Mark had gone to Kamsi's wardrobe the next day after she did her charity movement. There were not many clothes there. There were some clothes thrown carelessly on a cushion in the room and some still in a big box but that was not enough.
He knew Kamsi, she was not much of a fashion person but as she resumed working, she loved to dress good and dress differently each day. He could not understand why she would give out clothes she had not used for long.
It worried him so much coupled with the tone she now used on him. He felt he could have lowered his authority for a woman to talk to him in that manner. A woman that did not nothing but respect him in the past. Women should be tamed, he knew that as well as he knew his name.
In his constant worry, he had called Joseph. It was the farthest he could go to spread his family issues outside. Indirectly he had asked, "What does it mean for a woman to give out most of her clothes? "
"Is Kamsi leaving you? "
His elder brother's response just made him realize what everyone was expecting with the way they had acted in the village. He did not mean to cause a scene on the first day of the year but it was as if his wife was well bent on provoking him beyond his limits.
"She could want to change her wardrobe, " Joseph had said in an attempt to render hope but it did not work. He believed the first. He believed that as Kamsi now had her very meager salary, she could be tempted to leave him. Independence, he thought.
He was sitting on top of a car in the garage looking at the gate. He purposely switched off the front lights so there was no light where he was. He flicked through his phone ignoring the whatsapp messages that he did not think he would ever reply again. Then he jumped down from the car and went into the house.
"What are you doing? I need to talk to you, " He said immediately he got into the kitchen where Kamsi was.
She was sitting on a plastic seat in the kitchen with a plate of dried fish on the table beside her . There was no pot on the burner or fire there.
" Let's go to the room, " He said, leaning on the fridge.
"I'm eating. You can not see that," She said, without looking up from her plate.
"You now have a wheel in your mouth that makes your tongue roll at will," He said, now walking to where she was.
"If you touch me tonight, I batter your face with this knife. Don't try me," She said, picking up the knife that was lying on the table beside her.
"Don't allow the devil to use you, Kamsi."
"Don't let him use you too."
He walked back and leaned on the fridge with arms folded, watching her eat her fish with more concentration than was required.
"I spoke to Mama. I want you to stay with her in Enugu until your delivery, " He said.
She cracked up in a loud laughter and he did not realize he cracked a joke. She continued to laugh. He dimmed his eyes waiting patiently for the moment to pass.
"You are funny, " She said and resumed laughing again just when he thought she would stop.
"Mark," She said with seriousness after she stopped laughing. It was his name she called but it did not sound right.
"Mark, is that the London you told Mr Ndu about? "
He raised an eyebrow in question, "What are you talking about? "
" I'm not going to play your games with you. Is Enugu the new job you got for me in Abuja? "
"That's the problem with you. You always choose to understand things by the surface. If Mr Ndu told you all this, as my wife you should have asked me."
Kamsi rose from her seat and walked to where he stood. She raised her head to meet his gaze. "What should I have asked you, that you told him I was going to London to deliver my child, that you told him you got a job for me in Abuja just so I won't be considered for promotion?"
He remained silent. She rose to her feet. "How do you tell those lies, those unredeemable lies? "
"You have come to act your drama again, " he said, easily pushing her aside and taking up the seat she just vacated.
"I will be going to my mother's place, " she said.
His head was formerly bent staring at his slippers. He looked up at her figure where she stood with her arms folded on her protruded stomach .
"You are daring me," He stated.
"I don't know your definition of a dare but I guess I would explain what I said "
She moved to the cupboard and leaned her weight on it. "I stayed this long hoping that you would change. I prayed for you, I cried myself to sleep for you , I had sleepless nights for you. In return you saw me as a child, a toddler, someone who doesn't have a brain."
He listened to her, following the movement of her arm to her finger when she was pointing it at him.
"You cheated, yet I was the one being beaten, you lied so many times and I was still the unfaithful one, you would never let me grow. I was wrong about staying for so long. I'm done."
He sighed, folding up a leg to the chair. She was still standing there looking at him, maybe waiting for his own speech.
"Don't start what you can't finish. I will make the necessary arrangements and you will go and stay with Mama. It's for your own good."
"Mark, I'm leaving you. Nothing around you favors me."
With tightly closed eyelids, he looked up to the ceiling. He stayed in that position and when he opened his mouth, it was to let out air calmly like he was teaching himself to breathe. He was still in that position when he heard her footsteps as she left the kitchen.
Minutes later he was still with his head facing the ceiling and eyes closed. He heard someone enter the kitchen. He knew it was not Kamsi because this person tiptoed. He still did not bother opening his eyes, not even when the newcomer straddled him.
A finger trailed the edges of his face from his ear down his beards, then it travelled down to the neck line of his white vest before moisturized lips claimed his. He tasted the fruity taste of her excess lip gloss. He did not like it but was not in the mood to do anything.
He had been trying to keep off the women until Kelechi came. She came back home with Kamsi the day she wrote her promotion exams. He was uninformed about the visit and he was not attracted but she was interested.
He opened his eyes and pulled her face away from his. She quickly got to the work of chewing his ears. He got her hand off his body and carried her off him as he stood up.
He was not in the least seduced by the way she batted her eyelashes at him or the way she chewed her small lips but he unbuckled his belt while meeting her gaze. Then put off the kitchen light before turning her to the wall. Just like the first day when she had come to him in the parlor, she was pantless underneath her satin nightwear which was once Kamsi's.
He had her there in the darkness with his trouser pushed down to his knees. It was quick like the first day after which she had handed him a list of things she needed. No much foreplay, no emotions. Just a chance to unwind.
The light came on as he was belting back his trouser.