I HAVE DRUNK STRANGE WATERS - EPISODE 44

 

EPISODE 44

Babe?"

"Yes"

"Why is it that you don't look pregnant?"

She burst into laughter, she laughed so much that I started feeling like a fool.

"What's funny?"

"Your statement of course, have you seen pregnant women before? How do they look?"

"Fat, and ugly" 

She burst into another round of laughter and I began to find everything amusing too.

"Pregnancy does not start showing until you are 5 months gone, if you don't believe me you can ask Mama," she said smiling.

"Does it mean you'll start looking big and ugly in a month?" 

"Maybe and Maybe not. We have a good gene in my family, we glow and look beautiful when we are pregnant"

"Then I have to thank whoever passed that gene to you. I have never seen you looking less than beautiful Babe" I whisper into her ears.

"That's because I take good care of myself. Apart from a good gene, a woman needs plenty of money to take good care of herself"

"You can spend all my money babe. I'm sorry about how I treated you earlier, in fact, I'm sorry about how I have been treating you since I arrived. The journey has been stressful and tiring, I took out all my frustrations on you"

"It's Ok my love, I know how many sacrifices you have made for us and our baby. I forgive you" 

One thing I cherish so much about Cynthia is her good heart, she gets angry easily and can be pacified without much effort. Kike has always been a slow poison and a doormat, she will apologize for every little thing even if she's not at fault.

"Let's go to our room, today's our wedding day"

"Not so fast Mr! I know what you are thinking" she smiled sweetly.

"I paid for it, let me have a taste," I said tauntingly

"Not tonight, I'm tired and so are you. I suggest we sleep in a separate room tonight, we need to rest"

"You can come to the room, I promise not to touch you"

"Easier said than done. Rest tonight, I'm all yours tomorrow after the ceremony" she said with a smile and walked away.

I went back to my hotel room with a smile on my face. Something asked me to call Mr. Yinka to find out what he was doing in Calabar but I dismissed the thought. Whatever he's doing in Calabar is his business. I don't have to be afraid of what he's going to tell people about Cynthia and me, once we get back to Lagos we intend to make our marriage public.

I dreamt about Cynthia and the baby in her womb that night. The baby turned out to be a girl, she was cute like an angel and I called her Sandra. I woke up the following morning with a smile on my face.

Cynthia gave the direction of her village to the bus driver that brought Mama, Cynthia already left very early in the morning with some of her friends. I was following Mama's bus from behind and the first trouble started when Mama started arguing with the driver, I had to park my car to settle the dispute when I noticed that their vehicle stopped moving.

"What is it again this morning?" I said to the driver impatiently, I didn't want to offend Cynthia's family any further by getting late to the venue.

"Tell Mama to allow me to do my job, Sir, I was following the direction the bride gave me and she asked me to turn back," the driver said in frustration.

"Mama, what happened?"

"This foolish man wants to kidnap us and take us for ritual, I have been to Cynthia's village before, and where he's taking us is not the place" Mama shouted.

"I have been driving for over 10 years now Mama, I have visited the East, North, and South several times, can you allow me to do my job please?" The driver shouted back.

"If they send you to use my family for ritual tell them my head is too strong! It is you that will use your head to carry your ill luck. Call Iyawo right now Femi! I'm not leaving this place if she did not confirm the venue, I just started enjoying my life, I reject all the evils planned by my enemies"

I knew how stubborn Mama could be so I decided to call Cynthia to confirm the venue, her number was switched off and unreachable. I was torn on who to believe between Mama and the driver, I decided to believe Mama since she has visited the village before during our introduction ceremony"

"Driver please take us to where Mama described, she has been to the place already" I pleaded.

"If you discover she's wrong we can waste up to two hours on that road, the road is very bad, it can even damage my car"

"I'll pay to get your car fixed if anything happens to it, let's be on our way so that we won't be late"

The driver agreed reluctantly and decided to turn back, I kept praying Mama should be right because I can't afford to waste two additional hours if she turned out to be wrong but luck was not on our side.

The village Mama described was deserted when we got there, the environment was very dirty, and the piled-up refuse looked like an aftermath of a lavish party.

"Mama I think you are wrong, this can't be the place," I said after coming down from my car to inspect the neighborhood.

"Do I look like a child to you? I said this is the compound we visited for the introduction. Look at the three coconut trees over there, the driver urinated behind it when..."

I entered the nearest compound and asked if anyone knows a girl called Cynthia, the woman and child I met in the first compound cannot speak English, and the woman kept gesticulating with her hands. The driver came to meet me a few minutes later.

I asked Mama and her relative to get back on their bus while I returned to my car, the driver looked very angry but I managed to signal to him to go back to where we are coming from. We embarked on another journey that took us about two and a half hours, finally we burst into an open space.

There was a party going on and a live band was playing, it was a small gathering of less than a hundred people. A group of boys stood at a side, they were wearing local attires and drinking palm wine.

I stayed inside the car and watched as Mama and everyone from the Bus got down to join the party. Mama came to meet me inside the car several minutes later.

"Femi, what is everyone going to eat? We are all hungry"

"Mama, I gave Cynthia all she asked for, she has enough to cook for everyone. Meet with her and she'll hand over our food portion to you" 

"Iyawo has been ignoring us since we got here, she didn't even come over to greet us. You should ask her yourself because I don't want any embarrassment" Mama said spotting an angry look.

"Maami, Cynthia is a nice and amiable girl. She is your daughter now so please relate with her that way. We already discussed feeding and she promised that there would be enough food for everyone"

"Femi, you know you have to compensate me for all these troubles, I don't have any market in my shop again and I borrowed so much so that everything can go on smoothly"

"Maami! I gave you 1.5M to prepare for this wedding, why do you have to borrow again?"

"Femi, the attire I'm wearing today costs 200k, I bought shoes and gele too. I had to buy 2 Outfits as the mother..."

"It's OK Maami, I'll find a way to settle all your debt when you get home. Please ensure everything goes on smoothly, I don't want any wahala"

"Femi Femo! Oko Iyawo! It is our enemy that will die of envy! By the time it is our turn to dance I'll prove to Iya Tawa that she's just an ant" Mama said with Enthusiasm.

She got out of the car and went to join the party, I put on the car AC and I was beginning to relax when I heard a loud noise coming from the party.

I strained my neck to see what was going on and saw that someone was on the floor, I saw Mama's attire and quickly got out of the car. Before I could reach the crowd I saw Mama getting up from the ground and holding on to another woman clothe.

"Yeeeeeee! You'll kill me today!" 

Before I could get to where she was another slap landed on her face and she screamed. A murderous rage took over me as I ran towards the woman assaulting Mama, I saw a group of ladies holding her hands. 

Mama is now on the floor wailing, I turned to look at her assailant and my body stiffened in shock as I stared at Cynthia's angry face.

To be continued...

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