Bitter Sweetness

Episode 11

The night unfolded peacefully. I had been
in my bedroom mostly after my last chat
with Uncle D. I had been on a very long call
with my girlfriend. She had called me after
all this while. “She must have missed me”, I
had felt when her number appeared on my
phone screen. Unfortunately, I got far
worse than I had expected. She was asking
for one of her certificates I had once helped
her laminate. She was not home at the
time so I had to get to her place, fetch the
certificate, laminate, duplicate and send as
she instructed. She had applied for a
scholarship exam of which she did not scale
through for some reasons I could not tell.
Now she wanted the certificate back. I had
not returned it since then and had it in my
bedroom back at home. When she spoke
about it, I wanted to sound very indifferent
but remembered she had not given it to me
herself so needed to hand it back. I quickly
gave her a description of how and where to
get it but I could not just end the call at
that point. I was already feeling that she
had only used the certificate as a bait but I
was so so wrong for as I brought up the
issue of our breakup, she easily returned
back to her many complains of my
demanding so much from her. She accused
me of being too detailed about things and
not easily accepting to forgive one’s
wrongdoings. I was not expecting all those
from her again so had to cut in at some
point. This was looking like the last
conversation we would ever have and I
made sure I told her exactly how I felt
about her rudely attitude towards me. Not
long after, we ended the call. It was a
chapter that had to be closed!

It was Saturday. The much awaited
Saturday. It had looked to be our fantasy
day all along but gradually turned bitter as
its morning unfolded. The sales boy was
not travelling with Uncle D and neither was
he instructed to open shops today. He was
going to stay at home and that seriously
spelt bad luck!! I could not just tell the
reason for the sudden change of plan.
Uncle D always had his shop open on all
week days excluding Sundays. He had even
asked the sales boy to take charge a couple
of times on certain days he had not made it
there since my arrival. This very decision
only looked weird. “Was Uncle D suspecting
something between myself and Onyinye?” I
started asking within me “had she been
refusing him s*x?”. What would have
warranted the sudden change? Or have I
been a bit rusty with him? I could not not
just place a finger on anything reasonable.

I would have to keep to myself this few
days until he got back. I doubted she had
not seen the hand writing on the wall
either.

Before the morning could basically come
alive, Uncle D was off. He needed to be at
the bus park by at least seven o’clock if he
was to arrive Onitsha before Ten o’clock the
same morning. Onyinye had done the
things she ought to do (she was the perfect
housewife; I for once never challenged
that) and had followed him into the streets.

They had no car of their own so he was
going to use the bus park. I had said my
goodbyes earlier and was getting my cloths
ready for laundry. I had few to wash
considering I had not been at work since
Wednesday. I also had to be fast about it
because Uncle D’s curious decision meant
new game plans for me. I needed to be at
work as I had told D I would. Even if that
did not mean work as in workplace. No
Jupiter could change that now. Not
knowing the roles the sales boy would play
while at home today, meant I needed not to
take chances.