COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

ASAKE

NOTE: - This chapter is unedited so there will be a lot of grammatical errors. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter and I will love to see your reviews about it.
 
 
                           
 Asake and Alabi have been married for 7 years without a child and they were the talk of the town. People can’t mind their business, always focusing on other people’s problems when they have unsolved problems. Asake prayed feverently for a child but she was still yet to have one which disturbed her and her husband.

  Asake was a trader who sold fruits at the central village market while her husband Alabi was a farmer. Asake was tired of the embarrassment she kept on facing anytime she was out of her house. People were either starring or pointing and it was worse at the market.

  The day she realized her situation was worse than what she imagined was when Alabi’s mother sat both of them down and spoke about the unimaginable. She has heard people say it around her but she never expected it coming from her mother-in-law’s mouth.

 Sometimes in the Yoruba culture, when a woman hasn’t given birth in years, the husband getting a second wife becomes an option. She thought Alabi’s mum will understand her and know that she still has time to give her what she wants.

  “You are not getting young. People have been talking and I’m tired of the disgrace. Wura who got married last year has given birth to a boy and she is pregnant again”

  “There’s still more time. I can still give birth” Asake says on her knees begging her mother-in-law in tears.

  “Your womb is probably destroyed. Who knows what you have been doing before you met my son”

  “Alabi, you are watching as she’s saying all these to me. Can’t you say something?”

  “She is right. How many men did you sleep with before coming to deceive me?” Asake shouted when she heard what Alabi said. She understood is in pain but he is meant to support her.

  “Soro. Talk. See, she can’t talk. Your secret is out”

   “Alabi, you know I was a virgin when I met you. Why are you saying this?” Asake cried holding Alabi’s shirt and he pushed her.

  “Mummy ejo. Let’s wait. God’s time is the best”

  “God’s time? You have been saying God’s time for years now, where is the child?”
  “Alabi, anytime I’m crying or I’m sad you tell me to wait for God’s time. What’s happening now, why are you behaving like this?”

  “I’m not here for all this drama. I have said what I want to say. Asake, I give you one month if not. Alabi ma fe iyawo mi (Alabi will marry another wife)”Alabi’s mother stormed out of the house and Asake laid on the ground crying,

  “You have heard her. She wants a grandchild and I want a son” Alabi said walking into the room.

  “Alabi, listening to me very well. I’m not leaving this house for any woman. Any woman that wants to break this home will go back to where she is coming from. I will not share this house with anyone, it’s me and you together” Asake shouts in front of their room and that was the first time Alabi ever laid his hands on Asake and it didn’t stop for weeks.

 “I’m tired of it. He is not the person I used to love” Asake cries to her mother.
  “Omo mi, it’s okay. Stop crying”

  Asake’s mother has told her numerous times to leave the house that it is not healthy for her health but Asake is stubborn like her father. Asake’s mother says it’s her father’s stubbornness that led to his early grave. Alabi’s mother wasn’t joking when she said she bring a new wife for Alabi.