ISOKENE (Part 19&20) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

PART 19
ISOKENE
(STOP MY WIFE FROM SMILING)
©️Opeyemi O.Akintunde

“I am taking you out of here now, please get your things” We heard the voice of Henry as he stood by the doorway, looking straight ahead trying not to maintain eye contact with us.. Gold stood up very gently and walked towards her Father…

“Daddie Daddie” That was her fun way of calling her father, and for the first time since we got back few hours earlier, she broke into tears…

“Daddie Daddie, Are you sending us away from our own house because of the new woman, you know you told me, my husband was going to come and marry me from my father’s house, You said , that is the pride of every father,now Daddie, where do you want my future husband to pick me up from?” She said using a daughter to father seductive voice, but Henry was not cajoled

“ Where I am taking you too is still one of my property, it is the small boy’s quarter I built at the outskirts of the city and besides, I am not asking you or Emerald to leave, I am only asking your mother. I can not have her in the same house with Margaret. It is not safe, they may injure or poison each other and Gold, I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death” He said holding her firmly

“ We can’t leave Mum to go live somewhere else, Besides Dad, Mum is your first wife and should be given the better privilege “ Gold said as she fought for me

“ The first wife who didn’t have time for her husband?, who didn’t care that she and her husband were not intimate for over 9 months, the first wife who didn’t care about her husband’s feeding, clothing.. What was on her mind was her teaching ministry and Counselling to wives. She was traveling around teaching what she was not…” Henry retorted staring at me hotly for the first time

“ Mum will change, She is very sorry, Daddie Daddie, please send the other woman to the boy’s quarter at the outskirts….She is just a gold digger”

Gold’s last words definitely got Henry angry, as he pushed her back…

“ Gold, I love Margaret , Just as I loved your Mum…”

Loved! Henry was using past tense to describe his love for me. It was obvious he wanted us out of the house….

“ Gold, there is no point begging him, His mind is made up, Let’s pack our stuff” I said angrily and just out of the blues, Margaret surfaced and said to Henry…

“ Henry, If they leave this house, I am leaving as well, I have told you to be a good man that you are , and let them stay”

“ Really? “ Henry said looking very angry. He drove out of the house angrily and didn’t come back….

PART 20
“ISOKENE”
(STOP MY WIFE FROM SMILING)
Written by Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde.

“ Henry, If they leave this house, I am leaving as well, I have told you to be a good man that you are , and let them stay” Margaret had said

“ Really? “ Henry said looking very angry. He drove out of the house angrily and didn’t come back…

Till late that night, We were expecting him. We stayed in my room like hostages who couldn’t move around in my own house. Margaret sent the maid to bring us food which I refused, but Gold jokingly said

“ Mum, she can’t kill three of us at once, Mum we need food for this Battle” ….We all laughed as Emerald rushed at the food…

“ Mum, We haven’t called the Aunty Isokene…”

I suddenly remembered I had not called her, but it was about 11pm, knowing who Ibidolo her husband was, I couldn’t call her at that time.

“ It’s really late, I will call her in the morning”

“ Although, I am surprised I have never heard anything about her, can you describe her”

I decided to give Gold and Emerald the full story of Isokene, how we met and what she faced with her husband..,

I noticed Gold stopped eating, especially when I told her Isokene sacrificed her smile to make her husband smile… I was surprised to find Gold crying when she said…

“ Mum, you mean she covered her face in order to stay in marriage, you mean she decided to stop smiling to stay in Marriage…” She stood up and walked towards the window. Gold was a very good mathematician , so I was wondering what Maths, she was solving in her brain…

“ Mum, the best way to solve a math is look at the example, I believe God gave you the example of Aunty Isokene so you could solve your own challenge”

“ How?” I asked

“ Aunty Isokene’s husband wanted to be happy at the expense of his wife’s happiness, Just the same way, Daddy wants to be happy at your expense. Dad wants to take away your smile and still be able to smile, he doesn’t want you to show your face in public anymore, because what testimony does a marriage counselor have when her husband is married to someone else” Gold was saying as she was seriously solving a math in her brain

Gold was right , Ibidolo had told his wife with his WORDS to stop smiling, but Henry through his own ACTIONS was telling me to stop smiling…Any man who was cheating on his wife or plans on taking another wife was telling his wife not to smile anymore… Hmmm.. Henry was just like Ibidolo

“ Mum do you get?” Gold was saying, all I did was nod, because I didn’t know where the conversation was heading.

“ So Mum, we need to apply the same Formula Aunty Isokene applied, which is playing the fool till your Joy is full, and giving Daddy exactly what he wants to make him happy…”

“ Which is?” I asked

“ We leave his house for him and his mistress!”

“Ha!” What kind of counsel was this? At that point I was beginning to sense it was possible she was beginning to talk like a child that she was…

“ How does that help me in getting back my family back together. Gold, if I leave this house for the mistress , It is over, this is my matrimonial home ”

“ Mum, it’s not the building that makes the home, it is the people in it, we can make that little boys’ quarter become home for Daddy as time goes on, if you do what I think God wants us to do”

“It’s not the building that makes the home, but the people in it” Those words hit me so hard… Was Gold right? Was I going to get a Henry back even if we were not in the same house…?

“ Gold, I built this house with your father!”

“ If you play the fool Mum, and our Joy becomes full, you both can build another one together…” Gold said reassuringly

There was silence in the room.. Gold took my phone and dialed her fathers’ number, it rang several times but he didn’t pick up…

Gold and I had a sleepless night and I suspected Margaret was also not sleeping as we heard a lot of movement from her room….

For two days, Henry did not come home.. Margaret was becoming tensed as she kept making different phone calls. By the evening of the third day, Gold walked up to me where I was lying down….

“ Mum, Stand up! we are leaving, I don’t want things to get worse than it is, the lady is so tense she might lose that pregnancy and if that happens Dad will never forgive us….”. Gold said authoritatively…

I honestly did not know why I started behaving like the child and Gold behaving like the mother. She and Emerald were parking our boxes already.

“ Mum, Your phone?” Gold took my phone and sent a text to her father which she showed me before sending

“ We have agreed to move to where you want us to go, please come home, your pregnant wife is worried sick, we don’t want anything going wrong with our Baby, From Betty and the kids”

I felt I swallowed a very hot meal as hot tears dropped from my eyes…

You wouldn’t believe Henry came back in less than 15 mins. Without saying anything to me, he asked the driver to transfer all our stuffs into a big Jeep.

As, we were about leaving, Margaret and her two sons about 6 and 8 years old respectively came close to us, her eyes were so red, it seem like she had been crying, I couldn’t contain my hurt… I faced her and said

“ God will judge you…” Before I could finish my statement, Gold had covered my mouth…

“ Mum!” Gold scolded me and she faced Margaret

“ Aunty, I am sorry for the way I spoke to you the other day, forgive my Mum too and my manners as well , please take care of my brother, I name him Diamond and Emerald wants Vinyl, although I told her people don’t bare that, Anyone you choose will be fine… Gold had tears rolling down her eyes as she spoke. Emerald ran into the Jeep….

I walked into the Jeep really hurt and broken, as Henry tried not to maintain any eye contact with me…