My mother would not
accept Fred as her son-in-law. She threatened to disown me if I married him. My
dilemma continued; to listen to my mother or to follow the man of my dreams. I
came to the conclusion that it was better to lose Fred than to lose my mother.
On the day I planned to
break up with Fred, my mum unexpectedly visited me. What was her reason? She
came to approve of my relationship with Fred. She wanted me to be happy. She
knew i was devastated and miserable after her threat. She encouraged me to go
ahead with my marriage plans with Fred.
“I love you very much and
I want you to be happy,” she finished.
In a matter of weeks,
Fred and I got married. The wedding was not extravagant. It was his second so
he did not see the need to make it grand. Although my mum wanted us to
celebrate in a grand style, I agreed with Fred and we had it our way. We also
had it incognito because we did not want Fred’s wife to be suspicious of her
husband. After our wedding, I legally
became Fred’s second wife.
The journey of our
marriage began with a memorable honeymoon. Fred suggested we had it abroad but
I was not so much enthused about traveling outside the country, taking into
consideration how Fred would convince his way out of home. I reluctantly gave in and to my surprise;
Fred’s plan was a mega one. I really enjoyed throughout the period. It was so
good a trip that I bought clothes for my mum and other cousins.
We were in one of the
shops where Fred and I, aside picking clothes, were hugging and kissing. After
all, it wasn’t like in Ghana were people see everything wrong with kissing your
partner in public. As we went about our business like high school lovers, someone
shouted Fred’s name from afar.
We turned only to see that
it was Fred’s sister-in-law. I mean, Fred’s wife’s sister! She was supposed to
be in Ghana, according to Fred. You should have seen the look on our faces.
Mimi, Fred’s sister-in-law, had an even priceless one. We all transfixed in our
positions until Fred broke the freeze.
“It’s not what you think.
I can’t explain,” he stammered.
On any day, I would have
been angry with him for what he said.
Not what she thought? But I was not. Damage control was very important
at this. Fred approached Mimi and they spoke in whispers. I wished I was closer to hear what lie he was
spinning to convince his sister-in-law that what we were doing was nothing.
He came back to me with a
not so convincing look on his face. I was quite sure it did not go well so I
did not bother to ask. In fact, If i was Mimi no explanation would have washed for
what I had seen with my naked eyes.
From that moment till we
left back to Ghana, the one question that we kept asking ourselves was had Mimi
told her sister about us?
