Before 40 Concluding part

..........Before40 concluding part
Part 5
Bernard is the only son of his parents. He was true about that, only that he isn’t their only child as he has two younger sisters living with his aged mother in the village. His father died at the age of forty due to a generational curse in his lineage that doesn’t permit their men to live beyond that age. As for the inheritance he talked about, they were all imaginary, a ploy to get me to marry him. If he was to really inherit a thing, it would be the rickety, mud house in which his family lived in the village. Then I realised I was done-for. That moment, I suddenly couldn’t feel my legs. But for a nearby stool on which I landed with a thud, I would have hit bottom. Like that was not devastating enough, I thought my itching ears were failing me when Bernard further said in his bid to avert the curse that awaited his 40th birthday which could as well be his death day, he had consulted a witch doctor who said the remedy was to sacrifice a foetus whose conception he had contributed to, in wedlock. By then, I had almost lost my mind and so dragged in comprehending. When I was eventually able to put two and two together, I lost my marbles completely. Rev. Father Jeff said a lot to calm my erratic self but none of his words got to me till he opened my eyes to the big picture -- the delay in conception was a blessing in disguise as the foetus couldn’t have been used without the death of the carrier. Then I broke down in tears, giving thanks to God for keeping me and at the same time marvelling at the wickedness of man who wouldn’t mind taking others' lives to keep himself alive. I washed my hands off Bernard completely.
Rev. Father Jeff was going to conduct deliverance session on him. Whether he goes to blazes or he’s delivered, who cares? Begorrah! I packed my belongings and shook the dust of his house off my feet.
How bad news spread like wildfire; in no time, the whole church was aware of my pathetic situation, “Sister Monica has separated from her husband” circulated from ears to ears as though it had been made a special announcement over the mic. I couldn’t bear the shame. I stayed back from church a couple of Sundays to let the rumour die down. Even in my absence, I was getting news of happenings at the church through different means, mostly gossips. From there I learnt Mr. Simpson smith, remember him? (the man in the parachute-like suit) tied the knot with a sister in the church and soon after, had travelled abroad with her. A feeling of regret swelled within, that dissolved into jealousy.........the bride could have been me.
I must say Mr. Simpson Smith really chased hard. Even when I told him I was seeing someone, he still kept  wooing. Well, I don’t expect he would keep coming at me forever. Even if he was ‘the right man at the right time’ Rev. Father Jeff talked many times about, by that time, I had given up on men. I only married Bernard for financial security, not knowing I was on a wild-goose chase. He later came looking for me along with  Rev. Father Jeff, claiming he had been delivered, begging for my forgiveness and pleading that I come back into his life.
“Hell Nooooo! Never will that happen. To forgive is Gods,” so I told him.
I was planning with a lawyer to serve him divorce papers so I can rightfully close chapter with him when I suddenly started feeling a strange weakness that ran through my entire body with persistent headache that wouldn’t yield to Paracetamol (pain relief). When it graduated into throwing out sputum, I became scared, afraid I had caught an infection from Bernard, because those were the symptoms his illness showed at the initial stage. I went to the hospital and some test were run, only to be shocked with the news that I was 6weeks along. I wept bitterly as I was torn between aborting the pregnancy I had sought for in a long while and having a baby for a heartless man like Bernard. Even if I decide never to go back to him, having the baby gives him right to make appearances into my life on occasion. What a dilemma! I am at a crossroad, what do you do? 
After much thoughts, I decided to keep the pregnancy. Any reasonable fellow in my shoes would opt for that. Till I put to bed and long after, I kept distance from Bernard. Later on, for the child's sake; so he doesn’t grow without the care of both parents, I let him back into my life. However that was based on clear-cut conditions. As far as I was concerned, he has had more sex than he can be allotted in a lifetime. So with pillows demarcating, I made sure he kept to his side of the bed and didn’t do as much as touch me. ‘Time,’ they say, ‘heals all wound,’ but I didn’t know when it would in my case. As ten months after and counting, I was still very bitter with Bernard. For so long, the baby was what brought us together; our meeting point. I played the role of a mother so well and hardly that of a wife. We were at best flatmates.
Rev. Father Jeff prayed and counselled us. “Let bygone be bygone,” he said, “forgive as your Heavenly Father  has forgiven your sins,” he buttressed with the scripture.
Based on that, I tried loosening up on occasions. But each of those times, the past always got in the way. And like a snail responding to tactility, I just found myself coiling back in to my corner.
Returning home from work one fateful day, I met the door at the main entrance ajar. Bernard closes late at work and had rarely ever gotten home before me. I went in and there was no sign of him. Taking a better look around the house and it all seemed like we had been bugled. Only that the supposed perpetrator had carted away just Bernard's belongings, leaving out mine. What happened here?
The answer was not far-fetched. It was in a plain piece of paper on the dinning-table, pinned down by the house's key. 
Bernard’s Job as a sales representative of a cosmetic company afforded him opportunity of meeting people from all walks of life especially the womenfolk. He explicitly stated in that letter that he had a fling with an American-based mixed-race he met a couple of months before. Their little hanky-panky went full-blown and she got him necessary travelling documents with flight ticket booked for night of that day.
“Better to pitch tent with a lady with prospect of ‘green card',  than one with that of  ‘red’,” he wrapped up shamelessly.
I had known I and Bernard would not last, never expected it would be that fast.
Thoughts of ending a ‘single mother’ had once formed on my mind,
My lot it eventually became.            
                         THE END.
Written by Olagoke B. Ajanaku.
Email/nos: gee4christ87@gmail.com 09094983944, 08163225059
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