Written by Mofoluwake Omololu.
On arriving home, all Kola wanted to do was hold his wife and apologize for whatever hurt was bugging her this time. He had heard so much about women’s strange behavior in pregnancy. Is this the beginning of it? Is this going to be his lot for the next few months? He was confused.
She slammed the door shut behind her before he was done parking the car, he quickly put off the car and was after her. He was scared stiff at that moment at her inexplicable rage, but he just had to know what she was talking about.
He wasn’t fast enough, she’d gone upstairs and into their room and locked him out. He stood defeatedly staring at the door. Knowing Lara and the vicious circles of argument they had engaged in in times past, he was certain he wasn’t getting into the room that day and that meant he’d have to beat himself up some more until Lara cooled down or decided to hash it out with him.
He tried without succeeding to beg and cajole her out of the room. Eventually, though, he withdrew to the kitchen to make something to eat for himself. The chances of Lara eating something he made was zero to none, not because they were having a row, he just wasn’t kitchen material as she would say, although he was sure his cooking was decent enough.
Uncle Dede had come in while Kola was begging at the door and his first thought was, “not again!”. He didn’t probe the cause of the trouble this time. He didn’t exactly know what had been going on the past few weeks of bliss, he’d been sure they were all walking on thin ice. He’d hoped there wouldn’t be a crack, but he prepared himself for the impact, anyway.
He knew Kola had made the meal in a very shabby attempt at saving face, they both knew that Uncle Dede didn’t think or believe Lara was upstairs sleeping because she had a headache. He pitied Kola who wore a forlorn look and obviously anticipating his inquiry as to the activity that led up to the day’s row.
After the meal Uncle Dede thanked Kola, smiled an empatic smile at him and withdrew to the solace of his own room, leaving Kola to his tumultuous mind in the annoying silence of a Sunday afternoon.
Kola had thought the chapter closed after their talk in the conference room of his office, the prayer and them dinning together.
It had been too easy but he’d hoped that was it, now he wondered how the pastor’s wife could have gotten the information about the Rio Affair. There had only been three people involved, none of which could have retold the story.
Shola was all the way in Brazil and had no idea what had happened. Or, did he? Even if he did, he definitely didn’t have any affiliation with the pastor or his wife, he hadn’t even heard of their church when it had come up in conversation.
Kola woke up with a start in the other room in the house, he’d dozed off and had a dream in the short time. The dream scared him and prompted him to reach for a Bible. He opened it and read, consulting different translations and taking notes until eventually he slept off, again.
He sensed a shadow over him and opened his eyes, his view was blurred since the figure was standing in front of the window from which the sun was shinning in. He squinted a bit and could just about make out Lara, sitting at the foot of his bed and staring at his notes. She felt him stir in the bed and turned to look at him, she had that look again, like she had seen a ghost and she asked him, “why are you reading the story of David and Bathsheba?”