My brother's wife episode 2

WHAT MY ELDER BROTHER'S WIFE TAUGHT ME... PART TWO

©Temi Akintade

I was still thinking about my life and how fast it had crumbled when my phone rang. At first, I thought that the unknown number would be Chinomso calling. Maybe he just decided to call. But my excitement dropped as quickly as my body temperature when under a sweltering sun. It was Nuru. He was one of those guys we did NYSC with. I didn't know why he was calling but his call was the least I expected at that moment.

"You don't sound fine what is wrong?" His rough voice on the other end suggested that life had also been cruel to him but I didn't ask. I had enough on my plate at the moment.

I explained my situation to him. "And right now. When my rent expires, I will have nowhere to live and nothing to fall back on. I have even tried searching for jobs. You know your guy now, I am not lazy. But not even a single work did I get." I yawned and took a short glance at my pale stomach. I was on a compulsory fast. I had not eaten for twenty-four hours now.

"I know you are not lazy. I still remember how we use to go to a construction site to work a day's job. Meanwhile how come a criminal record bearing your name and details, be manufactured so fast?" He asked.

I told him I didn't know. Later he told me to come down to Abuja in search of greener pastures. Nuru owned a bathing saloon at the university area in Abuja according to him.

A few months later, when my rent was already expired, I began to prepare for Abuja. I got to a place called gwagwalada late at night and Nuru came to pick me.

Nuru lived in a one-room apartment close to the Uni-Abuja university campus while owned a uni-sex saloon. It was a huge one and I felt that he was doing well for himself. I began my job hunt for few more months in Abuja all to no avail when finally, Nuru asked me to come and learn the barbing skill. I learned how to barb within a month and before I knew it, I became a good barber that almost every student wanted to barb under. Months passed by and soon it was a year and six months since I came to Abuja.

One night when it was raining real badly in Gwagwalada while I was in the sitting room sleeping, thinking about my next move. Then suddenly I heard Kauna's scream. Kauna was Nuru's wife, and she use to be one of the many girls I had conquest with during NYSC.

The noise became a bit loud and I suspected that somehow, the quarrel had to do with me because Kauna hasn't been treating me well ever since I arrived. She once told me that she was the cause of my predicament because she aborted a child she had for me. But I didn't believe it and even if I did, I apologized. I told her that I was young and naive. She told me that, the abortion she did affected her womb and that is why she has not given birth to any child for Nuru.

"Your friend made me barren and he has been making sexual advances at me ever since he came here." She said.

My breath caught. I froze on hearing that statement. I was still trying to contemplate what Kauna was saying when the door to their room opened. I flew from the sofa. Nuru charged at me.

"I took you as my fliend and you are now biting me in the back? Leabe my house!" A tiny fleck of his spittle flew across my wide nose and thick lips.

"I don't understand what you are talking about! Nuru please try-" Whatever hit me across the face pushed me on the floor.

Nuru began to beat me and I let him beat me not because I wasn't broader than him but because I was trying to reason with him. Soon, I found myself clad in my three-quarter trouser, and under the cold with my clothes lying helplessly in a small ghana-must-go sack.

I stayed around Nuru's house for that night and when it was daybreak, I went to the barbing saloon but Nuru threw me out like I was a dog. Tired of begging, and struggling not to cry, I was about turning to leave when I heard my name.

"Nwokem! Ekwere!!!"

The voice sounded familiar only that the voice sounded thicker. Normally Chinomso was the only one who- wait oo! I turned and our eyes met!

I recognized his small brown eyes and pointed nose only that he had grown bigger and with beards hanging shamelessly around his jaw unlike me who had a beardless jaw.

"Chinomso! Is this you?"

To be continued...