CHOICE

43

Mrs Chuks suddenly runs in dressed in blue brocade damask material gown. She meets Zephaniah with his hair roughened, eyes bloodshot, runny nose with the smell of stale food engulfing the house. She covers her nose and struggles to pull him to a sitting position.
  "Zephaniah!" She calls trying to check his temperature.
"Zephaniah!" She calls again frightened when he doesn't reply and only stares into the air. She shakes his head and makes him face her noticing as a lone tear runs down his left cheek.
   "Arrghhhhh!" He suddenly screams into the air and holds his hands in his head. He pulls at his hair and his mother holds on to his hands to stop him from going further.
  "Talk to me Zephaniah. What's wrong with you? Where's your wife?"
  "She left Mom. She left me. Stella left me."
"Why? Ladies of this age are just too greedy. I'm sure it's just about a money issue. Ehn? What exactly happened?"
"No Mom. She's not like them." He protests shaking his head rigorously.
"Like who?"
"The ladies of this age. She's very different. She doesn't even care about my money. All she wanted was for me to respect her and to show that I cared. That was all."
"Then why didn't you? She was your wife after all."
  "She's still my wife. We're not divorced."
  "But she's no where to be found." His mother says and takes a seat on the floor beside him. She places his head on her shoulder and he wraps his hands around her shoulders.
"She's coming back for me. She can't just live me like this. I know Stella. She's not like that."
"Then why didn't you treat her well?"
"I don't know. I just didn't want her to be proud or misbehave. I wanted to impress you so much that I forgot I needed to impress her too." He begins to sob quietly.
  "Impress me? What's going on son? Please talk to me." She urges him patting his back in a mild manner.
He finally gets a control of his emotions and stops sobbing.
"I lied to you Mom. I wanted to impress you and make you happy. I never wanted to study engineering. I wanted to go for psychological evaluation. But since you said engineering was what you wanted me to do, I did it. I didn't want you to treat me like you did to Zechariah when he refused your words. And when I finished and you got me a job through one of your friends, I felt fulfilled and felt the need to pay you back. So whenever you called me and praised me specially, I always wanted you to know that I have your back anytime. So when you said that you wanted us to get married, I wanted to impress you again. I knew that Zechariah was lucky with ladies so I pulled a fast one. I rented a girl to act as my girlfriend and I planned to dissolve the relationship after a while. I didn't know you were going to insist on marriage and that soon. Since I didn't want to disappoint you, I told her to let us get married on the grounds that I sponsor her sister's education. She agreed but I just couldn't control my pride. She was too perfect. She has no single flaw, not even one. I felt jealous because I know what despite how rich I am I still have a lot of insecurities, but she had none. Not a single one. I made it my duty to always be her source of worry everyday and I got an excuse when she couldn't prepare any other soup apart from stew and the draw soups. I didn't know she was choked. Like this chocked. I almost ward off a fifty million naira worth of contract this morning when I got home yesterday and didn't see her things. Just had to plead the day off." He explains to his mother.
"Zephaniah? Ah!"
"I'm sorry Mom."
"Ah! No no. I didn't expect this from you. You could have at least said something. You could have stood up for yourself."
  "I didn't want to be treated like an outcast like you did to Zechariah. I didn't have the mind. I just had to forfeit my dream. I'm sorry Mom." He says and prostrates in apology.
  "I'm sorry too. Please sit up."
"Thanks Mom. Please do find time to apologise to Zechariah too. He deserves it."
  "Why?"
"I know what I'm saying Mom. That son of yours is a survivor." Zephaniah concludes and lies in a sleeping position.
"You want to sleep?"
"I have a splitting headache. I can't control it." He complains locking his eyes shut in their orbits.
His mother rubs his head for a while and then moves to patting his back like a baby being put to sleep.

When I started righting this chapter, I didn't know what Zephaniah's story was going to look like. But when I got there, I got the inspiration.... That's what it looks like when you don't stop writing. Zephaniah sure has endured a lot. To think I didn't like him when the story started 😕😕, I really didn't. Now I just developed a soft spot for him. Mrs Chuks really needs to apologise to Zechariah oo. Remember that time he missed an interview????? Ouch 😥 was so painful and all. But it is well sha. Stella has gone. Do you think she's justified? Why? How? Please leave your opinions as a comment. Also, do you think Zephaniah was right to have acted that way because of his own insecurities? Do you have anyone like that, please pray for them. It's bad.
This chapter is dedicated to all Wattpad authors. Please keep writing. Your pen is blessed 😊🙏🙏🙏. Thanks for engaging. Love you like kilode 💌❤️❤️
  Yours in Ink; Bethel ™