“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
  –Anonymous

"Where do you think you're going?" Edric's voice caused May and Maryam to freeze. She was
leaving for church but he just had to come out of his room just when she was about to open the
door, spoiling everything for her.

"Church?" She answered for the second time, confusion making the word quizzical.

"So after I told you that you wouldn't go to church today, you still wanted to hide and leave?
Why are you so stubborn, May?"

"I'm not." The words came out before she could stop them.

His right brow shot up quizzically. "So what are you, If not stubborn? Or are you trying to call me a liar?"

May sighed bitterly. He was in a bad mood today. "I didn't say that–"

He cut her off. "So it has gotten to the point where you indirectly call me, your husband, a deaf and a dumb person, abi?"

"Edric," she almost whispered, already tired of her husband's attitude. It was frustrating. "What is it? What have I ever done to you? Why don't you want me to have peace?"

"I'll pretend like you didn't say that."

"Why don't you want me to go to church?" She pressed on.

"Isn't it clear already? I don't want you going about broadcasting it to everyone in church that I whipped you yesterday. Especially not to your pastor."

She looked at him with disbelief. "And why would I do that? I would never-"

He cut in. "Save that story for the gods. Right now, I want you to go into that kitchen, wash the plates, including the one Bella used to eat her noodles and fish yesterday."

May's mouth opened as she exclaimed. "Ah! Doesn't she have hands?"

He ignored her question and continued from where he had stopped. "When you are done, go into my room, you'll see a heap of clothes on the floor." He paused before adding a question. "Do I need to tell you what to do with them?"

She shook her head. "I'll wash them."

"Good."

When he walked away, May said to Maryam, who had been standing close to her. "Can you do me a favor, darling?"

Maryam gave a nod. "Yes, ma."

"Go bring out the clothes from your father's room while I wash the plates. When I am done, we
will both wash your father's clothes. How about that?"

Maryam ran to start the errand while May washed the plates. Her mind drifted until a snickering brought her back to reality.

It was Bella, dressed in a short white nightgown, laughing her ass off since she couldn't hold it in any longer. May glared at her until she stopped laughing.

"I thought you said you wouldn't wash the plates. How come you are washing them now?" Bella
laughed again.

May only shook her head as if in pity and turned back to finish what she was doing, ignoring Bella, who continued laughing at her. When May got tired, she said, "Bella, it would have been better if you had stayed indoors and never came out to flaunt your stupidity. I don't know what your problem is, but you better leave me alone 'cause you seriously don't want to see my bad side."

"Bad side." Bella sneered, eyeing May. "I might not want to see your bad side but I'm certain you
don't want to receive Edric's wrath as well, do you?" She began snickering again when May didn't answer "You know better than to argue with me 'cause you know where it will land you: at the corner of that wall screaming for help." She raised her shoulders high now. "You know, I am now the reigning lady of this house so I deserve your respect."

May hissed, eyeing Bella from her head to her toe. "When you are done speaking nonsense then
leave but let me tell you this; once a maid, always a maid, there is nothing special about you."

Bella's smile fell, but the woman did not falter. May liked the sight of her now somber face. "Am I the one you had the guts to talk to like that?"

"Who else is in this kitchen with me?" May snarked.

"Oh, you'll see." She snapped her fingers signifying a threat. "You won't get off scot-free for this," Bella promised before she angrily stomped off.

She can do her worst, May thought, shrugging.

May was grateful that there weren't as many clothes as she thought. However, she came to
realize that she had to wash Bella's clothes too. Among those were two gowns and lemon-colored lingerie.

As she scrubbed Edric's trousers, she began to ask herself: what really happened to her husband?
What went wrong?

After her father had disowned her, she had moved in with Edric's family. His father was sacked from working as her father's gateman so he opened a welding shop where he was paid to weld people's gates, burglar-proof, and other odd jobs.

Mama Edric opened a small restaurant where she employed five sales girls—including Bella—from the village to assist her while Edric quit school to push wheelbarrows in the market.

He would carry goods for people in the market and get paid for it. During May's pregnancy days, she refused to touch anything directly with her hands since she wasn't used to it. She was always
spitting, eating native chalk (also popularly known as Nzu), nagging and sleeping all day. Edric would come home after the day's stress to massage his wife's swollen legs with hot water as she would prefer it to be. He would prepare the pepper soup or tea she would drink while she did nothing but order him around like a queen. If he wasn't available, his twin sister, Elene, would fill in for him. This was something Mama Edric worried about, but she felt like she couldn't do anything about it. After all, it was her son who had put the pampered girl in their family. For her, he needed to put up with it.

Edric kept struggling to make more money because he was constantly reminded by his mama that he, who was the second son of their family, now had to take care of his wife and his unborn baby. Fortunately for him, a good Samaritan who he had helped to carry his goods offered him a better job as an accountant in a distribution company. This enabled him to earn a considerable amount of money.

May was ecstatic when she was told the news, she thanked God for the opportunity. She went
around saying it would be a new dawn for her and her husband but, of course, she didn't know
that there was a giant storm ahead.

With the money Edric was earning from his new job, it was much easier to cope and months
after, she gave birth to little Maryam. After that, they went to a registry nearby and got married. None of her family members graced them with their presence. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Her father stopped all means of communication between them. He had also given Mr. David and his family strict warning never to come close to his gate or step a foot into his compound. Regardless, the ceremony was successful and the newly wedded couple went home.

The supposed honeymoon wasn't ideal for May. Edric refused to have sex with her, making excuses that he was tired so she let him be.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, and all the while Edric refused to touch her. Though he was acting weird, May didn't put much thought into it. No matter what May did, she couldn't connect with any of her family members, which was her biggest concern. At least Esther or her mom could've called to say hi.

All she saw and read was reports related to her father's position in the states.

Four years after, Edric saved up some money and rented the little bungalow they were living in. Bella and two other salesgirls from Mama's restaurant also moved in with them, so they could assist May in taking care of Maryam, clean the house, cook, wash, sweep and go to the market.

Then the unfaithful event happened one afternoon. Edric had gone to visit his siblings in their family house that was passed down through the generations. The three-story building had it's once attractive yellow paint color coming off in thin sheets. It was so old that it looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

Elene, with the joy that her twin brother had honored their invitation to spend some time with them, rushed out to buy something for him to eat when a car hit her and she died on contact. No one really knew how it happened, but Edric claimed to have seen the face of his sister's killer, who successfully escaped.

From that day onwards, Edric changed. First, he would come home late from work, smelling of
cigarettes and liquor. On multiple occasions, he vomited on May when she tried to help him remove his suit. He would sometimes shower her with insults, reminding her of how useless she was, but May never took it seriously. She assumed it was all due to the fact that the death of his sister had taken a toll on him.

Later, May noticed Bella was trying hard to get her husband's attention by putting on mini-skirts, showcasing her full hips, reminding May that she couldn't compete with her as she wore v-line clothes to expose her cleavage. When the other maids left, saying they wanted to go back to the village, Bella refused to join them. May followed her instincts so she sacked Bella only for her to show up that evening making everything worse between her and Edric.

Maybe Bella is using juju on my husband, thought May.

She couldn't think of any other reason why Edric would behave that way. He might've been
verbally abusing her after his sister's death, but he never so much as raised a finger to hurt her.

"Something is definitely wrong," May concluded, thoughtfully.

Before she could finish washing the clothes, it started pouring. She heaved a sigh. Bayelsa rains
are unpredictable, it falls anytime it likes. Although it was rain season, May still wished it hadn't rained. Now she couldn't line the wet clothes to dry under the sun.

Fifteen minutes later, the rain stopped, welcoming back the bright rays of the sun, which she was grateful for. May carried the bucket of clothes outside so she could hang them, not minding how her slippers were sticking to the ground, making it hard for her to walk freely. The rain was a
short one, but it was heavy enough to make the ground muddy.

"I am finished," May announced once inside his room.

Distracted by his phone, he asked, "Have you lined them?"

"Yes."

"I hope you washed them properly. I don't want to see any stains."

"I did. I scrubbed really hard." May swallowed, caressing one hand with the other she had
injured while washing his hard jean trousers.

"Good."

She thought that was all as she turned to leave but he stopped her.

"You will prepare something for me to eat, I am starving." He checked his wristwatch. "I would've gone to a fast-food joint instead of eating your poison but I am in the mood for homemade food."

"You can ask Bella to cook for you." She didn't know when that slipped out of her mouth, she
quickly covered it.

For the first time since she entered the room, he looked up at her. "Why? You don't want to cook for me?"

She swallowed. "No."

"Then?" He raised a brow at her. When she remained quiet, he took out some naira notes from
his pocket. For the first time in a long while, May mentally admitted that this was no dirty
crumpled money. It was clean as though he withdrew it from an ATM machine yesterday.

He handed over the money to her. "Buy noodles since it's the only thing you know how to cook. Make sure you add fresh pepper. I like my noodles spicy."

May called Maryam, who was in her room reading another storybook, just that this one was
smaller so May didn't complain.

"Go and buy indomie noodles."

Maryam collected the money and off she went to do what she was told.

Waiting for Maryam to return, she walked outside only to see all the clothes she had put so much
effort to wash on the muddy floor.

May was stunned. She remembered fully well that she had pegged those clothes properly. It couldn't have been the breeze that had caused the fall. Someone must've removed them and threw them on the floor on purpose.

Only one person had the guts to do such a thing to her and May knew who.

Glossary:

Juju means voodoo
Abi means Is it so?
Nzu are eatable native chalks for pregnant women.

The media above was made by Teefabulous. Thanks alot girl.