The woman was stunned. She was not expecting that sort of reaction from her husband. And that made me feel really good, I must admit.
“So, you are shouting at me because of this….because of this….thing!” she stuttered.
“I will scream at you some more if you don’t go back inside right now and let me handle this! Go inside this minute!” MD ordered her. Finally, MD is acting like the man of the house…
I wanted to pretend I didn’t hear what she called me but I decided not to let it go without me throwing in a little drama. You cannot call a big girl like me ‘thing’ and expect me to keep quiet.
“Aunty Elizabeth, I have tried very hard not to disrespect you but you’re making it very difficult for me, ‘ I said to her calmly.
“Anita, please, ignore what she said and let me handle this….” MD tried to plead with me.
“No, MD, I’m sorry but I won’t ignore this one!” I shot back at him.
I turned to his wife. “This is not the first time you will be calling me names tonight. You seem to be enjoying the fact that I’m in your house so you can throw any insult you like at me, right? No problem!”
“So, what do you now want to do, fight me?” she’d fired back.
“Lizzy, go back inside the room this minute!” her husband ordered her.
“No, please, hold on, don’t leave just yet,” I said to her as she made to turn and head back inside.
“You called me a thing, I am not upset. Do you know why? It’s this thing that has been able to give your husband, our husband, the child that you couldn’t give him after decades of marriage! Not only did I give him a child, but I also gave him a son! I gave him the heir to his business empire. But you, ma, what did you give him? What have you got to show for all the years you fed fat on the wealth of your husband, our husband? So, tell me, who is the thing now?”
Her face was red with rage. She couldn’t believe I had said what I said to her. She took two steps forward, apparently to come charging at me but MD stopped her, stepping right in front of her.
“Go back inside, my dear, this nonsense has gone far enough. Go back inside, please, and let me handle the situation…..”
I wondered what she thought she was going to achieve by charging forward to come for me. Did she think for a moment that she could overpower me if we got into a physical fight? I would not have given a hoot that we were inside her house, I would gladly have given her the beating of her life.
Why are you stopping me, let me deal with this little rat! Let me teach her some manners!” she was ranting and raving as her husband tried to lead her back into the room.
“What is wrong with you, Elizabeth, I said you should go inside and let me handle this, is that too much for you to understand?” MD snapped angrily at her, his voice loud and harsh.
“Don’t yell at me, tell your slut to stop disrespecting me in my own house! So, because she gave you a child, everyone else should go and jump inside the lagoon, right?” she ranted.
“If the lagoon is where you will know the difference between a barren woman and the one already blessed with a child, then so be it!” I’d thrown back at her.
She froze in her tracks. She turned back, gazing murderously at me with eyes blazing with rage.
“What did you just say? What did you just call me?” she barked angrily, trying to wriggle free from MD’s hold.
“MD, did you hear her?” she turned to him. “Did you hear what this little whore just called me? You have nothing to say to her, right?” she growled with venom.
“This is why I asked you to go inside so you both don’t continue to say hurtful things to each other,” MD said to her, still trying to get her to go inside the room.
“So long as you continue to call me names, I will continue to say anything that comes out of my mouth!” I assured her.
MD gave me a look that simply said –“Don’t you dare get me mad!” I knew I had pushed my luck far enough so I stopped.
When he finally got his wife inside, he returned and said to me, “Do you know that you will get me really angry if you don’t stop this nonsense!” he said to me. “Why did you say such a thing to her? How could you call her barren?”
“I’m sorry, MD but she pushed me,” I said to him.
“Listen, I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight, let me take you to your room so we can all go to bed and hopefully by tomorrow morning, we may all wake up feeling better and ready to talk things over,” he said to me but too angry to look at me. I picked up my bag and followed him to the room…
…To Be Continued
