Withered Flower - Episode 15

Iyeke stood in front of the mirror, looking at her physique. She imagined how she will look with a protruding stomach and used a pillow to under her t-shirt for effect.

“You make me laugh each time you do that, you know?”

She didn’t see him enter the bathroom and quickly took out the pillow from underneath her blouse and threw it at him, playfully.

“What are you doing up?” She said

“I should be asking you that, it is 2am in the morning”. He spun her round to face him.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you? I couldn’t sleep and…”

“And you came into the toilet to-o-o-o sleep, drink water…” he said playfully.

“Don’t be silly, I came to think and besides, I have been very worried about what Mama said, when I called”.

Earlier that day, she had called her grandmother to see how she was doing. Her grandmother sounded unusually strange and then asked that she came home for a bit. She had asked her if there was a problem but she had been unwavering, still insisting that she came home.

A lot went through her mind. Her grandmother was the only family she had, forget all those her wayward cousins, who jumped from one man to the other. She laughed at the thought of that. This was a case of pot calling kettle black, as she wasn’t even sure of who the father of her unborn baby was.

“Babe, let’s get back to sleep. Tomorrow is a long day and we have to get enough rest for the drive to Benin. Kene’s voice brought her to reality.

“We?” she looked at him. She had just told him that she was going to Benin but he didn’t say anything about following her.

“You really think I would allow you take public transport to Benin? Woman, you are carrying the son of Kenechukwu Afam Mezu, thus you cannot be moving around like the common people. We are leaving at 8, so be ready”. Kene said with a straight face.

Laying on the bed, Kene started playing with her body. She knew where this was leading and she didn’t know if she would be able to resist. Her body was tired, after all, they had just finished making love about fours ago but Kene had a gift. His love Making was second to none but that wasn’t what was on her mind.

It has been a year since she saw her grandmother, though she has been speaking to her over the phone. She didn’t know how her grandmother will take it that she had never told her about any man, even the last time she called, the question on whether she was dating anyone surfaced and she had said no. How was she going to explain who Kene was and knowing Kene, he would try to impress her grandmother.

She drifted off to sleep as Kene pounded away.

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“All you need to execute the transaction is all in there. I don’t want her killed, just scare her and if possible, give her a scar on her left cheek to act as a deterrent”.

Ugoeze was a bit disappointed, as this was not her regular “contractor”. She had expected to see him but then he called that he was out of town but would send someone else. This arrangement did not go down well with her but she wanted this done as quickly as possible.

She had called her “contractor” to ask if she could trust the new person she sent. She was a discreet person and didn’t want anything to be traced to her by anyone, especially her husband, the architect of this whole “FBI career” of hers.

Her husband was a very randy person, a dog on heat. Why do men cheat on good women? She had wondered. In the beginning, she used to cry a lot even retaliated by having a few affairs herself but she couldn’t keep up with “Mr Randy” and had to devise new means of coping with this.

It is amazing what you can learn from watching Nollywood movies. She had watched one where Nse Ikpe Etim’s character used to abduct her husband’s girlfriends and bring them home to flog. It was funny but an idea came to her from watching that and that was when she decided to abduct and torture the girls for three (3) days and then give them a stern warning to leave her husband. Of course, this was done in proxy and her “contractor” has never failed her.

Sometimes, she suspected that her husband knew she was the reason why his girlfriends’ suddenly stop picking his calls. She could see it in his face but she never gave him the chance to even trace anything to her.

“Like I said, everything you need is in there. Do a thorough job and you will get extra for successful execution”. She said to the new “contractor.

She got into her car, turned on the radio and “Chandelier” by Sia was playing. She turned up the volume and sang along. After all, with the mood she was in, she definitely wanted to swing from the chandelier.

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She knew it had only been a year but there seemed to have been a lot of difference in Benin. The streets were cleaner but still as busy, not like Lagos though.

The road leading to her grandmother’s house was tarred. She remembered how she was always covered in dust from the park to the house and would have to scrub and scrub till she was thoroughly rid of the dust that caked her body.

She could see her grandmother standing on the porch. She looked healthy, thank God. There was a woman standing with her, light skinned and very beautiful, despite her outfit. Iyeke wondered who she was.

“If not that you were an only child, I would say that that the woman beside the elderly woman, was your older sister. She looks like you, I mean a lighter version of you” Kene said.

Iyeke looked at the woman very well, she could see some semblance but she was none of her business.

“Iyekoetin, e don tay oh. Why you no dey like come see your mama?” Madam Edosa said, hugging the kneeling Iyeke.

“Mama, Ób’ávàn (good afternoon)”. She replied.

“Welcome my pickin. Who be this person?”

“Ah ah Mama, make we enter house nah”.

Madam Edosa offered drinks to Iyeke and the man she brought. Anyone looking at her, could tell she was nervous. She wondered how this conversation was going to go. All day, she had tried to convince Ogochukwu that this was a bad idea but the woman was unbending.

“Mama, are you okay?” Iyeke asked, looking at the strange woman from the corner of her eyes, wondering why she was staring.

“My pickin, I been want make you come because…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence.

“I am your MOTHER!!!” Ogochukwu screamed.