PART 41
“NWALA: THE BITTERSWEET STORY”
©️ Opeyemi Akintunde.
As Inspired by the LIVING WORD.
We got back home and the atmosphere was tensed. I saw that Reuben was trying hard to smile. He would ask me a few times, if I was okay. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. It was obvious he was doing the same. There were a lot of unspoken words in between us.
My Mum and my mother-in-law had come to stay with us. Likewise, there were a lot of unspoken words hanging in the air.
The fair-skinned baby was a loud baby, he was very expressive. He was always screaming, while Reuben’s baby was very quiet. He would only cry a little if he was hungry.
This made everyone love Reuben’s baby. My mother and my mother-in-law were quick to carry Reuben’s baby, but they were quick to call Daniel’s baby “Cry cry baby and overpossesive of me”
During the pregnancy, we had decided to give the boys: Amos and Hezekiah. Amos means CARRIED BY GOD, while HEZEKIAH means YAHWEH STRENGTHENS. With the Choice of name, Reuben was saying the babies would be carried by God as He strengthens me to carry to term and deliver.
‘This Amos(First baby) would not let his mother rest ooo” My mother-in-law had said.
“Yes ooo, he will be a trouble-maker” My mother had said. I could sense hidden resentment.
“Mummy, he would not be trouble maker in Jesus name” Reuben would always defend the baby…
Reuben did something strange that made me suspect that he already knew Amos was not his son.
Reuben insisted he didn’t want a loud naming ceremony. I read more into that. He also told me he didn’t want the babies’ pictures out there. I knew he was trying to hide them because that was not the plans we had before delivery.
When I was pregnant, he had boasted of how he was going to post the pictures of his sons on his social media handle.
My once chatty husband became a man of few words, he loved Hezekiah (his own son), while he struggled to love Amos. There were days I caught him carrying Amos in his hands and staring deeply at him, like he was trying to study everything about him.
One day, I walked in on him in the act, I stood by the door looking at him without saying anything, but yet saying so much.
He stared at me without saying anything. I couldn’t answer his question, I knew he was indirectly asking me if Amos was his son…
Followed was another moment of silence, he looked at me hoping I would say something, but I didn’t have the strength to say what needed to be said.
He also could not bear to ask me directly, but there was someone else who did, apart from Amara…
Your Guess is right!
Mother Bear…
My mother waited for the babies to be three months old, before she brought up the obvious hanging issue.
My mother had stayed with me for the three months, while my mother-in-law visited from time-to-time. So the night before she left, she asked to speak with me privately. I had dreaded this conversation but I knew it was going to happen. I decided to cut to the chase.
“Amos is Daniel’s son, I had sex with him once, I went to him to reverse any curse he placed on me” I quickly supplied before my mother asked
My mother’s tongue was tied, instead the wells from my eyes were opened. She sat back into the chair and wept like a child…
I knelt down in tears saying all sorts but my mother didn’t utter a word. Her tears said enough.
“Mummy I am sorry, now I can see why you preferred Reuben to Daniel, truly Daniel is a broken evil man, now he has shattered my life, forgive me and pray for me not to lose Reuben, because I think Reuben suspects something is not right”
I kept on blabbing and after about forty five minutes of my mother’s tears of pain, she stood up and left the house without saying a word.
The babies were crying and I was crying. Amos’ voice was just like his father’s voice, screaming and demanding for attention, while Hezekiah was crying quietly calling patiently for me like his father…
I was not in the frame of mind to answer either of them, I just wanted to die…
Reuben walked in on us, he looked at me sobbing and the children crying… He rushed to carry both of them rocking them…
“Beauty, what is it?” he asked
“I want to die”
“Why?’
“God is punishing me”
“For what”
“For trying to help him”
“Tell me the truth, what did you do?”
“The truth?’ I asked him because I knew the truth was going to break him
“Yes… The truth… Remember, I have always told you, that I gat you… Tell me the truth you know I want to hear” He said.
To be continued….
