WHAT WENT WRONG?

She is clad in what she considers her best attire, walking back to snatch gazes of herself in her mirror, her mobile phone waited patiently on the center table, her apartment shines with pristine precision; ‘common, eat something before you go’, her best friend pleads for the 55th time, ‘no, I can’t’ she replies, ‘I could get my clothes stained’; ‘but I made the same request before you spent an eternity in front of the mirror and you promised you would eat something immediately you finished dressing up’. ‘Yes I promised’, said Eve, ‘but I’m not hungry’. ‘I am just concerned for you my dear, you know you are just recovering from your bout with the flu’ replied Jessica. ‘Thanks my dear, I don’t call you the best of my friends for no reason, but you know that on days like this, with my heart filled with anticipation of the sight I am soon to behold, even sickness understands and walks out through the back door – believe me; I am fine’. Then like the sound of a trumpet, the phone rings; ‘Miss J, please can you get that for me, I don’t want to talk with anyone else’; Jessica picks up the phone and with a smile, hands it over to Eve, ‘it’s for you’, she enthused. ‘Hey darling, I thought you would never call, I‘m all dressed up, where are you? You are at the door? O Jimmy, you are the best!’

Jimmy walks in, a bouquet of flowers in one hand, a bottle of wine in the other; after the passionate hug, he pretends to be admiring her shoes, and bends over, then suddenly dropping on one knee, he says, ‘you know, I’ve been thinking, today makes it two  years since we’ve been together and without a doubt you have been the best girl I’ve had’; ‘and you are the best man I have known’, Eve politely interrupted, her voice quivering as she spoke those words, as streams of tears from her eyes washed away the makeup she had spent one hour putting on her face. Jessica walked over; battling her own tears, and takes Jimmy’s handkerchief from his hand as he raised it to give it to his lady. Jimmy cleared his throat and continued; ‘so E, my dear, how would you like to get married to a hard working man from beyond the hills’; Eve drops to her knees and joins Jimmy on the floor while their audience of one – Jessica, applauded. Two weeks later, they were married; Jimmy made sure Eve got her every wish. The wedding ceremony was lavish.

Today, is their third wedding anniversary, but Jimmy is not home, no he is not sick in some hospital, neither is he out of town on a business or career trip; he is in town but he isn’t coming home, at least not tonight; he is in the other part of town, in an apartment he rented for his mistress. And with Jimmy Jr on the laps of Eve; Jessica moved closer and put her arms around her friend, and after two minutes of utter silence, both ladies suddenly, spontaneously broke the silence with the words: ‘What went wrong?’ After some moments of even more tears, Eve spoke first, ‘I think I know the answer to our question and it’s not a matter of went wrong, but what has always been wrong’. Jessica responded with amazement; ‘don’t tell me you’ve always known that Jim was no good’. I have my friend; I have: yes, I saw signs of the occasional going away with another girl but I told myself that men were no good; although I grew up with an exception – my father never had a mistress, he was a really good man to Mama, he was a true follower of Christ. But it wasn’t just the womanizing, there were other signs that made me fear that I was getting married to the wrong man, but I talked myself out of reality every time, and swam into fantasy. So nothing went wrong; the symptoms were noisy enough to be noticed, nothing went wrong, the man was wrong; he was the wrong man for me.’

Ladies be careful to whom you give that delicate heart of yours; it is very difficult for a bad man for you, to pretend to be a good man for you; men are not good at pretense: the signs are always open and sometimes, as early as the first date, you begin to see the warning alarms; don’t ignore them. One question bugs this writer: why is it that nine out of every ten women, are never bold enough to walk away from a dangerous relationship? Jesus said, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife; don’t let just any man cleave unto you; if you will be his wife, then he must fit the reasonable suit of the man you can call ‘husband’; and please ladies, if you already said yes because a man knelt down with a diamond ring (a girl’s best friend) in his hand, and then you discover that your yes was a mistake; be bold enough to change yes to no, and walk away, so that you don’t have to wait until you are married to ask, what went wrong?

SUNNY ERONMOSE ISUEKEBHOR (October 31, 2016)