Name: Clara Honester Chikuni
Genre: Short stories
Profession: Nurse/ Midwife
Location: Lilongwe, Malawi
Period of writing: 14 years
THE BANK TELLER’S FATE
Raymond arrived home before dusk after a hectic day at work, he found his wife Lucia bathing their two year old son in the bathtub. She turned her head to stare at her husband with a contempt look. Raymond knew that he was in some sort of trouble with the look that he received from his wife. He could feel his heart pounding fast like had just finishing a marathon run.
“Good evening my wife.” Raymond began a conversation. “How was your day?” He forced a smile on his lips.
“Don’t bother greeting me, go and prepare supper I am hungry.” Lucia replied without turning her head to face her husband. “You will prepare the chicken which is in the fridge, the vegetables and tomatoes are on the sink, you should cook rice which is in the storage container in the store room, it should be dry and don’t cook like porridge the way you prepared it last Sunday.”
Raymond didn’t respond, he was carried away with thoughts of what he could do to his wife when they get in bed. He kept on staring at his wife’s legs and hips, her behind looked so tempting that he could not notice his saliva drooping from the corner of his mouth. His wife finished bathing their child, she carried the baby from the bathtub and turned to face her husband, her light complexioned skin was shining in the semi-darkness bathroom, her smooth natural face which was not a member of make-up expressed a marvellous conclusion about her appearance.
“What are you still doing here you stupid dumb head?” her wife shouted in anger.
“I was admiring your behind and I just can’t wait to get in bed with you.” Raymond licked his lips with a grin on his face.
“You must be an idiot if you think that you will sleep on my bed.” Lucia responded.
“Lucia, why do you always do this to me? I am your husband remember? I am tired of sleeping on the floor every day and my ribs hurt every morning when waking up, even the piece of cloth that I use as a blanket is too short and not enough for me, it’s not warm enough during this winter season and I am fed up of you denying me my conjugal rights as your husband; as well as doing all these house chores every day and yet after doing all these tasks you force me to sleep on the floor, why can’t I just sleep on couch if you don’t need me on the bed?”
“You dare talk to me like that? Do you know that I could not have accepted to marry you if not for our parents? Do you think that there is any woman here on planet Earth who would really accept marrying you the way you look? Just look at yourself, your skin colour is so dark as if you use charcoal for lotion, your eyes resemble those of an owl, even your hair line is starting from your forehead like a monkey, just look at your belly it is as if you have swallowed a ball, talking of your legs, I can use them like toothpicks. You are lack to have a beautiful lady like me, but yet you had the courage to cheat on me. Now get off my face! Go to the kitchen and cook.” Screamed Lucia.
Raymond left hurriedly and went to the kitchen to prepare supper, after eating he cleaned the plates and went to sleep on the couch. Lucia lied in her bed chatting with her best friend Grace, she was shocked when she received a picture from Grace which showed her husband hugging his ex-girlfriend outside his work place, she got up from the bed with anger and rushed to the kitchen and took a flask which had hot water, she dashed to the sitting room and poured the hot water on her husband’s thighs and legs. Raymond woke up with pain and screamed on top of his voice.
“Aaaaah! Lucia what was that for?” Raymond cried like a little child.
“Can you shut your mouth up? You will wake up the kids” Lucia said. “So you dared me and went on to cheat with your ex-girlfriend after everything that I did to you? And why are you sleeping on the couch? Do you want our kids to think that I am mistreating you? Huh? Do you want to paint a bad image to our kids?”
“Who told you those lies Lucia? I believe it’s Grace who told you this, and yes I was with my ex-girlfriend today at work, she came to see me but it’s not what you are thinking, I was consoling her after she told me about the passing of her father, and I am sleeping on the couch because I am tired of sleeping on the floor, I already told you about this.” Raymond cried. “Is that the reason why you poured the hot water on me?”
“Consoling her my foot! Take a look at this picture, you are still going out with her behind my back, you are an idiot of a husband” Lucia angrily said, “Now go to the bedroom before I empty this flask on your face.”
“I cannot go to the bedroom, please I need to go to the hospital, can’t you see that I am hurt?” pleaded Raymond in-between sobs.
A loud slap landed on Raymond’s face, “You are wasting my time, I said get up now and go to the bedroom, I have a long day tomorrow,” Lucia shouted.
In the morning when Lucia was leaving for work, she strongly warned Raymond to never say a word to anyone and to be putting on a pair of trousers every time he would be going out of the bedroom. His friend Charles was surprised to learn that his friend did not report for work on that day, he decided to visit him at his house in Chitawira. Charles was an old school mate of Raymond, they were working together at Standard Bank of Malawi as bank tellers, and Charles knew that Raymond did not have a phone since it was stolen by thieves at his house. He arrived at Raymond’s house in the afternoon when Raymond’s wife was still at work.
“Hey Ray! are you okay? What happened to you? You didn’t report for work today, what happened?” Charles asked Raymond while entering the house.
“I am feeling headache.” Responded Raymond
“Are you saying the truth brother? Then why is your pair of trousers wet and sticking to your legs like this? You know that you can tell me anything right?” said Charles while sitting down next to his friend. At this point Raymond broke down and started crying uncontrollably. His friend patted him on his back and consoled him, he gave him a glass of water and he started narrating.
“Do you remember in February when I told you that my phone was stolen?” asked Raymond
“Yes I remember, what happened?”
“Lucia smashed it with a hammer after realizing that I had a girlfriend, she also crashed the big toe of my left foot. Since that day I turned into a slave, she dismissed our housemaid saying that we will not need her any more. I wake up every day at 04:00 o’clock in the morning to prepare for her lunch and that of our children, then I prepare for breakfast, mop the house, bath our kids and drop them to school before going to work. During the weekend I remove the cobwebs around the house, wash the curtains for the whole house, wash her car and trim the flowers, and oh yes she also fired the garden boy, so I am the garden boy as well as the houseboy.” Raymond stopped narrating to wipe off a tear.
“Brother, are you saying the truth that you are facing all these problems here?” Charles was puzzled.
“That is just the beginning of my narration, I have not even reached half of it.” Said Raymond, “I sleep on the floor in our bedroom, and sometimes outside even under this cold weather. When she prepares food sometimes she doesn’t dish me some; she calls me all sorts of names.” Raymond started crying again.
Charles was lost for words, he didn’t know what to say to soothe his friend’s heart, “So what happened to your trousers to be sticking to your legs like this?”
“That was yesterday, I slept on the couch and she poured hot water on my thighs and legs saying that her friend sent her a picture of me and my ex-girlfriend hugging outside my workplace” Raymond sobbed.
“This is not right, you need to report her to the police” said Charles.
“What will people think about me when I report her to the police? They might think that I am weak. I can’t even dare to tell my relatives because they may think I am the one who is causing problems in this marriage because they know Lucia as a good person. I love my wife Charles, she is a good mother to our kids and I just hope she will change one day, because when we got married in 2012 everything was okay, we were a happy couple, she was respecting me and everyone was admiring us. I just hope she realizes that she is wrong and start loving me again.” Said Raymond.
“Brother, are you serious you want to continue staying with this monster?” Charles was surprised.
“Who else can accept to be in love with me with the way I look? I am not handsome and I don’t have money” Raymond said.
“Raymond, your wife brainwashed you so that you should be thinking that you are not good looking, she took away your self-esteem and confidence. What she did was psychological torture and now she is as well physically harming you, with this kind of behaviour I believe she is denying you your conjugal rights as well, this is surely gender based violence, please go and report her to the police, you should as well go to the hospital.” Charles advised him.
“There is no need for that my friend, what she is doing is a sign of love, my wife loves me so much, stop thinking too much. And please leave before my wife comes back.”
“If you say so, but I will leave this phone with you, call me if she thinks of harming you again.” Charles handed the phone to his friend and left.
On his way out Charles met Lucia, she eyed him with resentment. Lucia entered the house and closed the door. She sat near Raymond who was shaking with terror.
“What did you tell that idiot? And whose phone is this? Is he your messenger between you and your ex-girlfriend?” asked Lucia
“No he is not my messenger and I didn’t tell him anything”
“I am fed up with your lies!” shouted Lucia.
Lucia snatched the phone from Raymond’s hand, she rushed to the kitchen and brought a knife of which she used in stabbing her husband on his left thigh. Raymond screamed and rolled on the floor with pain, blood gushed all over the surface. Lucia started apologizing but it was too late, she fled the house and went to stay with her sister in Lunzu, the police with the help of the community they managed to apprehend Lucia, she was sent to Chichiri prison to await her sentencing.
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