Chapter Twenty
"Oooohhhh!" She kept kicking his hand away as she whined.
"King whispered into her ear," You don't want sex again?"
"The child I want, you were there when your people gave me a mandate."
"Is that your annoyance? Can child come without sex?"
"Just allow me to go…tomorrow."
"Just forget about going." As King said that, he got up and locked the door tight, and took the key. "Thank God," he said under his breath," I am wearing something inside." He put the key inside the thing he was wearing. "At least, to take it, she must access my John Thomas" saying so, he slept.
She slowly reached her hand into that area and slowly took the key.
King heard the sound of a key turned in its hole and ran after her.
She almost broke her ankle, and he dragged her back."You want to kill yourself, Youngest Wife? What is it that you have in your apartment? Okay, let us go there!" he took her by the wrist.
Pulling herself back, she complained," My leg is paining me,"
"No, I want to see if the Queen's bed I bought for you is now comfier and wider then, we can be sleeping there."
She limped back. King followed her.
Two people can think of one person at the same time.
King was reviewing if Princess Yemi's concern in his marriage is of more benefit.
She had cut the rope between him and his heifer that used to lay on his bosom for his caress, the heifer, whose milk nourished his skin and made him younger; the girl that taught him the examples of the informal life of modern kings, cooing and deep kissing, not cheek pecking, and the marriage was sweet then, with her as the master.
She, at the same time, was thinking of how she became blind all of a sudden, and fell on the road, rolling on the ground and people rounded her, peeping in to see her underwear as Milfred related to her; or the charm Princes Yemi wanted to bury to make her divorce herself and so many other painful things Princess Yemi and this so-called marriage with her stepdad has caused her.
Now, she is out for an affair, an affair to end the marriage and here she is chained down.
* * *
Two days had gone, and she was still inside with King.
The doctor had treated her and Mama Sara has been taking care of the rest. Three times, this ankle had been affected because of a bad marriage.
"When will this marriage end, Lati, I don't know."
She had kept hoping her affair with Jackson would produce the pregnancy that would lead to a child. Now, Milfred is back. Three husbands!
She laughed inside and thought about what has become of Milfred, especially.
Jackson had perfected his plan. His wife said she was traveling. She came back with a man, thinking that he does not know. "Tonight, tonight, na somebody blood go calm my heart." All these, he was repeatedly swearing, boiling.
He entered the flowers and skulked through the cover going to Lati's apartment.
"Whether she dey in or not…" he angrily paused his words as the long ladder gave him problems to carry up.
He set it upright, right under the small window of Lati's bathroom.
She had closed the window before traveling because of mosquitos.
He pulled up the glass when he climbed to it and squeezed himself through and landed on tiptoes inside.
The inside of the five-room apartment was dark and silent. As silent as a house deserted by the owners because it is haunted by an evil spirit.
He put one leg out calmly, so he was moving, per minute.
Like a ghost, he appeared in the bedroom.
Lati was not there. Still, like a ghost, he stilled his breath waiting for Lati.
Two minutes later, he put another foot forward and another foot, another foot.
He paused. He was tall and handsome, the man his wife came home with.
His jealousy brewed in his marrow and because Lati loves long penis, and the man has a long one bulging inside his brief, jealousy, and envy all moved his hand." Take it!"
Blood spilled and spilled. He assembled all his muscles that developed from his weightlifting in their Lagos yard and the building sites into the two hands holding his knife.
He wrapped him with the bed sheet and dragged the long corpse into the forest of flowers.
He buried him there and spread his animal manures all over, went back, and hurried to the wardrobe.
Lati buys most things in dozens, he took a similar bed sheet and arranged the bed, and put back her baby on the bed.
"Lesson for men wey de rub shoulders with husbands!" he said so, nodded, and exited.
* * *
"When will I go home, Ohh!" Lati jiggled her fist as she cried.
She will never send Mama Sara on an errand till Milfred goes."But will he go?" she asked herself, "We have not thought about how we are going to live and I don't know what to do with three husbands.
"Jackson dear is going crazy about marrying me, see what bad marriage can cause."
She knelt to beg King," Please step-dad or King, I want to go."
King was silent– something that happened years back…
"Yemi…Yemi" he shook his head and permitted her. Better to let her go than bicker.
"Oh, God." She used the spare key and opened the kitchen door and sneaked in to avoid Jackson seeing her.
Inside, Milfred was not there. She entered the visitor's room in case he had chosen the place.
She did not call him all this while and he will understand the risk in calling.
"Now, where is him, O' Lord? Milfred" She patrolled the unpatrolable places looking for him.
She removed her phone from her purse and called his number.
"Will I now go out and ask the maids if they saw my what?"
She jiggled her fist."Oh. Milfred, you came back to my life and disappeared? The second cut is the deepest, Milfred."
She threw herself down, rolling to and from the floor, and got up."I must find him…he has his firm on Acme Crescent,abi? as Petu said but now like a bereaved, I'm. I need consolation.
So, is Milfred dead?
Will she know?