Misconception✅

Blue and orange danced fiercely as Atinuke stoked the fire with a long stick. The heat from the fire made drops of sweat to trickle down her face before dropping to the ground. 

She stirred the ewedu soup that would be taken with the amala she would prepare as soon as she was done. It was just dinner for her small family; her husband and herself. As she rounded up making the soup and moved on to preparing the amala, her mind went back to the incident that led to her getting married to Oyeyemi.

He wasn't evil; Oyeyemi. He was an easygoing man. Handsome, hardworking, lovable and everything a woman could ask for in a man. The problem was that his heart belonged to someone else. Someone very dear to her. Oyeyemi was infatuated with her younger sister, Gbemisola, and so also was her sister infatuated with the man. She would not keep shut about him until Atinuke became his betrothed.

Oh! Why did her life have to turn out this way? She had always wanted to marry a man who loved her dearly. A man who would treat her like a queen, like his mother.

If only she hadn't gone to the hideout known only to her and her siblings that fateful day to swim. If only her sister, hadn't agreed to meet with Oyeyemi at their hideout. If only her sister hadn't been delayed by more chores that day. If only she hadn't screamed and drawn her father's attention.

Atinuke snuck out of her father's house to the small clearing behind a big rock not too far from there. She and her siblings sometimes hid to escape extra tasks their parents would allocate to them. That was exactly what she was doing.

She did not want a repeat of the previous day when her mother had asked for Gbemisola and she had told the woman that her younger sister was not in the house. She had spent the next few hours scrapping earthen plates that had pounded yam stuck to them and scrubbing them clean. Her brothers couldn't help because her mother had forbade them from doing so.

"Your brothers are men and men have no business in the kitchen," her mother had said. "If I let them do your work, how will you learn how to take care of your own home?"

Gbemisola's punishment was to wash the dishes alone for three days, starting that day.

Atinuke had made sure she swept the whole yard and fetched water into the three large drums she was expected to fill every blessed day. Although it was free time for Atinuke, she could not stay too long as she had to be home for the mandatory lunch preparation.

When she reached the clearing, Atinuke proceeded to strip to her sinmi and take a dip in the little stream flowing by. She smiled when the cold water engulfed her body, cooling her from the heat of the day. The stream wasn't big but it was quite deep. She looked around to confirm that no one was peeping as she swam.

She knew what a stunning young woman she was and many people attested to it. A lot of suitors had been approaching her for her hand but none reached her standard so far. She thanked Olodumare for life, for making her beautiful and prayed that she would find her husband soon. Or rather, he would find her soon.

Before long, she decided that she had had enough of swimming and got out of the stream. Her sinmi was damp and needed to dry but she couldn't risk having one of her brothers stumbling on her in the state she was in. She put on her buba just before she heard the snap of a twig. Her eyes widened and her heartbeat quickened. Who could that be? Was it one of her brothers or was it her sister? A squirrel scurried past her and she jumped with an excited squeal. It was just a little squirrel, she thought as a giggle escaped her.

"Gbemi," a strange voice called. "Gbemisola, is that you?"

It sounded like a man but definitely not one of her brothers. Not recognizing the voice, Atinuke hurried to tie her iro. The owner of the voice came around the rock a second before she secured her wrapper. She screamed in surprise at the same moment. The strange but good-looking man dressed in fine buba and kembe with a matching fila retreated in shock.

Was this Olodumare's answer to her prayer for a husband? But why would they have to meet like this? Oh, don't be silly, she reproved herself. After all, she only just met him.

The man cleared his throat and said, "Sorry if I scared you. I thought Gbemisola was waiting for me here. Who are you if I may ask?"

"Did you see anything?" Atinuke enquired in a quiet voice.

She hoped to Olodumare that he had not seen her without her wrapper. Nothing would be able to take away the shame she and her family would face.

The fine man frowned and looked around them. "Is there something I should have seen?" he asked when his eyes rested on her figure again.

What did he mean? She simply asked if he saw anything. What she expected was a simple yes or no. She disliked complications. She took a deep breath and released it before rephrasing her previous question. "Did you see me without my wrapper?" she whispered.

Fear gripped Atinuke's heart when the man ohed with a sheepish glint on his face. He had seen her! She was in trouble. She looked down in shame. No man would want to marry her again! And if anyone did, how low would her bride price be? A man she was not married to had seen her nude, or semi-nude, even if she was a virgin. Her family would be so disappointed in her. What would she do now?

"Wait. Are you crying?" the man asked in disbelief when he noticed a tear drop to the ground from Atinuke's eyes. He took a step forward and at the same moment, she took one step back. "I didn't see anything. You were already covered up when I saw you," he tried to convince her.

Atinuke sniffed and wiped her tears away. "I have heard you." She sighed in relief. After she was certain that a storm had not started, she began to wonder how the man had gotten there and how he knew her sister.

"What are you doing here and why are you meeti–"

"What is going on here?" a voice Atinuke knew too well boomed suddenly, cutting off what she intended saying. Her father appeared from behind the rock with a frown that grew deeper as his eyes ran over his daughter and stopped at her lower half.

Atinuke let her gaze follow her father's to know what displeased him. Her heart jammed in her chest when her eyes landed on her awkwardly tied iro that was beginning to loosen where she had tucked the end in. He was probably thinking she had been doing something indecent with the man whose name she still did not know.

Continue Misconception, winner of the Phoenix Quill 2019 short story genre, on pabpub.com. It's right here at https://pabpub.com/books/69/

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