ANOTHER MORNING

In-between

Teniola didn't exactly like the idea of sitting in a bus with total strangers for over 8 hours, feeling nauseous and dancing involuntarily as the road between Port Harcourt and Lagos were due for some form of maintenance, if at all the Nigerian government knew what the word meant. A part of her felt she had underestimated her husband by a very tiny dismissable bit. 

Gbenga had this habit of going to the airport 3 hours before his actual flight time, and she found it weird, especially with the aviation sector's track record of delaying both flights and people's destinies. Gbenga didn't seem to mind. 

In a bid to keep to Gbenga's 3-hour routine, they both woke up as early as 6 am to start preparations to leave the house at exactly 7 am. This gave them enough time to get to one of the bus parks and get tickets to travel by road, she thought. 

"Which of the busses are we using," she asked.

"Who said anything about a bus?" 

"Gbenga, I am serious"

"Babe, I know you are. Look... I honestly haven't even thought this through. There I was taking a shit when the thought hit me, and I decided to prove my darling wife wrong. Let's just go with the flow. The most important thing is that we'll be in Lagos tonight, get into our hotel and I'll strip you of this worldly clothing and try to even the scores of the game you won last night? he said, winking coyly at her.

He always had a way with words, one thing she admired about him. It always looked like it was a type of foreplay for him and she enjoyed every single bit of it.

"You still haven't answered," she pushed.

"You know what, let's call your brother and use one of his cars, I am sure he wouldn't mind." 

"No way," she shot back.

"It's bad enough the entire family thinks my love choices are gravely mistaken, and now you want to give them something to talk about?" 

"Teny, I'm sorry, you know that's not what I meant."

"There's a car rental service down my office street, we can use of of their SUV's," Gbenga quickly added.

"And where would we get the cash for that type of expense?" she asked. "We practically had to book our honeymoon flight to Lagos one month ahead, to save money and you want-" she started to say but he cut her off. 

"Come here" he opened his arms and called out to her. This was one of those magnetic pulls she could never resist. In a matter of seconds, she was lodged safely in his embrace.

"Don't worry babe, I got this one," Gbenga said as he kissed her head.

"Don't worry babe, I got you," Gbenga said, finally releasing her face from his palms and getting up. A tear quietly cascaded down his left cheek and this time he let it.

Teniola wasn't sure what exactly to feel, she wished she could understand what this all meant to him,  why she called him Gbenga, or why she had a wedding ring on her finger. He seemed so taken by the moment and she wasn't about to spoil it for him. 

Hearing her call his name was a sign of hope for him, at least he had to believe that it was. 

"I have a couple of interviews today, I might be gone a while. Please take your tea. Try not to move around too much babe." he said resignedly.

He had gotten used to telling her about his day before he left in the morning and after he returns from the days' activities, knowing she might not be able to remember a thing but still doing it anyway. He felt terrible, leaving her all alone in the house whilst he had several interviews for jobs that were not willing to agree to his terms. They wanted him full time and whenever he brought up the issue of his wife, they reply with "We'll get back to you." They couldn't afford to hire help in the house, if she couldn't recognize the only man she has dated in her entire existence, the man she eventually married, how would she respond to a total stranger, he thought.

There was the option of seeing a trained counsellor, but no money to pay her fees yet. He had been silently saving up from a few odd jobs and would eventually get his wife to see the counsellor. 

Gbenga got up adjusted his suit, picked up his laptop bag, and bent to kiss her forehead before he walked out the room, he never looked back.

Teniola got off the bed and picked up the picture frame. She studied it with such seriousness, willing herself to remember anything at all about the wedding, but nothing came to her. She stared so hard that she started crying. 

Placing the frame back on the nightstand, she eased off her nighty and went into the bathroom. There was a really large mirror on one side of the wall. 

She picked up a bucket, placed it directly under the tap in the bathtub and intuitively knew what direction to turn the faucet for hot water to run. The steam from the running water gradually filled the bathroom and Teniola stood in the mirror looking at her reflection. 

She could see a very beautiful woman but didn't recognize her. She ran her hands over her full kinky hair and pulled at it, it wouldn't come off. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The bucket filled to the brim and its contents were overflowing into the bathtub. She turned off the tap.

Teniola looked up and reached to feel the top of the raised cabinet in the bathroom, her hands touched her soap and something else. She picked up the soap and reached back for the other thing.

The water was so unforgiving that it burned her skin, but she didn't really mind. She cleaned up, picked up a towel to dry her hair and noticed her hair was missing. Standing in front of the mirror was the same woman from some minutes ago but her full natural hair was all gone.  

She looked at the floor, saw the scissors and large chunks of her hair that she doesn't remember cutting off or why. She found herself crying, while still staring at the strange lady with the strange hair in the mirror.

Carefully, she bent, scooped them all up, trashed them and walked back naked into her room.