Lemonades episode 7

TITLE: LEMONADES

WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI

PART 7

You will think I was wiser; I wasn’t. I became very conscious of my finances. I saw a woman die leaving behind her three children. The dead woman’s mother was crying, she asked where she will get money to train the children. I didn’t want that. I took Junior to the bank and made his next of kin to all my accounts. I also opened an account for him and put some of the money there. I swore I would never remove money from his savings that was why I insisted on Emmanuel paying the rent and other utilities. If that was his only contribution to my son and me’s welfare then we were grateful.

When we moved into the flat, Emmanuel wasn’t always in Abuja. He stayed three days and went back to Lagos. He was better behaved and was more committed to the relationship. He called me every day, at least three times and always told me he loved me. I believed him. I felt he was just a very stingy man but he loved me.

A night before the court wedding, Emmanuel handed me a piece of paper and asked us to pray. We held hands while I read out the prayers. I stopped at a point when I realized the prayer was filled with curses and separation from my mother. I wondered why and asked Emmanuel.

“Prophet sent for me and gave me this paper. You can see it is written in Yoruba. He said we need to say the prayers this night otherwise we will experience misfortune.”

He could see I wasn’t convinced so he called the prophet. Prophet asked me to do the prayers and he will tell me the day I will use the candles he had given us. He claimed he wanted to clear our way to travel abroad without hindrance or distraction. I foolishly said the prayer. We held hands and cursed my mother. I believe I was hypnotized. As the curses and were being said, I felt something crawling on my body. I didn’t know what it was but it crawled up from the paper I was holding all over my body and I couldn’t get it off me. I tried to remove it but I couldn’t. Emmanuel said he couldn’t see anything but I could feel it. I became restless and then hysterical. I had on just my bum shorts and a top. I was screaming at this point trying to remove the things I couldn’t see crawling on my body. The noise was too much that Emmanuel had to call the prophet. The man couldn’t explain what was going on. I left Emmanuel and rushed out. He caught up with me on the road and rushed me to the hospital.

We missed the marriage ceremony. I was in the hospital for a week and was asked to rest for another week. Emmanuel took me to Ife. The prophet said my mother was fighting back. He asked us to hold on with the marriage plans until he gives us a go-ahead. Emmanuel was devastated when he heard this.

We came back to Abuja. He stayed for a few days and then went back to Lagos. When he was away, I reflected on my life and what happened that night. I began to suspect my mother. Emmanuel had warned me to stop speaking with her but I didn’t. I reduced the number of times we spoke claiming I was busy. This time around, I decided to cut off from talking to her completely. I still spoke with grandmother but also not frequently; she was more interested in Junior.

Two months later, the prophet said we should go ahead. This time, Emmanuel brought me to Lagos to apply. We were to wait for twenty-one days. I came back to Abuja. My neighbour knocked on my door one evening I was around. I was happy to see her. I asked her to come in.

“Is your boyfriend around?”

“No, he is in Lagos”

“I didn’t know both of you were back together until I bumped into him last week.”

“I chose to forgive him, after all, he is the father of my son”

“I had a dream about you which worried me. I would have stayed away but for me to dream about you twice then there is definitely a problem”

“Dream? What was it about?”

“I saw you in a mental asylum”

‘What? What kind of dream is that?”

“I saw you there and it was your boyfriend that took you there. He was the one who made you go there. I don’t know what that means but be careful.”

“This is serious. Now I am worried.”

“You have to pray. Once you are living in sin, you cannot pray. That guy is a bad omen. He has plans to destroy you. You are a beautiful young lady, why must it be him? He has shown you he cannot be faithful and now this dream. I will pray with you but I will also advise you to do the same”

I listened to her and I prayed. I went on fasting from 6 am until 6 pm for a week. Even when Emmanuel came, I refused to have sex with him while I fasted. I prayed for God to reveal all that is hidden from me. I was worried. The dream also felt real to me. I prayed it would never happen.

I met Emmanuel in Lagos the night before our wedding the next day. It was to be a very quiet wedding with only two witnesses.

In Lagos, Emmanuel lodged me in a hotel. I wondered why. This was the second time. I asked him if he didn’t have accommodation in Lagos. He told me he shared a flat with some friends to save money for our trip.

That night, he brought out the candles the prophet gave us for us to pray with. This time around e prophet had asked us to pray for the death of my mother. He said, I should separate the candles, light them and as they were burning, I should call my mother’s name and her mother’s name and ask them to die. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I refused to do.

“You have to otherwise everything we have done will come to nought. Think about it. If her hands are clean, nothing will happen to them. But if they are not, they do not deserve to live. It is about time you reconcile with your father”

I stupidly did the prayer. I said, “If Adenike the daughter of Omobolanle is responsible for all my predicaments, let her die this instant. But, if she is not responsible, let her live”

“That was not what you were asked to say. You were to say she should die instantly. Is it that you don’t believe what the prophet has said? Even with the evidence?”

“I want my conscience to be clear. I will not curse or invoke death on an innocent person. This will prove if the prophet is real. If she dies by tomorrow morning then I know he is real”

“You added a clause. You shouldn’t have” Emmanuel insisted, “do it again without the clause”

“I am not doing it again. I have said what I have said”

Emmanuel was very upset with me. He didn’t speak with me before we went to bed. I didn’t care. Even though I was suspicious I believed I shouldn’t wish anyone death unless they are guilty; especially my mother.

The next morning, I woke up and didn’t know what came over me. I was told I beat up Emmanuel. I wondered how I did it because Emmanuel is tall and built while I am of average height and a size 10. But Emmanuel got the beating of his life. I was told I couldn’t be contained. It took the help of security guards to hold me. I was told I escaped from them and took a taxi to my parents. This was very early hours of the morning.

My parents saw me in the compound with a taxi driver. They said I was talking nonsense and holding on to my confused mother. My father looked at me and went back into the house instructing my mother not to allow me into his house. My mother asked their househelp to bring her bag and with the help of the taxi driver, they took me to the psychiatric hospital. On the way there, I dozed off.

That was where I woke up. I was tied to a bed. My mother was with me praying. “Isn’t this woman the same person I was told wanted to kill me? Why was she praying for me in tears?”

“Where am I?” I asked out loud.

This startled my mother and she came to me. “Omo mi, Oluwa e seun. Esther, what happened?”

I was so scared when I saw the people around me. I am a nurse but being in the place of a patient and not having any recollection of the events that brought me there was scary.

I was released from the restrains and evaluated by a psychiatrist. I was so scared that I told my mother and the doctor everything. I told them about Emmanuel and the prophet. I talked about the first prayers and what happened and then this second one. It sounded untrue. They felt I had lost my mind. I told my mother to call Emmanuel and find out if I was speaking the truth.
She called him. She asked him to come to the hospital with my phone and handbag.

Emmanuel came to the hospital. He was relieved when he saw me. He claimed he had been searching everywhere for me. The doctor asked him what happened, he claimed I just flipped.

“Has she always been like that or this was a first?” the doctor asked him.

“This was the first”

“What was she doing before she flipped?”

“She was asleep”

“What did she come to Lagos to do?”

“She came to visit me”

“Or, she came to get married to you,” my mother asked.

Emmanuel was silent. My mother could see he wasn’t being truthful. She asked him where we were staying she wanted to pick up my things as I would be in the hospital for some time. He said he would bring them to us. My mother refused. She insisted on going with him to take them. She told him the doctor was about to call the police but she had stopped him. It was best she went with him to retrieve her daughter’s things. He agreed.

At the hotel, he told my mother to wait downstairs but she refused. She went in and packed my things. Then she noticed the candles I had said we were praying with, it had burnt almost to the ground. She now believed me. She took a taxi from the hotel to the hospital. She asked the doctor to discharge me.

As we left, we went to a bus park. She chartered a car to Ife from Lagos. She asked me to sleep and didn’t ask me any other questions. She woke me up when we got to Ife. She asked for directions and luckily, I was able to locate the prophet’s house.

As we saw the place, my mother made a phone call. Then we reported to the nearest Police station. We went to the house with four police officers. I couldn’t believe my eyes, Emmanuel was there with the prophet. The prophet wasn’t wearing his signature white gown. He looked more like a Babalawo (native doctor) than a prophet. He hung some ornaments and feathers on his neck.
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The policemen arrested them. They were then placed in a vehicle with the men and we all went to Lagos, Kam Salem House Obalende to meet with the IGP Monitoring team who was assigned the case. It was arranged by my mother. The police officer in charge of the case told us to come back the next day. He assured us that by the time we come some confessions will be made.

My mother took me to her sister’s house for the night. My father called my mother tirelessly but she didn’t pick up. She was angry and didn’t want to talk to him. She didn’t tell my aunt anything about the case.

I was feeling much better later that night. My mother had questions and wanted me to answer them. I told her everything that happened. I also told her we were to be married that day. She called the police officer in charge of our case and informed him. She looked at me and said, “It is not your fault. I did a terrible job bringing you up. Your father always interfered in your upbringing but when negative things happened, you are just my daughter and not his anymore. How can you fall prey to Emmanuel? This boy is no good. He was rushing to marry you legally but has a woman who has two children for him. They come to his parent's house; I have seen them. I didn’t tell you because I thought you were cured of your desperation and was ready to live a good life. You are beautiful, smart, intelligent, very hard-working, loving and caring; why settle for less? Even more painful was a prophet telling you to pray that I will die and you agreed. Are you ok?”

“I am very sorry mummy. Seeing the prophet as he is, I now understand many things. I didn’t do anything with a clear eye. The prophet knew many things about us he couldn’t have known ordinarily. Even Emmanuel didn’t have such information. It was very convincing”

“You don’t know they went digging for information to use to trap you. Emmanuel wants to travel to the US, get his papers, divorce you and then bring his real family. I strongly suspect that. I will give the police officers his mother’s number. The other woman will be there tomorrow for you to see for yourself. He needed you to legally get into the US or any other country. You were what he needed for a better life for his family. Emmanuel doesn’t love you or your son. You will see the girl he married”

I didn’t sleep all night. How possible was it that Emmanuel was married? How true was it? Was I that stupid and desperate? I said to myself, if Emmanuel has successfully fooled me again, I was going to commit suicide because I didn’t deserve to live.

The next morning, we were at the Police station at 10 am as instructed by the police officer in charge. We sat in his office waiting for him. Two women (one lady and an older woman about my mother’s age) came in with a baby who couldn’t be more than five months. I observed the lady; she was very light in complexion, she had faux nails, long lashes with makeup. She wore a short dress, high heel shoes and looked pretty and smart.

As the police officer entered, he asked me if I knew the lady, I said I didn’t. He asked the lady if she knew me, she said she did.

“She is Emmanuel’s wife,” the officer told me.

I was dumbstruck. I looked at this girl I was admiring earlier. She knew me and about me. She must have been in it with Emmanuel. When did she get pregnant and have this child? Emmanuel had killed me.

“Esther, Emmanuel is not a good person. He is a wicked human being. It didn’t take us time to make him talk. The prophet is a scammer. He is a supposed Babalawo and was paid by Emmanuel to deceive you. We should hear from the horses’ mouth” he turned to another police officer and said, “go and bring Emmanuel and the fraudster prophet to us here”

I waited for them to come. When Emmanuel saw me he shook his head. But then when he saw his wife, the shock was written all over his face.

The police officer took over, “you are welcome Emmanuel and partner. I will like you to repeat what you told us last night”

Initially, Emmanuel didn’t want to talk but with some threats, both of them made damaging confessions. The story was simple, Emmanuel was desperate to make good the promise he made to his flashy girlfriend/wife about a better life. Unfortunately, the lady doesn’t work. He found out how well I was doing when we bumped into each other at the bank and came after me. He told his girlfriend he had to marry me and then relocate with me abroad. Immediately he gets his papers, he would set me up, take everything we owned, divorce me and then bring them over. It sounded like a good plan but I wasn’t easily swayed. When I caught him with the other girl, he knew he had messed up.

He went to my grandmother to appeal for our reconciliation. Instead, my grandmother told him all I had been through. Most of the information the prophet had was from what my grandmother told Emmanuel and his further investigation. It took him a year to put his plans in place before coming after me.

The babalawo at Ife was introduced to him by a friend. He told the babalawo what he wanted. The man told him, my son, mother and grandmother would be an obstacle. He gave him what to use on me to get me to do whatever he says. Unfortunately, it didn’t work effectively. The babalawo insisted on seeing me. Emmanuel knew that if I wouldn’t stay if he is a babalawo. He planned with him that each time I come, he will be dressed as a prophet. The first assignment the prophet gave us backfired and we couldn’t get married. The babalawo was worried and asked Emmanuel to trend softly so it doesn’t take my life and he will be held responsible. He told Emmanuel not to burn the candles any more because of my last encounter after doing the prayers. Emmanuel asked if my mother will die if I burn the candles and he said yes but he was scared my mother was a powerful woman and might reverse the prayer to either me or Emmanuel. I refused to listen further.

I was angry and sad at the same time. It hurt me deeply that Emmanuel was just using me as he liked. He deceived me and I fell for it twice or would I say three times. I was hurt. I cried there while I watched the lady Emmanuel was doing all these for. She was no better than me except she was fairer. The difference was she was better maintained than I ever was. I was so happy I escaped with my life.

I didn’t want anything from Emmanuel. I wanted him to leave me alone and never come back. I made him sign an affidavit never to contact me anymore. He had a good job in a construction firm but the lady he truly loved was high maintenance and so he looked for means that would interest her to make her life better. That was why he was so shrewd with money. I wrote to his company and also asked them to call their staff to order for stalking.

My mother and grandmother discussed the Emmanuel saga. They were utterly disappointed in me. I knew I had wronged them and I asked for forgiveness. I explained to them how I was brainwashed into thinking they stood in my way but now I knew better. They forgave me and prayed for me.

“But why did I have those two negative reactions when I did payers against you, mummy?” I asked.

“Do you think I did anything? I did nothing. God didn’t want you to get married to Emmanuel that was why you had those reactions; it had nothing to do with me”

It made more sense. I believed I had gotten rid of Emmanuel. I didn’t want any other man. I decided to take better care of myself. I wanted to be happy and a change of environment would do that for me. Remaining in Abuja will bring back memories I didn’t need. My son was to finish secondary school soon and I needed to be able to send him to university without breaking a sweat. I had been saving for that but I had to give up these jobs and move away.