Chapter Seven
"Lati, you've done the spiritual bath, and my mum said 'grab him'."
Queen Lati weighed the advice 'grab him'
" How? When? What if?" With fear, she shook her head.
"Stop questioning yourself, after all, you tactically agreed."
"How?" she asked her accuser.
"Yes, since I allowed him to come, have I not?" she condemned herself.
It was not the first time she will struggle with herself whether to do something or not but in this case, "Lati, no!" she said with vehemency and continued to look hard at him tending to the flowers.
"He does not even control the scissors…hehe-hey," she said and clapped.
"Is that the case now? My mum said he's Twenty-one or twenty-two with four boys!"
Not knowing what else to say with such evidence of his capability to impregnate her, she went to her bed and sat but sitting on the bed is not the solution. The solution is to do what she has never done before. And to do it, like any other sophisticated girl would, she has to jettison her personality and grab her gardener to make love with him. After the first attempt, she can now tell him to impregnate her.
"Lati, grab him, fiam…before you know it, a child you have given them, and remember, remember…nobody will hear of this affair and he will die after impregnating you and the witness that saw everything, will die too."
* * *
The next day, she asked Mama Sara again" Is he doing well?"
"He's trying since he's your mum's neighbor's child…"
"Even if Lati will grab him as mum said…Lati, I'll never tell Mama Sara, even at gunpoint.
She went back to the window. It was 7: 30 pm.
She signaled and signaled until he looked up.
She gestured to him to enter by the kitchen door.
Her heart shook. "Lati. This is the right time, when he has no other job and when he'll be ashamed to go back to Lagos….strike, strike when the iron is hot."
She opened the door and held the leaf ajar for him.
He entered and paused like a fowl sensing danger.
"Enter." her voice was faint and she watched him enter.
She jammed the door and they both sat in the sitting room.
"You said you're…your name?" she asked him.
"Jack."
"Is it your…your real name?"
He nodded, "Jackson."
"Okay, you no do like Lagos boy."
He muffled his smile and looked down.
"How old?"
He muffled his smile again.
"Can't you talk?" she questioned him with a misplaced boldness.
He told her.
"Lati, is this why you signaled him?"
She ignored the reproaching voice
" Me, I'm 25. We're in the same age bracket." she told him.
"Lati, stop long grammar, grab him, grab him."
With the incessant self-blame, she opened the door for him and climbed up and laid on her bed, eating her flesh."Lati," She shook her head.
"Is it fear, shyness, or ego?"
" I don't know…I don't know…she kept slamming on the pillow.
* * *
"Hehe-hey!" she laughed."King, tit for tat one day." she said and dressed up to go see him. "I must summon courage tonight to grab him," she was saying,"at least to pay him back.
They told him to impregnate somebody before marrying, no problem, but my time is my time." she said and lifted her baby and shook him. " Baby me, when are you bringing your sibling, huh?" she asked," My open-door baby," she eulogized her baby and laid him back on the bed and reached the king.
"Shina, Shina…Mwaaam," she blew him a kiss and fell into him." What will I have for the loading BD?"
King's nose twitched. His silence spoke volumes and as a fire girl, she reacted.
"King, why?" she queried him. "So, you wrote me off as infertile?" and not done, floods my matrimonial home with women you want to impregnate before marrying, abi?"
She left without waiting to hear his response.
What will Lati hear? About the birthday or his abuse? Which woman will blame Lati who at twenty-five had done two tests to prove that she is fertile, and her husband never done any? and to aggravate her, was given a mandate to bear a child for him, and a week into the five months mandate, her husband had flooded women into her matrimonial home, testing who among them to marry…who is this woman that will fold your hands and watch?" she asked." If you are the one, fine, may you be in my shoes." she prayed,
"And the worst of all, they don't want me to achieve my set goal…the only goal in my life, to get a child for the king.
" How do they want her to achieve my set goal, when they gave me a mandate, and did not wait for the mandate to expire before bringing wives to the king thinking I will pack and go. No, Lati will not go! Lati will not go until my goal is achieved.
"Mummy," she asked Mama Sara who came in.
"When are we going to the place?"
"Okay, let it be ….when do you want."
"Monday."
"Fine…I know nothing is wrong with you, but just to keep our hands clean….then, when we come back you will pocket him.
This wife's abuse and defilement of the matrimonial bed have to stop. You will pocket him like a baby "
She opened the door for Jackson. It was night…hope you are listening?" she asked him.
He nodded.
"...you no de speak? Where did you stop in school?" she asked.
" Class five,"
"You want to go back and complete your academics?"
He shook his head.
"Lati, again? Beating about the bush?"
Okay, I will be giving you something to be sending home apart from your salary,"
He held his smile tight.
"Oh! Lati, you said you will cry when you grab him tonight now you are talking of salary, academics…"
She felt like something blocked her throat. She was breathing hard .
With this hot affair that is burning with sensation in her, When will she be bold to grab him.
How will this love be? Sweeter than expected? Will it lead to a child?
By the way, where are they going on Monday?
She postponed the love affair.
Something is going to happen.