“You are a useless man! Marrying you will always remain the biggest mistake of my life.” Anwuli yelled as her voice echoed in every corner of the sitting room.
“Woman! I am not in for your troubles this night, kindly get out of my way and let me have my peace” Kanayo retorted with irritation dotted in his increasingly strident voice.
“Oh! You think you can go out and come back anytime you like? No way! Until you start acting like the responsible man I married, you will never have your peace in this house” she countered immediately with her index finger almost making its way into his eyes.
“Bia! This woman, I have had enough! Will you please get out of my way and let me be; since you want to be mad tonight.” He hurled back as he swiftly pushed her.
She rolled on the floor even as she wailed and invoked ancestral curses on him like one who deliberately needed the attention of the entire neighbourhood as usual. Unfortunately, everyone was tired of settling a royal rumble between two supposed adults who decided to walk down the aisle and be one, even though they forgot marriage wasn’t a piece of cake.
Kanayo who was already exhausted from the verbal kerfuffle, gently relaxed on the couch in the bedroom. He had never for once imagined that marriage was going to be a dwelling of daily verbal fracas. He journeyed slowly into the past on how sweet and affectionate Anwuli used to be during their days of courtship and few months into their marriage. She was the perfect definition of a virtuous woman the book of proverbs described. He was self-assured that his marriage would be nothing far from shades of blissfulness. In view of the fact that she was an equanimous lady who seemed unflappable in the midst of storms and crisis, always boosted his credence in having a lifetime relationship with her. It always rang in his head that marriage wasn’t a bowl of cherries. Nonetheless, he knew it wasn’t one out of many ways to die either. He was familiar with the popular notion that women changed but nobody told him they transformed entirely. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that the paramount cause of the daily brawl was the time he was accustomed to returning from work which his wife exaggerated to be “late night.” Daily, he endeavoured to be home at nothing less than 8pm, but this was a futile effort for Anwuli. She always sung it audibly to his hearing that a responsible man graced the warmth of his home by 8pm at most. To her, he was simply being delinquent, as all the excuses he neatly framed up for his usual time of return, never sold out.
Anwuli ruggedly headed for the room. She stood still at the door when she noticed her husband laid on the couch completely immersed in his thoughts. In an antagonistic and disdainful way, she stared at him. She was negligent to the stark reality that her marriage was slowly heading for the rocks. To her, Kanayo had a huge chunk of the blame since he decided to keep late nights, and not return at the appropriate time he used to, when they courted and few months into their marriage. She was deliberately oblivious to the fact that he got a better job which laid hold of a better part of his time and coming back home later than he used to, was only part of the sacrifice he needed to pay for having a better job.
“If you allow that food on the dinning waste this night, consider eating out daily.” She rudely uttered with a snap.
Kanayo, who was briskly withdrawn from his journey down memory lane, quietly stared at his wife helplessly. The roaring lion in him had gone feeble already as all he needed was absolute tranquility.
“Anwuli, how have I wronged you as a husband? Why have you decided to make life a tough row to hoe for me and us?” he frailly voiced out.
Like a little child crying for mercy, he lamented “In everything I do, I try to be upright in sustaining all the vows I made to you on the alter. We are barely a year into this marriage, but you have totally transformed into a stranger. Every day, I wake up with a burning desire to see the woman I married and vowed to love till my last breathe, the one who promised to be my peace in the midst of storms, the queen who promised to reign with me forever in my kingdom…”
“Spare me the emotional black mail!” she abruptly cut in with her face covered with so much disgust.
“So, you didn’t know all these when you decided to start staying out late with those little bitches? Oh please! Stop bluffing.” she saucily yelled with her hand dangling in the air, after which she fiercely stormed out.
He watched her walk out of the room with rage and fury in her eyes. At that point, if a stranger divulged to him that his beloved wife was spellbound, he would believe without an iota of doubt. He wondered what sane woman nagged her husband into the point of bitterness, accompanied by fickle accusations of infidelity because he returned from work by 8pm. He swam in his bitter thoughts till he entered dreamland.
At the office the following day, closing hours drew nearer. Kanayo reluctantly remained glued to his seat with his head placed against the table. The thought of his daily ding-dong with his wife always left him incapacitated and crippled emotionally, he was completely lost in his sorrowful thought, unknowing to him that the clock ticked faster than ever. Before he regained control of his emotions, it was past 9pm already.
“Jesus!” he exclaimed with total dismay while he hurriedly made his way out of the office and mounted his staring. Conflicting thoughts dashed through his mind, he knew he was in for bigger troubles that night. On reaching home, Kanayo braced up after several failed attempts of twisting the door handle. He finally faced his fears and struggled to open it. Severally, he tried with a great force but the door seemed obviously locked. He resulted to knocking on the door, followed by a loud bang when he heard his wife audibly humming her favourite music in a manner that communicated trouble.
“Anwuli! I know you are inside, and you can hear me. Please, kindly open this door.” He requested firmly.
This time, she geared up and sang in a deafening style. Kanayo knew he was in for gross troubles already, he obliged to pleading humbly if that would make her have a cold feet and think differently.
“Okay, I know I just returned very late. I’m sorry, it wasn’t intentional, and I didn’t mean to get on your nerves. Please, open the door and let me come in, so I could explain myself. I never intended staying out…”
“Please shut that gutter mouth of yours which vomits lies always. After all my rants and ceaseless complaints about your attitude of returning late from work, you decided to stay out later than usual so as to dare me, right? I know you want to see my worst, I will give it to you in double folds and more this night” she firmly interrupted from the window where he had only a faint view of her.
Her words struck him on the wrong part, he got enraged this time, and it was unbearable for him to think that his own wife conceived the idea of locking him outside his house.
“I swear to God, if you don’t open this door right away, I will pull it down and you wouldn’t like what I would do to you”, he vigorously emitted with a raging anger in his eyes as he gnashed his teeth. He appeared like one who would singularly bring down the entire house and not just an ordinary door as he claimed.
Silence saluted his threat, Anwuli gave a cold shoulder to all his intimidating remarks. Kanayo struggled firmly to pull down the door forcefully but it seemed tougher than he expected. After several frustrated attempts of materializing his threat, he roared angrily and dashed his hand against the glass window which was mounted beside the door. He sluggishly headed for his car, he took satisfaction in regrets whilst he prepared his mind on the easiest procedure(s) in divorcing Anwuli and how strong hearted he would be towards the pleas of anyone who mattered. He finally answered the call of nature in his enraged state while making strategic plans.
At the dawning of a new day, loud wails and howls of neighbours greeted the atmosphere. Meanwhile, Anwuli drew to a close that her husband in his display of cowardice, returned to warm the bed of one of his cheap slut. It never occurred to her he did otherwise. The loud cry disrupted her peace, and she offered to have a glimpse of what warranted such loud scattered noise when many had not woken up fully. She encountered the greatest shock of her life, her husband’s stiff and lifeless body stuck to the driver’s seat! He was in his own pull of blood which had turned black and sticky already. Apparently, he had a deep-seated wrist cut on his artery when he angrily bashed the window.
Tales by Marvy
Very emotional???
Hmm☹️☹️