‘I can’t marry a guy I caught kissing my elder sister'

By ADAEZE AMOS

Modestus and Maureen met for the first time in a cinema hall somewhere in Lagos and got talking. They were both engulfed in a love movie they came to watch that they never spoke a word to each other. The hall was dark but they could still see each other.

“Modestus sat by me and kept a long face. I stole glances at him; he was cute and dateable but because he seemed not to pay attention to me and pretended as if I never existed, I concentrated and watched the movie with rapt attention.

“But we spoke the first time when the protagonist of the movie cried. His babe dumped him for another guy. The actor cried so badly that it was indeed emotional. I didn’t know when tears started dripping down my cheeks. That was when he looked at me very closely and asked ‘lady, are you also crying? You know some ladies are heartless. See how the lady dumped a guy who had loved and taken care of her all these years because the other guy is richer. I keep saying it that money rocks. It has power and women certainly worship it’.

Modestus said, looking pensive. The movie really got at us. That was when we started discussing.

“I told him that it’s not all women that worship money. That it’s true a lady can date a rich guy in order to get his money but she would happily spend the money on another guy she truly loves,” she said.

When we were through, they left the cinema hall together.

“We introduced ourselves and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Because I drove in my car, there was no need to ride with him. But before I could get home, he had already dropped a text message in my phone. I only read it when I got home because the traffic jam was heavy. His text message was all about expecting his midnight call so that we could discuss at length. When he called, he did so a few minutes past 1.

“The first question I asked was if he was alone, because his girlfriend ought to have asked who he was calling that late. He said his call friend got an admission abroad to study and she had stopped picking his call for almost a year. That he assumed she had called it quits with him. I was happy when he said that and within that short space of time I wondered why a lady should ignore calls from such a cute guy. We discussed at length. He asked me questions about my family, education, village and I answered not concealing anything. When I told him that my parents were both late, he paused for a while and said, sorry. When I told him that the only family I still had was my immediate elder sister. Though immediate, she was 10 years older than me. He told me about himself, he too had a small nucleus family, his father, mum and elder sister. Before we ended the phone chat, I knew I would date him,” Maureen believed.

When she retired to bed that night, her mind wandered off and she started remembering all that her mum told her about her family.

“My mother could only conceive and had me 10 years after having my sister. When she had me, she named me Maureen, after the female doctor that detected that her womb wasn’t properly positioned. When her womb was positioned, she conceived and had me 10 years later. She never had a male child and my dad didn’t disturb her about that. He loved his two daughters dearly. He also loved my mum but his weakness for women killed my mum. He built a house which he rented out and his tenants were mostly young unmarried ladies. Some of them were his girlfriends who were staying there without paying. Mum knew what he was doing and was always crying her eyes sore. I pitied her. She complained continually but dad couldn’t stop. It was dad’s escapades that made her had blood pressure which later killed her.

“When mum died, dad was heartbroken. He cried like a baby. I never knew he loved her that much. When she was in coma for three days, he pleaded with her and promised never to have anything to do with any other woman, nor to cheat on her. He pleaded to mum not to die, as if she had the power to prevent death. When she breathed her last and the doctor confirmed her dead, dad broke down. That was when he stopped extramarital affairs. He drove his tenants away and allowed his house agent to manage the house for him. He now wasn’t talking much and was always sitting in front of the television and watched from morning till night as if his whole life depended on it. He watched mum’s burial video over and over and blamed himself for killing a poor woman who loved him dearly. He would cry and refuse to eat.

“I couldn’t console him alone but when my elder sister came back from London after her divorce case was through, he felt relieved. The reason was that Florence my elder sister resembled my mum. They had same face and complexion. It looked as if my mum vomited her. Her presence reminded my father of his late wife and he was happy when she came to live with us,” she recalled.

It wasn’t long Florence returned that their father died.

“He died while watching TV. When my elder sister came back from the supermarket, she said she met our father sitting in front of the TV as usual but this time  with his neck bent. She said she thought he was sleeping. She then went to him, gently tapped on him to go and rest in his room but he couldn’t wake up. She shook him vigorously but all to no avail. That was when she let out a loud cry that attracted neighbours who helped to stretch him.

“My sister waited for me to come back from work in the evening before we drove him to the morgue. While she waited, she told me she was hoping that God would wake him up from death. That she needed to give him time to see if he could wake up. My sister never stopped to believe in miracles. We left the house around 10 p.m. after waiting for 10 hours to see if miracle would happen. That was how dad died, the same year that my mum died. They were both buried, so well that even the villagers were saying that Ekwedike’s daughters were men in the likeness of women.

“After my father’s burial, my elder sister and I were left in my father’s house. My sister renovated the house, the one he rented and took over the management of the house. She built a bakery right in front of it and continued with the same business our late mum was doing. When the signpost of the bakery was designed, she called it Eunice Bakery after our mum.

“All was going on well except the fact that we were lonely most times. It was loneliness that made me come to watch a movie, where I met Modestus, a pilot. We started dating; he became the only male we had in my family because he was frequenting my house. My elder sister liked him too, hence we looked up to him like a brother we never had. The day he came to propose marriage to me, something untoward happened!”

• To be continued.