The fight has left James. His shoulders droop. He didn’t bargain for this. If Alice throws him out of the house, what will people say? How will he explain to members of his family that he has been living off a woman? What will he tell his friends? He sighs.
Whatever led him to this life of depending on a woman! He looks around him. He had ran out of the house when Alice chased him with the kitchen knife. Luckily for him, the gateman was not inside the compound then, he was out on the street and didn’t witness the incident.
He moves around the compound, pretending to be inspecting the potted plants and the compound generally. The gateman, who is back at his duty post, watches his restless movement. “John, why are these buckets here?” James asks with a scowl. “Sorry sir.
The cleaner left them there on Saturday after cleaning the compound,” John says with trepidation. These rich men! Those buckets had always been there. John wonders why Oga is asking about it today. He heaves a sigh of relief as Oga moves to the backyard. He looks around and picks every tiny dirt off the ground. You never know with these rich men.
He doesn’t want anything that will affect his salary. Nike is pregnant for him and he has to meet her parents to ask for her hand in marriage. He is thinking of asking for salary advance and doesn’t want to do anything that will upset his employers.
“Phew!” James exhales loudly as he turns the corner. He perches on the wooden bench the cleaner relaxes on after work on Saturdays. He wonders what Alice is doing in the house and prays that she doesn’t carry out her threat of throwing his things out of the house. She is really incensed. He rues his predicament and concludes that the worse calamity that can befall a man is to live off his wife. If he gets out of this with his ego intact, he will get something doing ASAP! He was doing pretty well, working with Dave until he met Alice and they got married.
Dave warned him against living off a woman but he had thought he was being smart, especially as Alice seemed to have so much money and a thriving business. He will go back to Dave and try to put himself on track again. But first, he must make up with Alice. Even if Alice has no child for him, she has given him peace of mind the number of years they have been together.
Moreover, Helen’s children are there for him…aren’t they? He sits up. Somehow, he has a gut feeling that Helen is lying about those children. She claims she’s separated from her husband who is based in Togo but that family members are trying to bring them together again. If that is the truth, how come she feels comfortable having children for another man? Which man/family will take back a wife who has had children for another man?
He shifts uncomfortably on the bench. He will arrange for a paternity test on those children. It will be a big shame on him if a woman has taken him as her mugu for close to four years. Helen is trouble, the only time she’s happy with him is when he gives her enough money and they have been quarreling so much of recent because he doesn’t have enough money to meet her numerous demands. He has to get out of this quagmire. He will see Dave and hopes he will listen to him. His heart skips a beat.
Dave’s wife, Kathryn! He has been most unkind to that woman who didn’t wrong him. He was so much in love with her and had felt really bad when all of a sudden, he couldn’t reach her again.
When she surfaced beside Dave months later as his wife, he was jealous. It turned to anger and to mask his feelings towards her, he had to be antagonistic. He knows in his heart of hearts that he is still in love with that goddess called Kathryn!
*****
Alice is sleeping. After moving listlessly in the house, she moves into her room and stretches out on the bed. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof!
Heaven knows she tried being a good wife. She tried all within her powers to make a good home but it’s obvious you can’t win always. She’s grateful to James for giving her his name, making her a respectable woman by society standards. But is that what marriage is all about?
Why is she still the one struggling to ensure they live a good life while her husband goes chasing after skirts?
Is it that she doesn’t satisfy his sexual urge or that he’s just insatiable? What sexual satisfaction can’t she give a man? James attests to her ability to daze a man in that quarter. So, what exactly is his problem? She has never complained about his failure to take care of the home, yet, he won’t let her be.
Her mind roves to Dave. Dave! He is just like her guardian angel, appearing at the point she’s at her lowest emotionally. He has always been a pillar of support to her. Always encouraging her to hold on.
The first day James took her to Dave’s house, she had felt a fluttering in her heart. After years of separation, she still feels something for him. Dave feels the same way about her. He says so. They tried reining back their feelings.
For a long time, they succeeded but like they say, the flesh is weak. The first time they got together sexually was a day after she found out that James had sired children with another woman.
That was about a year ago. Her heart was broken. She needed to talk to someone. She had called Dave and her tone alarmed him. She wanted to talk to him and they agreed to meet in his house. She cried so much while narrating her story and in the bid to comfort her, they lost it and there and then in his private sitting room upstairs, they shed their clothes and reached heights that they didn’t imagine they could reach.
It wasn’t once, it wasn’t twice that day, they reached into their souls and slept afterwards, spent. They avoided each other for a long time after that. But because they do business together, it was difficult to keep off each other’s way for too long.
The last time was just before Dave got married. James’ car was at the mechanic’s and he needed to see some people, he said. Alice had an early evening business meeting. They went out in Alice’s car. James drove her there and promised to pick her later in the evening. James called later to say he would be a bit late.
The office closed and Alice moved to a shop beside it. She window-shopped till the shop closed around 8pm. When she became impatient, James told her to go wait for him in Dave’s house since she was in the vicinity. Dave was home.
She called James again and he told her to give him some hours and dropped the phone without cutting the call. Alice didn’t cut the call either and so heard his quarrel with his mistress over money. She put the phone on speaker and Dave also listened in.
James didn’t come to pick her till around 1am. In the meantime, Dave comforted her the best way he could. They explored their bodies and relived the old times. They threw caution to the wind.
Alice let herself go in his arms and didn’t release him until his peen wept like a broken pipe, convulsing and throwing up like a wimp before going limp. For once, they didn’t feel so bad. They made it look like punishment for James who felt he was very smart. Of course, James didn’t suspect anything when he came to pick his wife home…he was as drunk as a fish.
Alice knows that that unguarded action about four months ago, is the cause of her joy today. She needs to take a decision fast! What will she do with James? She rubs her tummy dreamily as she drifts off to sleep.
*********
Now, this is the definition of crisis! Join me here on Sunday as we watch these couples live their lives.
•Send your observations to dgossip247@gmail.com
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