The Blue House S03 E12

Last night hadn’t gone well at all. It had started well but ended horribly. They had gone to their bedroom as he had suggested and continued kissing and exploring each other’s bodies but he had suddenly become plagued with images of Olayinka and her boss having sex. Subconsciously he stopped touching her.
“What is it?” Olayinka had asked.
“Nothing, I got distracted that’s all…”
“What’s making you distracted?” she had asked softly touching his face. He pulled it away. Olayinka frowned, she became suspicious.
“I’m fine, really… it’s been a while since we’ve done this. I guess I’m a little nervous!” He laughed awkwardly.

“Well there’s nothing to be nervous about, it’s just us, you and me. Look at me.” How could he look at her and not see those images again? “Look at me Effiong!” Reluctantly he did. “You can do this, we can do this. Let’s forget about the past and move on.” Easy for you to say, he had thought. Olayinka pulled his head down and began kissing him again, moaning and whispering into his ears. She shouldn’t have moaned, it was the deal breaker. Effiong pulled away from her and rushed into the bathroom. Olayinka hit the door several times trying to reason with him.
“Please come out…talk to me… maybe we were going too fast… Effiong, please just come out… let’s talk about this... Please!”
He had spent the night in the bathroom wondering if he could ever be intimate with his wife again while she had gone back to the bed crying, feeling rejected and full of regret. In the morning, he left the house as early as he could to avoid facing Olayinka.
Now he stared at the screen of his office computer and dreaded going home.
**********
Helen was off duty and she had been crying all day looking at pictures of Obiora. He had left this morning for Port Harcourt. How could she manage without him? The boys had also cried this morning asking their father why they couldn’t go with him. That had gotten Helen angry and for a minute she wondered if Obiora hadn’t said anything to the boys about relocating.
“I promise you we’ll be fine, okay?” Obiora had said just as he was about to board the plane.
“Okay.” Helen had nodded.
“And please think about what I suggested last night, I don’t want us to be apart.”
Helen laughed dryly.”Have a safe flight.”
“I love you.” He stroked her cheek.
“Me too.” Helen said with her eyes averted, why did he have to spoil the moment with this talk of relocating?
Now she regretted not taking advantage of the moment. What if his plane crashed or got hijacked or something bad happened would her last words to him be “me too”? She thought of this and cried some more when her phone rang. It was Obiora.
“Hello!”
“Helen? Are you okay?”
“Yes Obi. Are you settling in well?”
“Yeah I am. Are you crying?”
“Yes…” she broke down into more tears.
“Oh Helen, don’t make this harder than it already is. I’m not dying, I’m just going to work in another state in this country. I’ll be home before you know it”
“O…okay…”
Obiora sighed, he hated it when Helen cried. “Would you please just stop crying? I’m begging you!”
She sniffed. ”Okay…okay… I’m not crying anymore.”
“That’s my girl. Pull yourself together okay?”
“Okay. Obi I really, really love you.”
“I love you too. No more crying okay?”
“No more crying.”
“Great, I have to go. Bye.”
“Bye.” Obiora hung up and Helen began to cry again, he hadn’t said “I love you, bye”, it had just been “bye”. Even when he had said he loved her it was mechanical.
“Is this how it’s going to be?” Helen wondered and cried some more thinking about how sweet Obiora had been. Someone was knocking on the door. She let it go on, she just wanted to cry privately. It was purging for her.
“Helen please open up I need to talk to you!” it was Olayinka.
Reluctantly she opened the door and when she saw how puffy Olayinka’s eyes were she ceased crying.
“Why are you crying?” Olayinka asked.
“Why are you crying?” Helen responded.
“You first.” Olayinka said.
“Obiora left this morning and I miss him so much.”
“Effiong won’t make love to me anymore.”
“What? Why? What happened? Come in!”
Olayinka told her what had happened amidst more crying. “What do I do Helen? Can this marriage still work?”
“He just needs time Yinka. I’m sure he’ll come around, it’s the last wall you have to break and it might take a while. Look on the bright side, at least your husband is around.”
Olayinka laughed, it was the most stupid thing she had heard Helen say. Their situations were very different.
Helen smiled, not exactly sure why Olayinka had laughed.
**********
Kunle drove in to the compound and saw Teniola in a strange woman’s arms. He quickly pulled over and got down charging towards the woman whose face was towards his door, she was reading something on her phone. Where was Joy anyway? Teniola who had seen him began jumping up excitedly.  The woman turned just in time to see Kunle stretching his hands towards her.
“Who are you? Give me my daughter!” He grabbed Teniola out of her arms.
The woman gasped, shocked by Kunle’s rudeness. “I’m sorry I was only helping to calm her down.”
“You’ve not answered my question, who are you and why are you standing in front of my house?”
“I was…”
“Joy!”
The girl rushed out bewildered. “Sir?”
“Who is this woman and why does she have my daughter?”
“She is …”
“Shut up! Is this what you do when I’m not around? You just give my baby to strangers? Is this what Banke taught you?”
“Kunle!” Helen came rushing from her house towards him.
Kunle turned towards her still angry. “Can you imagine this girl? Thank God I came home early, I saw Teni with this woman here.” He jerked his head sideways. “Is this what Joy does when I’m not home?”
“Kunle, would you please calm down!” Kunle kept quiet, Helen looked like she knew what was going on. “This is not a stranger, she’s Ada my sister-in-law. She was helping Joy calm her down because she had to go and check on what she was cooking and so did I. We were all just outside a few minutes ago.”
Kunle’s face fell, he felt stupid. “I’m… I’m sorry please. I don’t know what got into me.”
Ada just stared at him as if he was crazy.
“It’s okay Kunle. Bring Teni, go in and freshen up.”
Kunle handed the child over without a word and walked in with his head bowed.
“What’s his problem?” Ada said irritated.
Helen sighed. “He’s not like that. The guy has just been through a lot lately.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Where is his wife?”
“She’s… not here.”
“Oh!” Ada said understanding, no wonder the guy was being irrational. She thought he was cute.
**********
The sound of a horn jolted Ayodele out of his reverie.
“Get out of the way you unfortunate boy!” The driver of the car that had barely missed him said, he been standing in the middle of the road. Quickly he veered off the road to the sidewalk and resumed his thoughts. What could Peace have to say to him? Again he replayed the events of the past months trying to remember if he had ever forgotten to slip on a condom, Brother Tunji the barber had stressed the need to.
“Ayo!”
He turned back. “Peace!” She had come out of the pharmacy he had just passed. Quickly looking around he asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you said you would come to my school tomorrow?”
“I couldn’t wait. I had to see you.”
“What for? Why did you come here, anybody could have seen you and then I‘ll get into more trouble.”
“You’re not the one who got me pregnant.”
Ayodele was so relieved that he felt his body go limp momentarily before he straightened up. “So who got you pregnant?”
“I was raped.” She said looking down.
“Who? Who raped you?”
“Brother Tunji.” She raised her head and began to cry.