Written by Mofoluwake Omololu
Kola took his wife after and cleaned her up, she was too intoxicated to garner that anything of significance had just happened. She babbled as he scrubbed her body and was asleep before he was done dressing her, his precious wife, what had he done?
He felt a mixture of random emotions as he made Shola put his pants back on and directed him to sleep on the couch, giving him the extra blanket and a pillow. He too, with his head in the clouds, dozed off before Kola could sufficiently place a finger on one of the emotions he was feeling and react to it.
He spent the night pacing and musing and sipping from the bottle of that brew. His foremost thoughts were whether or not he had exposed his wife for nothing, he’d paid attention to her monthly circle, how could he not when she made it a point of duty to announce to him with tears on the dawn of an interval of twenty eight days that again she had receieved the visitor that was very unwelcomed. When this whole thought had sprang up in his head he’d thought it perfect timing, but what if he was wrong?
He watched her sleep, that night she looked beautiful with the moon light cascading the side of her face that was in view. What had he done? What if she remembered? What would happen if his plan did not work out? That story she had told him about the couple who met their anonymous sperm donor had peaked his interest and inspired the idea even more. But what if, what if it didn’t work out as planned?
He heard Shola stir in the other room and cursed under his breath, the clock beamed a happy 6:15. He went out quickly so that Shola wouldn’t knock and wake Lara, the longer she slept the longer he got to put himself together. Shola had a quirkish smile on his face, like he wasn’t sure whether or not he should smile. Kola felt panic creeping up his spine, what if Shola remembered? He’d forgot to gauge how the effect of the drink would be on someone who was used to it. Lara never drank alchohol and would blatantly reject it if she was offered, the brew they had been served was the perfect disguise and she apparently had a light head. But what was the effect on Shola, a sturdy man? He shut up the thoughts so that he didn’t blurt it out and ruin everything, maybe Shola did’t even have an inkling about what had happened.
They shook hands and Shola thanked him for being an excellent host. He said he felt like he hadn’t taken a bath in months and needed to rush back home to do that and also prepare for work. He asked when they planned on leaving and maybe he could come and see them again when Janice was off duty. Kola started answering, but bit his tongue, no need starting something he couldn’t finish and Shola didn’t even seem like he remembered anything from the night before.
Shola looked around the room with a slight air of confusion, “how’s Lara?” he asked. Again Kola held his tongue, he was going to sketch what Shola was insinuating and accuse him of sleeping with his wife, but he knew better. Pandora’s box had to stay shut. What right had he anyway to accuse either of them, hadn’t he been the instigator and monitor?
Shola remarked, as he put on his jacket, that he had the weirdest dream, to which Kola asked him to tell in a bid to seem carefree and unaffected so that Shola wouldn’t ponder his “dream” much. As expected, he declined to tell the dream.
He said good bye and promised to call and Kola sent Janice his regards. With the door shut after Shola, Kola sank into the sofa with his head in his hand, what had he done? He had a headache and just as he was getting water to push down an aspirin, he saw the last bottle of the brew, picked it up with disdain and emptied it down the drain.
Lara woke up about an hour after, bright eyed and excited as usual those days, but also as usual, Kola was no where to be found.
She could not help but wonder why Kola was unusually, creatively energetic the previous night. Men! You never can finish reading them. She felt, also, unusually bouncy, as she hummed under her breath and danced around aerobically the house.