“Honey, I feel a void in my being,” Tabise spoke in a voice which the microphone in the handset managed to magnify.
“What would be the reason?” Samanja asked.
“I have no idea,” Tabise answered with a sob.
“Discuss with yourself. You will come up with a reason,” Samanja said to which Tabise wept aloud. “Calm down please.”
“How can I calm down? What you have just said brings back painful memories.”
“I fail to understand.”
“You have spoken the way you used to. Whenever I felt blue you would tell me to discuss with myself and come up with a reason. I would search and establish the cause of my sadness after which you would say something to sooth my pain and I would get myself back.”
“I thought someone took over such responsibility from me. You are married.”
“Honey, I see money in sacks but they are no more than pieces of paper to solve problems. I live in a palace but I see it as a gilded prison. I live with a man but I see him as a convenience different from the tools and equipment around me because breathe and voice form part of the structure of his being. Honey can you believe this? I feel no warmth when he embraces me. If I am permitted to be sincere, I feel my system revolt at his touch –”
Also Read:
- As Elegushi marks 14 years on the throne, by Temitope Oyefeso
- Bello tackles EFCC over reported refund of $760,000 by his child’s school
- Bello: Ex-presidential aide queries school for collecting $700,000 excess fees
- Man caught with human head exhumed from CAN cemetery
- Yahaya Bello: EFCC now a judge in its own cause, by Sabiu Gaya
“You talk of your husband!?”
“Yes. Honey, I miss everything about you – the way you reason, the way you made the toughest moments to be hilarious, the ideas you spun.”
“I am sorry I cannot let you go on. Where are you?”
“In the garden. I am safe.”
“In a rich man’s den eyes float around like atoms.” Tabise looked around a little scared.
“My guy cannot be as smart. His wealth comes from the businesses established by his dad. He makes no input but thank heavens he keeps his ineptitude to himself. He makes no effort to influence management of the businesses. Of crucial importance, he lives within what he receives but what they credit his account with runs into millions each month.”
“Which makes him smart. If his skull contained coconut milk he would live above the millions.” Samanja argued with some irritation in his voice.
“The typical you. Every question has a specific answer.”
“My sister I am on duty. Can we end this, should I tag it discussion or interaction?”
“In God’s name make no attempt to stop. You have avoided my calls close to two years.”
“Reason you used a number I have no record of?”
“Yes. Honey please for a moment put on your old coat. Make effort to get me out of this low estate. I need you.”
“Once upon a time I met a rich man who watched the activities in his house from the comfort of his office. He laughed when I asked him whether the cameras reached the bathroom. Few days later he requested the service provider to disengage the cameras.”
“Why?”
“Some persons in the company monitored his residence according to them, for thieves. And because thieves can enter through a bathroom or hide inside one, the cameras zoomed into the bathrooms.”
“Terrible!”
“Beware of the things you say or do in the toilet and the garden. I recall you used to set yourself free behind locked doors when you were horny. Good bye.”
“A moment please. I have said the worst please let me say the best. I love you and would give my index finger to get myself back into your life.”
“No thanks. I am single but I no longer search. And may I suggest you avoid the effort to revert to your vomit?”
“I resent what you have just said. Your name can only be linked with the best things in this world.”
“If I were as good as you say why did you dump me like a rag? Please let us end before I say something unprintable.”
“I know I have hurt you. But I know you gave me true love which will be the last in my life unless I get back to you.”
“Have you given your husband a chance to love you?”
“He has no capacity to love. Most important, he cannot be you, my all-in-one.”
“Hm, you may speak from the depth of your being but I refuse to believe you.”
“This man has nothing to offer beyond money. If I have a problem and need guidance he shrugs and says his head cannot think out anything. On bed he satisfies himself and flies into the unreal world of dreams. Please believe this – I have forgotten what orgasm tastes like. I have been forced into frigidity by marriage.”
“But you learned how to take yourself there.”
“A thousand miles away from the real thing.”
“Please learn how to live with your circumstance. I believe when you have children you will have less time to worry about little things.”
“Little things are the big things in the life of an enlightened woman.”
“Have children.”
“Children cannot be picked off the shelf or plucked from a tree. My womb will open when it works in tandem with my mind.”
“Sorry.”
“I reject the word sorry. Tell me what I want to hear.”
“Such as?”
“You are prepared to take me back. I want to listen to your failures and speak on them to enable you avoid them. I have a smart aleck who has no idea what it means to accept his failures. I want to continue to be part of your plans and projects at the conception stage and make inputs. I used to feel good when you analysed my suggestions some of which made you either revise or drop your plans. I hate to bump into a new house my husband works on. I want to hold your Automated Teller Machine card, yes, check the balance but take the amount you have approved. I love being trusted on the smallest things and the biggest things. I want to hear about developments in your family and extended family, join in midnight prayers in their favor, and bask in the sunshine of success when the Almighty answers our prayers. I want to tell you of my plans, listen to your objections, argue with you, and have my way although I will do it your way. I want to.”
“Ahh, my sister.”
“Stop it for heaven’s sake. I cannot be your sister.”
“A complete companion to a man must be a lover, friend, mother, and sister.”
“I prefer lover and friend.”
“But.”
“A lover and friend can play all the roles of mother and sister but a mother or sister cannot play some roles of a lover and friend.”
“You see? One of those things I hated about you.”
“My intellect, right? You loved it. Sweetheart, go ahead and call me the name which used to make me swoon. I am desperate to hear it.”
“I cannot call you a name which will make heaven cease to smile on me.”
“Heaven smiles at all beings imbued with and who give genuine love. Heaven smiles at dogs with genuine love for their masters and mistresses. Heaven smiles at the sun which makes plants yield flowers and fruits and gives warmth. Heaven smiles at the moon which glows in a soft way to overpower and overshadow darkness to enable youths play hide and seek to express their love.”
“But several girls become pregnant while the moon smiles and gives them cover for illicit activities.”
“I wish I can laugh. The moon tells no one to disobey parents or God. I used to cuddle and be cuddled but retained my flower till I reached the city where electricity took over from the moon.”
“Nor should we blame stars such as Benjamin Franklin when he took the risk to confirm existence of electricity in lightening while Thomas Edison and others went further to develop the electric bulb which lights the world today.”
“See? I must learn at least one new thing from you each time we interact. I can classify my present man as a moron.”
“Wipe your mouth! I am certain he has areas of strength you have blocked your mind to.”
“I say what I know.”
“I am aware he has been kind to your family.”
“Because he has to. You did more.”
“Wrong.”
“We talk of magnitude. If you earned one hundred thousand and gave ten thousand to my family, you sacrificed ten per cent. If he nets ten million per month and gives out five hundred thousand, he sacrifices just two per cent. You made a greater sacrifice for my family.”
“You are biased.”
“Because you hate me.”
“Because I say what goes against your view?”
“Em, no. My mind tells me you hate me, pure and simple.”
“I wish you were correct.”
“I wish I were incorrect.”
“Forget the word hate for it has no space in our beings. All this while I thought you have spent enough time to analyse the past. You should in two years have established the reason you walked out on what you call true love.”
“Some moments I call it folly. Other occasions I rationalize, such as, well, desire to have a taste of another world. Things have worked out in the reverse.”
“Things work out as expected but in one in a million cases.”
“My case should have been the one in a million.”
“The future lies before you.”
“I just have one worry. Out there millions of girls repeat the mistake you have made. The go for the glitter, the shadow, and ignore the substance.”
“But no one kills them. Regard it as a mistake and every human being makes a mistake.”
“Some mistakes can at worst be fatal or at best permanent which requires acceptance and endurance.”
“You bear what comes your way in lots. Marriage means you see your problem seven days a week. Human beings have limits to endurance.”
“You walked into this with your eyes open. Accept it – for better, for worst. You used your mouth to swear.”
“But if you are there for me my capacity to endure will increase and things will change for the better.”
“I will be a distraction. In all marriages any person other than the pair must be seen as a third party.”
“Sweetheart you are the real thing. I see the man rich man I live with as the third party.”
“You have overreached. Over and out.”
“Hold on.”
“My sister you must make a supreme effort to let one man drain out of your system.”
“If someone forgets where she left her clothes when she entered the stream for a bathe, what happens if it becomes necessary for her to run?”