NOWHERE TO BE FOUND PT2

It is true what they say, that so long as one still had breathe, life would always find a way to surprise you, my favorite quote? Nothing in life was permanent, are you happy today? Beware of the day it will change, are you in pain, sad or troubled? Beware of the day it will change, for it definitely will. Life was a chameleon, notorious for its camouflage for just when you think you have got it all figured out; it will show you a new side.

Last year a neighbor had lost her child, the gathering had been at her house, I was there with my wife to sympathize. I felt bad for her misfortune but it didn’t stop me from watching my favorite program that night nor did it stop me from going to work the next day.

Last week, our next door neighbor woke the entire neighborhood with an ear splitting scream, the cry tore through the night like lightening slicing through a dark storm, men and women had rushed out with various thoughts and assumption to pound on her gate. It was her daughter that had slumped into unconsciousness. After all was said and done and the girl taken and admitted into the hospital, I was among those that murmured ‘her screams had been unwarranted, we even thought someone had died.’

The next day I had forgotten all about it until my wife gave me the update, that the girl had regained consciousness.

People can only imagine the pain you are in but they will never really know.

They can only keep you company during your darkest hour but they can never help you carry your pain.

On this day my house was where the gathering was at...the darkest hour was mine to bear.

The scream had come from none other than me.

I was the one sitting in a daze as well wishers wove around me, whispering and shaking their heads in sympathy.

My brother, Gabriel knelt beside me; his voice sounding like it was coming from a distance.

“Since we have involved the police I am sure something will come up.”

I kept seeing that moment when I was working on my laptop and she was on the bed.

Had she been calling me for help, struggling to get my attention?

I was consumed by self loathing.

“She had been right there, right there on the bed.” I said.

“This is most strange, I have listened to that recording over six times and I still can’t say whose voice it was.”

“His voice wasn’t as clear and audible as hers had been.”

“But you are sure you saw her.”

“Yes brother. She was right there on the bed, still there when I took my bath and sat at my laptop to work, she was there when I left the bedroom for the kitchen.”

“So what happened? Where is she?”

I sat staring for a long time. I had no more thoughts. Thousands of scenarios have gone through my mind.

“I closed my eyes for half an hour, half an hour! And my wife is nowhere to be found.”

“We need to find out who she had been talking to. I know someone that can work on it, help us figure out—”

“Mr. Abel, Mr. Abel!”

That is my name, Abel. And the boy shouting it like his very life depended on it was Mr Kutigi’s son. I could hear the excited call from the front of my house, a second later he rushed into the living room whose door was standing wide open for all.

“Your wife is coming.” He said it like he couldn’t believe it himself. Even before I could react the neighbors with me rushed out after him.

“Is this a time to joke?” Someone was saying.

“Where…where is she?” Others demanded to know even as they rushed outside.

It was when I heard ‘My God its Serena’ that I pushed a man blocking my path to the door and rushed out.

And there she was, my petite, Korean faced beautiful wife, staring about her like someone had dropped her in a strange planet.

“What is going on here? Did something happen?” she asked in that perpetually sexy voice of hers, as she rushed towards me.

I studied her desperately, my eyes roaming all over her while my breathing came out fast and hard.

“Serena.” I whispered and then I was hugging her desperately.

“Serena my God, I thought something had happened to you.”

“What is happening? Are those police men? Mama Amaka, Aunty…what is going on?”

She asked talking to me as well as some of our neighbors.

“Where have you been?” My brother demanded coming to stand by us.

“I went to the market.” She said raising the bag she was carrying for all to see.

“And you didn’t tell anybody?” demanded the first police man.

“My husband was on the couch sleeping, I didn’t want to disturb him.”

“What about the blood on the bed?” I wanted to know.

“What are you talking about?”

“There is something like blood on the sheets in your bedroom.” This was from the other officer.

My wife couldn’t meet anybody’s eye again.

My heart sank at that look on her face.

“Don’t tell me it’s another of your pranks.” I whispered in utter shock.

“But you didn’t fall for it; I came out after a while only to meet you sleeping on the couch. I realized I had wasted my time and because I had some things I needed for dinner and it was getting late, I immediately grabbed my list and headed out. I was certain I was going to be back before you woke since the market is a stone throw from here, unfortunately I got delayed by an acquaintance I came across.”

All eyes were on us, after sometime some hissed and started to leave, others shook their head murmuring among each other only a few women thanked God that something bad hadn’t happened. Mortified I grabbed my wife by the arm and dragged her inside.

“Take care of these people.” I threw back at my brother.

“Officers…” I heard him saying as I went back inside the house.

“This has been a great misunderstanding.”

“Find something for us let us get back to the station. The things people do.”

“Of course officers, I…”

In the bedroom I started to pace.

“Honey…” She started to say as she placed the bag on the floor just inside the room

“Twenty four years old and yet you have the mind of a six year old. When will you grow up?” I roared.

“Please don’t raise your voice at me, how was I to know this would happen? How did you end up blowing this out of proportion, even going as far as calling the POLICE?!”

My legs ate up the distance between us, my face inches from hers.

“I thought you were dead! I thought you had been kidnapped, I thought that was your blood Serena.” I said stabbing at the air as I pointed towards the bed that still had the stained sheet on.

“But how? Why? Who wouldn’t know that is just tomato ketchup.”

I remembered the fear I had felt, the panic that had had me shouting like a woman.

“Who wouldn’t know you say? A husband who thought the woman he loved had been murdered.” I whispered to her, anger draining out of me like air from balloon to be replaced by disappointment and sadness.

“What about the recording.” My brother asked coming inside to close the door behind him.

“Who were you talking to and what had been happening?”

“It’s probably all part of her prank, it was funny back then when we were dating, but this has gone too far and its obvious you will never grow up.” I said looking her in the eye, my heart heavy.

“You will pack your bags and you will leave my house, I cannot marry—”

It was then she marched towards me, eyes glowing red and then she slapped me so hard my head whipped back.

“How dare you!” she shrieked.

“Serena!” my brother called pulling her back.

“Let me go!”

“Have you lost your mind?”

She shoved him away with a strength that left me gaping.

“I should grow up? I have the mind of a six year old? How dare you say that to me? I am the reason we were able to date for two years and be married today. You didn’t even know how to crack a smile until I stepped into your life, you were a recluse, so serious you couldn’t differentiate comedy from tragedy, you worked from the second you stepped out of bed to the second you step back into bed. What I am no longer the light in your life, the woman that brings excitement into your life? Who took you dancing and made you laugh and do crazy things? If not me who would marry you, a man so boring a baby could die in his company.”

“Does that justify what you did today?”

“I was out of line I will admit. I am sorry and it will never happen again. But we hadn’t spoken for three days and I wanted to do something that will bring us back, and yet you were so immersed in your work you didn’t even notice all I did. What if I had actually been dying?”

“I still can’t...” I started to say but she wasn’t done.

“I have the mind of a six year old? What then would you say of a man that discusses the private affairs that happen between him and his wife? Even a two year old would know better.”

I gaped at her, trying to follow her train of thought.

“What are you saying?”

“I will tell you.” She moved closer to me, now tears were clouding her beautiful eyes.

“Remember the recording you heard? Well that was James; he was the one I was talking to.”

“James?” My brother spoke for the first time, he had been leaning on the wall by the door but now he pushed off coming towards us.

Serena did not so much as turn to look at him. She was too busy glaring at me.

“Your brother had ordered six of us to work as a team on a project, we were supposed to create a new software for the company, and James was the head. We reported to him; imagine my surprise when he started touching me unnecessarily. ‘Good job Serena’ he would say patting me on the back, only the hand will linger and slowly run down my back. His eyes would boldly run down my body, and when I catch him watching me instead of feeling embarrassed he winks at me.”

“What?” I muttered.

“Once I walked into his office and he was laughing with some guys and when I entered he said to one of his friends ‘Some women act all decent covering everything up, when we all know their favorite pastime is to prance about naked, don’t you agree Serena…the naughty naughty things’ and then he winked at me.”

“What?!” This time around it was both me and my brother.

“I still didn’t really get what he was doing until last week when I was coming out of the restroom, he cornered me and leering at me asked to see the mole on my left breast.”

I stared at my wife in disbelieve.

She wiped furiously at the tears streaming down her face, with her head held high she said.

“The only person who knows I have a mole on my left breast is my mother and my husband.”

“My God Serena…” I started but her hand snapped up, effectively shutting me up.

“James is a man who ordinarily would not have the audacity to look me in the eye, who would kiss my feet if our paths were to cross on the street, who would have stammered if he ever grew up the courage to talk to me, and yet someone gave him the power to leer at me, and to call ME Serena Idoko a harlot.”

“You are my husband, I will do anything to please you, confident in the knowledge that whatever happens between a husband and a wife should not be shameful, should be sacred and kept secret. A wife is a cloak that covers her husband’s faults, weaknesses, failures and fears same goes for the man. So I ask you, if I am the one that acts like a six year old what then would I say of you.”

I had to turn away, to cover my face in shame. I just couldn’t look at her.

“If at all someone should mention divorce here, then it should be.”

At that I quickly turned to face her.

“Serena…” my brother started at that moment but I told him to keep quiet.

“I don’t know where to begin, to say sorry seems most inadequate…my goodness I don’t even deserve you.”

“Yes you don’t. But we are in this together, whether you like it or not.”

“That was why you resigned?” My brother asked.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked.

“I was hurt, too hurt and it was humiliating for god sake.”

“I am so sorry.” I muttered. Then I turned to my brother while still talking to her.

“It was my brother I had confided in, you see we have told each other practically everything since we were kids so it didn’t seem abnormal then—I am not trying to justify what I did—It’s just that during the process of telling him how fun marriage could be... ” I turned to her.

“Look you have taught me a great lesson today and I now know better. It was beyond stupid and I would never, ever make this mistake again, I am humbled by you and I now know better than to call you a child again. Still you should have told me.”

My brother stepped forward and took her hand.

“Forgive me Serena, it was in praise of you and telling a man I considered a good friend how lucky my brother was in finding a rare gem like you that led me to make this unforgivable blunder, but I will understand if you can’t…”

“Gabriel we are family, of course I forgive you.”

“Thank you. I assure you, your honor will be restored.”

The way he said it, so calm and determined made my wife eye him suspiciously.

“Uhm Gabriel?” She called softly, her voice softening like she was trying to sooth a wild animal.

“I handled it ok? You should have seen how I used my frying pan on that thick skull of his; at the end I thought he had sprouted a second head due to the enormity of the swelling.”

Gabriel was once the family black sheep, a gang leader he had been, sent our father to an early grave he did. So she knew what he was capable of.

He patted her hand soothingly and smiled a smile that never reached his eyes.

“It’s getting late, go fix that meal you were planning on, we would soon be back.”

She turned to me desperately.

“Please honey…I know he deserves it but I refuse to have you two sent to jail if you end up killing him.”

I cocked a brow at her.

She puffed in consternation.

“What? Just because you guys are rich doesn’t make you above the law.”

“Yes but we aren’t breaking any laws, just passing judgment.”

She opened her mouth to talk and I cupped her face.

“He called my wife a harlot.”

After a while she sighed.

“Fine. Just don’t kill him.”

It was 8:30pm when we emerged from the darkness like avenging angels; we stormed into James home and helped make his worst nightmare a reality. Suffice to say that when we left him two hours later, (Jake was of the opinion that he should savor every pain inflicted upon him), he was not only jobless but also without a vocal cord. We didn’t kill him, just reshuffled one or two vital organs, nothing three or four surgeons couldn’t put back.