The Lives We Lived

62: Osa's Wife

Kemi waited on the street for Osa to return. She sat on a flaking wooden chair that Buba had provided, under the shade of one of the lampost pillars of their house, while the wind wrestled with the few grits of sand it could find on the tarred floor of the estate road.

She had tried to heed Jay’s words, hoping that all would be fine and that her husband’s arrest was a little misunderstanding. She hoped for Osa’s sake that all was fine because there was a bigger misunderstanding he had to sort at home.

Kemi stared at the other side of her  gate where her husband’s two visitors stood. They were wise to stand there and wait because if they came closer to her, she would rend them in two for their vile accustation.

“You are very foolish. I am like your father. I am too old to be standing under this hot sun.” Osa’s old and wrinkled uncle glared at her.

“But you are not my father. Osa is not home. When he’s back, we can all go inside.” Kemi shook her head.

Osa had told her to stay out of his family problems and this was one of such problems.

She did not tell them that Osa had been carted to the police station like a common thief. Mostly because they did not need to know, and especially because she hated the greedy way the woman Uncle Jim brought along stared at her house– Like she was sizing up what part of the house belonged to who and what she would do with it. Even she, the owner of the house, had not lusted after the duplex so much when she and Osa first strolled down this street after she sold another house on this estate to her client.

“Do you know that without me, Osa would not have married you?”

Kemi wanted to retort with the remark that without her, Uncle Jim wouldn’t even have a house to live in. That he would still be living off his daughter, begging for scraps here and there because Osa didn’t even like the man. But this was Osa’s battle to fight now.

“We’ll all stay here and enjoy the fresh breeze together.”

Uncle Jim’s claims were outrageous. She did not believe for even a second that her Osa had anything to do with that woman. The woman was a little taller than her, dressed in an oversized black shirt and a flowy black skirt that stopped just under her knee. Curvy with full breasts and buttocks, if the woman attempted to maximize her dressing skills, she would be a sight to behold. But Kemi knew her husband wasn’t moved by looks alone. Her run-in with Alexis was still fresh.

“Do you not know this is your second wife? You should welcome her in. Carry her bags. She’s carrying the child of this family. The first child.”

“Uncle, I’ve told you to dead that idea.” Kemi laughed, eyeing the stifled old man.

Uncle Jim said something in his local language and the woman nodded, pinning her with a glare.

This old man had barged into the house, hollering for Osa to take up his responsibility as a man. When Kemi had raised her voice, only because she couldn’t be heard over his words, he accused her of infertility and told her to seat down and be grateful because God had decided to bless her with a child via other means.

Kemi scoffed, eyeing the woman again. God had nothing to do with that and neither did Osa.

She rose first as soon as she saw Jay’s grey Venza driving towards their house. The woman misinterpreted her gesture and so did Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim ran towards the gate, hoping to get in before her, while the woman dived for her seat. Opportunists. Both of them. Especially that woman. The longer Kemi looked at the woman, the more irritated Kemi felt.

She wanted to go into the house and lock the gate, keeping them and this charade outside, but she also wanted to see Osa deny the allegation that he had gotten another woman pregnant. And not just any one; his mother’s help. Uncle Jim also claimed that Osa had begun the marriage rites. She knew Osa would not have done any of that.