MY HUSBAND'S SIN

Ready or not.

It's been a week since the confrontation with Taju, no phone calls, no communication.Good riddance I thought...now who is  the person sending chocolate and flowers everyday to the office, at first it was sweet but now it was just annoying ,at least attach your name to the card. What is "Your secret admirer" I'm not a silly teenager.  
The pain from Akin's death was less, some days I couldn't breath from the pain of his absence ,most days I could.  A beautiful Saturday it was , I was admiring my flowers ...reminiscing...thinking of all the good times ..Come here Mrs Samson,..never!try catching me sir! A tear ran down my cheeks,almost as if the clouds were in sync,it started to rain heavily .i laughed...I looked up..are you crying too baby?
  A knock on the door, yes come in...can I stay with you tonight Mum.. Teni,was heaven sent I might not be growing with a child the way I always imagined but here was one I loved and she loved me back. Yes darling come in.. I tucked us in ,to watch tv and ultimately sleep off.  We talked most of the night , my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard from all her school tales, Teni Teni waitttt i said almost every 5seconds, let me catch my breath ...she laughed so much, but I'm serious Mum that day eh!...
  8pm, I heard a faint knock on the main door, then it got louder .Who could be knocking be this time of the day! In the rain! I muttered curses under my breath.headed to the door...One look into his eyes ,I knew the devil had come home.  His eyes almost dropped inside his head, or at least it seemed that way, devil red. Taju the son of my late husband's whore stood in front of my door, soaked by the rain,at this ungodly hour.i was not surprised for the devil they say,dines with the darkness and feasts on shadows.  Shutting the door as quickly as I had opened it, but not quick enough to escape his devil grin as it spread slowly across his face. I was so confused,what had just happened! The way his eyes shone it was devilish,I knew there was trouble, he would be back and I must be prepared. But prepared for what? My Aunty Tinuke had gone away for the weekend, ikechukwu did not stay on weekends ,neither did the gate man, it was Teni and I.
Teni! We are locking everywhere , but Mum everywhere is locked, yes Teni we are going to check again. We did a sweep round the house, it was secured.  I called the lawyer, trying not to overreact Barrister! I don't know why Akin's son is here by this time of the night with his eyes blood shot, I don't feel safe at all. Calm down Mary, I will be there in 30minutes, just secure the house and stay calm. He is just one man. Ok? ...ok please be here .  Thinking back now We should have left the house .
   8pm, me and my child have dosed off on the couch,a loud knock on the door brought us back ...I peeped through the small hole on the door, it was him, what do you want Taju, I asked posing to be calm.  I just want to come in and talk.. talk about what? I interrupted, Why didn't you call me? Come back tomorrow morning ,it's too late for any civil conversation. Just let me in Mary, this won't take long .  Oh it's Mary now I thought to myself, well that's ok. Please go away ,this is no way to behave I said losing my patience, but that only seemed to intrigue him... yes there is that fire, I'm here to feed your demons. What in the hell was this young man actually saying. Is he crazy? Oh God..I think he might be crazy. I stepped away from the door.
Mary, Mary! ?are you there? Damn it Mary! He banged the door. I just want to talk to you...Mary open the door. I was silent as night ,signaling Teni not to make any noise. Taju started banging really hard on my really expensive door , why do you have to leave too! Why does everyone leave me...my father wants to love me when he is dead? My mother only cares about the money but you Mary...I thought you could save me, so let me in! Let me in!   This was a grown man with a broken child inside, oh Akin what have you done . But this was not on me, this is not on me! I yelled! Just go away. I just got a daughter, I'm just moving on..I have pain too.    Yes Mary,I see your pain, together we'll heal each other , I loved you from the moment I saw you. So let me in!! Please.      So he is crazy , i had to get out of here but there was no way he could get into the house,the door wasn't expensive for nothing after all.    
   I hadn't seen my phone ring in all this,it was from the Barrister and Voice messages from Taju just outside my door . I called the Barrister , hello! He is crazy! He needs mental help! He can't get in but please call that your Police friend,tell him it's an emergency.he might hurt himself..don't come to the house alone he might be dangerous• Mary, Christ..calm down... I did not know it had gotten to this extent ,please stay inside and I'll contact the police. Dear god..he muttered under his breath as we dropped the call.
   Determined to go stay in my room till help comes and the chaos is over, I took Teni by the hand,let's go to the room .Lets watch tv , mummy is handling everything..  she looked so afraid.
8:49pm, Taju had stopped disrespecting my door, poor child I thought, could have been I and Akins son.   Mum! Can you smell anything? Yes smoke! I must have left the gas on.. we ran off to the kitchen... we stopped in our tracks in the living room ... dear God...no...no!