The Blue House S03 E04

Dapo was thoroughly embarrassed but there was nothing he could do about the situation. They were hosting another Sunday house fellowship and Sister Funso was leading the prayers. They had been praying for the past seven minutes for the purity of their teenagers, Sister Funso was convinced that a wave of sexual immorality was blowing and they needed to shield themselves from it. Ayodele was standing opposite her and the poor boy hung his head in shame barely moving his lips. Ronke was breastfeeding the baby in the bedroom but she could hear every prayer point, she gladly fed her baby for as long as she wanted.

“Hmmn…hmmn…” Sister Funso mumbled under her breath shaking her head as if she was in a conversation with someone. “Yes Lord, thank you Lord!” she muttered. She exhaled heavily then finally said. “For in Jeesus name we have prayed!”
“Amen!” the members shouted and exhaled too waiting to hear what Sister Funso had received as she always did.
Sister Funso inwardly debated whether to publicize her vision or not, she wasn’t sure it would be well received if she said it here. “Let’s thank God for answered prayers.” She finally said wiping the sweat from her forehead with a face towel. Ayodele was glad it was finally over, the last twenty minutes had been pure torture for him. The members stayed on for about thirty minutes drinking the Coke and eating the chinchin Ronke had provided. Ayodele escaped into his room at this point, he collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling reliving the past months with Peace, trying hard to remember if he had ever forced himself on her in any way.
“Bro Dapo!” Sister Funso walked briskly towards Dapo who had just seen off one of their guests.
“Yes Sister Funso that was a powerful prayer meeting. May the Lord strengthen you!” he said almost sarcastically, she was the last person he wanted to converse with.
“Thank you sir. The Lord showed me a vision of you while we were praying.”
“Really?” Dapo lifted his eyebrows in suspicion, wondering if Ronke had said something to her.
“Yes, actually it was a vision of you and your family. You and Sister Ronke were standing on a river bank watching Ayodele playing in the river. Suddenly, he started to drown and you kept watching him, he called out to you but you just kept watching. Eventually Sister Ronke ran to the river and was trying to get him out. That’s where the vision ended. I don’t know if she rescued Ayodele or if she herself drowned in it. But what bothered me the most was that you just stood there watching. This is what the Lord showed me, I don’t know what it means but please consider it.”
“Consider what?” Dapo was furious, Ronke had definitely said something to her.
“Brother Dapo…”
“Don’t “brother” me! You and your friend have been gossiping and suddenly you now have a vision! Do you think I’m stupid? You’re saying I’m a bad parent?”
“I never said that!” Sister Funso was greatly confused, she had thought that Brother Dapo would appreciate this, especially since he usually had vision too.
“It is your friend that you should be talking to and not me. After all she was not even at the prayer meeting. Is that what a good mother would do?”
“But I thought she was breastfeeding…”
“Please!” Dapo waved his hands dismissively. “Anyway I have heard your… vision… revelation… whatever you call it. Goodbye”
Sister Funso was very troubled, because now she realized that all was not well with the Afebioye household and they had been hiding it so well.
**********
“Mummy are you crying again?” Max asked Olayinka who had been sitting on a stool in the kitchen and crying.
“No sweetheart, it’s the onions I just cut.” She pointed to the diced onions on the chopping board.
Max looked at his mother doubtfully, the boy wasn’t fooled. “Did Daddy beat you again?”
“No! No he didn’t.” Olayinka was alarmed, she thought the children had forgotten that episode, she didn’t want them to hate their father because of her mistakes. “Sweetheart, Daddy doesn’t beat me. It was just that one time and it was because I provoked him. You know just like when you do some thing wrong and I spank you.”
“But you’re an adult. Adults don’t get beaten.”
“Yes, but sometimes adults do silly things and they need to be spanked.”
Max thought about this. “So that means when I grow up if my wife does something silly I’ll spank her and she’ll behave herself right?”
“No! No! No! Max you should never beat your wife!” Olayinka had pulled him close and looked deeply into his eyes as she spoke.
“If Daddy can do it why can’t I?” Max was confused, his mother wasn’t making any sense.
Olayinka sagged her shoulders in resignation. What had she done? “Go and watch TV Max.” the boy left her reluctantly, wondering what he had done wrong. Olayinka began weeping again, her son’s mind had become warped. She cried some more before asking herself why she hadn’t just told the boy that his father had made a mistake and then she realized that she hadn’t because she was trying to protect Effiong’s image. But at what cost? Max would grow up thinking it was alright to beat his wife because she had been too scared to tell the truth.
**********
For the first time in their marriage they kept secrets from each other. Obiora had not told Helen how well the interview had gone or how hopeful he was about the job. Helen was constantly praying that he would not be considered for the job, that he would do something wrong. The secret was eating them up and nothing was the same anymore; when they laughed it was with reservation, when they kissed each other it was civil, when they made love it was routine. They avoided the subject of Obiora’s job application and spoke instead on neutral topics like the weather, politics and the children.
Helen missed Obiora desperately but she was hurt by what looked like Obiora’ choice of money over them. She wasn’t convinced that he had to relocate to another state for their lives to be better, after all they were in Lagos, the city of opportunities. As far as she was concerned Obiora just wanted more money and was willing to sacrifice his family for it. She lay down watching him from the corner of her eyes reading a book on leadership and snorted, what an irony! “You’re not leading this family well!” she said inwardly.
“How was your day?” Obiora suddenly asked setting the book aside.
Helen didn’t know how to respond, he hadn’t asked this in days, why would he ask her now when he was reading? “Fine” she responded simply, looking at him oddly. “And how was yours?”
“Great!”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
They stared at each other as Obiora contemplated whether to tell her about the job, asking about her day had been a litmus test of her mood. Her face was stern. Helen on the other hand arched an eyebrow waiting for him to talk, he obviously had something to say.
“So?...What did you want to say?”
“Nothing.” Obiora reached for his book.
“You just said your day was great, what made it so?”
“Nothing….Well, I was able to complete all my work and got a good report from my boss.”
“Really?” Helen’s voice was thick with suspicion.
“Yeah.” Obiora shrugged looking away, he was a bad liar.
“Just tell me you don’t want to talk about it instead of lying to my face!” Helen muttered getting up from the bed and turning off the light.
“I’m still reading!”
“Well the light is disturbing my sleep!” Helen retorted.
**********
Kunle had been dialing Banke’s number but she still refused to take his calls and he was becoming anxious. He really loved Banke and even though he had put her out of the house in a fit of rage he had honestly thought that she would come back begging. “Look for another wife!” his mother had told him but he didn’t want another wife, he wanted Banke. They had planned to be together for the rest of their lives, how could he think of another woman? He didn’t want to believe that it was over between them.
He dialed her number yet again but got no response. Just as he was about to set his phone down a call came in from one of his friends.
“Guy!”
“Guy how you dey? Nawa o you just free me abi?”
“No be so my brother, things just dey hectic.” Kunle was not in the mood to pacify anyone, he had enough drama in his life.
“I can imagine, especially since you’re moving to Ikoyi.”
“Moving to the Ikoyi?”
“Yes, I saw your wife yesterday, I even called out to her but I guess she didn’t recognize me because she didn’t answer.”
Kunle had no choice but to give his friend a vague description of his situation. “Please describe the place.”
The friend did but before he could ask any questions about his marital problems, Kunle hung up.