When he brought her home the first time, everyone kept slapping him on the back, telling him how much of a lucky man he was to have found this beauty. All my uncles kept telling him he had proven that the family indeed had impeccable taste. It was like by brother’s choice of wife, all the men had suddenly become men of great accomplishment.
It couldn’t be denied how stunning she was: flawless complexion, perfectly structured teeth, quick smile, well-shaped figure, she seemed to have it all and one found himself automatically comparing her to any woman who stood beside her.
Only the women in my family seemed to have a problem with her. Mother stood by him, a frown on her face, whispering into his ears. She said there was something about her that she just didn’t like. She could however not place her hand on that ‘something’.
Brother just kept laughing and telling her she was just being overly protective and that his wife was the sweetest woman ever. Dad insisted mother was just being like every other mother, sad to see her little boy finally become a man. It was a battle she could just not win.
I overheard all four of my uncle’s wives in the kitchen gossiping about how ‘it was rather the pastor who married a woman who looked like Maame Water herself.’
She refused to work, insisting that she was content spending her full time supporting her husband overseeing the church. She told brother the corporate scene was just not for her, that it stressed her out and made her face break-out. Brother told her to do anything that made her happy. He said he made enough to support both of them. She remained at home, most of the time, insisting she was just fine with her own company.
The rumours began almost immediately after the wedding. Brother’s friend, Kwasi, said one of the church elders told him he had met her in a very compromising position with another man. He slapped Kwasi's face so hard, calling him a wizard. He said he had thought it was only women who practised sorcery. He never spoke to him again.
Our neighbour’s watchman greeted me after school one day and asked me if Oga had changed cars. He said every afternoon a different car came into the house and left till late afternoon, but always at the same time. I asked him if watching over my brother’s compound had now become part of his duties. I remembered Kwasi’s slap, and I wasn’t looking forward to receiving one or being sacked from my brother's house, which was close to my work and saved me quite some money.
I was sitting in his car, with his wife, waiting for him to close a meeting he was involved in so I drove them home one sunday, when Adoley, an usher came to knock on the window, signalling she wanted to have a word with her. Her demeanour reflected uneasiness and I asked her if she was okay. She fell to her knees and held her legs
“Please Aunt Sika,I beg you in the name of God, Please talk to Nii.Please tell him not to call off our engagement” her voice broke, making her words almost indecipherable.
I watched her glance around worriedly and try to pull Adoley up, and wondered what the problem was.
‘Stand, please, I will talk to him okay.Don’t worry everything will be fine. Just make sure you behave wisely so you don’t lose everything” she quickly pulled away and asked me to drive her home immediately.
“What is wrong with her” I asked, trying to figure out why she asked us to leave without her husband
“Relationship issues. She wants me as the church mother to help” she said nothing again.
It was when I saw Adoley one morning on my way to work, carrying suitcases and shedding tears that she told me her boyfriend Nii had called off their engagement after she had caught him in bed with another woman.Sika. My voice failed me and I could only gape at her in shock
I contemplated whether to tell brother about this. Whether it was any of my business in the first place?I decided he had to know. This was his wife after all. I turned back home. Brother and Sika were in the middle of an argument and even with their door closed, I could hear Sika shouting
“I have had enough! Do you know how many men wanted to marry me? I left them for you. Why would you treat me this way?” Her voice seemed to vibrate throughout the whole building.
Had brother finally caught her? Was he sacking her? I was about to turn to go back to work when I heard a loud slap and decided to intervene before someone got killed. If my wife cheated on me so soon after our wedding, and with so many different people, I would definitely lose it too, especially if someone didn’t hold me back.
I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or crying when I pushed their door open only to find brother on his knees, holding her while Sika carried a huge bag over her shoulder. I said sorry when they all turned to look at me and closed the door quietly behind me.
My mind flashed back to the gossip of my aunts in the kitchen, and I was tempted to agree with them that Sika was indeed a witch. How else could she, the one cheating be the one threatening to leave?
My three week annual leave began the next day, and about a few minutes to midday I stumbled out of my room, only to find brothers wife right there in the hall with another man so engrossed in each other they did not see me. After my initial shock which kept me rooted to the spot, I wondered what to do. Take a photo and show it to brother as evidence? Beat the man on my brother’s behalf? Beat the infidelity out of her?
My scream made them go limp, and if I wasn’t so annoyed, I might have burst out laughing at the look of fear that flashed across the man’s face when he saw me. Sika started crying and begging me and before I realised the man was out of the door, leaving his shirt on the floor.
‘I’m very sorry. Please don’t tell anyone about this. Please.it won’t happen again”
“What do you want at all? Have you been cursed or something? Tell me. Why do you keep sleeping with different men?”
The pain on her face at my words seemed so genuine I was tempted to apologize to her.
“Wait! Oh my God, is brother impotent?’ It suddenly occurred to me this could be the reason. Why had I not thought about this all this while? She seemed surprised at my question, for a brief second and then burst out crying again. I left her and went back to my room.
I was at the gate waiting for brother when he came home from church. I felt sorry for him, how he spent his whole time simply loving others and yet couldn’t even be loved by his wife.
“Why are you sitting outside” He asked immediately he saw me
“I was waiting for you”
“What is it?”
“We are just two siblings brother. Please be bold enough to tell me if there is something wrong with you.I know you are a pastor but I could be of help”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have this herbalist friend, he has very good drugs, and I could get him to mix something for you if there’s a problem with...”
He started laughing so hard tears welled up in his eyes. It was a serious matter. If he wasn’t impotent, then his wife was either cursed or a witch. How else could she be sleeping with so many men? He asked me to open the gate and entered the compound, still laughing.
I decided to be my brother’s keeper. He deserved the best. If he was afraid to lose his wife and so simply watched her cheat, I was going to, while on my leave make sure she couldn’t. I stayed home every time she did, and when she said she was going out I told her she either allowed me to drive her or tell everyone what she was doing. We stayed home for about a week. One afternoon I was sitting in the hall, watching a replay of a football match that brother came home, his face pale
“What is it? Are you okay?” I asked him worriedly
“Come sit down”, he beckoned to the chair by him.” You said we can trust each other right?”
I nodded immediately. Brother looked almost deadly white
“You can’t repeat this to anyone” I nodded again, praying he was alright.He made me swear.
“Then please stop trying to kill me”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, perplexed. Sika looked at him, and just cried
“You are. I can’t keep it in anymore. Time is of the essence Many years ago, before I started my church I made an unfortunate mistake of going to see a spiritualist to help boost my membership. He said so long as I lived, my church would increase. My sacrifice was if only my wife would agree to sleep with other men and collect the sperms for me. Sika is the only one who is keeping me alive. She accepted to do it or me when she realised I would die if she didn’t.”
“You are kidding right!” I turned to look at Sika. She just looked at her husband, turned and went into her room, still weeping.
It couldn’t be denied how stunning she was: flawless complexion, perfectly structured teeth, quick smile, well-shaped figure, she seemed to have it all and one found himself automatically comparing her to any woman who stood beside her.
Only the women in my family seemed to have a problem with her. Mother stood by him, a frown on her face, whispering into his ears. She said there was something about her that she just didn’t like. She could however not place her hand on that ‘something’.
Brother just kept laughing and telling her she was just being overly protective and that his wife was the sweetest woman ever. Dad insisted mother was just being like every other mother, sad to see her little boy finally become a man. It was a battle she could just not win.
I overheard all four of my uncle’s wives in the kitchen gossiping about how ‘it was rather the pastor who married a woman who looked like Maame Water herself.’
She refused to work, insisting that she was content spending her full time supporting her husband overseeing the church. She told brother the corporate scene was just not for her, that it stressed her out and made her face break-out. Brother told her to do anything that made her happy. He said he made enough to support both of them. She remained at home, most of the time, insisting she was just fine with her own company.
The rumours began almost immediately after the wedding. Brother’s friend, Kwasi, said one of the church elders told him he had met her in a very compromising position with another man. He slapped Kwasi's face so hard, calling him a wizard. He said he had thought it was only women who practised sorcery. He never spoke to him again.
Our neighbour’s watchman greeted me after school one day and asked me if Oga had changed cars. He said every afternoon a different car came into the house and left till late afternoon, but always at the same time. I asked him if watching over my brother’s compound had now become part of his duties. I remembered Kwasi’s slap, and I wasn’t looking forward to receiving one or being sacked from my brother's house, which was close to my work and saved me quite some money.
I was sitting in his car, with his wife, waiting for him to close a meeting he was involved in so I drove them home one sunday, when Adoley, an usher came to knock on the window, signalling she wanted to have a word with her. Her demeanour reflected uneasiness and I asked her if she was okay. She fell to her knees and held her legs
“Please Aunt Sika,I beg you in the name of God, Please talk to Nii.Please tell him not to call off our engagement” her voice broke, making her words almost indecipherable.
I watched her glance around worriedly and try to pull Adoley up, and wondered what the problem was.
‘Stand, please, I will talk to him okay.Don’t worry everything will be fine. Just make sure you behave wisely so you don’t lose everything” she quickly pulled away and asked me to drive her home immediately.
“What is wrong with her” I asked, trying to figure out why she asked us to leave without her husband
“Relationship issues. She wants me as the church mother to help” she said nothing again.
It was when I saw Adoley one morning on my way to work, carrying suitcases and shedding tears that she told me her boyfriend Nii had called off their engagement after she had caught him in bed with another woman.Sika. My voice failed me and I could only gape at her in shock
I contemplated whether to tell brother about this. Whether it was any of my business in the first place?I decided he had to know. This was his wife after all. I turned back home. Brother and Sika were in the middle of an argument and even with their door closed, I could hear Sika shouting
“I have had enough! Do you know how many men wanted to marry me? I left them for you. Why would you treat me this way?” Her voice seemed to vibrate throughout the whole building.
Had brother finally caught her? Was he sacking her? I was about to turn to go back to work when I heard a loud slap and decided to intervene before someone got killed. If my wife cheated on me so soon after our wedding, and with so many different people, I would definitely lose it too, especially if someone didn’t hold me back.
I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or crying when I pushed their door open only to find brother on his knees, holding her while Sika carried a huge bag over her shoulder. I said sorry when they all turned to look at me and closed the door quietly behind me.
My mind flashed back to the gossip of my aunts in the kitchen, and I was tempted to agree with them that Sika was indeed a witch. How else could she, the one cheating be the one threatening to leave?
My three week annual leave began the next day, and about a few minutes to midday I stumbled out of my room, only to find brothers wife right there in the hall with another man so engrossed in each other they did not see me. After my initial shock which kept me rooted to the spot, I wondered what to do. Take a photo and show it to brother as evidence? Beat the man on my brother’s behalf? Beat the infidelity out of her?
My scream made them go limp, and if I wasn’t so annoyed, I might have burst out laughing at the look of fear that flashed across the man’s face when he saw me. Sika started crying and begging me and before I realised the man was out of the door, leaving his shirt on the floor.
‘I’m very sorry. Please don’t tell anyone about this. Please.it won’t happen again”
“What do you want at all? Have you been cursed or something? Tell me. Why do you keep sleeping with different men?”
The pain on her face at my words seemed so genuine I was tempted to apologize to her.
“Wait! Oh my God, is brother impotent?’ It suddenly occurred to me this could be the reason. Why had I not thought about this all this while? She seemed surprised at my question, for a brief second and then burst out crying again. I left her and went back to my room.
I was at the gate waiting for brother when he came home from church. I felt sorry for him, how he spent his whole time simply loving others and yet couldn’t even be loved by his wife.
“Why are you sitting outside” He asked immediately he saw me
“I was waiting for you”
“What is it?”
“We are just two siblings brother. Please be bold enough to tell me if there is something wrong with you.I know you are a pastor but I could be of help”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have this herbalist friend, he has very good drugs, and I could get him to mix something for you if there’s a problem with...”
He started laughing so hard tears welled up in his eyes. It was a serious matter. If he wasn’t impotent, then his wife was either cursed or a witch. How else could she be sleeping with so many men? He asked me to open the gate and entered the compound, still laughing.
I decided to be my brother’s keeper. He deserved the best. If he was afraid to lose his wife and so simply watched her cheat, I was going to, while on my leave make sure she couldn’t. I stayed home every time she did, and when she said she was going out I told her she either allowed me to drive her or tell everyone what she was doing. We stayed home for about a week. One afternoon I was sitting in the hall, watching a replay of a football match that brother came home, his face pale
“What is it? Are you okay?” I asked him worriedly
“Come sit down”, he beckoned to the chair by him.” You said we can trust each other right?”
I nodded immediately. Brother looked almost deadly white
“You can’t repeat this to anyone” I nodded again, praying he was alright.He made me swear.
“Then please stop trying to kill me”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, perplexed. Sika looked at him, and just cried
“You are. I can’t keep it in anymore. Time is of the essence Many years ago, before I started my church I made an unfortunate mistake of going to see a spiritualist to help boost my membership. He said so long as I lived, my church would increase. My sacrifice was if only my wife would agree to sleep with other men and collect the sperms for me. Sika is the only one who is keeping me alive. She accepted to do it or me when she realised I would die if she didn’t.”
“You are kidding right!” I turned to look at Sika. She just looked at her husband, turned and went into her room, still weeping.
an unexpected twist at the end....interesting....
ReplyDeletethanks
DeleteI found this piece quite engaging. keep up the good work , sky's the limit!
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