Against All Odds

Chapter Seventy Two : Welcome Home

Obiefune's mind wandered to the story he had heard from mma while he was young.

Why the lizard nods its head

The lizard was an animal that gaited with pride because of how good looking he thought he was. His appearance boosted his ego and soon the wise tortoise was irked by his attitude. The tortoise was the chief advisor to the king, lion and when he had requested a feast to be thrown the king quickly obliged his request.
The tortoise had an ulterior motive and only wanted to host the feast to hurt the lizard's pride. Tortoise relayed the information about the feast to all the animals, including the time of the event but when he got to the lizard's house he told him a different time.

The day of the feast came and the animals availed themselves to merriment and when they finished eating, there were only bones left of the delicacies. The lizard arrived at the scene just as the other animals were leaving and they were surprised at his lateness.

"We've finished everything, why did you come at this hour?"

"This was the time given to me by the tortoise" The lizard replied
When the animals left he met the tortoise who was pleased with how he had disgraced the lizard who seemed to be oblivious of the tortoise' motives.

The tortoise vainly apologized for his mischief and told the lizard that the animals had finished the meals. The lizard was a glutton and decided to settle for bones and scraps left by the animals. The tortoise obliged his request and brought the bones to him which he began to chew.

One of the bones that he devoured got stuck in his throat and the lizard tried to get it out with no avail. The jealous tortoise was pleased with the turn of events, he had succeeded not just in humiliating the lizard but also maiming the body that boosted the lizard's ego. Even after many years the lizard still nods trying to get the bone out of his throat.

Obiefune smiled as he remembered the story, he felt so much like the lizard. He used to feel the same way the lizard did, he had everything. The good looks, the girls and much later Obi.. He could remember nights when he'd only think of how he would kiss Obi the next day, caress her and make her his. He did get what he wished for, but he was regretting every bit of it.

"Why didn't he just go back to boarding school? Why did he get attracted to a girl being chased by his dog? Why did he feel so susceptible to her charms and requests? Why couldn't he get Obi out of his mind? Now things had turned downhill for him and even  Obi had wished him death.

The words replayed in his head over and over "And you are here". He never wanted Benjamin to die, he has always wanted her to be happy. Life was like the tortoise, it was unfair to him and he needed time to sort himself. He wanted to be far from everyone, sadly even his children for his sanity.

Obi clearly didn't care about him as much as she used to. But hadn't she kissed him back? Was he mistaking lust for love? Maybe what Obi had wanted was intimacy, he brushed the thought aside.
It didn't matter anymore, he had gone. He rolled out of her bed where she lay and quickly went away after checking on his sons.

All he could think of while she slept in his arms were thoughts he was supposed not to have for his cousin's widow who probably didn't care about him. He wanted to kiss and caress her, to comfort her but he just couldn't. It was morally wrong and he was done putting himself out there for Obi. He'd call her after a while to tell her when he'd want to look into the matter about his children.

But he was done being the victim, he was going along with aunt Judith's plan. Maybe it would have been better if he had gone with Chioma that day. And he intended to remedy that error. He would go to Lagos first then proceed to the states from there.