Ruth Vicissitudes - Episode 12

 

It was a beautiful and an indelible moment in the lives of the graduating students of the University of Abuja on their convocation day. Professors, deans, VC and other top staff at the university gathered in the varsity’s hall to celebrate them while offering career advice and breathtaking valedictory speeches. Receiving of certificates and awards, taking of pictures with fellow parents and other wild celebrations followed up . Ruth’s parents, Dolapo and his parents were in attendance and they all were there to celebrate the success of their in-law, although Dolapo excused himself as he said he had another event to attend, cut shorting his stay at the convocation event.  While the graduation was going on, Tonkey and Maureen were absent as the event collided with the grand wedding of Charles and Maureen’s distant cousin, an event both couldn’t miss because they participated in one events or the other but promised to be in the after party organized by the outgoing  members of the students association  that would be holding later that evening. Ruth who was also invited opted not to go, she saw it as not deemed to her since she was not related to them or participating in any event at the wedding. Moreover, she had always looked forward to the day she would wear her convocation gown, she imagined herself parading in it, screaming to the world that she had become a graduate

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. She recalled how difficult it was getting into the institution, how difficult it was for her on the first day and the naivety that surrounded her communication with her fellow course mates and forming relationships with the. The lecturers didn’t make matters easy, they compounded them with assignments, treated them as hard as an owner would treat a donkey, calling them jambites, JJC’s,first timers and the rest. Then the hurdles of the first year was over and the second came, which was way better than the first, still was one of the worst period in her life and that of her family, her parents had gone into financial crisis, her siblings were threatened to stop school if their fees aren’t met. That’s where the Akintola’s came into their lives, providing help all the way to the very moment. Mr. Jude ran into Mr. Ademola somewhere after many years of not seeing each other as Mr. Ademola was in the US then. Suddenly, when she was alone her eyes were clouded with waters when the thoughts of Samuel, her first true love enveloped her. He could have been right there with them, celebrating his success. She reminisced the first day she met him, she had just alighted from a cab in front of campus and didn’t know she had insufficient funds to pay the impatient driver who was already raining curses and abuses on her, Samuel saved the day as he just proceeded out of the gate. He made jest of how a big beautiful girl like her couldn’t pay a cab man, she found it rather humourous than insulting and appreciated the way he flirted with her. Their genesis of love began there, from meeting up each other in restaurants after lecture hours, waiting upon each other at crossroads before heading to church on Sundays and to romantic outing and dates. It was a blissful time with him till death captured him and made him hostage. That phase was over now, she longed to break free from the four walls of a classroom on campus and finally, she conquered. She started to have head strains and decided to leave with both parents.
Days metamorphosed to weeks and weeks to months in Ruth’s marriage to Dolapo, things began to take a good turn, something she never hoped to see and had envisioned will be a disaster and a vile composition. After graduation as she awaits her NYSC call-up, she requested to do one or two jobs to keep her distracted and away from idleness but her husband had other ideas, he preferred she stayed and take care of the home in his absence, though detrimental to Ruth at first. She became a full housewife and indulged in activities that will alleviate  her from boredom, listening to music, watching movies all day and sometimes, chatting Maureen on social media who asked her about how her marriage, she happily told them it was going well, defining Dolapo’s gestures as kind, legendary and the best husband she could ever had. Maureen was now living in the UK with her newly wed.
In the midst of her happiness, Ruth’s marriage was very strange and was becoming a mystery gradually, Dolapo’s late home coming was becoming more often than she had thought, he walks straight to the dinning, sometimes forgetting his dinner and retires for the night. He seldom talked to her except responding to her greetings,. She found it absurd to call these unfolding as a failure as they never quarreled or was hit by Dolapo. Marriages was never a wonderland, occasionally, quarrel and  fights springs up but not in hers that was as calm as the sea. One day, when he returned home late as usual, Ruth decided to confront him;
“Darling, you seem not to be giving me your attention lately. Are you going through some difficulties at work?” he didn’t respond as he untied his shoes after eating dinner.
“Honey, can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can. Am too tired Ruth, you know am in charge of my father’s company and the work load is becoming ambiguous. Here is the time that I need to be consistent and work harder, I can’t have my time divided especially now that we are in a competition with Correl to sign another contract”
“But am your wife, am supposed to come first” she protested.
“Good night Sweetheart” he kissed her goodnight and slept, doing the same thing he does all the time without further ado. Ruth was dumbfounded but didn’t look angry, she knew the work her husband does and concluded he was telling the truth, she had been to his office several times and seen it for herself but her needs wasn’t met and she was craving for his time to be together with her and share some intimacy.
Ruth was reading a showbiz magazine the next day when she was bored, glancing through the pages when she heard a severe knock on the door, she wasn’t expecting anybody as no one knew where she lived, except her parents. Dolapo’s stern warning about bringing her friends still rang on her head. She was meant to visit them or call them but not the other way round, a rule that Ruth herself never fathomed. She obliged because she didn’t want to bring up quarrels in her new marriage. She reached for the door and saw a white lady, blonde hair, with several piercings on her left ear and a cigarette tucked in between her lips.
“How may I help you?”
“Am looking for Dolapo Akintola?” she spoke in a foreign accent
“He has gone to work. Why…”
“Oh, I guess am at his place” she cuts in.
“Who are…?” the white lady barged in, admiring the beautiful art piece on the wall, the furniture and the décor while nodding her head in appreciation. She sat and reached for the same magazine Ruth was glancing through;
“Excuse me, you cant just barge into my home and sit like you own it” Ruth protested.
“Dollar boy still has eyes for good things, I can still see that” she changed the topic and reverted back to it again.
“You asked me who I was right? Yes, am Dolapo’s wife. Who are you? His sister?”
Ruth imagined if the visitor had come to the right place or had mistaken her husband for hers. She had never come across that face nor her husband ever made mention of being married previously. 
“Am his wife and he has never said anything about you to me”
“Oh, his wife or concubine huh? I have been married to him for a year and we have a child” Ruth contemplated if she was joking or not, who the hell was she to call her a concubine of Dolapo? She concluded the only way to verify her claims was to call Dolapo’s attention. She left for her room upstairs and in one dial, Dolapo answered;
“Hello Darling”
“Ruth, I told you not to call me during office hours unless there is an emergency, didn’t I ?”
“Darling, there is one. A lady from nowhere barged into our home and demanded to see you. She claimed to be your wife”
“I don’t know who that is. What did she say her name was?”
“Jennifer”
“What?” Dolapo yelled
“Honey, what’s the problem” Ruth inquired.
“Am coming back home now” he stated and hung up. Ruth couldn’t imagine what just happened as she descended down the stairs, was the lady’s claim true after all. The way her husband reacted at the mention of her name spoke of a certain history between that she wasn’t aware. Not long after, a jeep zoomed into their compound and Dolapo alighted hurriedly, leaving the door ajar and proceeding to the house. His eyes beheld Jennifer who was smoking fervently;
“What are you doing here Jennifer?”
“Dollar boy honey, I have missed you so much” she placed her hands on his shoulders and tried to plant a kiss in Ruth’s presence.
“Take your hands of me”, he shrugged her hands off.
“ Aren’t you happy to see your lover”
“Honey, is what she is saying true?”
“Sweetheart, it isn’t what you think. Its complicated”
“What is complicated? Oh my God” she proceeded upstairs again, perplexed on what to do and left the house with her bag hanging over her shoulders. Dolapo tried recalling her back but she refuted, while he remained with Jennifer downstairs;
“How did you find me here all the way from Brooklyn you wh*re”
“Am now the wh*re now right? Tell me when did you get out of rehab? Why did you leave me and your son in Brooklyn without a word?”
“What I have a son?” Dolapo asked confused.
“Your sixteen months old son. Why Dollar boy?”
Dolapo didn’t say a word, he was in deep thoughts of how to wriggle himself out of the precarious situation he just immersed himself in. He couldn’t come up with a solution, his head was blocked. The only reasonable thing he could think of was calling his father, explaining things to him. 
“Dollar boy, let’s forget what happened to us back then and get back together. Am horny right now and in need of a quickie” she proceeded to smooch him but was shrugged. Dolapo proceeded to his car and placed a call to his father who promised to come as quickly as possible. Dolapo couldn’t return to the office, the issue at hand was more pressing, something that couldn’t wait for another day before it gets solved. He waited for extra thirty minutes in the car before his father arrived at the scene.
“What happened son?”
“Dad, I don’t know what to do. I didn’t tell you something that happened while I was in Brooklyn”
“What is it?”
“I got married to a lady and we have a son that I didn’t know of because I was in rehab together”
“What? And you didn’t tell me son, what about your wife? How did she take all this?”
“What did you expect dad? She was furious”
“Did she know about your time in the rehab home?”
“No, she didn’t. she already left when we talked about it”
“She left? Where did she go”
“I don’t know dad. I want Jennifer out of this house, her drug addiction is what took me to rehab. What do we do?” he paced up and down while arriving at nothing definite. His father grabbed his hand and proceeded to the house, he thought of a plan, to him there was nothing more powerful than money, paying her off would be the ideal thing to do, sending her away for life out of his son’s life. He made the suggestion to her and she declined.
“No, that’s too small to take care of me and the baby. I demand further rise or I tell everyone about us and you will be all over the papers”
“Okay, I pay you $15000 every month to keep your mouth shut. That’s a good deal”
“Yea, that’s what I’m talking about. I will be expecting the payment first thing in the morning” she issued and left with her bag. Dolapo was right, her purpose of coming there was to swindle some money from him in the name of threats and use it to fuel her drug addiction. He never stopped regretting the horrible things he did, allowing his desire for her consume him and delude him. 
“Do you know where she might have gone to?” his father asked him about the whereabouts of Ruth. In truth, he didn’t know where she went to, he thought of all the places she could be but arrived at nothing when he went there one after the other. He left tons of voice messages and text messages, hoping she would read his sincere apologies and come back home. He waited till night before Ruth opened the door gently and came in;
“Am so sorry for what happened today darling, I am truly” she didn’t utter a word and headed upstairs.
“Sweetheart, am sorry” he trailed her and kept apologising while dragging her back the stairs.
“Talk to me, I want to kill myself now for what happened, for not telling you about this”
“Why didn’t you? We have dated for like forever and you never took the time to tell me about this”
“It was a one night stand dear and she clung to that”
“No more secrets between us, am your wife and I deserve to know a whole lot more than keeping me in the dark”. He apologized once more and promised never to lie to her again. He asked her if her parents knew about what happened and she replied in the negative. He was gladdened in his heart that it was so, his father had warned him about letting their marriage’s problem leak to her parents. He must make sure he keeps her as happy as he could, if she had known he was a drug addict and escaped rehab, she wouldn’t have agreed to be in his home, her parents wouldn’t have agreed either, no virtuous woman wants to be with an ex drug addict. Mr. Ademola played his cards all along, he had a hidden agenda when he helped his friend Mr. Jude and his family in the time of financial handicap, to lay siege for them into agreeing with him to marry Ruth off to his son in exchange. Mr. Jude himself was ignorant of this, he thought he owned them a favour for everything they had done, the least thing they could have done was marrying their daughter to a good man like Dolapo, they thought a man whom they never really understood.