“Don't go through life, grow through life.”
—Anonymous.

Evening came by quickly. She dialed Mama and spoke to Maryam, telling her how much she's missing her. Maryam in return, told her of all the wonderful food she's gotten to eat in Mama's house. Telling her mother that she was missing out.

"Mummy, you need to taste Grandma's Akara (bean cake) and moin-moin. It is very delicious. She makes buns and beans pie too." She spoke through the phone with delight. May could sense it.

May laughed. "So just a week that you've lived there, you know all these foods already?."

Maryam smiled. "Grandma feeds me alot. Even when I say i'm full, she still won't believe me."

May heard Mama chuckle and say, "This girl won't kill me." in the background.

"Maryam I have to go now. Someone wants to buy orange and I need to attend to him." She told Maryam as she placed the phone inbetween her ear and her shoulder while she used her hands to collect a black cellophane.

"Okay mommy, take care, I love you."

"Em, don't give your grandma headache oh. Remember to be of your best behavior. You hear me?" asked May.

"Yes ma."

"Okay. I love you too. Goodbye.."

"Goodbye mum."

"Sorry. That was my daughter." She told her customer.

The young boy always buys a good quantity of orange from her that it makes her competitors jealous. May doesn't mind. It was expected.

"So aunty you have a daughter? You didn't tell me." The young boy, Uche, from ibo, tried to start up a conversation with her.

"Em.. Uche It's not like that." May didn't know how to respond to his question so she quickly changed it. "How much orange do you want to buy?"

The fifteen year old, fair, tall boy smiled. "The usual."

She smiled too on hearing that. Joy dancing its way into her heart. Whenever he said 'usual' mean't he wanted whatever was left of her orange. She had half a basin left.

She sold it to him and watched him leave. She didn't know why he always buys the last oranges from her. It was baffling but she's never asked him why he buys so much, what he does with them or who he buys it for.

All she knew was that she was done for the day.

She got home before the time struck 8 o'clock in the night. The door was locked which mean't Edric wasn't at home.

She unlocked the door and pushed her tired legs inside with her two empty basins on her head. The house was dark. She took out her phone from her pocket, pressed a button so the screen light will flash on.

Using it, she found her way into her room. Took the candles that was inside the locker. She lit it using the matches she found in the kitchen.

She kept one on top the sitting room table, one in her room and the other, in her husband's room.

May was starving. She prepared noodles, but she suddenly lost her appetite after she had given Edric five missed calls. He didn't pick or return the calls. She covered the plate and kept it on the dinning table, deciding that she wouldn't eat alone. She would wait for him to come home just like a good wife would so they would eat together and maybe retire to bed together.

Retire to bed together? Was that ever going to happen? It was something to wonder about. Even with Bella's absence, she felt it would make no difference. Something tells her Edric was always going to be Edric. Somethings never change. Yet she was hoping.

Isn't that why there is a saying that says, 'if there is life, there is hope?'

She was hoping on this one.

She paced around for a while then tiredly slumped on her armchair to wait for him while constantly checking her phone, hoping and praying silently that he would atleast return her calls or send her a text to inform her that he was on his way home.

Her eyes were becoming heavy with sleep. She could barely hold it. She yawned and just then her phone beeped indicating she had just received a text message from someone. It must be Edric.

She smiled, took her phone from the table in front of her. Her smile dropped and all her expectations broke into pieces. It was no text from Edric.

She clicked on the message Iby had sent her. Although she would have preferred it if the text had been from her husband but after reading it, her heart warmed a bit. For a moment she forgot about Edric. Her cheeks heated up as she bit her lips, trying to stop herseld from smiling or blush, as they say it.

Iby had sent her a simple goodnight text message. It was simple, yet she re-read it again and again.

It'd been long since she'd last received text messages like that on her phone and the thought that someone out there, actually cared for her, left her to drift into a much-deserved sound and peaceful proper sleep but not without a smile tug on her lips.

If it was the early morning sun peeking through the curtains, the early morning hunger that hit her or the soft music coming from Edric's bedroom that had waken her up, she didn't know. She wasn't sure which.

She rubbed her eyes before consulting her phone time to see how long she had slept. It was almost 9 o'clock. She had overslept. She had also forgotten to lock the sitting room door before sleeping off. No wonder she didn't wake up when Edric came home early in the morning.

She had received another text. To her disappointment it wasn't Iby's but that of Efua. Efua was inviting her to her engagement party. She quickly typed out a reply. Congratulating and expressing her happiness that Efua would soon become a wife. She added that she was going to honor the invitation and wouldn't miss her best friend's engagement party for anything in the world.

In no time Efua's reply came in. She thanked May for wanting to attend. She said alot of other few things. Like, "I am going to gist you later on how i met my fiancee." and, "girl you better dress like its your birthday o. Cause that day, i would introduce you to him and other friends of mine."

All that got May smiling but one thing bothered her. It was the, "Make sure to come along with your husband." she read, that bothers her.

Would Edric even permit her to attend the engagement? Talk more of attending it with her. She didn't know what the answer would be but not withstanding, she promised Efua that they (including maryam) were all going to come.

The noodles she had prepared the night before had become sour and bland so she dumped it all and went about with the days chores at home.

"Here's your tea. I added a lot of milo and milk." She layed the mug on top the table infront of Edric who wasn't paying no attention to her. He was busy reading his Nigerian tribune newspaper with crossed leg and a 'i care less' expression on his face.

All this, yet May managed a smile for him. A smile he never had in return for her.

He raised his head and fixed her a less concerned stare. "I don't remember asking you to prepare tea for me. Did i?"

She scratched the nape of her neck nervously. "Em. Em. I thought—"

"Thought what?!" He roared.

His tone scared her. She took few steps backwards with the fear that he was going to pounce on her anytime soon.

She just wanted to be a wife material. Was that a bad thing?

She just wanted her husband to feel cared for and that's why, following Iby's advice, she decided to prepare tea for Edric that evening.

"Make tea or coffee for him. Men likes it when you do such things for them. He would sip from it with one eye on his papers." Iby had adviced her through the phone after he had asked what her husband was doing at home. She told him it was Edric's day off at work and he was reading news paper in the living room.

So what then was wrong following the harmless advice of her friend?

"Take it away." He ordered a bit calm. His eyes locked on his papers.

"W—what?" She asked eventually after a minute of silence.

He dropped the papers on his laps. Maintaining a stern frown. "Do you have ear problem?"

She pushed back the tears rising behind her eyes. "I know you didn't ask me to make tea for you but.. please appreciate my little effort by taking a sip atleast." it was with the most quiet voice that she spoke. She wondered whether Edric could hear her umsteady breathing from where he sat.

He stared at her for a long time than should be. It made her uncomfortable. She looked down at her feet, shifting her legs from one feet to another.

He cleared his throat, seeing the effect he had on her. How it was so easy to intimidate her. "You want me to take a sip?"

She nodded, her head still hanged low.

He smiled; a wry smile. He took the cup. She raised her head up, her eyes slightly opened bigger than its normal size out of surprise that he was going to drink from it.

All her hopes soiled in the mud when he turned the cup upside down and poured all its contents on the carpeted floor.

She gasped. Placed one hand on her chest.

All the tea, including the money she used in buying it gone and wasted like that on the floor.

He sauntered out on her to his room without a trace of guilt or pity on his face. Just like he didnt have one when he emptied the tea on the floor.

Tears flew out of her eyes. She had cleaned this room. Now, he didn't only hurt her. No? He has also given her an extra work.

She cleaned it all with a clean rag.

The side of the bed where she sat on top sank inside due to her weight on it. She buried her face in her hands as tears left her eyes.

She had made several attempts to please him but to no avail. That didn't really trouble her. The big deal was that she was horny.

She needed her husband inside of her bad bad. it'd been close to six years since she hadn't sex. its been so long that she couldn't remember exactly when last Edric made love to her. 

It was frustrating her.

She needed him.

She made up her mind that she was going to have him this night whether he likes it or not.