In the space of time - Episode 9

 

1st March, 2019
Adaugo washed her hands and carried the now empty plates to the kitchen. She had just finished having lunch with Mama and Odogwu. Mama had come to spend some time with them, she left Abuja with Odogwu the day before. This was Odogwu’s mother Daa Obiageli, She was very playful and funny and Adaugo liked her. She often wished her step mum, Madam Gladys was as joyful as her mother in law was . Adaugo honestly didn’t know what she had done to the woman to deserve so much bitterness from her. She remembered how she often went to meet Madam Gladys when no one was in the house, she would get on her knees and apologize for maybe having wronged her unknowingly, especially that period of Adaugo’s marriage. Madam Gladys had sworn fire and brimstone saying Odogwu would not marry Ada. Her opinion was that the village Odogwu was from, Mbiere, was a wicked one and not a good place to marry from. She said her elder brother had gotten married from there and the marriage had ‘thousands’ of loopholes, and she wouldn’t want her daughter suffering that kind of tragedy. At first, Adaugo thought it to be a big joke, maybe the woman was just not in the mood that day. That was until the day of Adaugo’s introduction

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/in-the-space-of-time

. Madam Gladys had caused a scene and used a bowl of water with white calabash to wash her hands of their union in the presence of Adaugo’s in laws to be then. This was a very symbolic act in Ada’s culture. Ada had gone to beg her that night, on her knees, she pleaded with her to forgive and forget anything she had done knowingly or unknowingly to wrong Madam Gladys. ‘’When will you will you pick Tabitha up from school?’’, Mama was asking Odogwu, ‘’Actually mama, I’ll go pick her up’’, mama looked at both their faces, ‘’why?’’, Odogwu isn’t doing anything now is he?, I honestly prefer Odogwu to drive’’, this was the thing with Mama that Ada didn’t really like. She supported Odogwu in the housewife thing. Just that mama was an extremist. Like she believed the masculine tasks should be left for the males. Was driving even masculine? And whoever drew up the feminine/masculine table? ‘’mama, Ada na anya motor ofuma(Ada drives really well)’’, Odogwu had stepped in to defend his wife. Was it really defense though?
Adaugo just kept clearing the table. Odogwu was now preparing to go pick Tabitha up from school, apparently, mama had convinced him to be the one to drive. So she just continued with kitchen work, that was when she got the call. Ada screamed so loud after she ended the call. ‘’Ogini, ogini mekwa nu ozo(what? What has happened again?)’’, mama asked, running to the kitchen where Ada was standing. ‘’I got the job,I got the job, I got the job!!’’ Ada kept jumping and screaming. ‘’which job?’’ mama asked? By this time, Odogwu had gotten to where the women were, ‘’what’s the noise all about?, I was on my way out when I heard screams, what happened?’’,  mama just turned to face odogwu and said, ‘’ask your wife’’, before turning to head back to her room. Mama obviously wasn’t happy with the news, Adaugo honestly didn’t get why Mama was like that to her. Mercy, her first daughter was working as a nurse in the US with her husband, what was wrong with Ada working here? Was it still because of Gift’s death? Why did Adaugo have to be the one to suffer the aftermath, while every other person went about their daily activities like nothing had happened.  ‘’I got the job’’, Adaugo said to her husband. Then she showed the email she received on her phone to Odogwu. ‘’whats this about?’’ he asked in a gentle tune. Ada also reduced the volume of her voice. ‘’the job I told you about before you traveled’’, Odogwu gave her a stern look. ‘’I don’t remember’’, Was he serious? ‘’The one I told you about at the airport, after our valentine date’’ she added for emphasis. ‘’oh, you were serious?’’, obviously she was. She had told him she wanted to try her luck with Morning times a tv early morning show under Enugu broadcasting corporation. He probably didn’t think she was serious. But Ada had gone ahead with the interview last week and had been selected to be among one of the junior news editors. It was a start, because honestly with zero work experience she had expected much worse. ‘’besides, when did you apply that they’re already employing you?’’, Odogwu’s reply made Ada happy. It wasn’t a ‘straight go ahead’ but it wasn’t one of the ‘you can’t work outside scolding either’, this was progress. The last time she had told Odogwu about a job offer she got was two years ago. He didn’t even wait for her to finish before he said, ‘’it isn’t worth it, I’ll give you times four of what they’re offering’’, he had said. He didn’t get it. It wasn’t about the money, it was about the experience. Ada hadn’t lacked money in any way and she was grateful to her husband for that, every month, her bank account was credited by her husband. She didn’t know whether to call it salary or allowance. Anyways, now she could finally earn her own money, thank God, she thought. ‘’I went for an interview last week. And got an email just now’’, Odogwu raised a brow. ‘’isn’t it too fast? Are you sure they’re not scammers Ada, you know these 419 people are everywhere these days’’, Ada smiled and went to hug him, ‘’thank you thank you thank you!’’ , Odogwu just gave her a confused star whilst raising his hands up, ‘’Ada, Ada, chegodu(wait first), too tight’’, Ada let go of him, ‘’oh, sorry’’, Adaugo rested on the kitchen wall, folded his arms and kept staring at her, ‘’why are you thinking me, I haven’t even said anything’’, Odogwu was holding back a smile, Adaugo could see it. ‘’oh, c’mon you want to let me go and you know it’’, she moved to tickle him. ‘’This won’t work on me young lady’’. It was a lie. Tickling Odogwu worked like magic. Ada knew this because any time she mistakenly or intentionally tickled him, he would laugh so hard, even before she started, ‘’alright, I’m about to tickle you’’, she said wearing a mischievous smile, he moved a step back, throwing his hands in the air. ‘’we’ll talk about this, whatever it is when I get back, right now I want to go pick up Tabitha’’. 

11th March, 2019
Ada looked outside the window, it was going to rain. She hadn’t brought her car to work today, it was at the mechanic’s place for servicing, she wondered how she would get home. Maybe she’d call her husband to come pick her up. Odogwu hadn’t started work yet, he was still at home, according to him, his location transfer papers were still being processed. ‘’what you thinking of beautiful?’’, it was Mr Tobi, her colleague. The guy just wouldn’t drop it. He kept flirting with her ever since she resumed that job. She had shoved her wedding ring in his face many times but the guy didn’t seem to understand the meaning of ‘married’. She pitied him anyways, Odogwu disliked people like that, he was very protective of her and didn’t take it likely with disturbers. She prayed to God that Tobi would just stop, because she badly wanted to keep her job and no complications was necessary, especially not at this point, it was too early. Odogwu would probably voice the words, ‘I told you so’ to her, the world is not a pretty place Ada, people can be very scary, be careful of scorpions and vipers. This was the advice he gave to her, on her first day of work. She saw it coming into play now. Ever since she started the job, she had been the one to encourageherself to not give up. This was why; besides Mr Tobi, there were other people who gave Ada headache, and bothered constantly, Miss Cindy was one, she was a direct senior to Ada, and was in charge of dishing out instructions, and daily tasks. Mr Ewin, the general Chief Editor/supervisor had put Ada under the watch of Miss Cindy .
 Everyday Ada was constantly bombarded with work load, she didn’t understand or had little knowledge of. That they were giving her tasks didn’t bother her, but it was the fact that she was supposed to be coached, but she was being treated like she was an expert already. It was just too hard. Ada couldn’t complain, she went once to Miss Cindy’s office to get clarification on how to present the section that was supposed to be read during the ‘’morning times show’ the next morning , but Miss Cindy gave her a tough scolding. Honestly, she reminded Ada of Madam Gladys, her step mum. In fact, she looked like her, or maybe it was just Ada seeing things. She had heard Miss Cindy had gotten the ‘’title of Mrs’’ twice now but in the space of seven years, she had been divorced twice. She was currently single now. Actually, in the contract of employment, which Ada signed, she had been promised a two week training for the job, to give her a basic idea on how to go about tasks which she was given so she’d produce the best results humanly possible, and the person in charge of giving her such training her was Miss Cindy. This same Miss Cindy, did it for two days, smiling and being overly friendly with Ada, then the third day, a Wednesday, when Odogwu dropped her off, she saw Odogwu kiss Ada goodbye and that very day in the office, her countenance towards Ada changed. When Adaugo got home that Wednesday, she asked Odogwu if he knew Miss Cindy from somewhere, maybe he had  offended her in the past, Odogwu said he didn’t even recall the face, so he wouldn’t  a know. 
Odogwu also said if Miss Cindy was giving Ada problems, that she could quit the job, and he would look for another job for her, besides, he had gone on to say, ‘’the salary isn’t worth your stress’’. Quit the job? Definitely no! that would be letting Miss Cindy win, and Ada hadn’t done anything wrong, why would she quit a job she just got because of an angry woman? Besides quitting wasn’t an option because she didn’t also know if her husband was serious about getting her another job, not that he didn’t have the ability or connections to, but that he may go back on his decision of allowing her to work. You see, convincing him hadn’t been a very easy thing. That Friday after he had returned from picking Tabitha from school, she had prepared Odogwu’s favourite meal, and was certain that she would convince him finally that day. Her husband had healed. She knew it, she could feel it. He was more relaxed, less angry after his last trip to Abuja. She wanted to take advantage of this moment to get what she wanted and she did. Odogwu finally agreed on her accepting the job offer that night, but had made her promise that she would always be home before five, He would finally get them a driver who would be picking Tabitha up from school and also driving her to school. 
‘’None of your business sir’’, Ada was replying to Tobi’s question. She picked up her iphone and called Odogwu. The iphone was a new one and the latest one, X max. Odogwu had given her during their Valentine date, she didn’t want another gift, but the phone wasn’t bad after all, so she accepted. It was 3:45pm and 4pm was closing time.  Ada dialed her husband’s no, she was calling to check if Odogwu was the one going to pick Tabitha or their new driver, Ifeanyi. Either way, she wanted to know if one of them could pick her up as well. ‘’Oh, alright, I understand, I’d take a taxi’’. She ended the call. Odogwu was out at his supposed new work place, something about checking in, and clarification. He hadn’t sounded too pleased. She hoped all was well. And apparently, Ifeanyi couldn’t pick her too, He had just left to pick Tabitha. Oh well, the next option was a taxi. ‘’Or, I could just drop you off’’, Tobi said, as if he had read her thoughts. ‘’Excuse me?’’ Ada asked, as though she hadn’t heard him the first time. ‘’you wanna take a taxi? Isn’t that what you just said’’, he replied making phone call gestures, apparently he had been eavesdropping. ‘’no thank you, I’ll be fine on my own’’, she said gathering her things. She knew better than to accept a ride from Tobi, a single guy who was constantly checking her out and throwing flirty comments, here and there. He was nice to her at work,( maybe too nice) Ada thought, he had helped her with some of the tasks Miss Cindy gave her, but no, definitely No!, it was obvious, he was interested in her and she didn’t want any unnecessary attachments to be formed. She got up and left for home, it was past closing time now, and she was going to make a stop at the market, it was better to hurry now, since she wasn’t using a private car. 
When Ada got home, she found Odogwu in the living room, sitting and looking so helplessly sad. He sat on the floor of the living room, on the rouge actually, but she knew something was definitely up.

Read " When two hearts collide " by the same author ( Ijeoma Okorie )

. She remembered how he sounded on the phone and hurriedly went towards him. ‘’Sweetheart, what’s the matter?’’ she asked, dropping the bad of foodstuffs she had purchased earlier from the market on a side stool in the living room. Odogwu was wearing his shirt with about three of his top button undone. ‘’where is Tabitha?’’, she asked looking around and wondering whether something bad had happened to their daughter. ‘’Ifeanyi! Ifeanyi!’’, she shouted. She knew he was around because the car was parked outside. Odogwu put his hand on her lap, signifying for her to stop. ‘’Tabitha is fine, she ate and now she’s sleeping’’ Odogwu replied. Then what was the matter? ‘’Odogwu, gwanu m ihe n’eme nu(tell me what the matter is)’’, she sounded desperate now, she heard the sound of desperation in her voice. Odogwu didn’t speak, he just picked up a folded white paper and gave it to her. She opened it and read the heading, ‘’Letter of suspension from the Nigerian Navy’’, what? Like what? Why? What had he done? What were they going to do?