Ruth Vicissitudes - Episode 1

 

Dolapo arrived from the U.S last week and was happy in being accompanied by his wealthy family to the Eruwahere family. The idea of marriage seems to escape him and always sought for answers as excuses to spring up whenever he was asked to marry by his parents. To him, choosing a life partner was the most difficult choice to make, several factors come into play and he was not ready to gamble through all that. His arrival to home deemed the perfect moment for Mr . Ademola and Mrs. Rachel as they longed for him to meet the companion they had chosen for him as wife. Dolapo somehow, trusted his parents verdict and knew if they liked her, then he will. He didn’t have much of a choice if they accepted or liked something and he didn’t. According to the Akintolas, it was the right time for him to settle down. He was 37 and spent nearly half of his life in New York. His reason for his coming back home still remained a secret as Mr. Ademola and Mrs, Rachel ordered him to pack his things and head for Abuja,  leave whatever that he was doing over there and head his father’s company subsidiary, AK Technologies. The Akintolas had been very good friends with the Eruwahere for years till catastrophe hit Mr. Jude Eruwahere when he lost all his money to a ponzi scheme

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. Since then, the Eruwahere had been living on the Akintolas money when Mr. Jude proposed Ruth, his daughter was going to wed Dolapo.
Mr. Jude was eagerly waiting for the arrival of Dolapo and his parents with his wife. It had been an hour since they promised they will arrive, yet no sight of them was noticed. Mr. Jude and his wife were beginning to get worried, resulting to their pacing about in the sitting room of their bungalow apartment. The sound of a Pajero jeep coming to a halt in front of their bungalow definitely notified them that their expectant visitor had arrived. To confirm their suspicion, Mrs. Eruwahere quietly peeped through the glass frame and nodded in affirmation to her husband who was sitting down on the lovely milk coloured cushion.
“They are here”, she said.
“Get everything set, you know today is the day of formal introduction”
“Honey, everything is set already. What do you want to set again?”
“Just making sure nothing is in disorder”
Knocks were heard on the door, Mrs. Eruwahere made sure nothing was amiss in her appearance before she preceded to open the door.
“Ha, Mr. Ademola, good morning. You are welcome”, she prostrated as a sign of respect.
“Good morning madame, how are you today?”
“Am fine, thank you. Please, come inside”
“Good morning ma”, greeted Dolapo, from behind.
“Good morning my son, you are welcome. My sister from another mother”, she greeted Mrs. Rachel. They exchanged pleasantries, Mr. Jude welcomed Mr. Ademola with open arms. They sat in pairs except for the handsome Dolapo who was sitting alone.
“I hope you all had a stress free journey”
“Yes. Infact, the road was unusually free today, unlike most Mondays. Maybe that’s a sign of good fortunes to come”
“I pray so. Dolapo, how are you enjoying the weather in Nigeria?”
“Am still acclimatizing to the weather sir. I brought you gifts I bought in New York”
“Oh, that’s kind of you”
“Darling, tell Ruth that his husband to be is here”
Ruth was still in bed with her pink pyjamas still on her. Her weary face suggested she has been in bereavement for days. She came home on Friday from campus to bury her fiancés body Samuel who died in a car crash about three days earlier. Since his death, Ruth had been in solitude and refused to see anyone and eat since the Sunday night.
“You are still not dressed up eh? I told you to dress up about thirty minutes ago. Now, your suitor is here”
“Am not going anywhere mum, I just want to be here alone”
“for how long are you going to grief over the dead? For how long are you going to be in this thralldom of sorrow and regret?”
For as long as I will mum. Am not ready to see anyone yet”
“Listen my child, its time to get over him. He is dead now and there is nothing you can do to bring him back. Wherever he is, his one wish is to see that you are putting on a smiling face. You are getting lean as the day goes by and that’s not healrhy you know. Do you want Samuel to be unhappy wherever he is? Start dressing up before your father gets angry with you”
Ruth gave no response, her oval face started brightening up. Of what use is it to continue to be like that? Her mum was right after all. She was the only daughter among her two younger siblings who were in boarding school. It  wasn’t just because of  she was in bereavement that she didn’t want to see the Akintolas whom have been very helpful towards paying her school fees from the third year and catering for her, she was scared of meeting Dolapo again. Not because he wasn’t handsome, he was every woman’s dream no doubt but she felt he wasn’t her type and barely knew him. He usually calls her twice in a week, comes back once in a year to see his parents and her and sends gift occasionally to her which she considered not enough, although, her Parents held a different opinion. They still claimed their relationship with the Akintolas would ensure a smooth marriage. Dolapo spent little time in Nigeria, to her some cultural values would definitely be lacking, then came the age factor, she was 22 and Dolapo was 37, she felt the age difference was much in a modern world of marriage where age difference was nearly the same of minimal and not so good to her and liking and finally, she always wanted to get married to an Igbo man and not from any other tribe, especially from the west where she considered some men there to be unfaithful and non-committed to one woman, a demon she named it. It was her dream to get clothed in expensive Indian georges and bracelets as she graced through her traditional ceremony when she was little. She was skeptical of these factors but she didn’t want to disappoint both parents. 
“Sure you don’t want that my daughter”, she continued as she held her palms in hers.
“Look at me, Dolapo is a good man. He is rich, he is handsome. What else do you want my dear?”
“I barely know him mum, am not too impressed by him”
“Don’t talk like that, you know we have known his parents for years now, they have assured us he is capable of taking care of you”
Mr. Jude began to wonder what was delaying Ruth, he hoped she had not started acting up as usual. It’s been more than thirty-minutes since the arrival of their guests. He began to sense a feeling of disappointment in the faces of their guests. More disappointment filled the air when Mrs. Eruwahere returned without Ruth, raising some questions as to what was happening.
“What is the matter? Why is she not there?” he asked in whispers.
“She is coming. She is looking for a good outfit to put on”
“Okay”, Mr. Jude turned to their guests and related the reason why Ruth wasn’t present.
“Ohh, that is great”, said Mrs. Rachel.
“Ruth can sometimes be overzealous in somethings. Here she comes, my in-law”
Brick red gown looked beautiful on Ruth , with a ribbon- dressed weavon, carefully decorated on her head. She walked briskly to them in a gorgeous manner with a feigned smile on her face. she exchanged pleasantries with the guests and was told to sit, in the empty portion close to Dolapo.
“You look more beautiful than the last time we met”, Mrs. Rachel was the first to admire her beauty and the latter’s face was filled with smile.
“Let’s go and eat breakfast everybody”
“Thank goodness because am famished”, said Dolapo who rubbed his stomach all through the conversation.
They converged in the dinning and continued their discussion.
“So Dolapo, when are you going to go back to New York”, Mrs. Eruwahere asked.
“Don’t know yet ma. Maybe till something urgent comes up that demands my attention over there. Till then, I will rather stay here and get more acquainted with Ruth”, he looked Ruth in the eye and held her hands in his, kissing it in the process”
“Oh, see the two love birds. There is so much love in the air”
“Yes, that’s good, very wise of you Dolapo”
“And I can’t wait for the marriage to commence”
They ate their breakfast in silence thereafter, with Ruth maintaining her mute appearance all through. She seemed displeased with the whole scenario but had no way around it.