I was shaking when I dialled that number. I was consumed by anxiety but I needed to confirm my fears. I had waited for many years to do that, so that night, I knew I just had to do it. Luckily at the first dial, the phone on the other end rang out and then cut. I tried it again. I heard buzz. then a whistling sound before it rang again. At the third ring, someone took the call.
Hello, I said ” May I talk to Joseph Adindu, please”
“He is not at home right now,” Who is on the line please?
“Edyth is my name. I am calling from Nigeria,” I told her.
“Any special message Edyth?” The voice said.
“Would you like him to call you back?”
“Yes, I replied. “May I ask who I have been talking with please.”
“She laughed complacently. “I am Amanta Adindu, Joseph’s wife,” she announced.
“Okay”, I said, breathed out heavily and hung up.
For a few minutes, I did not know what hit me.
A lot of people had insinuated that Joseph had dumped me but I wanted to be really sure. On my own, I had tried to wave aside such impressions, but somehow, they kept coming to me. What actually nailed the coffin was the phone number Ada, a close friend of mine got from her cousin in Holland.
“This is his home line. I went out of my way to get this line for you because I want you to move on with your life. How many years will you wait on this Joseph Admdu?” she had told me.
The fear of embracing the truth, somehow restrained me from calling the number. Ada even formed the habit of asking if I had called but I kept offering one lame excuse after another. But that night, I decided it was time to call.
I was half-way to the land of sleep when my phone rang. His furious tone rattled me back to alert. He wanted to know why I called his home line. He wanted to know who gave me the number. He wanted to know what I told Amanda, which got her restless. He wanted to know many things at a time.
“Cool down, let me explain:’ was all I could manage to utter but he did not care to listen.
He seemed to be in a hurry to drive home his point.
“Edyth, let me tell you something,” from the way he spoke, he must have clenched his teeth.” I can see that you are bent on bringing problems to me. And that is what I do not want at all. Who on earth authorized you to call that number? You have been trailing me, right?
Well, that’s where you got it all wrong, because I won’t tolerate that. Never!”
“Joseph, I just wanted to talk to you. I called to talk to you not Amanda or anyone”, I explained.
“And please don’t forget that I am Edyth Eze, your fiancee.”
“That does not give you the right to call the number. You know how to reach me, why did you choose to go through another channel if your intentions were not sinister?” Joseph barked.
“What do you mean sinister? Joseph, so you have now forgotten what I had to do for you to travel to Europe? It is five years now, are you not supposed to return to marry me? So what you want to use in paying me back is to scold me for calling a mere line?” I said.
But that seemed to have inflamed the situation. Joseph simply exploded. I was listening to his rantings but I was not hearing.
But I knew the words sounded like he was ready to refund me wbatever I spent to get him across to Europe. I believe, he also talked about me leaving him alone to face his challenges, since I was out to be a source of distraction to him.
The moment I tried to galvanize the words to harness the meanings, Joseph hung up on me.
That left a void.
I don’t need to stress the fact that he had murdered sleep. I was just up most of the night, thinking. I was just pondering what my fate would be. I had placed so many hopes on Joseph right from the day he proposed to me a few years earlier. And that was why I went out of my way to arrange for him to travel to Holland.
It had come with a price. And I was the person who bore the burden. From the passport to the visa to the ticket and accommodation in Amsterdan, I was the person who took charge of the expenses.
I was doing that in the hope that his lot, our lot, would be improved. At that point, Joe had been quite ecstatic and hopeful. He had assured me that in less than two years, everything would be okay. He promised that he would make some money. Come back and get married to me. But two years had elapsed to five years without anything meaningful happening.
Each time I told him about his promises, he would just laugh and ask for a little more time.
Time was the excuse, until Ada, my friend opened up to tell me that I was the fool in that relationship.
“Edyth, I do not think your Joe is still single:’ she pointed out; that is bow our boys in Europe behave. They will give you the impression that all is well and they would be doing another thing. Please move on with your life,” ., .
But there are certain truths that are difficult to, swallow, the truth of Joseph’s situation was one of them. I could not just fathom it. How could I? After all I had been through for him, I remember the night I went for the money he would use as his BTA(Basic Travel Allowance); it had rained so heavily that day, that traffic in Lagos metropolis was so bad. Everywhere was a gridlock because of the traffic situation. It was so bad that at about 1.30am, I was still stuck in traffic at lke]a UnderBridge. Yet all these meant nothing to Joseph!
When it was obvious that I had lost the battle for Joseph, I took the war to the God. I handed the matter over to him in fasting and prayer, and eventually, I went to Ikeja Underbridge, the spot where I was stuck in traffic that same night and laid a curse on him, to conclude my fasting prooess. I was a woman in trouble, so I got there and stood as if I was waiting for him..
