My cunning man, my treacherous friend

KELECHI had mixed feelings for being sent out from her mother‘s home. Yes, she was happy that she would now be able to see her man any time she wanted without the fear of being hounded by her mum.

Lewis owned up to his responsibility and promised to make life easy for her so she could forget the trauma her pregnancy had caused her mother. On the other hand, her education would now have to be put on hold due to her pregnant state and to make matters worse, she wasn‘t happy that her mum had to throw her out of the house for ruining her efforts at labouring to give her the very best in life within her limited resources, even when she was overtly strict.

Belinda was over the moon for Kelechi. To her, Kelechi had finally conquered her disciplinarian mother and she was now free to live her life the way she deemed fit away from her mother‘s over protective eyes. She welcomed Kelechi into her home.

Meanwhile, Lewis was in his final year in school and preparing to go for youth service and was therefore unable to fend for Kelechi, except give her a pittance out of his pocket money for school. As a result, Kelechi was forced to go job hunting. She was lucky to get a job as a switchboard operator in a large insurance firm.

She soon brought forth a bouncing baby girl and then sent word to her mum about the new addition, hoping that naming the baby Nkechi, after her mum, would soften and steer her towards reconciling with her. But there was a deafening silence from Mrs. Douglas. Lewis was off to youth service but she was lucky she had saved up some money she would live on until she resumes at work from maternity leave. With a little help from her friend, she was able to get by.

Not long after, Belinda got pregnant for one of her numerous male friends as she claimed but preferred to remain a single parent for a while. She put to bed a baby boy she named Jordan. When asked by Kelechi why she wasn‘t willing to settle down with the male friend, Belinda just shrugged off the question, but managed to let Kelechi know that she was comfortable with her present position, at least, for the moment.

Kelechi was nonetheless the little tot‘s godmother. Lewis soon completed his youth service but didn‘t succeed at getting retained where he served and getting a good job became an uphill task. Every door he knocked for a job was never opened; things became really tough. He couldn‘t take care of himself and taking care of the love of his life and child became an impossible task. Unable to assume full responsibility as a father and would-be husband, he asked Kelechi to continue staying with Belinda until such a time when he would be liberated from the shackles of lack and want.

Seeing every hope of returning to school gradually receding, Kelechi went back to her meagre paying job to keep the body and soul together.

A year-and-a-half later, she got pregnant again and put to bed another bouncing baby girl she named Nkiru. Efforts to get her mom to see her granddaughters were still not yielding results. Lewis, on his own part, rather than get serious about improving the quality of life for himself, children and would-be wife preferred to laze around and chase after older women who would compensate him for a ‘job well done, with a few thousands of naira.

He reasoned that since he couldn‘t get paid employment, what he was doing was as good as paid employment if not even better. At least he was able to juggle between three to four women in a week, which no paid employment would give him the luxury of time to do; this he felt would do until he got what he wanted.

Moreover, he was getting paid to do what he enjoyed most doing. This was not to say that what he made translated into a better life for Kelechi and her kids. Unfortunately, he was unable to cover his tracks well and was always getting caught in his sleazy act by Kelechi.

When confronted, he would accuse Kelechi of stalling his efforts at trying to make a living so as to take care of his responsibilities. And whenever Kelechi threatened to leave him, he would dare her to, knowing she had nowhere to go. And truly, Kelechi had nowhere to go. She loved Lewis so much and couldn‘t bear to live without him.

Besides, he was her first love and the only man she had ever known. Her threats were so he could show some form of remorse, which he lacked. Meanwhile, Belinda got pregnant the second time by the same guy she claimed impregnated her the first time and she soon put to bed another baby boy she named Asha. Kelechi was the godmother again.

Not long after, Kelechi took in again and after the obligatory nine months course, put to bed a baby boy she named after Lewis. Things continued the way it was between the three. The two girls had unknowingly kissed school goodbye.

They were busy procreating, living together in Belinda‘s two-bedroom apartment and earning meagre income at their work place. Lewis was slowly going from bad to worse. He hardly ever catered to the needs of his immediate family: his relations were not even aware he had a lady kept somewhere he was busy impregnating and he was also not thinking along the line of formalising his relationship with Kelechi.

Each time the topic was broached he always dilly dallied around it and eventually came up with the excuse of not being prepared financially for the challenges of marriage. To say that Kelechi was fed up was just putting it mildly: she simply resigned herself to fate.

And one day while she was in Belinda‘s bedroom lamenting her fate and how that Lewis was an unrepentant gigolo whom she was beginning to regret ever meeting in the first place, tempers flared.

She was taken aback when Belinda shut her up and warned her never to speak about Lewis in that light again.

She wondered at Belinda and with which authority she was asking her how not to speak about her own man.

A shouting match was soon to ensue and anyone listening to them exchange words would have thought Belinda was Lewis‘ woman.

Kelechi calmed down and decided to keep quiet knowing that if Belinda got provoked further, she could have her thrown out in to the street.

She quickly made peace with Belinda knowing the implications of not doing so but she became more careful and sought to find out why Belinda reacted the way she did.

She kept her ears more to the ground and had her eyes permanently wide open.

She scrutinised every movement of Belinda and Lewis. On one occasion, she saw one of Lewis‘ customised boxers hung on Belinda‘s bedroom door. At another time, she overheard Belinda speaking to someone on the phone and in that split second, she heard her call out Lewis‘ name in a manner that a lover would.

She wasn‘t sure what to make of these and she didn‘t want to start a quarrel yet. Besides, these weren‘t enough evidence to hold on to.

So she kept at it. One day, she stepped out of the house, leaving Belinda at home and watched from afar, while she called Lewis to meet her at home for something urgent. Lewis got to the house; instead of leaving or calling up Kelechi to inquire about her whereabouts when he didn‘t see her, he simply stayed put in the house. Kelechi rushed home after 30 minutes had elapsed and walked into Belinda and Lewis making out on the floor. Shock was written all over her.

Yes, she had suspected both of them after the shouting match she had with Belinda but she had hoped it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Now, reality dawned on her as the realisation of what she was seeing hit her like a thunder bolt.

The two culprits, Belinda especially, weren‘t even remorseful. In fact, she urged Lewis to tell Kelechi the truth because she was tired of living a lie. Lewis was initially jittery at being caught and now at being asked to reveal the truth.

Kelechi wondered what the truth could possibly be and she looked at Lewis in bewilderment and anxiety urging him to spill the beans.

After some prodding, with Belinda screaming at him to tell or she does, Lewis finally opened up and told Kelechi that he was the father of Belinda‘s two kids. Kelechi looked at both of them in a daze and finally burst out laughing. She didn‘t believe it and told Lewis to hurry up with whatever truth he was holding unto as she was getting impatient.

Lewis repeated what he said as Kelechi ran out and dragged in Belinda‘s kids. She took a long hard look at both of them. There was no resemblance whatsoever to Lewis and she pointed it out. But Lewis insisted saying the kids were lucky to look like their mum, and that was why she didn‘t notice all this while.

Still not convinced, Belinda showed her their birth certificates stating who the parents were. At this, Kelechi slumped and didn‘t even hear Belinda ordering her to take her miserable life and that of her kids out of her house.

If you were in Kelechi‘s shoes, what would you advise her to do? And Lewis, what would you advocate?