Chains That Bind Us - Episode 8

 

Saturday arrived slowly. Chidinma was too excited and anxious of its arrival that the pace of its arrival was too slow for her. “This week is too long. When would it be weekend?” She complained to her husband all week long who always replied her with a laugh. “The week is moving at its normal pace. Saturday would arrive soon enough.” He would say after he had finished laughing.
Now Saturday has finally arrived and Chidinma was overjoyed . Not even her mother-in-law usual nagging could destroy her mood for the day. The minute she woke up that morning, she went straight into the job of cleaning and preparing the house for her dinner guests. It was times like this that she wished that she had an house help to assist her in the chores but today she didn’t mind doing it all on her own for once. She was too excited to mind. She wouldn’t be doing it all on her own anyway. At Debo’s insistence, they had employed a woman who only came on weekends to clean up the house and its compound. She would soon arrive and join her in the chores.
While cleaning up the house, she started preparing breakfast for her family. She didn’t want any trouble or complaint from her mother-in-law that she was being starved in her son’s house because her daughter-in-law was too busy preparing for some dinner guests instead of facing immediate matters that called for her attention in the house. Hopefully the woman would not cause any trouble for her or reveal personal, intimate details about her marital life during dinner so as to cause her some embarrassment

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. She would have loved if they could exclude her from the dinner but they couldn’t. She lived with them and that meant she had to sit with them and entertain their guests unless she and Debo decide to take the option of treating their guests out so as not to involve his mother in the activity.
Finally the cleaning lady came and together, they cleaned up the entire house. Everything was sparkling clean from top to bottom. “I don’t know why you are going through so much trouble just because you are entertaining some guests. You have always been a lazy bone good at doing nothing but sleep, eat and enjoy my son’s money.” Chidinma heard the voice coming from the direction of the stairs.
“Good morning Mama.” She greeted totally ignoring the older woman’s comment. She was used to it and she had sworn that nothing she said would destroy her joyful mood for the day.
As expected, her greeting was received by thin air and the air did not reply the greeting she had bestowed on it. The woman continued her journey into the kitchen and Chidinma returned to her chores. She noticed the pitiful look the cleaning woman directed at her but totally ignored it and pretended as if she hadn’t noticed. She had too much to do for the day to concern herself with her mother-in-law’s attitude or the pitiful glances of her cleaning lady.
A while later, the older woman came out once again obviously ready for a fight. “Are we not going to eat in this house or are you planning on starving us until the stupid dinner you are preparing for?” 
“Mama you are coming from the kitchen. You could very well see that I have a pot of beans cooking presently. I could very well not serve my dinner guests beans can I?” Chidinma replied.
“You could have just come out and say it out loud that I am blind. What is my business if you serve your so called guests beans or shit, all I know is that I want my food and I want it now?” She shouted.
“Mummy, the food is already on fire cooking. What else do you expect her to do?” Debo asked. She had not heard him come down the stairs and now that he was, she knew this whole thing would end up blowing out of proportion because his mother would not let go of the fact that he was supporting his wife at the detriment of her.
“I know you would support her. She is intentionally trying to starve me to death so that you would no longer have a mother that would pressure her to leave her son’s house and you are letting her.”
“Eating one meal of the day a little bit late would not cause you to die of hunger mum. Okay, there is some bread in the fridge, she would microwave it for you and fry some eggs to go with it. You can eat that for now until the beans is ready.” Debo said trying his possible best to make peace and put the morning’s rapport behind them.
“I don’t want to eat bread, I want beans.” She said behaving like a child who was not getting what she wants. Chidinma could not point it out to her and neither could Debo but Debo’s patience was already tested to the limit.
“Then you would wait until the beans is ready and this would be the last time I would hear of this today. Can’t a man have some peace in his house on a Saturday morning?” He said then stormed back upstairs angrily.
“You can see what you caused, you witch.” Her mother-in-law said looking at her with so much venom that Chidinma despite her earlier promise to herself not to be moved by whatever the older woman does, quivered a bit before the woman stormed off.
She immediately went to the kitchen to check on her cooking practically begging it to be extra ordinarily fast so her mother-in-law would not starve to death and she wouldn’t be blamed when that happened.
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Aderomoke had been summoned to the Palace that Saturday morning. She hoped and prayed that she would be able to get back to Lagos before evening so that she could be able to attend the dinner she and her family had been invited to by Raymond’s college friends. She was not royalty but all her life she had been told that she had been born to marry royalty. That was what their ifa deity had proclaimed. But where is the royalty she was destined to marry, nowhere to be found. She wasn’t getting any younger so when she had met Raymond in New York and fell in love with him, she had practically told the deity to go to sleep. She was going to write her own destiny and so far she has done exactly that.
She wouldn’t be surprised that that was one of the main reasons she had been summoned to her hometown in Ise-Ekiti. Hours away from Lagos. She had intentionally arrived the night before so that she could meet with them early and get on the road once again for her trip back to Lagos so they could go for dinner. She couldn’t wait to meet Chidinma. Raymond had said so much about her already that she felt like they already know each other so well.
“Are you trying to say that I should wait the rest of my life for a missing prince?” Romoke asked the king, the chiefs as well as the queens who were seated.
“Is that too much to ask?” The king, Oba Adedokun asked. “I knew it was a bad idea sending you to the States to finish your education but it was just so you can have something to occupy you while we were searching for your husband.”
“Kabiyesi, he is not my husband. Raymond is my husband.”
“To add insult to injury, she went ahead to marry an igbo man. How did you come about having those kids of yours?” The Balogun asked.
“She probably adopted them. She cannot have kids except with the prince she is destined to marry.” The Iyalode said.
“I write my own destiny. Those kids are my kids. My flesh and blood. I gave birth to them myself.”
Everyone started talking at once. Some said impossible, some said lies, some said abomination but Aderomoke did not concern herself with whatever any of them were saying. Their opinion did not matter. They could believe whatever they wanted to but the truth of the matter was that she had truly given birth to her children herself although technically not the natural way. It was a good thing she knew what the legend said about the conception of the woman destined to marry the prince of their land. After trying for a while the natural way, she had finally confessed to Raymond everything about her birth and life. Since they lived abroad in a world where almost everything was possible, they decided to scientific methods. After so many trials and errors, on the verge of given up, science had finally given them their own child.
“How is that possible?” Oba Adedokun asked.
“Science. Science gave me my children and although it cost I and my husband a fortune, it was worth it at the end of the day. Those children are my life and I would do anything for them.” She replied him.
Science had made the impossible possible. She had used fertility drugs, so many of them, after which her husband’s sperm and her egg had been mixed artificially then placed in an incubator so that it could form. After so many tries, it started forming and they injected the baby into her womb where she carried and nurtured it the natural way until they were six months old after which it was removed and placed in the incubator again until it was ten months old. She didn’t want to take the risk of carrying the baby for the duration of nine months because she might end up having complications in giving birth to them. Science had given her her children, not once but twice and she would be forever grateful to science for that.
“I hope you find him wherever he is. I know you would sooner or later do. The ifa said he would come to this land on his own free will. He might be married as well and having problems giving birth to the child also but not to worry I gave birth despite all the odds against it happening, if he could spend money the way I and my husband did, I am sure he would also be able to father a child eventually.”
The chiefs started murmuring amongst themselves as they sent sly disapproving glances at her. Romoke didn’t care whatever they said or decided amongst themselves. She was going to get married to her man and father of her kids whether they liked it or not. That was her long term goal. Her short term goal was to get back on the road so she could make it for dinner.
After a few minutes of murmuring and mumbling amongst themselves, Oba Adedokun finally stood up and left the throne room leaving Romoke and the chiefs in the room. She took it as her cue that she could leave so she said a polite farewell to the chiefs and left as well. It was time to get back home to her husband and her kids.
It wasn’t until around four o’ clock that afternoon that Romoke finally got home. On her way, her father called her to tell her how rude she was leaving the town without coming back home to discuss what had been said at the palace with him. She had to apologise and debrief him while on the way. Her father was okay with her decision. The only problem she ever had was her mother who had envisioned herself as Iya Olori’s since Romoke had been born and announced as the prince’s bride. She hated the fact that she was now the laughing stock of the entire town and the respect that so many people have bestowed on her as the years go by was now slowly diminishing. It would probably be gone totally once she and Raymond get married. People would now accept that she was no longer betrothed to the missing prince.
When she got home, she went through the process of debriefing her husband on the event that took place at the palace and how disapproving they were about her decision to write her own destiny. Raymond was supportive and withheld his own opinion about the archaic practices of her people. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to him criticizing and talking about her people.
“Let’s get ready for dinner, it’s getting late.” She said as she stood up and headed into the children’s bedroom where they were watching Cartoon Network while Raymond stayed back in the living room watching a programme on TV. It would be a while before Romoke got the kids and herself ready for dinner so he might as well while away time. It would only take a minute for him to get ready.
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Dinner was ready and the table was set by the time it was seven o’clock. Chidinma was dressed elegantly in a long flowing Ankara gown which had been expertly sewn and styled by her local tailor. She had her hair flowing down her back and applied some make-up to make her face glow despite the fact that they were glowing already. She was absolutely radiant and Debo did not fail to tell her that when he entered the room. She laughed and whirled about making the full skirt of her gown spin in circles with her. She was absolutely excited.
Debo cut her in his arms and laughed with her while spinning her into a dance to some imaginary music although the rich melodic sound of her laughter was music enough for him. They stayed in each other’s arms for a while dancing and laughing when they heard the sound of a car entering the compound. “Our guests have arrived.” Debo said and immediately dropped a kiss on Chidinma’s forehead before taking her hand and heading out to receive their guests.
Mrs. Bankole was seated in the living room when they arrived downstairs hand in hand. She directed a scowl their way before turning her attention back to the TV screen. Since the morning episode, she had totally refused to talk to them. She had even refused to eat the food Chidinma cooked and had gone out to buy food from a nearby eatery. Chidinma had paid the woman no mind. She had been too busy to even think about a sulking old woman. It is true what they said that the older you become, the more childlike you tend to behave. 
Chidinma knew her mother-in-law only wanted an apology from her son for the way he spoke to her in front of his wife and the cleaning woman and she had tried her best despite her busy schedule to persuade her husband to apologise to his mother. “If she is going to behave like a child then she would be treated like one”, he had said angrily and till that moment, as they walked out to receive their guests, he still had not spoken a word of apology to his mother. Thankfully, the older woman had decided not to plaster their family issues in front of strangers and had dressed up in an elegant blue Kaftan gown for dinner. Well hopefully she doesn’t create a scene.
Raymond, Romoke and their children were out of the car and walking towards the porch of the house when Chidinma and Debo opened the door. Raymond and Debo shook hands. No formal introduction need to be done, they already knew who each person was already. Romoke and Chidinma shared a hug and the former promptly introduced Chidinma to the children. Meeting them made her desires of having a child of her own whether through adoption or any other means stronger. 
“I would like you to meet my mother, Gbemisola Bankole.” Debo said as soon as they entered the living room where his mother was still sitting watching the TV. “Mum, meet our friends, Raymond, Romoke and this are their lovely children, Cecilia and Camila.”
“It is nice meeting you. I heard you all just returned to Nigeria. Hope you are coping with the climate and economical changes.” Mrs. Bankole said with a small polite smile. Chidinma who was standing beside her husband released her breathe she had not realised that she was holding. Her mother-in-law was trying to be civil. Hopefully it would stay that way for the rest of the evening. 
“Let’s eat.” Chidinma announced and promptly took Debo’s hands and they both led the way to the dining room.
They talked about everything and laughed at everything that was being said. The dinner atmosphere was full of live. Even Mrs. Bankole behaved herself in a proper manner although she made a point on doting and pampering the little girls. It didn’t escape anyone the little hints she was dropping constantly. All she wanted to talk about was parenting, children, pregnancies and the rest. The girls were the centre of her attention. She treated them as if they were the grandchildren she had wanted for as long as she could remember. 
“Why don’t you try artificial insemination?” Romoke suggested as they sat in the living room having their nightcap. Debo’s mother had taken the children to the other sitting room to watch cartoon. She was totally behaving as if she had never seen a child before.
“In this part of the world we are from, it is frowned against,” Chidinma answered as she sipped her drink.
“That was how we had our daughters. It was really expensive but it was worth it. We didn’t have them naturally but they are still our biological children and nobody would know except you tell them,” Romoke answered.
“Science.”
“Yes science,” Raymond answered. “This part of the world makes us believe that if a woman can’t give birth naturally, she is barren but science has been able to contradict that notion. There are so many different options for couples who want to have child or rather children of their own. Adoption is the last option and that is only when the other options does not work”.
Debo and Chidinma look at each other, their eyes holding son many unasked questions and unanswered questions. Should they confide their predicament to their friends? Their case was not simply a matter of not being able to have a child. It was spiritual. They were simply not destined to have a child together. At least that is what they have been told. Debo was the first to look away and face their guests once again. “We would discuss it and get back to you.”
Hope lightened Chidinma’s heart. Could science actually do what religion said is impossible. Science has done a lot of things to contradict religion since the beginning of time and she had also heard of the success cases of the various artificial methods of conception but would it work for her. Should she put her hope in science? What if science fails her? Then she would have nothing else to do then. She would just accept her faith. There is no harm in trying. A picture of her growing belly flashed before her eyes and she smiled then laughed after a picture of a child falling as he or she tried to take the first step as she cheered along flashed before her eyes.
Debo saw her smile, he heard her laughter and knew there was nothing really to discuss on the matter. Chidinma wanted to try and if he didn’t lie to himself, he would admit that he also wanted to try. Maybe science would help them out. Science has had so many groundbreaking discoveries and innovation since the beginning of time. It had done so many things that religion and nature thought impossible although as far as Debo was concerned on the matter of science and religion, God has the final say. If God doesn’t want science to have those breakthroughs and inventions, they would not have happened because nothing happens without His knowledge and acknowledgement. Hopefully God would be grant them their wish and answer their prayers even if it is through science.

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