Chapter 4 : The words a woman loves to hear the most...

What does a woman love to hear more than the three-worded sentence of ‘I love you?’

It’s ‘Your account has being credited.’

Well, I don’t know about other women but for Yolanda, no words could beat this single sentence.

As soon as she received the text message on her phone, an elated Yolanda who had not spoken to Gershom for almost two days picked up her phone to call him.

On the other side, Feggy had just reached for Gershom’s phone to move it aside as she laid down his clothes she had just ironed when the phone rang in her hands.

The scantily dressed, caramel-skinned beauty’s body flashed on the screen.

Looking at the face of the woman who had ruined her marriage, Feggy had the urge to smash the phone on the floor. Just as she was contemplating her next move, a hand snaked out and snatched the phone from her hands, startling her.

‘What the hell do you think you are doing?’ he growled.

‘Nothing, the phone was in the way," she answered meekly.

Gershom clicked his tongue at her, threw her a glare before turning his back on her, and sat on the edge of the bed. The moment his eyes landed on the screen, his facial features softened. ‘Yolie, my Yolie. This is a surprise.’

Yolanda’s soft coquettish voice came from the other side and filled his ears. If it was possible for the smile on Gershom’s face to spread wider, it would have but alas, his mouth could only stretch so far.

‘Babe, good morning.’

‘Good morning love. Did you already get the message?’

Yolanda confirmed that she had and thanked him for keeping his promise. The two went on to talk for a while like a couple of lovesick teenagers. Even though he was well aware that his wife was still in the same room, Gershom didn’t give a damn.

The situation was not new to Feggy. But each time he did this to her, each time he insulted her in this manner, it hurt like it was the first time she was finding out that the love of her life, the man she who had made vows to her before God and the father to her children had betrayed her trust and soiled their marital bed.

Fighting the urge to not confront him and be further humiliated, she simply walked out and went to tend to her children. Feggy had long given up and accepted the situation for what it was.

For over a year now, this affair had gone on. In all these months, she had lost a part of her self-esteem and had repeatedly humiliated herself in front of him, his mistress, and strangers. She had fought with Gershom and demanded he respect her and the vows he had made, but he had only told her if she couldn’t take the heat, she was free to go.

The words had hurt then and they still hurt now. She meant nothing to him. His children meant nothing to him. The word family meant nothing to him. The vows he had made in front of his family, friends and before God, all meant nothing to him.

Pushing thoughts of Gershom and his mistress aside, she walked into her children’s room, woke them up with kisses, and got them ready for school. Once she was done, she led them to the dining room and served them bowls of porridge.

‘Mom,’ the eldest Joseph called her as she breastfed Bertha.

‘Yes, honey.’

‘There’s no sugar in the porridge. Can I have some sugar?’

‘Me too mummy,’ chipped in the adorable six-year-old Sandra, a first-grader.

Feggy looked at the nine-year-old who was a replica of her husband. He stared at her innocently. The expectant look on her kid's faces tore at Feggy’s heart. She reached out her hand and rubbed the cheek of the girl who was nearest to her.' I‘m sorry sweeties but could you bear with mommy for a little while? Mommy forgot to buy sugar. She will buy next time okay?’

‘I’m sure daddy has money. I will go ask him to give me some money to buy some sugar,’ Joseph said already pushing his chair back.

His little sister cheered him on.

‘Sweetie, come here. Let’s not trouble daddy okay?’

‘Why? I saw daddy with money last night. I’m sure some of it is for sugar.’

Feggy smiled sadly. She too had seen the money but had said nothing hoping he would reason on his own and get his children food. She would rather they endured eating a bowl of porridge without sugar than risk her son being shouted at. Whenever he was talking to Yolanda, he disliked being disturbed. His time with his mistress was sacred.

‘Just eat your porridge. Be a good boy okay?’

‘Okay.’

Feggy smiled at the boy’s reluctant reply. Once the boy went back to his seat, Feggy turned her head and looked towards the corridor. Gershom’s cheerful voice carried to her. Almost an hour had already passed since he had received the call from his mistress.

A little later, Gershom came out of the room, dressed and ready for work. He grabbed his car keys off the key rack and headed towards the door without bothering to look at his children.

‘Morning daddy!’ six-year-old Sandra called out.

‘Good morning dad.’

‘Morning,’ he mumbled a reply, without looking their way.

The two kids at the table looked down at their food with crestfallen faces. His dismissive attitude towards the kids pissed Feggy off. She stood up and followed him out.

‘Are you leaving now?’

‘Hmmm.’

‘There is nothing to eat in the house.’

‘I don’t have money either. Just make a plan. I‘m late for work. Go and open the gate.’

‘I make a plan? What plan Gershom?’ she asked barely reigning in her anger. She gently rubbed Bertha’s back while training her eyes at the man before her.' Look, Gershom, they are your kids too. I did not make them alone, the responsibility of providing food for them falls on both of us. Your children have not had a decent meal in weeks. Why should our children have to live like orphans when their parents are still alive? Why should I have to live my life as if am a widow when my husband is alive and capable? Fine I get it. I disgust you, you do not like me, your Yolie is better than I am, I get it…I can live with that. What I will not stand for is what you are doing to your children. If you know you are not man enough to raise and take care of a family, then you shouldn’t have bothered to have any in the first place.’

‘You are determined to ruin my morning ain’t you?’

‘Ha! Now my pointing out your responsibilities to you makes me troublesome, unbelievable.’

Gershom reached in the pockets of his trousers’ and fished around for a while. When he pulled out his hand, he had a hundred kwacha note. He walked to her and placed it inside Bertha’s shawl his cold gaze trained on her. It was as If he had any interaction with her, he would get a contagious disease. However the note, not securely tucked, fell. ‘Is that enough to shut you up and get me some peace around here?’

Feggy gritted her teeth. She looked at the note on the ground and thought he did it on purpose.' You…!’

‘Can I leave for work now?’ he cut her off, turned his back on her and headed to the car.

Feggy bent down and picked up the note, crumpling it in her hands. He hit on the hooter to get her attention.

‘Are you going to stand there the whole day or what? Open the damned gate already.’

Feggy scoffed and turned her back to him heading back into the house. ‘Go and open it yourself.’

Gershom mumbled curses under his breath, got out and went to open the gate himself.

Back inside the house, Feggy urged the two kids to hurry up, as the school bus would soon be there. Strapping the sleeping Bertha to her back, she carried the kids’ bags and walked them out.

Gershom hadn’t bothered to close the gate. Feggy could only shake her head in disappointment at his childish acts. Stopping at the shop next door, she bought two fruits, two super-shake drinks, and scones, placed them in the kids’ bags and promised she would personally bring their lunch. With their snacks for break settled, Feggy felt a bit relieved. Urging them to hurry, she walked them to the corner of the street where the school bus picked up all the kids from. A minute after they had just reached there, a bright yellow Rosa bus decorated with cartoon characters drove up.

The door opened and a pretty woman in her twenties came out. She greeted the kids waiting for the bus and their parents. On seeing Feggy, her face registered shock. She hurried over to Feggy as the kids started getting on the bus an apologetic smile on her face.

‘Joseph. Sandra. Good morning.’

‘Good morning Miss Mbewe,’ the two kids chorused holding on their mother’s hand.

‘Miss Mbewe. Is everything okay?’ Feggy hadn’t missed the surprised look on the other woman’s face.

‘I am sorry Mrs Chomba, but we can’t allow the children to get on the bus anymore. They still owe payments from the last two terms.’

The pretty teacher went on to tell her they had already sent reminders through the kids and as a last resort called the principal guardian who in this case happened to be their father. The only reason they had allowed the children to continue was that in the past, they were one of the few parents who paid in time. However, when management got no positive response from Gershom, they had no choice but to take action. It turned out he owed the school almost eight thousand kwacha.

‘Mrs. Chomba, it would be a shame if the kids stopped going to school. I hope you can solve this at the soonest possible time,’ Miss Mbewe said and reached in her pocket for her phone.' I have a friend who is a teacher in a government school. If you are facing financial problems, I think it would be best if you enrolled them there. They already know how to read and write so am sure they will adjust with no problem. I will send you her contact Info; she might be able to help you.’

Long after the bus had left, Feggy continued to stand in the spot stupefied. She hadn’t thought he would be so cruel as to mess with their children’s education.

Sandra’s pull of her arm snapped her back to reality. As they walked back home she took out her phone to call Gershom and get an explanation from him.

Gershom ignored her calls. He only replied with a text message when she texted him asking him why he had not been paying the children’s school fees.

I’m in a meeting. I will call you back later.

Feggy stared at the reply, lost for words.

***

Gershom’s meeting happened to be him, walking out of a restaurant carrying a scrumptious takeaway meal for four. The restaurant was well known and a single meal from there was not cheap.

Once he was back on the road, he called his assistant and asked him to cancel all his meetings for the day.

Switching off his phone, he drove to Yolanda’s university. When he got to the hostels of the private university, most of the students were rushing to get to their classes. Yolanda and her roommates had not yet left.

The girls were thrilled to have Gershom grace them with his presence and when he presented the breakfast to them, they could hardly contain their excitement. Having someone shoulder the bills for their luxurious life meant having extra money in their pockets.

As they had their breakfast, the praises from the two flowed none stop.

Hearing the friends of his mistress say he was the best boyfriend ever, had Gershom’s ego soaring through the roof. Gershom promised the girls he would take them for shopping as soon as they were done with classes.

After breakfast, Yolanda shooed her friends away. She had something special planned for her man.

Gershom and Yolanda spent the next few hours tumbling between the sheets. Yolanda's moves made him feel like he was in heaven.

Hours later when they were done with classes, Sofia and Betty called Yolanda and informed them that they were done for the day.

Gershom and Yolanda joined them in the car park. Yolanda drove the Honda CRV into town. He took them to their favourite boutique and let them shop to their heart's content. The pricey price tags on the clothes meaning nothing at all. After shopping, they dropped by a fancy restaurant after which he drove them back to the university, dropped Sofia and Betty off before driving Yolanda to their favourite hotel. The two stayed cooped up in the room for a few days and in all these days, Gershom never bothered to call home and check up on his family.