UNTITLED- Just wrote it this morning, so I don't have a title yet. Read, Comment, Enjoy! I hope.

Jimoh has changed.

This angry, irritable man wasn’t the man I promised to stand beside, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.

This Jimoh was something else, he doesn’t look me in the eye and finds fault in all that I do. He keeps late nights and has refused to eat my food, the same food that had drawn him to me.

I met Jimoh at a friend’s wedding, I was a newbie caterer, my work force was non-existent, so the food served that day was cooked solely by me.

Not to brag, but I’m quite an accomplished cook, naturally compliments were pouring in from all sides and I took them in stride, smiling and saying thank yous and exchanging business cards and numbers. I was still floating on my cloud of praise, when suddenly I tripped.

I was wearing eight inch stilettos – I know it isn’t practical for a caterer, but beauty is marketing, and beauty is pain.
The fall was bound to be disastrous and I realised that I was going to fall headlong into a plate of rice, how ironical, I thought.

Suddenly hands grabbed me and twisted me towards them, and I found myself leaning against abs made from solid rock, I couldn’t lift my head to look at the face, shame wouldn’t let me.

Then I heard this deep voice, “if you wanted to eat the food, you could have just used a spoon, no need to fall into it”.

I wanted to fire back a witty retort, but a spoon was shoved into my mouth, and then the voice started laughing, deep rumbles in his throat. I was mortified.

“I’ll call you tomorrow” said the voice as fingers took one of my complimentary cards from my breast pocket, then the abs left, just as suddenly as they had appeared.

The next day he called and before I knew it, we were dating and I was desperately in love with him, we got married and everything was cosy.

At least for the first year.

After the first year, and there was no child, I started to panic, I went to all sorts of place for “solution”. I almost ran mad, but Jimoh kept me sane, he doted on me and made sure I was distracted and didn’t think about our childless situation.

It’s been three years now, and Jimoh is acting weird, he doesn’t answer when I ask what’s wrong, there has to be something wrong. I had even invited his mother to talk some sense into him, but that doesn’t seem to working, in fact it’s actually getting worse.

He always listens to her and if he didn’t listen now then there was a big problem. I can’t. I can’t let my man slip away from my fingers like that, this has to end today, work is going to have to wait.

With that, I turned the car around and raced to the house, fervently praying that he hasn’t gone to work yet. The house was quiet, oddly quiet, Mama usually liked playing the radio when she was alone. This means that Jimoh was around, but where was he.

Suddenly I heard whispers...they were coming from Jimoh's room. I tiptoe, cautiously, pressing my back against the walls until I reached the door. I place my ear against the door knob and listened.

“...she’s barren, she won’t give you kids, you’ll be a laughing stock, I’ll be a laughing stock. I want my grandkids Jimoh and you must give them to me one way or the other, else you are no longer my son. I carried you for nine months, fed and clothed you and saw to your education, now I’m old and dying, yet my only son can’t give me this one wish, I have suffered”

“Mama, no don’t talk like that, you won’t die, what do you want me to do, I’ll do it. Please mama.”

“I want a child Jimoh, you see this girl I brought for you today, she’s a very good girl from my village, she will give you children, I've already married her for you the traditional way, your barren wife doesn’t have to know...I’ll leave you and her, you know what to do”.

I hid, and watched Jimoh’s mother, Mama, sail out from the room.

I was paralyzed, but I forced myself to move, to crawl to the door which was ajar. What I saw would forever haunt me, I saw my husband grunting way on top of a woman, he didn’t realise I had entered the room, that I was watching.

And then I couldn’t look anymore, a small whimper comes out of mouth, and that makes Jimoh whip his head towards me. He is shocked, and tries to clamber of the girl, but he gets entangled in the sheets and ends up on the floor. The moron on the bed is laughing, teeth the colour of spoilt oranges open wide in bitter mockery of me.

“Jimoh, Jimoh, ji... Ji” I stutter,

“how can you do this to me?”.

“Miriam I want a child”.

He looks ridiculous, butt naked with the sheets twisted around his legs. I almost smile.

But no, I go nuts.

“liar! Liar! Your mother wants a child! Your conniving bitch of a mother! That sl—"

I saw stars, Jimoh had slapped me. And then all hell broke lose.

The punches were too fast to dodge, too many to count. I curled up in a ball on floor, and let them all fall. Tears and blood stained the white tiles in our bedroom, tiles that I had put immediately after our wedding.

When he got tired, he spat on me and left the room.

I stagger, to the door, to the gate, to the street. I don’t even realize I’m running now. I don’t know how my legs carry me, but I run and run and I don’t look back.

THE END.

Have a great day! It's raining balls where I am, so make sure you have a great day.

👋