We have been married for more than 8 and half years and in all of these years, I remained faithful to this woman. Unbelievable? Yes. I did. I didn’t run around chasing girls, my being faithful was simply because I loved the woman. I loved her and since we got married, I stayed true to her.
People find it hard to believe but I did. I liked my beer, my boys night and I enjoy talking when I am with my goons.
Ok, we didn’t have any child and as you know with women, she was running from pillar to post; taking one concoction after another, listening to pastors and imams and going to mountain tops for miracles that never came.
I warned her. I told her, “These people are not God, they can’t give you children; they will use you, collect all your money and leave you stranded.”
I am not an overly religious person but I know only God gives children; even she herself wasn’t such a religious person until a few years after we got married and we couldn’t have children; then she was just changing churches like you change underwear. We did medical checks and we were both told there was no reason not to have children.
But she didn’t listen, she was jumping from church to church; once she was unable to get the so called miracle from one church, she would move to another church. As for me, I go to an Anglican church once in a while, I was born Anglican, I don’t do all these Pentecostal things. I don’t!
I am wary of eating or drinking anything from sources I can’t verify because I am prone to allergies that either appear on my balls or penis. However, I often find that I am treating one these conditions or another. Many times, I put it down to something I took or drank.
Ok, after some time, I began to hear stories about my wife, you know, people talk and if you put your ears down, it will eventually filter to you.
Ok, I know sometimes these talks are just bad belle. My wife is very fair and very fine. My guys always tell me I must have juju-ed her into marrying me. He is a very beautiful woman, you know.
Anyway, so sometimes I am with the boys and I call, she says she is working late…I say, ok. I don’t blame her, if I am not home, no child at home, why expect her to be sitting at home? Boys would laugh at me that someone else was hammering her for me; I would just scoff at them, you know guys can be careless after three to four bottles…I too make foun f their relationships, anyway.
I heard was sleeping with her boss!
You know how I heard? The people talking didn’t even know I knew the person they were talking about. Let me explain; my wife and I belong to the same industry though we don’t work for the same company. So we were at this meet, some people were gossiping about one of my wife’s colleagues, then they mentioned my wife and said she was desperate to have a child so she was sleeping with her boss!
I was like, so this thing is true?
I just got up that day and called my wife immediately.
I couldn’t stomach waiting till I got home; I then accused her of sleeping with her boss, you know? My head was just spinning.
Guess what she did? She said, “Who told you?”
Is that the kind of response someone who isn’t guilty will give?
That wasn’t the response I was expecting, she should have said, “Are you mad? Why would I sleep with my boss? I will never sleep with anyone…” You know, that was the response I was expecting. But she was more concerned about who told me! That’s when I knew it was true.
And you know what?
A few weeks before then, I had treated myself ; I had this thing on my balls and penis that were like small and pus-like. I showed my wife, thinking I must again have eaten something I was allergic to. I even told her we had to abstain from sex because I wanted to treat myself first. So all that ‘allergy’ wasn’t allergy, it was the woman who infected me with STD!
All the so called allergies aren’t allergies?
That was when the love I had for her died.
When I got home that day, we had one serious fight! Of course she later began to deny it. She said she only asked because she was wondering where I got that kind of wicked information. I told her, “Aunty, you are guilty, you yourself have told me over and over again that you would do anything to have a child, I didn’t realise you planned to go sleeping with your boss.
“So how many other people have you been sleeping with?”
“Did you sleep with that pastor that asked you to come for vigil for 14nights? What of the Alfa that gives you qur’anic verses to drink? What of that mountain top you went during your leave?”
That night, I begged her to tell me the truth, I promised her that I would forgive her and we could start on a clean plate. I went naked before her, telling her I didn’t want to be ridiculed in public, I promised to start all over…
Then the cankerworms crawled out; she had not only slept with her boss but two other miracle pastors!
Omo, I lost it!
You see ehen, hummn, that day, I resolved to separate from her.
Yes, I know I promised, I didn’t know what I was promising…this was too much for me. You now this kind of woman, they may one day give her medicine to put in my food and tell her she would have a child if she does so and she would do it, she would poison me.
That’s how we drifted apart in the same house. One day, got a flat, rented it and left the house without telling her. I had to save my own life.
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)