HATCHED

Sigh. 

I switch off as Julius my husband of three years prattles on about some cocktail with the boss and something, something, something. He just got the information today, he knows I’ll never go out looking less than perfect.....I don’t want to hear his rubbish stories, all lies.  He cast a look at his reflection in the mirror as he exits the room with a spring in his step.

Hahaha.

There is a spring in my husband’s step and three years of defeat and loneliness on mine. Oh and neglect, monotony and a husband who is mostly away even when he is physically around. He says it is the kids and my responsibilities as a mum. I try to make him see that the finality of that statement unsettles me but he hears complaining. He used to share my dream or so he said. He said he believed in me. He used to brag about it to his friends. So how is it that three years down the line, I am still running my salon? I’m getting by but I am on the far side of the disgruntled scale. I want to run a spa that is what I spent my youth preparing myself for. I thought they said opportunity comes to those who are prepared. At the time we met, I had concluded arrangements to sign a distributorship deal with a spa care range.

As he leaves, my shoulders slump; I hate him......I think I do.  There is such a wedged between us; each time we try to talk we end up in an altercation. I don’t mind quarrelling as I know that it is healthy but this total acrimony is death warmed and served up on a daily. We are both dreadfully unhappy.  

I give it to him though, he is discreet.  At least I haven’t heard his gist in town.  Unlike some other men who make their wives laughing stocks, Julius is discreet if nothing else. Then again they do say the wife is always the last to know.

Sigh.

My husband is a selfish and cold man.

The house is so quiet. What to do now? 

Julius never takes me anywhere except church. I just don’t get it? Timi and Nengi are already in bed, I don’t feel like watching TV....Julius isn’t coming back until late, of that I’m sure.

Driving around my estate isn’t wildly exciting but it is soothing. I attain a level of lucidity that is welcome in my tumultuous existence.

Marriage is messed up. It turns friends into strangers.  I used to be Julius’s drinking buddy, now I’m his wife and the mother of his children. I used to be his trophy babe, now I am good old wife.

I hadn’t really wanted to get married neither had Julius. We were just having a good time but his love for skin sex and my constant persistent weakness for the wicked man saw me knocked up six months down the line. My parents were having none of it and here we are.

I entered marriage with zest and enthusiasm like I do everything else but in three short years; Julius has managed to remind me everyday exactly why I never wanted to get married.  Now I feel drained and bitter, unappreciated, unloved and taken for granted and I also hate Julius. Julius is a demon. He doesn’t hit me no, but his cavalier attitude towards me is worse than any beating. He doesn’t make love to me either and for that I am thankful.

Julius was the third and last man that I ever slept with. There used to be a time when he couldn’t keep his hands off me. Nkoyo my former bestie said I proved then that attraction is animal. Guys just suddenly were all over me. She claimed that because I was having so much sex, I was giving off primal fertile signals and nature was responding in the equally primal need to procreate in the men, sort of like a female dog in heat. I don’t know what she meant; I was a good looking babe, way above average in face and body. Yeah I said was.

Apparently I wasn’t giving off enough signals though to stop him from wanting to kiss Nkoyo again after a game of truth or dare got them to.  We’d been doing some heavy drinking and as we were about to leave, Julius “playfully” clamped a kiss on Nkoyo’s mouth.  Nkoyo was taken aback as I was. Julius laughed and claimed it was a joke, a tribute to their dare.  Ooookay, only problem is my boy friend just kissed my best friend.  Were I not the poster girl for idiocy, I would have let the asshole go that day.

I liked him; we were having fun, no shit......no shit! Not even when I asked him and instead of an apology, he told me that it was Nkoyo and I coupled with where he was coming from that made him do it. Explanation: The last babe that he had been with had initiated a ménage a trios with her bestie so seeing how mischievous Nkoyo and I were, he assumed....God punish you Julius, why didn’t you wait for the invite? That is what goes through my mind each time I remember.  

From that day both Nkoyo and I just seemed to silently wait for him and me to break up before we talked about it.  It was kind of awkward to bring up while I was still with him. 

It never happened, I got pregnant.

Sigh.

I wish I could go and see Nkoyo now I am dreadfully unhappy. We would drink; maybe take a few tokes of weed and just talk. I can’t though; Nkoyo and I are not close anymore. We are barely friends now. Things got too uncomfortable after Julius and I got married. I couldn’t stand the fact that she thought I was making a mistake and she obviously had no respect for Julius or my marriage to Julius. I couldn’t shake off the feeling though that something else may have been involved.

I nearly jump out of my skin as a persistent tapping on my window jerks me out of my reprieve.  It is a young man about nineteen years old. I engage the gear and get ready to zoom off when something about his demeanour stops me. I inch down the glass and hear his voice.

“You shouldn’t be here lady”.

What is this one saying? This is my estate; I can be wherever I want. His face suddenly registers to me. I have seen him around. Feeling a little braver, I take down the window another inch.

“Why?” 

“Because some guys are dealing just at the corner”. 

“And what are you doing here?”

“I’m on my way home”.  

“Where is home?”

“Block D”

I release the lock and wave him in.

“I’ll drop you off”. 

As soon as he gets in, I know he has been smoking weed. I start the car with a smile. These young people, always underestimating older people, like we never lived.

“Hi”.

His voice was surprisingly deep.

I find myself irritated. Ah, what brought about this? He couldn’t be more than nineteen, why is he saying hi to me.  Is he trying to be rude? If I’d had a kid in my teenage years I could have someone his age as my son. I turn to berate him and his eyes are smack on my breast. My braless nipples react to the attention; little creep. My eyes shift for some cursed reason to his crotch area; not such a child down there. Oh hell, where did that come from?

 I start as I realize that he is speaking to me.

“My name is Osas, what’s yours?”

This boy is forward sha, I mentally turn on freeze mode.

“Adaobi but...”

He cuts me.

“Dobis. Nice name.”

I lose my cool.

“My name is not Dobis. It’s Adaobi and Aunty Adaobi to you.”

If the situation had been different, I’d have gone awwww.

He looks hurt.

“Why? How old are you? “

I hiss and park at the corner of the road.

“You know what? This is the beginning of road D, you can get off here.  I don’t have to indulge your rudeness.”

He looks immediately downcast and contrite.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to be rude.”

He gets off and points to a house a little away from the beginning of road D.

“That is where I stay”.

I give him a curt wave and drive off.

No wonder, little twerp. The house he pointed out belongs to some rapper who calls himself Loo; apparently Nigeria’s latest sensation. The Loo has his brothers, friends and hangers-on stay there while he stays at another of his houses. There were always girls coming out of the house, loud music and I can just bet drugs too.

It is his image that sends me over the brink and to orgasm as I DIY. I imagine that he is cuddling me as I drift off to sleep, clutching my pillow.

To be continued.