ISOKENE (I DON’T WANT MY WIFE SMILING) Episode 6

ISOKENE (I DON’T WANT MY WIFE SMILING)

© Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Episode 6

“Isoken, Are you mad or something has gone wrong with your senses?”

Speechless, agitated, mad, going bunkers, terribly infuriated are some of the words to describe what I felt when I saw Isoken after 2 weeks of complete silence and disappearance. I had tried her number several times, but her line was unavailable, and Neither did she call for two weeks.

My security man had told me I had a Strange Visitor and he wanted me to come see her first before He could allow her come in. Mathew , our security man was a very security conscious person, he was so security conscious that at times when my husband and I were driving in, he would make sure he checked if we were bringing in strangers and If we had strangers, He would ask the strangers to get down to be checked and screened. Although, I found it strange , but my husband was fine with it.

Therefore, For Matthew to have tagged this person a strange visitor, something must definitely be wrong
When I got out of the house, I saw a lady figure dressed in a beautiful pink gown , but what was strange about her was that she had a black and grey covering Like the Muslim Purdah on her head that covered everywhere; the only thing visible was her eyes…. The eyes looked familiar…

“ Good Afternoon ma, please can I help you?” I asked moving close in caution

The lady in Question burst into outrageous laughter and unveiled herself to be Isoken. I literally wet my pants….

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“ Isoken, What do you mean you are doing this to keep your marriage, this is wrong? And besides are you denying your Christian faith to become a Muslim by dressing like one of them to keep your marriage….This is wrong..I mean dressing like a Muslim is wrong when you are not one, assuming Ibidolo is a Muslim it would have been understandable…” I said

“ Aunty Betty, I know Wrong can never give birth to right, but I am trying to be the right person in my marriage, Two wrongs can never make a right. Now I realize Ibidolo is selfish, uncompromising, and not a Christian I thought he was, but do you expect me Ma to also do what is wrong by running out of the marriage, No! I am going to be right and I know Right gives birth to right…And may I add, my dressing this way has nothing to do with my religion, I don’t think there is anywhere in the Bible where you are told you can’t dress this way, It is a choice I have made, Let’s think about this, What if I had a massive scar on my face, and I decided to do this , Would you have frowned at it?” Isoken said with all seriousness. It was obvious whereever she must have gone for those two weeks had done a lot of mindset restructuring….

“I guess this is Ibidolo’s idea?” Asking just for confirmation sake…

“ No….100 percent me, Ibidolo is yet to see me, he went on a work trip to set up a Studio in Abakaliki …Aunty I had two weeks of reflection to myself and this is what I came up with….Self denial that will give birth to love “

I was speechlessly speechless but I asked a simple question after a long break

“ So you are ready to sacrifice your smile for your marriage”

“ Love is sacrifice , For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son….Aunty, God let go of his only son to gain the whole world….Aunty I have a plan”

“ Isoken What plan? your smile is a message to people, your smile heals a lot people”

“ I don’t want to heal a lot of people, I want to heal my husband, Of what value is my ministry of smile to the world, If my smile doesn’t win My husband, For instance Aunty take a look at you and your husband, You know it will be a great failure if after repairing other people’s marriages with your powerful marriage ministry and we suddenly hear your marriage failed, Of what value was your message….

At that point, Isoken had hit me on a sore spot….My husband and I were having it rough in marriage , We were not fighting in the sense of physical abuse or emotional, we were just drawn apart. We had not had intercourse for over 9 months and none of us bothered…And yet I go around preaching about how compulsory it was to have intercourse in marriage….The truth is I hardly have time for it myself because of how busy I had been, jumping from one state to the other preaching to women on them keeping their homes at all cost, but was I keeping my home….???

“ And besides Aunty, Who says I am sacrificing my smile, behind this veil , I smile a lot without people seeing…Aunty let me use my smile alone for my husband to pull him out of the valley of the feeling of being unloved, abandoned and not cherished . Aunty, Noah saved his family, even though he couldn’t save the world….I will keep my smile for my husband alone if that will help me secure a good place in his heart, which will further help me to achieve what I want to achieve with him”

“ So you mean you are planning to wear this veil all your life to make your husband happy “

“ Yes, If I have to, but I assure you, Something good is coming out of this” Isoken said as she smiled under the veil, but how did I know she smiled? since she was wearing the thick veil. I saw it in her eyes, her eyes were shining , I saw the joy in her eyes even though I couldn’t see her mouth….

“ As a marriage counselor of over 15 years, I had never seen a wife who saw her marriage as more important than her purpose even though it was built on a wrong foundation but Isoken did, because she realized something I didn’t realize on time that was tearing my own marriage apart…

What was that? find out in the next part, because seriously speaking, Was this step by Isoken a wise one? Let me hear your opinion