‘How Stella, my childhood friend, ruined my marriage’(2)

This is the continuation of Amanda, Gilbert and Stella’s story. Amanda and Stella were babyhood friends but they parted ways immediately after secondary school. Stella stopped communicating with Amanda when her WASC result was poor because of the way her parents scolded her when Amanda’s result was perfect. She retrieved back to her shelf and avoided her one time bosom friend like a plague.

 Immediately after their youth service, Amanda and Gilbert (who met at the orientation camp, Jos) tied the knots and became man and wife. “I was indeed happy, at least I fulfilled the promise I made to my dear mother before going for my youth service. She advised me to bring a suitor home after service because I was ripe for marriage. ‘Marriage is very sweet especially when you get married at your prime and your prime according to my yardstick is 24. That was when I got married dear daughter, so toe same line,’ she told me.

“I then assured her that I would do same thing. We both laughed it off, we both hugged and when I wanted to disengage from her to hop into a cab that was ready to convey me to garage where I would join a bus to Jos orientation camp, mum still held me and started praying and later started speaking in tongues. She prayed and prayed until her sweat soaked my own blouse. The cab driver sat patiently, waited and was watching us and was also saying amen with smiles. When we said amen and I hopped into his cab, he told me that prayers of a loving mother had been very effective from time immemorial . So, when I eventually  brought Gilbert home, she said God had never failed her. On the day of my wedding, you needed to see how my mum was beaming with smiles. She was happy from the depth of her heart,” she said.

After their wedding, honey moon was awesome. “Yes, very awesome. Just as the name implies, the honey in my wedding moon was so sweet. That was when we left Port Harcourt for Lagos. Gilbert’s father insisted that he man the branch of his oil servicing company in Lagos. That was new face of life for me because it was my first time of residing in Lagos. So, I arrived Lagos happily and a few months later, I got a job with a big Pharmaceutical  company in Lagos. All was going on well except the fact that pregnancy was trying to pose a problem. I was conceiving but I was having miscarriages. It was so bad that my hubby suggested I resign from work and start having full rest. But my career was also important to me. I felt I wasn’t stressed much at work, I convinced Gilbert and he accepted. He has always been a good listener and never forced his opinion on me. So, he allowed me,” she said.

When her marriage clocked five and still no child in the marriage, Gilbert’s mother started being worried. She was asking her son questions about grandchildren and Gilbert had been hiding it from his wife. “Until one early morning when she called, my husband was in the bathroom, when I saw her name reflected on the screen of the phone, I picked to greet her. What I heard was a shocker. ‘I actually called to find out what has been preventing you from giving my son a child.’

“I didn’t know what to answer because that question came to me unprepared. I never knew whether to tell her the number of miscarriages I had or let her know how worried and anxious I had been for the past five years. She isn’t my mum, it’s my mum that  I could open myself up to easily. What I did was to sprang up from bed and rushed to the bathroom and offered Gilbert his phone. Luckily he was through and was just towel-drying his body,” she enthused.

When Gilbert started responding, “he was stealing glances at me. He wanted to walk out of the room to answer, but I held him to stay, that I needed to her hear. I already left the phone on the speaker before I gave it to Gilbert, so I heard all that she said to her son. Everything boiled down to the fact that I hadn’t given Gilbert a child since five years we got married. She sounded very worried and concerned that I never knew when tears started dribbling down my cheeks uncontrollably. One thing about my husband was that he would never stop me or interrupt me when I start crying. He had always believed that when a woman start to sob, she should be allowed  to do so because that was nature’s own way of relieving her. According to him It was better a woman  cried  out  her sorrow than to bottle  it up. I somehow believed him, I usually felt better after crying to my satisfaction and slept off.

“That was exactly what happened. I cried myself to sleep and when I woke up, I saw a written note Gilbert left that he had gone to the barbing salon. It was on a Saturday afternoon. He said I should call whenever I woke up, that he didn’t want to disturb me. He assured me in his note that he still loved me and that  nothing would ever change that. I smiled, hurried my bath and drove off to meet him at the salon. While I was driving, I stopped over at the vegetable and fruit sellers  by the road side to buy some cucumbers. I remembered my doctor  said I should be eating enough cucumber that cucumbers have a way of inducing ovulation. I bought heaps and while I was picking some good ones, the lady who was also buying was someone I never envisaged I would meet.  When she called me, her voice sounded familiar, I looked up and gave her a hug. Stella-Maris my childhood friend. She said she was in Lagos for her youth service. We chatted and we got into my car. I never knew that was when I carried a friend who never meant well for me. A friend who ruined my matrimonial joy!”

To be continued