THERESA
Theresa exhaled slowly as she approached the dining area. She exhaled to calm her throbing heartbeats and steady her shaking hands. She got to the dining room and carefully placed the silver tray on the table. She adjusted the dishwares that didn't need adjustment on the tray, she smoothened down the table cloth where there were absolutely no bumps, all to calm her racing heart. It was beating painfully against her chest now.
She heard movement, a shuffle from the room, the last room in the corridor. The big room she shared with her husband. Then she heard approaching footsteps, everything seemed so loud in her house that was eeirly quiet. Quick steps, one, two, three and he was standing by the door. She swallowed and shifted a little bit from the table.
She lowered her eyes, cringing from his gaze. In the past she would always stare at him lovingly, gaze into his eyes and trace his brows with her fingers, and when he smiled she would sink her fingers into his cheeks. Everything changed though after he started seeing another woman. She became suspicious when he would zone out of their conversations, and when she called his attention to it, he yelled at her. That was new! maybe he is busy, maybe he is stressed. She did her best to comfort him and strengthen their bond, nothing was working, she did all the things her mother said could keep a man, nothing worked. Her suspicions grew when he started keeping late night, she still didn't want to believe it, this was a dedicated family man. Her own husband, the man of her dream and soul mate. Then he began spending long hours in his study, he would make long calls, the day she finally buried the notions that perhaps those were business calls, and listened in from the phone in the kitchen, her fear was confirmed. Her husband was cheating.
Her realisation didn't make his announcement any less painful though. He announced on a quiet morning that he was taking a new wife, a young woman, nineteen years old, he was a traditional man and didn't believe in this Christian monogamy nonesense. Theresa stared in disbelief. This was not right, it went against all the things she was told. When her husband had come to ask for her hand in marriage, all her cousins rejoiced with her, her friends confessed they envied her luck. She was made for life, this was a refined man that lived in the big city of ibadan, he had a transport business and she would live in a big house, she would not trek to the stream anymore, ibadan had running water, and since he behaved like all these oyinbo people he won't take another woman to contend with her. They had all lied, all of them, they had lied.
She watched him take a seat now, her heart was racing even more now as he took the lid off the first dish of poisoned meal. If she can't have him to herself, no one else will, the new bride can as well have him dead and cold. The new wife had changed him, she ruined her home.
Her husband was making small talks, he liked how neat the house looked, his bride would be here before evening with her mother and sisters, he even chuckled about how he will have both women fight for his attention now, how she should not fret because he would still satisfy both in bed, she was nodding and smiling although her eyes hurt and she was almost certain her eyes looked painfully red. Her husband stopped suddenly. He stared into the dish of pounded and and egusi soup.
"What is this?" He asked. Her heart sank, her head froze, she could not breath. "Why did you bring this?" He looked from her to the dish, again and again. Theresa could feel hot urine trickling down her thighs.
"Why did you cook my food with iced fish, how many times will I tell you not to. Why did you?" He roared.
She found her voice. "I fried it. It's fried fish".
"Whatever". He replied. "I don't eat iced fish, I don't know why you just won't take simple instructions, this is why I took a new wife". With that he stood up and stormed out. She heard his car start up and heard him drive out. She quietly walked back to the kitchen and sat heavily on the kitchen stool, and began to cry. She cried till she had runny nose, she cried till her eyes got swollen, she cried till her boys that had snuck out to play down the street snuck back in, she didn't hear them over the sound of her choking sobs, She cried for long, she only stopped when she heard her last son scream. She scrambled up and bolted to the living room, that was the direction she had heard the scream for. She saw her youngest son crying and talking at the same time, she could hear him clearly but could really not make sense of it. "Hungry, we went to play ball, good food, mummy, mummy would beat us. I didn't eat, ask her first.
She could not make sense of the words, nothing made sense, she only had eyes for her older son, her first child, her first seed and look alike, he was struggling, holding his throat, his eyes rolling, his tongue was stuggling too, extending, getting longer, struggling out of his head. She was scared to go near him. This is how the dibia had said it would work, the exact same way but this was her son. She ran and held him, he struggled for a while and then he stopped.
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