Chapter 39: Chapter 39

CHAPTER 34

By the time Teju took a taxi to Oluyole Estate, the rain had started to drizzle. There was going to be a heavy shower, it seemed obvious. Teju hastened. He alighted from the taxi and strike his way to Tiwa's mansion. He should be under her roof before the rain was fully ripened. The drizzling rain dotted his face with tiny drops, dissolving the heat that had gathered under his skin. The rough wind which accompanied the rain occasionally tossed the little drops ferociously on his face and it seemed tiny stones were being thrown in his face.

His jacket fluttered in the breeze. He listened to the minuscule sound the drops made on the steel-made roofs and on the ground. He was conscious of his footsteps crushing the moistened sand. He could perceive the sensitizing scent of water mixed with sand. The pulverized whiff of the rain and the hedges of weed stung his nostrils. The houses standing tall against the dark sky did not escape his surveillance. They were intermittently lightened by the alternating red and white lightning, followed by the low rumbling of thunder.

He could feel the dark layer of the night adhering to his skin, resting heavily on his eyebrows. It seemed he was pulling through black particles and sprinkling water. It was then he realized what he was doing, and where he was going. Probably that was the first time he felt life inside of him.

It was just fifteen minutes past eight, and he hoped the rain would not try to keep him at Tiwa's house over the night. That was the very last thing he would do. He did not know exactly what to expect from the serpent called Tiwa. Men who seemed to be drowning in their problems resolve to seek superstitious logic to find the sources of their problems. Teju had started to see Tiwa in the light of being the same serpent that had tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden in a reincarnated human form.

He wondered if she would be surprised when she sees him at her doorstep without prior notice or if like any other witch, she would be seated, watching him on his way to her house in a mystic mirror. She would be waiting for him with a luscious delicacy perhaps. He did not find much perplexity in sorting out Tiwa's mansion even though he had only been there once. The gate was not locked. He could not understand why Tiwa had left her gate unlocked despite the fact it was night-time. People who lived in estates were always very paranoid of arm robbery. They were in the constant practice of shutting their gates at night. But he guessed she was expecting someone. The last person she expected would be him. He found the front door and knocked. There was silence but the low echoes of his knock remained. He knocked again a little nervously and a feminine voice responded.

"Please, come in!" the voice called out.

Teju was not sure if that was Tiwa's voice. He felt a little cluster of sweat popping out to join the raindrops on his forehead. He opened the door and closed it behind him. Teju did not notice much change in the layout of Tiwa's interior house, only that it was not filled with heads and voices as the first time he was there. Instead, there were a few numbers of sofas which were possibly outnumbered by the glut space, and a medium-sized centre table made with hard and expensive glass. Teju counted the number of his steps as the 'ko-ko' of his shoes echoed through the room which was still and lifeless. He was almost in the middle of the room when he saw a feminine figure emerging from an adjoining room.

"Wale, is that you?" The feminine figure said as the yellow glow from the chandelier fell on her and revealed Tiwa. She was in a black gown which was just at the knee level. She seemed surprised to see a different person from the one she had expected.

"Teju, you came, you got my message?" she asked, gulping her saliva.

"What message?"

"Oh, so you didn't get my message, and you're here... you see what I'm talking about"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, there's nothing to worry about. That you are here today is the most important thing right now" Tiwa said. She walked to a nearby sofa and sank into it with Teju's eyes fixed on her.

"Oh come on Teju, stop standing like a waiter, have a seat and make yourself comfortable," she said almost playfully.

The unmistakable boldness in her comportment and in her voice did not evade Teju. And for about thirty seconds, he was stung with a bolt from the blue. The brisk recovery from her shock to such reinforced audacity was not only a subject of a surprise but also a propeller of fear. Teju wondered the type of Tiwa he was going to deal with that night. He could feel terror icing his heart deep inside of him.

“Do you have a problem with sitting down?” Tiwa asked and Teju jerked out from his trance of shock. Momentarily recovering from the shock, he said firmly

"Madam, for your own benefit, I want you to be aware of the fact that I'm not here on your own interest"

Tiwa, unmoved by the agitated tinge in his voice, stared at him coldly as though he had just spoken in Latin.

"So, on whose interest are you here?" she quizzed.

"What have you been doing with my wife Simi, what did you do to her?" Teju blurted. His cheeks had started to tighten around his cheekbones. His teeth were clasped together with such firmness that could fracture the bone of a chicken.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Is she fine?" Tiwa asked almost from the bottom of her heart. The question made Teju break into laughter. The thought that Tiwa wanted to fool him into believing he was still in the dark even when he was already tired of being in the light of his misery made him laugh his head off. He gazed at Tiwa closely. She also stared at him. He wanted to see if she was just being stupid or if she was purposely playing stupid. But she also had a scrutinising face. He discovered that Tiwa was also trying to see through him, to know if he was still ignorant or not.

"Really, you’re asking if my wife is... I wonder why you think someone with flesh and blood would be fine after what you've done." Teju screamed over her. Tiwa simply gazed at him, turning her lips sideways as though she was pointing with them in a particular direction.

"I'm going to ask you for the last time, what... did... you... do... to... my... wife?" Teju asked, pronouncing the last word on a high pitch.

Slowly, Teju saw a figure standing up to her feet, and ceremoniously catwalk to him. She stood so close to him that her cologne filled his lungs. The thought of pulling her accursed cologne out of his lungs absorbed him. He was scared and angry, but he was more scared than angry. Tiwa standing so close as if she would go through him, staring into his eyes without a blink scared the living daylight out of him.

"I made her realize that she never and will never love you," she said to his face. Teju could even catch the warm scent from her mouth. Her courage stung him again with shock, but this time it was intensified. Teju’s eyebrows stood on ends. It sounded like a judgment of doom;like an eternal sentence to the sulphuric lake of fire.

"What do you mean?" Teju swallowed.

Tiwa tethered her gaze on his eyes. Teju felt utterly hypnotized by the blaze pushing out of her eyes. He had promised himself to keep his blood boiling, but it was hard to keep the flames radiating under his blood with Tiwa's eyes fixed so religiously on his face.

"I thought you're an intelligent and empathetic young man, but you keep disappointing me by being a blockhead" Tiwa said finally before turning away from him.

"Maybe I would stop being a blockhead when you stop being a snake"

Teju felt a sudden rush of relief down his spine. It’s going to be a tough one with her tonight, Teju thought bitterly to himself.

Tiwa's back view was all Teju could see. The well cut out figure eight in the gown. Her perfectly convex buttocks bowed outward like the outside of a bowl. Her precisely carved and muscled calves of her legs, and Teju wondered why she was still single. All the bachelors must have gone blind if a lady like Tiwa was still a spinster.

"I have always lived in the pain that I have been deprived of what I justly deserved" Tiwa said suddenly turning back on him after some time of silence between them.

"As I have said, my least concern is about you. All I want to know is what exactly you did to my wife and the reason you did it in plain words" Teju snapped.

“Is that what you keep telling yourself? That I am your least concern? I thought we were supposed to be friends”

“What sort of friend turns her friend’s wife against him, huh?”

“You mean what sort of friend allow his friend to be cheated on by a man who happened to be his best friend?”

“Look, I am not Sam, okay? It was not my fault. If you are looking for someone to blame for whatever happened between you and Sam, you should probably look elsewhere, starting with yourself.”

“You are his best friend. I am Simi’s childhood friend. Yet, you enjoyed seeing me enter another relationship built on deceit and lust. You enjoyed watching my heart break yet again. You enjoyed seeing me laze around with my misery”

“What was I suppose to do? Castrate Sam, or cut his penis?

“You could have told me he was fucking married?”

“Then what, you would have become his second wife?

“You should have warned me as a friend”

“Yeah, I could have told you he was married. But then, you would be heartbroken all the same. The only difference is that you might not hassle my marriage for that.”

“I’m not breaking your marriage because I blame you for what happened between me and Sam.”

“So what is this nonsense all about?”

“I have a deal for you”

“What? What deal could ever happen between God and the devil?”

Tiwa smiled.

“Sam is a dog; you and I know that fully well. I have kept a close look at him and his activities with ladies ever since we broke up. I have also kept an eye on you too since then.But I discovered Sam was discreet, he wouldn’t get caught no matter the risk. He could date two girls living in the same compound without them knowing of it. So I took the initiative of baiting him, and you know what?” She asked. She glanced at Teju as though expecting a response, and laughed. It wasa rupture of cold laughter with no emotions, just the sheer satisfaction in her mischief.

“He fell flat for it.” She continued, “He didn’t even make it hard for me at all, andnow, his marriage would dissolve like salt in water; he had deserved that long time ago. There would be an opening for me with him of course, but then, Sam could do double of what he did with his wife to me. He’s nothing without his penis. He would always sow his wild oats no matter the circumstances. So he is of no use to me. But you, you seem to be the opposite, though you are also a man with a lustful penis, I think you exert some control over it. So, here is the deal. You divorce Simi, you marry me and we travel out of the country, settle down and start our lives afresh or....”

“Wait, what are talking about? You already acquired a lawyer for her divorce papers, so what difference does it make?

“Oh, you already know about that too? Well, it shows you have not been sleeping over your problems too much. Alright then; so it is fixed that you would be divorce whether you like it or not. But then, the deal still stands. And that is, you get divorced, marry me and we get to relocate to start a new life or you get divorced and stay miserable as a bachelor for the rest of your life.”

“Why would I do such a stupid thing?”

“Because, as long as I live, all your relationship with anyone other than me would end even more tragically than yours with Simi”

“I would rather stay a bachelor and sleep with prostitutes whenever my penis is hungry than marry a she-devil like you?”

“Then what? What about procreation? You are the only child, remember? You are the last of your kind.”

“Jesus! How do you know that? You are a psychopath!”

“I’m a twenty-nine years old Nigerian woman. I am the daughter of a man who thinks I am a disgrace because I have not brought home a fiancé and I would not bow to a fixed marriage. I am a woman who has dated forty-six men since I turned sixteen and have been either cheated on or duped that forty-six times. What do you expect from a woman like that?”

Teju did not respond.

He looked at her and saw her eyes swelling with tears, her voice subdued by the emotions that heaved from her dark past, but he was not ready to give her the pleasure that he understood what she was going through. Teju’sgaze drifted to a portrait on the wall just above Tiwa’s head, determined not to be generous with his sympathy. The portrait was a paintingof Fela with his face smeared with two stripes of white paint, just below his two eyes and his signature pose of raising his both hands. Tiwa flicked off her tears with her first finger and sniffed.

“You know,” she continued“I thought all men are the same. I thought all men were slaves to their penises, and then I found you. You are the only hope that my heart could heal again. I can be happy again. You are my salvation. Do you think that would happen when you are with Simi? No. I’d rather watch you become a miserable spinster than to let any woman have you when I’m still stuck in this wretchedness.”

“So, because of all that, you decided to frame me as an adulterer and pitch my wife against me?”

“Yes, that’s right. Your head is now working”

“Because of your happiness, you had to ruin mine?”

“Not exactly, I had to make you sacrifice a little happiness, for a bigger, greater one”

“Out of all you know about me, you overlooked one very crucial thing.”

“Well, what might that be?”

“Love; you don’t know how strong love is, do you?”

“Teju, you are standing before a woman who had fallen in love so many times and had been cheated on nevertheless. If the problem was love, do you think we would be standing here talking to each other?”

Teju did not respond.

“Well, if you are looking for love, I’m ready to give you mine”

Teju scoffed.

“Look, I don’t want to know about the myths of your love, the only love I recognise is Simi’s love,” Teju said.

Tiwa burst into laughter. Her laughter pealed through the house like a church bell. She laughed still her eyes pushed out some tears from them and Teju wondered what could have been so funny in what he had said.

“Simi loves you? Really, how much of that can you prove to me now?” Tiwa teased, winking at him. Teju became wordless. Maybe he had no proof. Maybe Simi’s love had become one of those things he could not prove but knew existed. The love they had for each other was like the wind. They could not see it, but they could feel it more than anything in the world. However, just like any normal person, Simi was more inclined to believe what she sees rather than what she feels.

“Oh well, her love for you is obvious. Maybe that’s why she had ditched you on your first wedding anniversary date. Or maybe that’s why she’ll ask for a divorce immediately you get home tonight.” Tiwa said.

Teju deafened his ears as those words worked their effects on him. He felt like dashing at her and laying his strong arms around her breakable neck. He could snuff out the life out of her without any fear that he could be hanged for it. His muscles were tensed. His blood was boiling. Even the cold he felt vanished at once. Tiwa’s last words of scorn and irony were as biting as the sting of a wasp. It was like he had been told to rot in hellfire even as a martyred saint.

“I’m not going to let that happen, never,” Teju said silently to her, eating his teeth.

“And how on earth are you going to stop that? Or are you going to beat her to a pulp and force her to stay like your best bosom friend had done?”

He hated what Tiwa did. Every word from her lips was a lie, but they cut deeper than a stiletto. She knew better than that. She knew he was nothing close to a violent man or an adulterer. Sam was his best friend all the way back from secondary school, but that did not amount to the fact that they shared the same flaws. She had said those words with purpose, and he hated her for it. He wished she had not compared him with Sam. Such comparison soiled him and threw everything he had ever believed in and had ever stood for into the garbage.

“I’m just going to make you tell her the truth”

“Oh no, don’t be that daft, if you would beat me up, you can just start doing that, because that’s the last thing I’d do,” Tiwa said.

Teju scoffed

“I’m not going to force you, because you already did,” Teju said with a scathing simper leaping up to his face.

“How”

“Because I have this”

Teju slipped out his phone from his pocket. He stretched it out in his hand and played a recorded conversation between them. Tiwa listened, with horror written boldly on her face.

“Bold and clear; this is all I needed. This is the very thing I needed, and the maze is solved. Thanks for your service” Teju said as the voices blared out from the speaker. He had a broad smile skulked to his face. Tiwa stood transfixed on a spot, staring menacingly at the phone in Teju’s hand.

Suddenly, she darted at him and snatched the phone away from him. She was so fast that Teju had not seen her coming. It slipped off his hand and landed a few inches away from them on the floor. Teju repossessed the phone from the floor. Tiwa grasped his hand and tried to win the phone from his grip. Teju tried to shake her off, but she glued to him like a magnet.

He raised his other clenched fist, ready to bring it down heavily on Tiwa but it hung in the air as though there was no gravity to bring it down. He tightened his grip on the phone instead. Suddenly, he felt a sting of multiple sharp objects trying to tear off his skin and pull out his veins. It was Tiwa's teeth biting his hand. It felt like multiple bites of large boorish soldier ants at a time.

Teju sent a manly shriek into the air. He raised his other hand again to punch her out of her irrational bestiality but he could not bring it down on her.She tightened the firmness of her teeth against his skin as though she would tear it off. He screamed out, and let loose the phone from his hand. He started to nurse his hand. He tried to shake off the pain which had started to seep into his veins and bones. Tiwa had cracked an opening on his skin and there was blood on his hand.

Tiwa busied with the phone. Immediately Teju recovered, he rushed at her and snatched the phone away from her. To make sure he had control over the situation, he pushed her away with agonized anger. She staggered back. She slipped. Then she fell with her face up against the glass centre table which shattered into pieces.

Slowly, thick, fresh red blood flowed from her head. They flowed on the pieces of glass. Teju stared in shock. He trembled at the body as it lay trapped in between the pieces of glass, quiet, without budging, without a sign of life. He checked his phone; the audio file was gone, gone probably with her.