CHAPTER THREE

The still night broke into a dawn. The sun rose with great rays from the eastern wilderness; peeped from the blue cloud and created a bright coloured morning of no breeze. The birds of the air sang melodies and junket from tree to tree. The morning sun rays pierced through the parapet of the old wooden window of the room where Vivian laid. She woke from sleep and saw that the flickered rays of the sun had created a beautiful shadow in her bedroom, making all things rich like lily in the bloom. This moment, she was very angry because the time of the day must have elapsed and that her father, whom she did not see the previous day might have risen earlier before her and had gone to work again.

She quickly ran down the castle stairs, looked at the pizza and saw her parents discussing about matters suspected to be quite private. She leaned a shoulder against the wall, stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked at her parents almost admirably. She most probably thought that they were deliberating on the matters which she told her mother the previous day. Her heart settled down for the fact that she had seen her father whom she felt his absence throughout the previous day.

The only thing she knew absolutely was that she loved Charles whether her father in particular did not seem genuinely concerned about the pressing matter she wanted to present to him. She would object his controversies and convince him on the subject of her marital proposal. She was terrified that she would lose something precious if her father becomes more aggressive on her marital plan. This is because her father would assume that the man who proposed to her would only be a friend. She could remember her father saying one time that “friendship is a delicate thing meant to be pampered and nurtured, and man-woman attraction can ruin it.”

“Good morning papa,” Vivian greeted with a tone full of happiness. She rubbed her eyes with her palms and leaned confidingly towards them. She offered a toothed smile to them.

“Good morning my daughter,” Harry replied. A faint smile creased the corners of his eyes. He saw demand in her gaze. His face brightened, and she rubbed the bristles on his chin as if he was trying to wipe away unpleasant feeling.

“Do  you  feel   good  this   morning?”   Harry  inquired

further.

“Yes sir, I feel very good,” Vivian nodded strictly.

“I have something pressing in my heart to tell you,” Vivian began.

“What is that? What will be the thing that troubles your heart, I feel sure there is no problem? All problems have solutions,” Harry inquired inquisitively. His voice trailed away and he looked at her the second time with his arms folded across his chest as if he was not happy with what he had just heard from his wife about Vivian’s plan. His face, a striking blend of native African and Negro, was as impassive as stone, but his blue black eyes contained some emotions that she felt was probably better left unnamed. She would not want to obey his usual barked command on matters like this…

“Yes,” Vivian began softly. “I have waited for you all the hours of yesterday to inform you about my proposed marriage with a young man called Charles, whom I sincerely love and I am sure he loves me dearly. As a result he has proposed to me for marriage.”

A pent-up breath escaped him in a rush. He leaned forward a little and looked at Vivian’s face more eagerly, as every cell in his body seemed to leap with nervous excitement in response to her admission that she wanted to marry.

“Yes, my daughter, your mother intimated me this morning about your decision to get married. It is not a bad contemplation to find a mate whom you would hang on your desires. Though I think that it’s a good thing to find a right mate nowadays; in these days that the modern women run after men. Look, if you choose a wrong mate, you’ll deep your toes in the deep water. It would be good to marry than swallowing abortion capsules we hear about in the drug stores. You know that there are more than thirty thousand abortion cases reported in the national journals every month in this city? What about the world over? It is good to live with a husband who consents to take up your entire problem than being under my stride and start killing those saintly babies, who haven’t seen the abominations under the sky,” Harry encouraged and admonished.

“Papa, my mind has not tuned to the evil acts that the modern women were guilty of. Since I met him, he has made my whole life bright and vibrant. He has turned every day into a wonderful adventure. He has made every morning seem like Christmas to me. He is a very nice person and I am planning to have my kids with him

“Look daughter, I am not accusing you of any immoral character but all women are the same. Those modern ladies can be tough and rough. Don’t you remember Jovina, the daughter of my friend – Jenifer, who completely refused to go to school and turn herself to a bar-room girl? She danced to make money in clubs, and her parents complained, and wanted her to give up dancing but she refused their instructions and was impregnated by a crook. Don’t you remember how she aborted those twin babies and threw them into the pit? She later courted a certain man but refused to marry him because she used her body as commercial enterprise. The other day, one girl from this city slept with a dog, and the other one enjoyed herself with a trained baboon

“What an abomination, what shameful acts? I would not go that far. I can’t do without Charles, I won’t live without him. No matter what other men and women can commit, there is no story anybody will tell me about Charles. I don’t have any fence to mend with anyone and I can’t believe anyone who pokes his or her nose in my personal affairs. If dogs and baboons were women’s lovers that might apparently be their choice,” Vivian explained and retorted.

“A dog is shameless because it knows nothing about its nudity. Those street classes who walk along the road and lanes in the nude are shameless to kill the oncoming innocent young ones by abortion. Last week, an international journal and American democrat carried shocking news: one woman in her early forties gave to bed a bouncing baby boy, instead of nurturing the child she threw the child into the pit. Seeing that the child’s crying would expose her iniquity, she boiled water to a high degree centigrade and poured it into the pit, and the child died immediately. When the force authorities apprehended her and interrogated her over the cruel crime, she said that the child would make her old while breastfeeding him. And that he would prevent her boyfriends from taking her out to party every night in Hollywood,” Harry analyzed.

“Papa,” began Vivian. “Such acts were due to unbelief of some of our modern women: the act of killing or aborting those little ones is an intentional murder. The guilt is liable to judgment and must be punished by death. They ought to have married and bore those little ones to their husbands.”

“Vivian! The beauty of a woman is her character. No man in his right mind would like to marry a woman who has aborted many times in her life. The kind of woman that any sensible man would choose to marry will reflect his ambition and character. If he chooses the wrong woman, she will reflect his life. His choice signifies what is in him. For an instance, if he would marry a theatrical girl, a street class, a striptease in the hotel, or on the road lane, she won’t be at home. It shows what he wants his future home to be because he married her to raise children by her and whatever she is, that is what her children would be. If she is a street class and gives birth to a daughter, her daughter must be like her mother. Today, the streets are full of such female children. The homes are ruined through prostitution and bastard children are raised everywhere,” Harry said.

“Papa, my ambition is to live with Charles whom I have chosen to be my husband. I have seen things that seemed particularly significant about him. He is very conservative, a smooth-talker, one that I quite knew who doesn’t look at all threatening, very attractive, someone with a hang-up about evil manifestations. I won’t leave him and loiter about in the mid-night-parties. I will be at home to nurture my children and shoulder the responsibilities in the household,” Vivian declared.

“Look Vivian, a woman’s vow always goes out of her mind when a new thought comes and takes preeminence. She would change within a twinkle of an eye like a chameleon’s sly when things get worst. Be very careful. You are getting increasingly sick because of this man you defend and talk about. You were drawn to this man in ways that were beginning to terrify you with his love, and you refuse to acknowledge it. I don’t want you to be divorced when things get hard. Certain things that start well don’t always end well. I remember a certain girl whose father was my foreman in the company where I worked. She married a millionaire. They ate with golden plates and silver spoons. Once upon a time, the man’s business warehouse caught fire and burned to ashes. The young man became as poor as a church rat. Do you know what this girl did? She divorced the man and married another young salesman that his financial potentials were more promising than that of her ex-husband, after his business has been liquidated through the fire incident.”

“Papa, my union with Charles shall be coordinated and rooted in true love and total submission. It should not depend on his riches or poverty. I believe that any marital bond that is based on materialism would soon result in divorce. I strongly believe that our love shall make our marriage last. So marriage doesn’t depend on big financial background but depends on love and agreement,” Vivian emphasized.

“The modern woman bases her matrimony on the financial stand and the wealth of her anticipated husband without considering the type of love that exists between them. Love must essentially be the prerogative of married couples than the issue of wealth. If a woman reposes her mind on the wealth of her husband, her love would fade whenever her husband experiences financial difficulties,” Harry instructed.

“Papa, Charles comes from a noble and wealthy family; this is the cheque of five million dollars he sent to me,” Vivian revealed. Then she swiveled the chair and looked up at him. She brought it up now for Harry to read the amount written in the cheque. Harry glanced at it suspiciously.

“Are you going to marry Charles because he gave you a cheque of five million dollars? Remember, money is neither the vehicle of marriage nor the criterion of all things. You may marry him, few years later, he could meet a setback. Would you betray your love then? Would you discard him because he is on ash-heap? Would your love remain stronger in the midst of wretchedness and strenuous obstacles? Or would you find a man richer than Charles and then divorce him?” Harry questioned seriously.

“Papa, money is not the criteria to love. Money is not the foundation of matrimony but true love. Marriage without love is a useless thing. My thought is to remain faithful to Charles and reciprocate his love to me, because love breeds love. It is so hard to love someone who doesn’t love you, who doesn’t even care about you. My ambition to marry Charles had never been aimed at his financial background but I think that nature is uniting us together,” Vivian declared.

“Well, Vivian, the kind of man a woman would marry will reflect her ambition; sometimes the man’s character might change the woman into good or bad conduct: if the man is a bar-room hubby, it will show the kind of home to be expected in the future. If you marry a pool-room man, you won’t expect him to come home with his monthly salary. He would spend all his salary on pool. If you marry a drunk, you would expect to get him out of the gutter every night. If you marry a polygamist, you would entertain the quarrels and obstacles of polygamy. I can now remember one woman who lived in that valley. She married years ago to a renegade who was a drunk and a smoker, her first husband died in a bar-room in the bed of a prostitute. She married a second time; he deserted her and eloped with a married woman. He died in a gutter one night for drunkenness; the woman then married a pool addict who spent his monthly salary on pool. He made this woman to starve to death in her bedroom,” Harry analyzed.

“Papa,” Vivian began. “Charles is a fine man and since our companionship, I haven’t seen him involved in illicit behaviours or participated in the acts you mentioned. Though, men today are deceivers and liars; yet I know him very well. If I know things about him, I probably have nothing to fear about him any longer. I have known him only for some time but I had the ample opportunity to observe him and I have studied with him in the same faculty for several semesters. There is nothing, absolutely nothing about him that made me uneasy. I will accept him with confidence to be my hubby. I have nothing to fear about his behaviours and the trivialities that cause marital unhappiness. I believe that Charles would not be a bar-room bravado who comes home every night with insulting remarks, disparaging words, rude action or spellbinding in crazy mood.” “My  daughter,  you  can’t  know  a  man  by  mere experience except you study him. If you want to know a man, walk as slow as he walks, run where he runs, jump where he jumps, stop where he stops, act what he acts. When you do this, you  will  know  what  he  knows  and  understand  what  he understands; then you watch out for a queer thing. Anyway, there’s the story in the neighbourhood about a man who got drunk on a certain day. He assaulted her wife and chased her out into the yard. His crescendo of abusive voice woke the neighbours,  threatening  to  kill  his  wife  and  one  of  the neighbours who came to separate their fight. Somebody called FBI; the cops arrived and tried to calm him down. When the cops left, something went wrong. In the midnight, he rose up and slashed his wife’s head off. When he saw that the woman

was dead, he began to scream…” Harry narrated advisedly. “Papa, I have been with Charles always. We study in

the same English department. I have tried him in many ways and his manners haven’t strayed. If I marry him; whether or not I am divorced is irrelevant. I didn’t want to get involved with anyone except Charles; period!” Vivian stated emphatically.

“Listen, Vivian, a man’s attitude is hidden within him. Only provoked situation could bring out his innermost character. He ought to live a virtuous life because character without virtue is satanic,” Harry admonished.

“Papa, would you kindly give consent to Charles’ proposal because every preparation for our wedding has been made,” Vivian solicited.

“Vivian, your marriage with Charles depends on your agreement with him and how you see him. You will recognize him to be trustworthy. I cannot be your father and also be your husband because fathers do not marry their daughters. If you consent to marry him, you must obey his principles. What I personally owe you is to give you the necessary backings expected of a father but you should know and learn to think for yourself in order to be ready to face any circumstance that may crop up along the line,” Harry insisted.

After this long dialogue, Vivian’s father excused himself. Vivian was very happy because her father gave his consent to her proposal in spite of his controversial and equivocal ideas on matters like this. She also departed and went for a rest in her bedroom. There wasn’t much argument from her father as they expected, instead he gave his consent without much ado. This was her thought afterwards. She became very excited about her bold steps to confirm to her parents about her marriage plans and her ability to defend her opinion before her uneasy-going father. The words that had never crossed her lips had crossed them now. Instead of feeling as if she has been freed from making it a secret, she had a happy sensation in her heart, and feeling of a stirring excitement. She had said it out aloud. She had informed her parents who hadn’t known.

In her bedroom, she sat down on one of those old time sofas. She became overwhelmed with joy that she would start

to inform her friends and relations both far and near about her upcoming marriage with a very handsome young man. She was also happy that she would start boasting openly to most of her girlfriends who married old men years ago and as a result are suffering from financial constraints. Her mood was euphoric because she would leave her father’s house and live with a man she loved and dreamt about.

She almost wanted her wedding with Charles to be a matter today or tomorrow. She didn’t want long courtship because out of long courtship, evil and foes criticisms and gossip follow. Foes of love would make accusations and scandals. She knew that Charles had sent her five million dollars, this she called a blessing and gift from the heart of lovable groom. She was very lucky she had a man that could afford to marry and support her financially. She frantically started making quicker preparation for her matrimony. She bought things that would be very important from the money Charles gave her. Those things she bought were for the entertainment of the train of crowd that would feature in her wedding ceremony.

Moments later, she fantasized that she would leave her father’s house and live in peace with Charles. She thought about her independence from her parents and how she would leave most of her girlfriends whom she felt most akin to and develop a new friendly interests and relations in the city of her husband. How she would befriend classes of good women, who would admire her and her hubby, whom she felt would not be threat to their new style of life. It made her feel secure to know she was going to be surrounded by good people,

She visualized how she would not move in the company of those modern women who leave their husbands’ houses and abandoned their crying children at home and go to parties staged in Hollywood. She meant those women that determined not to return from parties for days. She said that “those categories of women would spoil her good native characters, which she learnt from her mother.” She added that she would avoid those companies of spoilt women who smoke and drink alcohol, and whose businesses were to rove from nook and cranny, looking for a breakthrough to rob some women their husbands. She had wondered why this class of women were not ashamed of exposing themselves in Hollywood and accompany men who have rejected their households. She wondered why men and women should be over drunk and lay half dead in the gutters and nooks of the streets, while their young ones go about uncontrolled. Their acts have engendered a lot of juvenile delinquencies.

One other thought in Vivian’s mind was that if God blessed them with children, she would raise them in godly way to fear and love God. She in other words would train her children in the way her parents trained her. They would avoid the companies of neurotics and terrorists who filled the streets of the town with their dubious characters. Apart from that they would not be motivated by the corruptions and delinquencies of today’s corrupt children; some are strung out on drugs or drink, some are lowlifes and some of them are hoity-toity.

Vivian concluded that if Charles married her, she would remain his bride forever and she would tie to his principles and stay with him in any condition. One character she suspected in

Charles was infatuation with women like some men do. She heard last time from one of her eminent relations that most of the family pandemonium is as a result of the obscure attitude of lust and infidelity in marriage. She said that most of the divorce cases in court result from such things. In the end the man would discard his wife and marry another woman whom he thought was more beautiful than his first wife. Vivian agreed that those behaviours led many men into polygamy.

She had wondered if Charles would in future destroy their marriage vow of ‘till death we part’ – and enjoin polygamy. She dislikes marrying a polygamist. She observed that the character of a polygamist is ambiguous and brings grieves. She knew most of her town’s men who were polygamist. She understood how the polygamous families are full of malice, envy and quarrel among one another. She understood how the children of a polygamist live in fears and divided opinions; the bond of love wasn’t experienced among them. In fact, she knew how her father used to rush into a neighbour’s house every night, who was a polygamist to solicit for peace to reign among the wives and children of this man. She remembered how their noise and quarrels had often resulted into fighting and crescendo of abuses. She understood that most of these polygamist die quicker of high blood pressure because of constant pressing problems.

In her heart, she had a premonition and even affirmed that Charles would never disappoint the trust and the kind of supper love she had for him. And that he must not betray their bond and marry another girl who might look prettier. She added that he would not leave her and her future children and

rove about in Hollywood. She concluded that he would know himself and became egocentric for his new married wife. For the fact that he had sworn to keep his vow and in no time would violet it; he would not abuse her in any form.

Vivian fantasized a lot of things before the bed time. She later felt that she would inform Charles about the outcome of her parents’ wishes and decisions on his request. She felt enamoured that Charles would feel very happy when he comes by the sudden good news that her parents acknowledged his proposal to marry her. She picked up a stationary on the opposite table near her bed, a white pad, a ball-point pen and wrote to Charles the second time in the following strain:

“I dreamt and saw your nobility. I slept in somnambulism and saw your handsome physique; I woke from sleep and felt your love. What a constriction of soul shall be mine to give my love to another man rather than you. I shall exchange my love for your love. If I exchange it with another man, I shall obtain false bliss. For you were the one who found me in the middle of the night in January between the chimes and shrieks of the night insects, and between the hooting of the night owl’s keen cry and the hard blowing of the eastern trade wind, your words of love melted my keen heart. I have no other protector or any guardian. No person can help me from distresses. Nobody can protect me from catastrophes. You are my glory in the days of panic and in the days of my youth.

I have told my parents about your request and they admitted your plans for our matrimony. Since they have acknowledged your request for courting me as a wife, I cannot reject their cogent wishes nor deny your offer to marry me. I solemnly pledge to submit myself, wisdom, education and pride under your care. All I earnestly desire is to see you accomplish your promise. Please put love first to our upcoming marital agreements and consider me first before every modern woman that comes by your way, with paint on her face and blue under her eyes. Don’t give the solemn engagement that you have vowed to me to another woman. Let your love be keen at the same time as a polished sword. And consider vividly the gamut of your promise. Please would you quickly solemnize our agreed marriage that I would live with you forever and would not feel nostalgia any time while under your domain?

I received your gift of five million dollars. I accepted it with felicity. You should note very carefully, that money is not the criterion of love, though I am well aware of your pure love. Be urgent to whatever promise you have made, give gentleness and candour to me. Don’t trifle with our precious moment to marry, for such another opportunity may not occur. This I eagerly desire from you.”

Vivian dropped her pen, read and re-read the letter. She felt satisfied with the words she pressed into it. It was reassuring that she did not think he had anything to worry about putting his thoughts together for the marriage from the information she had let out to him through the letter service. The information she had let out to him had been a dark shadow in her mind; if her parents would disagree with her plans, but the shadow had threatened and broke free of the constraints she had laid on it, because she hoped that her parents would not hold on her marital proposal. Another fear that remained in her heart was if Charles’ parents would accept his proposal to marry her. She knew it was very hard for parents to acknowledge their children’s proposals on matters of marriage but she told herself to forget whatever indecision that would come from his parents and repose on what Charles would give as a reply. She decided that the next day, she would mail her letter to Charles and would wait curiously for his reply. Few days passed like an eternity, as she waited for him to reply or call.