JEREMY Episode 18 – Moshood Avidiime
Jeremy got out of bed that morning when I was still in it. He left a note explaining why he didn’t want to wake me up when I opened my eyes.
.
“Hey, gorgeous, given how much you needed to sleep, I didn’t want to wake you up. I apologize for keeping you up all night talking about topics you ought to have heard a long time ago. I’ll be leaving right now. Breakfast will be sent to your room per the directions I’ve left. Simply let them know when you’re hungry. When you’re ready to leave, please let me know. Pumpkin, I love you “.
After reading Jeremy’s note with groggy eyes, I promptly went back to sleep. A few hours later, I woke up, had brunch, took a bath, and then went to check out.
.
I had forgotten that Jeremy had requested that I notify him when I was about to leave. I’m not even sure if I’m glad I left that hotel room that day without informing him now that I think about it.
.
I could clearly see Jeremy’s car sitting in front of the gate as the cab I had taken reached my gate. As we approached, it became clear that the automobile was in fact Jeremy’s, contrary to my initial assumption that it was probably just a car that looked like his.
.
I was taken aback when I noticed Jeremy’s SUV at my parents’ home. I strained my brain for conceivable explanations as to why Jeremy should be at home right now rather than traveling to Port Harcourt.
I found none.
Jeremy knew where I was. He knew where to locate me if he had forgotten something or needed to tell me “something,” and if not, he could have just called my phone.
.
After I alighted, I almost forgot to pay for my trip since I got lost in my thoughts.
.
I couldn’t help but feel anxious as I reached the front door. My interest was piqued simply by the fact that I had no idea what to anticipate. My heart started to beat more quickly than it ever had.
.
I wasn’t overreacting, I assure you. Since I’ve known Jeremy for so long, I am certain that he wouldn’t have been in my home with my parents when he knew I was gone if it weren’t for something he regards as being of the utmost importance.
.
Jeremy was a quiet person. He showed a degree of respect for my parents that I had never witnessed before. It was one of the initial factors that led my mother and aunt to fall in love with him. Among my family members, Jeremy was frequently unduly timid. Even talking on the phone with my parents demands a unique kind of grace most of the time. When I initially brought Jeremy to my house to meet my family, he was only able to eat two full spoons of the rice that was provided to him at dinner.
One might have thought that as the days passed, Jeremy would become used to my family and perhaps even loosen up, but that was never the case.
.
In order to sneak into the building and navigate the hallways leading to the seating area, I softly threw open the door and started to enter.
After I had barely tiptoed halfway down this hallway, Jeremy brushed into me in a way that seemed like he was attempting to get away as quickly as possible. He ran into me, and his expression was not at all what I had anticipated. It lacked any element of surprise or thrill. It lacked any nice qualities.
.
Jeremy wore a serious expression.
.
I noticed emptiness when I gazed into Jeremy’s eyes.
.
Blood red glowed in Jeremy’s eyes.
.
I looked around to make sure I wasn’t being “punked” or whatever, but nothing in the immediate area gave me any reason to think that was likely the case.
My parents were also nowhere to be found. The house was silent as far as I could tell.
It was strange, particularly if Jeremy, an “august visitor,” was just leaving.
.
I had been caught in the act of sneaking into my own house to listen in on conversations, a temporarily startling act that could have been stopped by Jeremy’s customary “Hey baby” gesture. One I never got.
.
I leaned in for a hug with the intention of asking Jeremy what he was doing in my house after we were done, but all I got in return was an icy shrug.
.
I had to drag Jeremy back when he tried to stroll past me without even flinching in response to my presence.
JEREMY Episode 19 – Moshood Avidiime
Jeremy retracted his hand from mine and moved in the direction of the door. I pursued him quickly, still wanting to know what was happening.
.
“Talk to me, baby. What’s going on, na? Why didn’t you let me know you were going to stop by? We could have come together. Has anything happened? Why do you have this expression? My parents, perhaps?” I kept perplexingly questioning Jeremy.
Still, Jeremy didn’t say a thing to me. He simply kept going.
.
I was still holding on to Jeremy’s hand as he was just starting to turn the doorknob when I heard someone call my name. This voice had called me, and it wasn’t even remotely in a kind manner. This voice had an authoritative tone.
.
I whirled around to look at my father, who was now beckoning to me. My father’s visage was also devoid of any features I could recognize.
.
I was much more confused for a number of reasons. I had never seen my father’s face with that expression before. It’s well known that my father can’t control his emotions. Whatever it was, you’ll always be able to read it off of him. He was the definition of “an open book,” but not right now.
.
Maybe, just maybe, I would have known what might have happened between these two if I had seen a sad or furious face, which would have explained the odd reactions I received from the two most significant men in my life.
.
My father and I broke our stare, and I quickly hurried after Jeremy, who by this time had arrived at the spot where his car was parked. I tightly clutched his hand, then his body, in a hug, as Jeremy opened the door and was about to step inside.
“Baby, please talk to me. What happened in there? Don’t tell me you are just going to leave without saying a word to me. No matter what it is, shouldn’t I be able to calm you down? Shouldn’t I be the one who can pull you out of whatever gloomy situation you find yourself in? Do you really believe it’s fair to just abandon me without even letting me know what’s in store for me inside?”
.
Jeremy didn’t try to stop me. He also remained silent. He merely remained motionless and listened to what I said with a blank expression.
.
“Baby, say something, please. You can’t just stop talking to me right now. I was…”
“BINYELUM!!!…” My father thundered from the gate, where he was now standing, with a facial expression I now deduced meant anger.
.
I looked around in disbelief at the way he had just yelled that name.
Unless when he is utterly unhappy with me for something I’ve done, my father barely ever calls me by my native name. All signs point to the man being angry, but I couldn’t have been the reason. I don’t remember doing anything to him that would even somewhat justify this. Before I left the house the day before, we got along well.
However, I didn’t need to be informed of this to understand that, whatever the nature of his dispute with Jeremy, this is most likely the outcome.
With regard to anything that included Jeremy and me, my father has always been split. He had always made it clear to me that the decision about a life partner was entirely mine. He assured me that he would never force a man on me or reject one out of self-interest.
Tribalism has never been a trait attributed to my father. He is not racist in any way. He will undoubtedly grant his blessings, provided that the man I am presenting to him is a devout Christian and that I have declared my love for him.
Tribalism has never been a trait attributed to my father. He is not racist in any way. He will undoubtedly grant his blessings, provided that the man I am presenting to him is a devout Christian and that I have declared my love for him.
“Binyelum, enter the house immediately, and don’t make me ask you again!” Once more, my father roared, this time with his hand pointing in the direction of the structure.
.
Anyone who knows my father well would never want to be on the receiving end of an angry version of him. I had already disobeyed him by ignoring his first summons to enter the house, so I knew better than to disobey him again.
.
I moved away from Jeremy, who had been standing there and was very silent, and started to move slowly back inside.
.
I turned around a few times, hoping that Jeremy would at least say something—anything—but he never did.
.
I had hardly even reached the gate’s entry when Jeremy slammed his car door and sped off.
JEREMY
FINALE
Jeremy wouldn’t answer my calls. My father was also silent.
.
Apparently, my mother had gone over to Aunty Uju’s house shortly after I left for the hotel where Jeremy had put up. My father was home alone, which explained why I came home to find that much quietness.
.
“These men’s” silence bred confusion. I didn’t know what to think. I had come up with a thousand and one theories of what could have possibly transpired between them, but none of them really justified much. I was too curious and confused to even begin to cry. I didn’t have time to languish since I was so focused on trying to figure out how to gain information from my father.
.
Jeremy ignored my calls for the entirety of that day. Even after two days had passed, nothing had changed. I made numerous unsuccessful attempts to get my father to explain what was happening.
.
My mother had not yet returned. She would be gone for a number of days. In my desperation for information, I finally recalled that I had a way to persuade my father to reveal everything. I recalled how my father, despite his best efforts, was never able to keep anything from his wife. I recalled that my mother had always found a way to make him talk when he tried to keep something from her on those few occasions. I reached for my phone and called my mother since, as things stood, that was my only chance to learn what was going on.
.
I dialed my mother’s number, and as soon as she picked up, I questioned her about her impending return. She laughed and said she hoped this frantic need to get her back home had nothing to do with my father telling her that I haven’t been on speaking terms with him. I told her that what she was saying was beyond my comprehension.
.
Later that night, Mother and Aunty Uju arrived. My mother realized right away that I hadn’t been eating. She took note of how pale I had turned. She observed that I hadn’t had a shower in days. I made the decision to exploit this and emotionally blackmail her after observing how scared she appeared to be when she saw the mess that was me.
My mom could never stand by and see me upset or crying. Mom always went out of her way for me, and I knew for a fact that most mothers wouldn’t do the same things for their daughters, especially when those daughters are as old as I am.
I told Mother everything that had happened, and as I was telling her story, I started crying.
I complained to my mother about how Jeremy wasn’t returning my calls or answering my messages. I explained to her how her husband’s silence was doing nothing to improve the situation.
.
“Your husband acts as if nothing is happening. He has refused to speak to me. He has avoided saying what Jeremy has also refused to say. He doesn’t even seem to mind that I’m upset. He doesn’t even care if the person bringing him meals these past three days has a depressing expression on her face or not. He calls and sends me on errands without even looking me in the eyes to observe how I behave while I’m on or after these errands. That man is cruel; he doesn’t care about my feelings or how happy I am.”
.
I started crying again, this time because I was so overcome by my pent-up feelings.
.
I was asked by my mother to dry my tears. She promised to find out whatever it was later that evening, and true to her word, she did.
.
Evidently, when my mother disclosed the information Auntie Uju had overheard at our introduction regarding Jeremy, my father had gone on to conduct his own inquiries.
.
What my father was able to gather in that short spell was both tremendously admirable and incredible.
.
Jeremy was not such a miracle child after all. He had only managed to survive thus far because he had never actually had any blood ties with the king. The fact that Jeremy was born on the same day as the deaths of the king’s biological male children was not as miraculous as it would have seemed.
Jeremy’s mother had an affair. This relationship resulted in the birth of Jeremy. The meeting that Jeremy’s mother verified was the beginning of a different side of Jeremy’s father—a harsh side—and was triggered by the uncertainty surrounding Jeremy’s conception. Everything that had happened between Jeremy’s mother and this hidden lover was revealed after they consulted the gods.
The woman’s excuse was partially reasonable, even though it was sacrilegious. Since he married his three prior wives, Jeremy’s father has hardly paid her any attention. After all, she is still a human, and blood still flows through her veins. She looked elsewhere for her sexual fulfillment, and although her pregnancy proved she had slept with this man at least once, it’s not improbable that this act had been going on for a while.
.
Even though it was many years later, this is suspected to be the primary cause of Jeremy’s mother’s expulsion from the palace, not strictly because Jeremy severed his father’s pen!s.
.
Jeremy’s father had to commit that act in order to rid the land of this abomination. He had to lie with his daughter, which was obviously incest to everyone else who wasn’t privy to the situation.
.
The story about how much she believed her husband would eventually come to his senses and beg for forgiveness because she knew for a fact that he was a good man is important because not many people knew this and there was no way Jeremy’s mother was ever going to rat herself out.
.
Jeremy had purportedly come over that day to confess who he was and beg my father’s forgiveness for keeping his identity a secret in the first place. After he had continued to tell tales about why his identity wasn’t really something to brag about and how all he wanted more than anything was to be with me, my father then dropped the other bombshell on him.
.
“The same way you lusted after Susan more than anything else before you decided to beat her to death just six months into your marriage, correct?”
.
Supposedly, Jeremy had once been married. This was before they were eventually evicted from the palace. The King decided to adopt Jeremy as his own son and was even willing to have him succeed him if only he could get his act together and, more importantly, keep a woman since he didn’t want what Jeremy’s mother had done to go down in history next to his legacy.
Everything Jeremy told me was true; it was all based on what he had learned from his mother and had to endure as a child. For some reason, he had chosen to leave the section where he was formerly married and had battered this woman to death.
.
The majority of these revelations caught Jeremy off guard, and he was definitely upset to learn how much my father knew about him and his family.
My father informed Jeremy that he would never watch his only daughter marry into a family like his, and the two of them got into a heated argument as a result.
.
I cried my eyes out throughout that night. I tried to get in touch with Jeremy through any of his friends that I knew or even his sisters to at least get a message that he was okay, but surprisingly, none of them took my calls.
.
Days quickly turned into weeks, then months, after Jeremy left my house in that dejected manner, and I’m still unable to contact him.
.
I finally managed to sneak out of my parents’ house and decided to go in search of Jeremy. When I visited his mother’s house, I was surprised to learn that they had allegedly moved. I was unable to persuade anyone to offer any details or a tip regarding where I might be able to find any of them.
Once more, days swiftly turned into weeks, and weeks became months. Months passed without hearing my Jeremy’s voice; months went by without Jeremy telling me that all my father thought he’d found out about him and his family were pure lies. I was dying to hear Jeremy tell me that they were just misunderstandings.
.
I couldn’t possibly hold Jeremy responsible for his mother’s error. It was always going to be her guilt to live with, but why Jeremy never deemed it important to inform her that he had previously been married is still something I am struggling to wrap my head around.
In retrospect, everything makes perfect sense. Jeremy had vowed never to touch a woman again after the consequences of the last time he did, having battered his wife to death, but he simply wasn’t man enough to accept full responsibility for his own actions. Instead, he blamed his father.
.
Its been two years, and there hasn’t been a single day that I haven’t thought of Jeremy. I’ve long since learned to forgive him for the pain he’s given me.
.
Previously, I’d imagined myself bumping into him with another female, then reaching into my handbag, pulling out a gun, and emptying the bullets into him, assuring the girl that that scoundrel was not worth her time, but now that I’ve gone to counseling and been taught to see things differently, I’m confident I’ll do better in the same situation.
.
In hindsight, I think Jeremy was also a victim. He had grown up in an unfit setting for any child, and the damage only began to appear unknowingly later in his future because it is the only default he knows.
.
Well, I hope Jeremy finds love again and that when he does, he is entirely open to her. As for myself, I’m now working on my trust issues. My counselor is a wonderful person and very good at what she does.
.
I’m still a work in progress.
The end.
Please Don’t be Ungrateful ? Don’t Leave Without A Comment , One Love ❤.
Very interesting
Wow
Thank you ❣❣