MORE THAN LOVE 2

The text didn’t deliver till the next day. The drive to the hotel was like sightseeing. The driver was a talkative. The moment he knew that was my first time in Calabar, the stories began. How he fought in Biafra and how they killed his grandparents when the slave masters came to Calabar. He talked for almost twenty minutes before I pretended I received a call. That kept him mute for the rest of the trip.

The hotel lobby is big and luxurious . The attendants were of good manners as I was welcomed to the Tinapa continental hotel. My room was on the fifth floor and one of the attractions for this particular hotel was the free dinner at the futashi restaurant. It is always accompanied with some native dancers and my friend said they go nearly nude sometimes. I had a short nap after settling down and I got set for the dinner. I shut the door behind me as I slowly walked to the elevator to make the ground floor. I was with an older man. Like seventy; he looked at me and smiled. You came here alone, he asked? Yes I answered….. Business or pleasure? Who comes to Calabar in the middle of February for business? I said none

He kept quiet till we got to the restaurant and we sat together. The three course meal was on point and that particular evening was for jazz music. We started talking again.

Old man: so you left your wife and kids at home to make valentine alone in Calabar?

Barr mike: really my wife is so annoying to me right now, so I just travelled to clear my head.

Old man: he giggled for a laugh as he looked at me and said my son……… I’ve been here for two months now. My children are taking care of me. They felt I needed to run away from their mother based on her behavior when this illness of mine started.  Instead the illness always runs away from me when my wife is around. 

Marriage: an institution created by God to check man’s tolerance. I tell you my son if you can’t forgive your wife for whatever she does, you can’t make heaven. God forgives us and we mess up more than our spouses. As a Christian emulate Godly principles and learn to forgive your wife. So tell me what did your wife do?

It’s being eighteen years  that I have been married and it still seems like I am getting to know her more and more. My wife is like a chameleon that changes her behaviour according to the weather. I met my wife in church. The popular Baptist church in Abeokuta. My dad was the organist then and her dad was the laity chairman. Just after my degree in London I came back to work in my father’s land and I met Patricia. She is a graduate of École Polytechnique in France where she read linguistics. My approach was fantastic and my looks were charming. It was obvious we were meant for each other. The next two years saw us going on with our sex scenarios over and over again. We exhumed all the affections within and laid it up on the plains of love.  We were love birds and heaven sealed it at that time. 

 

She got pregnant before we got married. The pregnancy really facilitated the joining as the bride’s family wanted to conceal the protrusion in her before the whole world. I wished my father in law was alive, all these wouldn’t have happened. The wedding was magnificent as all dignitaries were there. Our honeymoon was in Gbadolite in Congo. Mobutu welcomed us into his mansion and we were there for two weeks. It was all yummy until the first child came and I became a second citizen. 

That attention was lost wasn’t much of an error compared to the fact that my wife wasn’t ready for the future. She still expected us to do things like of old. We lived outside planning, had sex on daily basis, visit a club every fortnight, etc. it was the beginning of our lives thus I felt we needed to sacrifice some things to enjoy a better future. But for her the present counts a lot. I accepted some part of that but for some I had to be the head of the family. 

And it came afterwards the rise of churches. Liars were now on parade in the name of God. With church names sounding like poetic scripts, and the philosophy changed from salvation to money. My wife was one of the first culprits. She became an addict in weeks and the attention shifted from the family to the church. She spent the whole day praying against enemies that didn’t kill her in her first twenty four years of living. Fasting became a regular which in turn reduced sex. Then I started being an adulterer.

The waiter brought a note for him and as I peeped I saw below General Tam. He picked up his phone and placed a call and it went thus: Tania, tell my wife to get set we are going to see the governor.

Young man….. I need to see someone now. Maybe we could finish this after breakfast tomorrow. Anyway my name is General Tam