'I’m calling off my engagement with Maxwell'

Josephine is a pretty girl who came from a humble background. ““I grew up in the village, had my primary and secondary education in my village before I was taken to America, to Chicago precisely to be a house maid to a newly married Nigerian couple. The wife was a friend of my auntie, so when she told them about me, they sent for me. And I excitedly packed my stuff when I was told that my visa and ticket were ready. I believed life has started being rosy for me after suffering in the village with my wretched parents and siblings. I made promises to them that once life started being okay for me over there, that I would be the one God would use to wipe their tears. When Uncle Alfred came to pick me up from village, I had already packed and waited. Two days later, we arrived Lagos where we boarded a flight to America. That was my first time of coming to Lagos; also my first time of boarding a plane. I said to myself that God had actually come to me in the likeness of Uncle Alfred,”” she giggled.

When she arrived, ““I was introduced to Rosemary, Uncle Alfred’’s wife whom I chose to call Auntie Rose. She welcomed me and she told me she liked me because I was pretty and that if I should add good attitude to it that I would go places. That statement reminded me of my principal in secondary school who was very fond of me. He wanted to marry me, but I wasn’’t ready to get married at that time and settle in the village. I believed my destiny was meant to fly higher and not to be in Ikeduru village. I assured Auntie Rose I would respect her and serve her. ““When I was told that I would be paid salary every month, I didn’’t know when I started dancing before the newly married couple. They asked me the skill I would like to learn in Chicago there, I told them I liked to be enrolled in a good salon/ spa where I would learn the latest trends in hair, beauty and wellness.

They agreed,”” she enthused. Josephine was enjoying life overthere. She felt at home with the couple and served them, cooked for them and run every errand she was sent. Before she was enrolled in beauty salon/spa, she had started braiding her auntie’’s hair. ““I was never taught how to weave and braid. I knew it back then in my village by watching others do it. So, Auntie Rose’’s friends would come after seeing her hair styles and I would do their own. They would give me money. I was making good money from that. I didn’’t have much to do at home because they were yet to start having children. So, after cleaning the house and cooking, I would have enough time to visit my clients and do their hair. The couple was indeed nice to me, they gave me freedom somehow, and I never abused it,”” she recalled.

What Josephine enjoyed so much about the couple was the fact that they were happy together and enjoyed their lives. ““They behaved as if they were campus sweethearts. They used to dine out at times and attended parties and night clubs a whole lot. They always loved to dance and knew the latest in music. I used to watch them and admire them, and I would imagine in my heart that I would find a good Nigerian who was based overthere to marry me some day. Though they were the cynosure of my eyes, but I noticed that Uncle Alfred had a particular shortcoming. He was extremely jealous of his wife and had the tendency of hitting her because he had serious anger.

Whenever his wife annoyed him, he would be destroying things in his house. There was a night he punched a wall mirror in the living-room, it got broken and pierced his palm. But he dared not laid a hand on his wife because he would be dealt with overthere, ““ she said. But, there was an incident that happened one day that brought the marriage to an appropriate end. ““Same incident that brought me back to Nigeria unprepared and I started from where I stopped. The only good thing I benefited was that I didn’’t go back to my village. I remained in Lagos and opened a weaving centre and I had customers who paid my bills. But that very incident had been in my memory and somehow, still haunts me,”” she said. …

…to be continued