Wasted Years (Episode One)

Episode five

Wasted Years
(Episode 5)

In Fifty minutes it would be too late, I thought as I took time to fold my rumpled dresses into an empty box. It was already 7:04 a.m. and shortly, the sky would turn from pearl to blue, and the rain would begin, which may delay my movement. I switch on the lights to see clearly, never to let anything behind.

He was on the bed, staring at me like I was a TV.

"You know you're not going anywhere. Leave all these drama Ifu."

I giggled, "Watch me," I said. He got up slowly and dragged my box from me, "You're going nowhere. You're my main woman and it's you I love."

I laughed , it wasn't funny, but I didn't understand why Dakota said that, but guess what? I fell for his words again. But then, I had to tell him the truth.

"You do not have an idea about what love is. You do not. You have misused that word."

He held me, "Don't say that baby please. I was drunk last night, I didn't know what came over me when that girl came here, she probably used juju or something, I don't get..."

"The Linda in your office also used juju too?" I asked, waiting for a reply. But he did not move or say one more word. "You keep saying these things all the time. You keep lying to me."

"Baby... love covers all things, forgive me please." He said foolishly, like he was sincerely sorry.

I didn't want to look at his face, his face was my weakest point.

"Sweet love please..." He said, and held my hands. I became weak, emotional and I wanted to fall in his arms and kiss him. But I wanted him to kiss me first.

"This is the very last time, I will ever cheat on you." He said.

I broke into tears. "You cheated on me to my very face."

"I didn't know you were coming back home."

"I was home, you saw me. You decided to keep me outside in the cold. That was cruel."

"I am sorry baby love." He looked concern as he took back my clothes into the wardrobe and placed them where they were. "If you leave me, I will die."

He prepared shower for me and took me to the bathroom, taking off my clothes, my eyes met with a used condom, it contents, thick and weighty. He noticed I'd seen it, he hurriedly picked it up and flushed it in the cistern. "You see, I never loved her, that's why I used protection." He said. A dull flush curled my throat. My brow furrowed as he helped take off my clothes. Then he compensated me.

I held my breath when he began to kiss me softly on the lip. I suddenly understood why he was all over me, he wanted sex, and that is what he got. My breath cut in a strange little hiccup when he was done.

He straightened, cocking his head one way, then the other, as if studying me from all angles might explain his reasons for his bad behaviors. "You're getting fat, you should slim down, I can't cope with someone who is fat."

"But the girl I met with you this morning is fat. And I'm not as fat as that."

"Don't compare yourself to that girl please . You're my precious gold." I couldn't have felt more vulnerable as he began to touch me again for the second time, glaring at my body in a stony silence. His powerful hands clenched and unclenched as if fixed around my throat.

"I will be going to the village by tomorrow to see my mother." He said.

"Why? Is your mom okay?" I asked worriedly.

"She is fine. I just want to see them, I haven't seen them for long."

"Okay. I will have to buy some clothes for you to give her. I will really love to see your mom physically, we only talk to each other on the phone."

"Thank you for being an incredible woman in my life." He said and kissed me softly on the forehead.

*****************

He'd left for the village the next day, and before he was gone, I had stocked his car with food items and clothing for his mom and two sisters Eno and Idara.

He didn't call me to inform me of his arrival, and he didn't pick my calls either, so I called his mother.

"Hello mama, good evening, sorry to disturb o, did Dako arrive? I have been calling him and he is not picking up, I am worried." I said.

"my pikin, him bin reach here since since, but him don go him hotel room. I bin no no sey you and Dako still dey see." My stomach tumbled.

"Ah mama, we're still seeing, I even sent some wrappers, foodstuffs to you."

"Ah, Dako no tell me sey na you send them o. My pikin, God go bless you well, well. When Dako come house, I go ask am, maybe him forget."

"Okay mama"

"You sey you and am still dey see?" She asked again.

"Yes mama. Dako is my boyfriend." I replied convincingly.

The call went off and desperation poked and prodded me, making even the pretense of sleeping impossible.

The night was as restless as I was. The wind prowled around the entire place like a fretful dragon, moaning a doleful refrain. It began to rain, as I kept calling him, but he didn't pick the call.

I could not stop thinking of the words of Dakota's mother. It repeated itself in my head over and over again, and i kept wondering why he'd told his mother that we weren't dating anymore.

©vicky Bon
2018