Even in Death 7

Days drew into weeks, weeks drew into months and then years. Time flew like the wind sometimes to Femi's dismay.

Femi's mother never gave up inviting her for church programmes and either sending or bringing holy water/ oils for her to use. A one stop cure for her barrenness. Femi collected them dutifully…and threw them in the bin whilst Wale looked on in uneasiness.

She had gone to see some specialists in secret and the results were all the same, nothing could be done to make her fertile. She had cried and cried and eventually wiped the tears off her eyes… and heart.

Wale's relatives who depended on her more or less for their livelihood were in no position to put pressure on her, at least to her face. She had decided to be calculatingly generous to them because of that same reason. 

She raised funds for herself and Wale to start their own indigenous automobile repair company with branches in Lagos and Abuja. Wale was the MD/ CEO. Femi was concerned with making her husband happy, at least as happy as possible absent a child or children.

Life fell into an almost steady pattern with Wale shuttling betwist Abuja and Lagos and then Enugu state when they eventually opened another branch there. Femi didn’t like travelling by air as it made her very tense and so she left the commuting to Wale as road travel was out of the question due to security reasons.

Wale who loved travelling was in his element. Often he would come back with outrageous gifts which made Femi deliriously happy. She felt it was his way of affirming the undying love he had for her. When he was away on business, which was often, she often hugged one of the many throw pillows which was branded with his picture, to lull her to dreamless sleep.

She visited the paediatric wards of major hospitals bearing gifts for the sick children. She would sit beside them and read from the story books she always went it. Smoothening their brows, trying to take their minds off their sometimes extreme discomfort and pain. She would go in the mornings with her two personal assistants and leave in the afternoon, somewhat contented and at peace. She sometimes went ahead to pay the bills of some whose parents were indigent.

Wale on one of his trips home suggested adoption but was met with resistance. Femi  was totally averse to the idea. If she couldn’t have biological children of her own, from her own loins, then, it was a no go area. He tried eliciting the support of her mother who told him she was sure they would have kids of their own and preached patience.

Can you tell the mind's construction from the face?(William Shakespeare, paraphrased)

To be continued…