Her Father's Wife

chapter 7

 Obiageli was besides herself with joy. In two days time, she will be going for the first inspection of her husband's house. Ichie Akukalia has secretly fulfilled most of the marriage rites. It is only remaining the payment of bride price. That one will take place as soon as she comes out of the fattening room. Who will believe it? She Obiageli, whose name was almost  synonymous with shame in this village. She can still not believe her good fortune. Not after what she has gone through in this Ngodo. She still remembered how ununna had excommunicated her father, all because of one unfortunate incident, which wasn't even her doing. That was about five years or was it six years? almost six years now, how time flies. She went to the farm that day to harvest cassava. Her mother was having fever, and like every other polygamous family, it is everybody to himself and God for us all. The care of her mother and her younger ones automatically fell on her. She was just about to turn sixteen  then. Nnaji has been disturbing her about marriage. Marriage to Nnaji will be a mistake, so she told him no. The man seem to be Obiageli mad in those days. He followed her everywhere. He will lay siege outside their house, just to catch a glimpse of her. He sent thousands of messages thorough her siblings. Then, he started stalking her. That was how he followed her to the farm that day. As soon as she bend down to uproot cassava, Nnaji came out from nowhere. He was wearing a kind of mourning expression she has not seen on him before. He threatened to kill her and kill himself if she will not marry him. She looked around frantically  for help, but the whole farm was deserted. Shouting at that moment would have been dangerous because, looking at the man's countenance, he was ready to strangle her there and then. To save her life, she agreed. Then, he said he wanted a collateral, what collateral does he want? Her maiden head. He said, after all, he will be her husband, does it matter whether he took it today or the next day? That was when Obiageli got up to run. She took a step backwards, then turned and ran blindly in the opposite direction, unfortunately, in her blind rush, she ran into a heep of yam mound and her hair got entangled in the tendrils of the staked yams, making it easy for Nnaji to come and pick her from there effortlessly, like a rabbit caught in a snare.  In no time at all, he brought her down on the ground, pull her skirt over her head. The next moment, he pulled down his nicker, all her frantic struggles and pleading fell on deaf ear. He was like someone obsessed. He was about to dig in, when Okwute came to her rescue. If not for Okwute, who witnessed everything from a neighbouring farm and come to her aid, her life would have been completely ruined. Okwuta was stalking a grass cutter in the next farm. He saw when Nnaji came into the farm after her. He heard  all the words the two of them exchanged. He waited to see what will happen next. It was when he saw Obiageli's genuine effort to escape Nnaji, that he came out to offer help. Nnaji turned and fled immediately he sighted Okwute,  that coward. Nobody believed Obiageli's side of the story, when she came back home crying. Nnaji himself refused to utter a word, either for or against. In Ngodo, women are always  blamed in cases like this. It is always that the woman lured the man or she did juju for the man.  In her own case, some people even went as far as saying Nnaji only did it because Obiageli was loose. Others said she invited Nnaji to the farm for that purpose. They said she has been begging for marriage from one young man to the other. This version was cooked up from Nnaji's family members. Yet, others said she used herself to pay Okwute to turn the story in her favour. New versions of the story were  coming out every day. Women discuss her on the way to the stream. Otu  umuagbogho, which she belonged removed her name from the group. First, they came to her house and carted away all the valuables that she had, when they were not satisfied with what they got, her mother had to pay the money they levied  her. Children made up sarcastic songs with her name and sing them during moon light games. Umunna drove her father out of their midst. He was not allowed to attend their meetings. This  situation was to linger until she and Nnaji cleansed the land. It is an abomination at Ngodo for a man to make love to a woman in the farm. To compound the whole matter, Nnaji ran away from the village. She and members of her family had to bear the shame alone. That was when her father decided to send her to her mother's village. She went willingly. It is that or commit suicide. She was able to attend school at her mother's village. Her mother's younger brother, Uncle James went to school. His wife was a seamstress. She was going to school in the mornings and working as an apprentice at his wife's shop after school. They wanted her to acquire some skills in case, she could not find a a man to marry her. Luckily for her, all things had worked out for good. It all fitted in to the plans her chi had made for life. She had always  wanted to go to school, but her father would have killed her if she has so much as mentioned it. She hates polygamy, all the gods of the land and even their relatives know that. After seeing what is going on in her fathers house, who in their right mind wants to put themselves in that kind of pain? Her mother is the first wife. Her father does not even know the direction to her mother's hut these days. He is too busy with his two younger wives. The only contact between the two of them  is  farm work and when it is her mother's turn to cook for him. The excuse he gave to avoid sleeping with her mother is that her mother has passed child bearing age . She needs to rest. Since when did sleeping with one's husband become farm work? If she has a say in the matter, Ngodo should change it's custom concerning marriage. As it is, it gave too much power to the men and   little or no protection to the women. So,  what can Obiageli,  one weak female do in the face of such a formidable force? She has made plans for her own life and her chi has agreed to it. That is her own way of escape from the life of  servitude her mother is living, in the name of marriage. No young man for her! She will be a rich man's last wife. The baby of the family. At the end of it all, it's the last wife that owns the husband. She will not even be going to the farm much, because, she is still at child bearing age. The mgbede (fattening room) will help her. There, she will learn how to cook the many palatable Ngodo dishes. The best way to please her husband in bed. How to carry herself well while walking. And best of all, the many local beauty routines. She will learn how to apply the tiro. Uri, Odo and make the best body oil from coconut. With all these, she mean to tie her husband strictly to herself and make sure he does not stray.
On this her first four days visit, her husband is not expected to touch her. Same goes for her eight days visit. Her husband and his people are suppose to pamper her throughout the visiting period. While she is to exhibit good behaviour and gentility.

Awwww that's so sweet I wish I could see tho.
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