CHAPTER TWO

The usual morning sun had started peeping from the eastern blue cloud. In the eastern blue cloud, the sky was marmoreal and splendid and the great eastern trade wind blew so hard across the land. When the strong wind shook the roof of the house, Vivian woke from her sweet dream of love, in which she felt Charles physically. When she woke, she thought that Charles was with her. She looked around the room to see him but she saw nobody. She realized that she was dreaming. Her dream had not been true. With trembling hands, she pushed open the window. She looked through the window of her apartment on campus, and saw students packing their bags and making their way out of the school premises. She was really in a shock of realization that the academic session of the university was over.

When Vivian found out that most of her hostel mates had started packing their bags, she quickly started packing her belongings in her apartment. The first meditation that ran recklessly in her mind was whether Charles had gone. “Well,” she said, “He must have gone since the gate to the male hostels had been locked”. She quickly made out of the gate into the nearby motor park and boarded a bus and went home. As soon as she got home, there was a great applause of welcome as her parents and younger sisters coaxed her home with affable welcome.

“Welcome Vivian,” her mother conveyed greeting to her with enthusiastic smile, such that her old chin wrinkled revealing an old set of teeth.

“Thank you mum!” she replied exclamatorily with nostalgic thrills of smile too.

“Oh, my daughter, you have just traveled all along on dusty lanes. I am quite sure that you passed your examinations in this first academic session,” demanded Susana, Vivian’s mother.

“Yes,” Vivian began. “I came out in flying colours in all my courses. I studied hard before the examination”, Vivian replied.

“You are well indeed,” Susana began.

“Yes,” Vivian replied. “My health and peace of mind are seen.

“I received a letter through the express mail for you, and here is the letter,” Susana reported and handed the letter over to her.

Vivian received the letter from her mother. She was delighted about receiving a letter for a long time. She looked at the white envelop carefully and properly. She imagined who might have written to her this time. She had not written to anybody few months ago, and did not expect any reply from anybody. She understood after a retrospection that ran into her heart like a silken coil that she wrote a letter to one of her eminent girlfriends, whom she had most in heart last year June. She saw that the handwriting in the letter did not belong to her friend whom she wrote to last year. She further wondered who might have written the letter to her. She was bestowed with

great shock as she looked closely at the good writing that inscribed her name on the white envelope. She tore the envelop open from one end, and brought out the letter. She glanced first at the signature of the writer at the end, and saw that it was signed by Charles.

A remarkable lightening of great thrills of joy bombarded and conquered her heart. She was in a euphoric condition as she picked up the white envelope which she dropped on the table .A bank cheque fell on the floor from the envelope. She quickly picked it up. On the cheque was written: “Five million dollars.” She read the letter and the content of the letter was as follows:

Dear Vivian,

Right bride and beloved, guess the writer! I great you well! I know you will be curious enough to hear from me soonest since we did not see each other few days before the closing of the first academic session. As a matter of fact, I left the university on time owing to an unexpected consequence.

I felt so sure that you reached home safely and peacefully. This letter is to establish more of my views and opinion for the pursuit of your love and marriage that I requested from you fortnight ago. Please give my request an attention. Give my love a chance and give my admiration understanding. You informed me that you shall tell your parents about me, and the course ahead. I would be glad to hear as soon as possible from you on the present matter we have at hand. I know you will not marry another man. A bird in hand is worthy than millions in the bush.

I enclosed a five million dollar cheque that would meet your expenditures throughout your academic career in the university.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I  am,

Charles.

She read and re-read the printed letter. This moment, there was a great illumination of joy that came into her soul. A profound melodious song rendered the atmosphere in the room. She picked up the cheque for the second time, the black ink in which the cheque was written consistently read: “Five million dollars.” She no longer had anything to fear about whether Charles would marry her. The letter that she had read gave her an absolute confirmation and confidence, that Charles meant his words of love and marriage which he talked about seriously.

The money on the cheque would absolutely meet all the need that would arise during her academic sessions. She knew that her parents had mortgaged everything they had to sustain her into the first academic session. The days of her poverty and financial constraints are over; time to borrow is over too. This money was good and she didn’t have to take loans to pay for her education, neither would her parents be eaten by thoughts for her educational sponsorship. She would rather be quite bold to pay in advance to the lecturers and handouts.

The most burning sorrow left in her heart after passing from college was that she engaged herself in some businesses

in order to pass through her secondary days. She was buying snails from remote villages to be sent to busy towns where the price of snails was better. From the proceeds, she paid her school fees and registered for the final examination of the school that saw her into Yankee University. Vivian was down to earth that she could stoop so low as to trade on snail, which girls at her age would never do. It is always said that it is the desire to live that makes the sick to recover. It was therefore, the desire for success that made Vivian to work diligently. Apparently, the burning sorrow of hunting snails had been a thing of the past because of Charles’ financial support.

Now, since Charles had given her the needed financial support, the stories of poverty that affected her parents during her last educational career had become an old story. On the other hand, the money given to her had changed her general school life and financial background. She meditated and realized that this huge amount of money would place her within the level of modern class of students in the university. She would then measure up with those students, who shave their brows off, put on men’s outfits, ride into the university with their boyfriends’ cars.

With this huge amount of money, the modern frolic had now an influence on her. She was about to live the same pleasurable life. Few months ago, people and undergraduates of the University and most of her academic contemporaries laughed and always mocked her for her antiquated fashion. She was always jeered and criticized by most of her girlfriends for her archaic mode of dressing. She thought about what Charles

would think about her reform or change from her former antiquated method of dressing to the vogue of modern woman.

How would Charles feel when he sees her eyebrows shaved off, and replaced with thick black-lines of eye-pencil, her long hair which fell in two thick beautiful braids at her back cut off, her eyelids painted up blue or black, her face painted up with makeup, her fingernails and foot-nails grew out like wolf’s, manicured and pedicured black and blue? How would Charles feel, when he sees her in company of those drinking and smoking class of vulgar modern women, those party ladies whose native characters and innocence were corrupt?

She further said that if she married Charles, and becomes his wife, she would be under her husband’s stride and she would not loiter about inconsequentially with modern women. Vivian noticed that if one entered the University and sees some of the girls’ general attire; one might like to emulate such. The modern women seen on the television screen these days who normally dress in a certain vogue, all of the women in the country would fashion after them. These women do thousands of gullible things a day but get away with them. People have always condemned their fashion but they appear totally unrepentant. They are abusive to the society and families which they belonged, telling them it is none of their business. Their lives have become too hardened that there is nothing anyone can do to help them change their vogue. These university girls were especially endowed. They ought to buy garments that will minimize their nudity.

Throughout these her reflections as to what would interest Charles in her present features; she arrived at one thing in her mind: what her parents would say about Charles’ request to marry her. Before sending her to the University to study English Language, her parents strictly admonished her to accomplish her academic career before thinking of marriage. Even before her admission into the institution, the only dispute she had with her parents was whether she would marry after school. There were some disagreements about whether her marriage would hold within her educational career. She said to her parents those years that she would marry while in the university and as a result she rejected her parents’ ideas.

This night, the joy of the content of Charles’ letter coupled with the money in a cheque value caused her insomnia. By the time she pulled the white laundered sheet over her body in hope of getting rest, she slept. Few hours later, it was dawn already. There was a warm sunshine and the laughter of children playing in the surf. Bright as the sun was, it still hadn’t burned off the nights chill. The cold, fresh air was a tonic that made her to wake. When she woke from her sweet sleep, she went to her mother’s bedroom. Her mother was still snoring in her bed when Vivian shook her to wake. Her father’s room was adjacent to her mother’s room. She tip-toed into her mother’s room as though she did not want her father to notice her emergence. Both of them understood each other very well, that was why she thought that a delicate matter like this needed the first attention from her mother than her father who would always want to lord over all domestic matters.

“Good morning ma. Hope you slept well last night.” Vivian began.

“Yes, my daughter, the night was a very fine one; it was full of terminology for joyful and peaceful sleep,” Susana responded as she rubbed her face with both palms.

“Yes,” said Vivian. “I have come to inform you that the letter which you gave me yesterday was written by a suitor.” She did not take her eyes from her. She wasn’t sure what would be her response. Vivian quickly sat on the bed as though she had an ant in her pants. She rubbed her eyes more eagerly as if she wanted to be sure that she was already awake from her slumber. She was not so sure if her father had gone to work.

“Who is that man?” Her mother astonishingly inquired. “He is  Charles, a contemporary student in  the same English Department with me,” Vivian expressed with a shift of

countenance.

“You know these days; men would always promise to marry girls and abandon them after achieving their selfish aims. Sometimes marriage deals hard blows. You do everything you could for that man, a suitor, but later he would abandon you because men do not fulfill their promises when things get hard. You could understand the story of how that man from Nazi State, who boisterously claimed to be a pilot, courted Veronica, the daughter of William, impregnated her in the course of courtship, promised her all heavens, but later abandoned her and fled. The worst is that Veronica died during the course of child birth,” Susana narrated.

“Mum, Charles is not such a person. Charles is a noble man from a noble and royal family. His façade of nobility calls

for no obscure comments. His manner befits character. He is a strikingly handsome man; an attractive mind-blowing man in his thirties. He is emotionally stable. He is patient, extremely bright, everyone is fond of him. He is a man of his words. This is the Five Million Dollars cheque he sent to me through the letter you gave me.”

Her mother glanced instantly at the cheque in amazement.

“Whether he comes from a noble and wealthy family or not should not be your major concern. You ought to investigate his family background and his personality because some men are criminals,” Susana startlingly said.

“Yes, mum, his family is one of the richest families in Yale State, he is well to do. He is not a criminal. He is definitely not a beggar. He had millions of money in dollar and pound starlings remitted in the banks for him by his parents. His father recently bought a national oil well. There wasn’t a whole lot of money in our family. We didn’t have much anything and I won’t marry any poor person like me. Poor girls shouldn’t marry poor men, and poor men shouldn’t marry poor girls with poor parental background, because it engenders severe sufferings,” Vivian joyfully stated. Susana listened more eagerly to hear more positive facts about Charles’ background from Vivian. She was excited that her facial expression could not deny that. She felt a burden lifted up from her heart as she continued to glance at the cheque in bewilderment.

“Your educational programme will be a simple catastrophe. This huge amount of money has lifted us the burden of your high tuition fees and alleviated our family’s

financial constraints. The man who proposed to you is concerned about your future if not he would not have given you this big amount of money.”

“Mum, I love Charles since I met him and would not fail to marry him. If Charles proved to be some kind of pervert and stingy man, he would not have done very much in a couple of days we have known each other,” Vivian declared emphatically.

“Your instant declaration and consideration to marry Charles would neither depend on his financial capability nor his handsomeness. It should not also depend on his nobility. You must first and foremost consider how much you loved him, and find out if he comes from a good family. We don’t want an outcast because outcast is a taboo in the society.” Susana instructed.

“Mum,” Vivian called, “good things are known by their manifestations and manifestation is the interpretation. I felt so sure that Charles meant his words when he solemnly declared to me that he loved me, and would marry me; though you can’t know a man by mere experience except you live with him.”

“My daughter, most men cannot be trusted. They speak the moral and do the immoral. At first they seem to give you genuine love but at last they pour grounded pepper into your eyes. Do you remember the story about one pleasure stricken man, who claimed to return from Portnovo? In few months he courted Gene, the daughter of Josephine living at the hill- top and later married her. Stories came back to her parents that he sleeps in hotels every night with stripteases. He doesn’t come home at night. After a year of her marriage with this barroom

man, Gene was delivered of a bouncing baby boy but both her and the baby died of hunger in the hospital bed.”

“Mum, nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. I love Charles and would not expect him to treat me or act like Gene’s husband. Men are made in different sterner stuff. He lives an exemplary life. He is a person who holds a prominent position and he is considered a good example in the community. He looks prosperous, wealthy, but his image is the kind that would not be associated with any kind of crime. Though whatever emanates from the ardour of his attachment as my husband, I would stand it. And I believe that a true lover would definitely stand his or her ground in the midst of strenuous obstacle.” Vivian declared.

“Well my daughter, I don’t dispute your decision and choice to marry Charles. Charles would not marry me. I married to Harry your father twenty years ago. Ever then, we lived in peace and in tranquility. If trouble arises among us, we settle it without any external interference. No neighbor hears us fussing and reviling one another. We choose our own friends and had our own home, born our like, made our own plans as we wished in ordinary concern. If your father wandered across the nation, I would be doing things that would preoccupy me. We do things with a rapt concern to bring each other’s happiness. We did not get married, and institute a divorce proceeding in the law court,” Susana instructed.

“Mum, I desire with all my heart to love Charles by way of marriage. It would not be a fake relationship. Ours is a love affair that can be expressed as agape love; love that comes in the light of true love. This is because where there is no love,

there is no unity. I have affirmed that Charles cannot create despair to me nor would he be able to abandon the pure love which binds us together and do unpleasant things that would contradict our vows.”

“Vivian Susana began. “I have witnessed many incidents where different men have promised to marry some women but eventually abandoned them after they have had two to three children with them. Sometimes, a woman would love a man because he has a lot of money. When the man turns to “a poor church rat” in terms of monetary definition and potentials, his wife would seek a divorce or elope. She would in turn marry another man – who is richer than her ex-husband. Since your love is so strong in Charles and apt to marry him, I shall not prevent you from your love and wishes. But I would rather render every necessary help to you to see that you marry him and live with him in perfect peace.”

“Mum, I solicit your assistance to inform my father about my proposed marriage plan because he is against my early marriage. He had previously warned to withdraw from training me in the university if I accept any man’s marriage proposal before my graduation”.

“It is quite certain that your father must hear about it and I believe that he would give his consent to your marriage with Charles. If I don’t inform him about it, it is going to be negligence to his authorities as the head of the house. He always has solutions to every matter in the family. There is no reason for hiding this kind of matter from him; it could be so childish. Whereby he isn’t at home and had gone to work, we would earnestly await his return. He ought to be here at any moment,” Susana said and went to the backyard.

Instantly, Vivian went back to her bedroom and sat on her bed in a pensive mood. Her decision to marry was adding up. She was so happy because she believed that her mother couldn’t refute her proposed plan with Charles. She said that she would be a font of information to her father about her proposal. She said that she would not be ashamed to tell most of her girlfriends and well-wishers about her engagement with Charles owing the fact that Charles is a handsome man; fundamentally he comes from a noble family; an undergraduate and among the first class men.

She had always been indifferent to writing and exchanging love mails as most undergraduates and other people do. She speculated that Charles would never desire to do such thing. She does not want to hurt him who had written to her with a money cheque. That cheque in particular simply shows that he was serious about what he was proposing. She said, he did not look like a person who would frustrate marital contract.

Vivian in no lesser than time felt so sure that her father would accept her plans with Charles. She remembered that her father had almost refused to send her to the university after passing out with flying colours in secondary school because of his low financial status. Her father then had decided that she would look for a man who would marry her. She remembered what her father used to say: That a woman’s education ends in the kitchen, and that she had no position out there in the government offices or some dispensable business in the offices that belong to men. She could remember how she argued with her father about her choice to be educated and to becomes a graduate than to marry at her early age. She told her father that a woman’s education does not end in the kitchen. She told him that every university in the country was full of modern women who graduated from different disciplines and were employed in many companies; some of them were thick politicians and usurp offices of chairmen, counselors, commissioners, governors and presidents.

She remembered how one of her girlfriends became a senator, one of the national law makers. She drove a limousine car and was followed up wherever she went with a band of outriders in military uniforms. Vivian figured out that her father would be happy when he heard that a handsome man which was more than she had asked for in life from God was going to marry her. In general, Charles would carry all the burden of her educational programme.

She contemplated that if her father did not acknowledge Charles courtship with her, and do or say something unpleasant, she would instantly let him know that she must marry him. She would pack her bags and elope with Charles to any quiet side of the state; where they would span fully the gamut of love; then her father would lose the big amount of bride price which Charles would pay him and the multitude of gifts that would be apportioned to a father from an in-law. She bitterly suggested that she cannot at this time of her fortune be robbed off her luck by any person’s wrong advice not to marry Charles; she would not be influenced by the famous equivocal and ironical speeches of her father. “Nobody would ever deprive her fortune, not even nature can rob her love for Charles,” she said meditatively.

In essence, Vivian was glad for the opportunity to marry a man whom her profound love favoured; now she would not deny his courtship. She counted her fingers and found out that seven out of the eleven girls – who were her old friends, have gotten married to most influential businessmen and politicians of some classes. Now, since she was an undergraduate and her suitor is in the final year in his course, when he passed out of the university, most likely he would be working in bureau and she would be visiting him during vacations.

She decided that she would not be visiting him like those university women laden with iniquity, and impressionable young girls who used to visit their male friends in the township uninvited; and that her visits to Charles would be always on invitation; she would not be ashamed of visiting him because he would be her mate. Her husband wasn’t going to spend his days with any stripper and striptease. She said that if she married a man that goes out with any stripper, she would lock the door on him and file for divorce. She added that “since he started courting her, she had known his character, at least two-third, and it was easier to put up with Charles’ moods, his nastiness, his bad choleric, squabbles and his unjustified accusations.

She sat for hours contemplating within her on how to inform some of her relations about her present marriage proposal and she said, “I would be proud to relate to them my preparations to leave my father’s house and get married to a rich man; and I would brag about his accomplishments which could possibly interest them.” She further said that when any girl found a man to marry, one of the cynical remarks people or relatives often make would be whether her husband is a millionaire, a carpenter, a local yeoman, if the man sleeps under the township flyover, a wine tapper or a palm-tree-climber, a night soil-man, or does he mix concrete for builders? They would also ask if he has been in the depth of poverty. To herself, she never bothered or cared about the contemptuous statement which people usually make but her personal vision to be married to a rich man in her life was her destiny. Nobody would violet her marital right.

Vivian and her mother waited so long in the hours of the day, expecting Harry’s return from the factory work. They had eagerly awaited to break the news about his daughter’s suitor. When they did not see him at his usual arrival time towards dusk, Susana wondered why he delayed coming home on time as usual. She glanced at the wall clock and realized that it was eight-thirty pm. Harry must have gotten delayed. It is not his style of returning from work. Where was Harry? She considered calling him but yanked her hand back from the phone. She once called his cell phone but got no answer.

When the feeling of his absence got Susana so spent, she came to realize and informed Vivian that she had remembered that her father told her yesterday that he would be doing overtime in his company. Vivian had eagerly waited to see her father return from the day’s work. She had been eager to see him that night, to inform him about her final decision on marriage with Charles and to ascertain her father’s decision about Charles’ courtship. By the time Harry returned from his company’s work, Vivian and her mother had gone to bed.