Having a child together hadn’t softened him,he felt that he did her a favour. She contemplated so many things, including suicide,but she could not bear to see her baby suffer.
Bello became less patient and more short-tempered.
The Up and Downs of Life
Bello and Halima decided to throw a surprise party for their son, Hassan. He would turn eighteen, and both were separated, fifteen out of the eighteen years of his life. But their son needed to be celebrated, Eighteen was no child’s play.
His parents had decided to put their differences apart for once and tolerate each other for some hours. For the first time in fifteen years, relatives would come together; this time, unlike other times, they wouldn’t come settle dispute, but to be with their son.
In the Beginning
Bello and Halima married when they were barely in their twenties. Their parents had already made all the arrangement, waiting for them to graduate from the university. Halima could remember the slap her father gave her when she refused.
“I regret giving my consent for you to go to school!”
Her father had roared when she made it clear that she was engaged to her boyfriend. Her mother was so furious, that she almost disowned her; she said that she was lucky enough to see the walls of a school, much more, a university.
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Before they knew it, the marriage ceremony was carried out, and Halima saw herself wrapped up; making breakfast, lunch and dinner, for a man she detested and who despised the mere sight of her. She guessed that his parents did the exact thing that hers did, or worse. It was as though they both lived in hell.
Bello had the habit of tormenting her. He started with his late nights, and then moved to drinking, and one day, when she denied him access under her nightgown, he gave her the trashing of her life. He made it too obvious that he loved another.
Halima could not openly go to her parents’, to show the bruises on her body, the pack of used and unused condoms, he deliberately left inside his work cloth, or the smudges of red-lipped women that were all over his dirty cloths.
She had no life outside the walls of her house: he forced her to cook every day, refused her to work or further her studies, and denied her access to other people. Halima literally lived in her own prison.
She didn’t know how she tried to conceive but she did and gave birth to a son. They named him Hassan, after his grandfather. Having an infant coupled with unending house chores made it impossible for her to work as usual.
Hope
One day, she went to pick up their son from school, and while on their way back, their car developed a fault, some minutes away from home. While she thought of the next step to take, another car stopped right in front of them. A man came to their rescue.
It took hours before the car got running, but it was already past lunch time, and nearly dinner time. Halima thanked the man, and rushed off with her son.
Immediately Halima drove into her compound, she froze: her eyes caught her husband’s car. She lifted their son out of his seat, and made her way into the house. She got to the sitting room and met her husband quietly seated. She greeted, but he didn’t respond –trouble.
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She went straight to their son’s room to put him down, since he was already fast as sleep. Immediately she did so, she turned and met her husband; he stood right in the door way, and a long ugly black belt dangled off his strong grip. His eyes were bloodshot: he had taken more than he could drink. She could smell the stinking scent of whisky from where she stood.
“Where have you been you rotten cunt?”
She didn’t know how to answer the question, because she didn’t know where he got the conclusion from. He was then breathing like a buffalo on heat. He didn’t plan to wait for an answer, because he advanced so quickly, and before she knew it, he raised the ugly belt so high to the sky and came down heavily on her face, and before she knew it, she was pushed to the floor, and his whip continuously descended heavily on her.
He didn’t stop till the whip came up with her blood, smeared all over it. It was the first time she tasted the blood of a helpless woman.
Her parents didn’t fail to show their disapproval, despite the fact that Bello abandoned her at the hospital, and they were the ones that took up the bill. They couldn’t hide the fact that they didn’t find it honourable that their daughter with a three-year lived in her parent’s house: it was a dishonour to whatever they had built up together.
Halima had never done anything all through her three years: she had no work experience. The polite nerves she got from her parents pushed her into the streets with a dormant resume. Nobody was eager to employ a single woman with a dependable child.
The Birthday Party
The party just started some minutes before Bello arrived. The hall was nearly filled, and he could see teenagers, his son’s friends, some of his family members and his in-laws; everyone knew it was their son’s day, and for the first time, they were all willing to make it a memorable day.
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He liked what he saw, he never knew his ex-wife could put up a good event. He just stood at the door, not knowing what to do, his eyes roamed about the hall, searching for something. In the midst of guests, a pretty lady went from table to table, greeting and taking presents from guests. He could not believe his eyes: his ex-wife was the one. His eyes were fixed on her that he didn’t know when his son ran up to him, hugged him and said:
“Dad! You came!”
Bello smiled at the young man that stood before him. He handed over the present. His mother joined them. He could not get himself to look at her as much as he wanted.
“Halima. You look well.”
“Thank you, Bello. You too.”
It was as though three years carpeted before them. Bello turned to leave, but his son protested:
“But dad, you just came?”
“Son, I left an urgent meeting.”
He never had time for nobody. As he tried to step out, the master of ceremony called the parents of the celebrant to the dance floor. It was as though a time bomb had been detonated. Their son came again, when he saw that his father wasn’t willing to stay:
“But dad, you promised. This is my day.”
Immediately, a dark cloud gathered in the cloud, and some pelts descended. Bello’s hand left his side, and crept into Halima’s. It felt like ice block, rested on a hot pan. Their hands literally shook from learning to be with each other, after fifteen years apart. Bello looked into Halima’s eyes and said:
“It is raining.”
He gently led her to the dance floor, while the hopeful eyes of an eighteen year old watched over them.
Written by Oluoma Udemezue.