again.”

    “The interview is on 19^th of March being Monday,” Kanu said. “That is, next tomorrow?”

    “Yes.”

    “Which means, you will be leaving for Lagos first thing tomorrow morning, unfailingly,” Kanu clarified. “Or, even tonight.”

    “You are right,” Emeka concurred. “Wahala dey ooh!”

    “What’s it?”

    “I don’t even have enough money for my transport fare.”

    “That one is not a problem,” Kanu assured. “I will support you.”

    “Really?”

    “What are friends for?”

    The good news ended their stay at the restaurant. They quickly rounded off and left the arena for Emeka’s lodge. Kanu spent the night at Emeka’s place; he needed to be around him to ensure that everything was in order.

    First thing the following morning being Sunday, Emeka departed en route to Lagos State. He had planned to spend some nights at the residence of one of his relatives based in the state. While on his way via a white Luxury bus, on reaching Benin-City, Edo State, one of the female passengers in the bus became so pressed that she needed to urgently address the malaise, so the driver had to apply the brake upon the solicitation of other passengers in the bus including Emeka who had sensed how disturbed the victim was.

    Having applied the brake as demanded, the lady hastily went into the nearby bush to unwind; in the process, Emeka who was yet to have his breakfast decided to walk to a shop within to purchase some items he would consume in the bus. The moment the lady returned from the bush, unfortunately they continued their journey while Emeka was still away; none of his (Emeka’s) fellow passengers remembered that he wasn’t around. They only recollected that he was missing when the driver had already covered a reasonable distance, thus there was nothing the driver could do.

    When Emeka returned and met their absence, he felt like going crazy. Worse still, he had no sufficient money on him that could take him to his destination (Lagos). The only money he had was his transport fare back to Awka after the incoming concernment; and he wouldn’t like to get stranded when he got to Lagos. Hence, he started begging for cash from the passersby and his fellow travellers within; luckily for him, he was able to raise enough fund. 

    While in the new bus he boarded, on approaching Ore in Ondo State, intriguingly he saw the previous bus he boarded lying pitiably on the tarred road; therein, he learnt the bus in question had a very fatal auto crash few minutes back, hence stumbled several times that none of its passengers alongside the driver survived. The news was just like a daydream to Emeka. “Could it be a blessing in disguise?” He soliloquized astonishly.

    Emeka safely arrived Lagos State that very day at about 5:20pm. The following day, he left for the interview. All-in-all, he emerged successfully after the interview, thus he was offered a well paid job by the telecom company.

    Surely, ‘God’s time is the best’. His hypothesis was at last proven beyond doubts. Isn’t it? Think about it!

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Spirit Lives On

SPIRIT LIVES ON

    “Honey,” Ugochi called right in the bedroom.

    “Yes dear,” her hubby Ugochukwu answered.

    “I have something to discuss with you.”

    The couple, Mr. & Mrs. Ugochukwu Okorie tied the knot nine years back, but was yet to hear the cry of a newborn baby. Though all the medical diagnosis or findings proved that they were perfectly sound, but they could wholly sense that there was something very wrong somewhere which they were yet to fathom. In view of this presumption, each day of their life as a couple was preoccupied with such series of expensive thoughts, mixed feelings as well as rhetorical questions as ‘God, why me?, who’s behind this?, what have we done to deserve this?, I wouldn’t have gotten married in the first place’, and what have you. Despite the coincidental synonymous nature of their names – Ugochukwu and Ugochi, which made many friends and well-wishers saw them as destined couple, they were still faced with a crisis that almost made them abandon their faith in God; in other words, the people’s initial perception over their union later appeared like a paradox not just to the couple but anyone around including their aged parents.

    During the aforementioned moment, which was in the early morning of that very day, the seemingly unlucky partners who just woke up from their long lasted night rest that was interrupted by several nightmares at intervals owing to the not unusual restlessness of their respective minds were still lying in their matrimonial bed.

   “What’s it?” Ugochukwu responded calmly.

   “Since we have confirmed that we are medically sound,” she began hesitantly. “I suggest we should try God.”

   “How do you mean?”

   “There’s this pastor a friend of mine introduced to me,” said Ugochi. “I learnt the man is very powerful.”

   “So…?” He said, staring at her.

   “I think we should give him a trial.”

   “You think?”

   “Yes.”

   “Well, I don’t think so.” He disclosed, faced the other side of the room.

   “Why are you being stubborn?” She said bitterly.

   “Me, stubborn?” Ugochukwu enquired, glanced at her.

   “Of course, you are being stubborn.” She vocally asserted.

   “Well, call it whatever you wish to call it,” he ranted. “The point is that I am not going anywhere.”

   There was a bit absolute silence.

   “Honey, I am so sorry if I have used a hard word on you,” Ugochi uttered submissively. “But you know what we are passing through.”

   The husband was speechless.

   “We need prayers.” She landed.

   “So,” he broke the silence. “We can’t pray for ourselves, right?”

   “It’s not what you think.”

   “So, what?”

   “I know we can,” she replied. “But we still need the assistance of a man of God.”

   “So, I am a man of the devil?”

   “Please, stop playing with this issue.” She urged madly.

   “But you just called me a man of the devil.”

   “I repeat,” she enjoined. “This is a very serious issue, and we must treat it as such.”

   There was tranquility.

   “For crying out loud,” Ugochi rode on. “Nine years of barrenness isn’t nine months.”

   “There you go again,” he said. “So, you believe you are barren?”

   “Please, stop misunderstanding me,” she quarreled. “You know how people see all these things.”

   “Is it now about the people, or about us?” He queried. “Well, I think this discussion is over.” He declared, made attempt to leave the bed.

    But she pleaded with him to stay back while holding his nightwear. “Honey please…,” she said. “If not for anything, just for my sake.”

   “It seems you don’t understand,” he responded amicably. “I don’t want us to start going from one church to the other.”

    She stared at him in awe. She wondered why the young man was yet to face the reality.

    “If God really wants to bless us with a child,” he continued. “He will do so at the right time.”

    The altercation lingered for several days until after two weeks when Ugochukwu decided to have a rethink. Thereafter, they were touring from one church, healing centre, house of prophesies, and so on, to another, all to no avail.

    The ugly scenario continued till one certain day when the couple encountered one passerby madman on the street when they were just leaving one of the churches they patronized.

    “Una just dey run up and down.” the madman lamented in Pidgin English meaning literally ‘you people are just wandering about’ as soon as they stepped out of the church premises.

     They stood aloof and stared at him.

    “No child for you unless you confess.” The stranger who was in rags prophesied.

    They instantly became shocked, stood still.

    “Woman, go and confess,” he said louder. “Man, go and confess.” He added.

    The couple became more depressed and flabbergasted. Luckily for them, there were no other passersby or residents within the arena.

    The insane man reiterated the last clause for the umpteenth time that he found himself singing with it.

    It was indeed a horrible moment for the couple whom was covered with fathomless ghost pimples. It seemed to them as if a messiah just came down from above to reveal the apparently forgotten story of their life. Therein, they recalled every bit of their collective past life which they foolishly thought had gone forever.

   The truth was that, Ugochi had once committed manslaughter. Nine years back when the couple newly got married, they were living with Ugochi’s niece called Ebube who was barely 11-year-old.

    Ebube was the first child to Ugochi’s married elder sister. Along the line, one fateful day, she provoked her aunt Ugochi owing to one slight mistake she made when both of them were busy in the kitchen, while Ugochukwu was seated in the sitting room watching television. And, in the process, the bad-tempered Ugochi unconsciously landed her kitchen knife on the poor kid. Therein, the kid bled profoundly till she passed on to the couple’s utmost surprise. Prior to her exit, Ugochukwu had ran to the kitchen to ascertain what went wrong the moment the kid cried intensely as a result of the hurt inflicted on her.

    The most painful part of it was that the couple hid the cause of her death to their relatives including the deceased’s mother. They had lied to them that she accidentally hit her head on one of the sharp objects in the kitchen. Little did they realize that one’s spirit lives on even many years after his/her eternal departure.

    Immediately after the revelation, the insane young man vanished into thin air as he repeatedly cited the clause – ‘woman, go and confess; man, go and confess’; he probably ran into a nearby bush. To him, the mission had been successfully accomplished.

    Thereafter, the couple headed for the appropriate quarter and confessed without much ado as requested, and eventually received the needed forgiveness. Barely three weeks after the scenario, Ugochi conceived at ease to the glory of God; she gave birth to a bouncing baby girl nine months on.

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