It is my last night as a bachelor and I am drunk and dancing with all sorts of women. There are fat women, slim women, short women, tall women, fair women and dark women for me and my best men. The music is so high. My fingers feel the hips of these women I will restrain myself from after I am pronounced married.
My fiancée sends her cousins to me while I am enjoying my eve. They plead with me to go back home and have a rest for the sake of the next day’s wedding. They take me to my house using their car. I stagger straight to my bed. A handsome man having something like a horn on his head comes to me in a dream. He warns me to stay off Adaobi. An hour later, I am shaken and awake. The alcohol effect in me is dwindling away. How can I stay away from the most beautiful woman I ever loved? I laugh realising it was just a dream. In the morning I feel sour. I take my bath and get my groom’s outfit on.
The driver assigned to me is already waiting. He is to take me to the Church but I tell him to take me to see Adaobi first. In one of the rooms of her father’s house, she is in front of a large mirror being decorated by loads of women. These women leave noticing my presence.
‘You are not to see me today until the priest joins us,’ my bride teases.
‘You are already looking so gorgeous,’ I confess.
‘What is wrong?’ she notices the worry glint on my face.
‘Adaobi, are you aware of any man kicking against our wedding?’
‘Not at all,’ she says, smiling. ‘Why?’
‘Don’t mind me. I had too much to drink last night and I got a hangover that stuffed jargons into my dreams,’ I say flushing away my fret.
The wedding goes on fine. I become a happy husband. I kiss Adaobi deeply. Lots of camera flashes pour on me and my bride. I dance at the reception like I have never done before.
Days after the wedding, I am in my sitting room with my lovely wife going through our wedding pictures and laughing. She laughs at a picture in which I stand beside her mother. I laugh at a picture that had her father looking younger than his normal appearance. Suddenly our laughter dies. Our eyes fall on a picture that captured the period the priest was joining us. The man I saw in my dream is standing right between me and Adaobi. The picture looks so odd.
‘Do you remember seeing him?’ I ask, bitterly.
‘No,’ she answers, confusingly.
The man has a black suit on which is in contrast to my white suit. I see clearly that this strange man’s single horn has a golden colour. I call the photographer who handled the shot. He claims he was shocked on seeing it too.
My dear wife opens up afterwards saying that the strange man in the picture looks like a man who regularly appears in her dreams.
‘He usually makes love to me in these dreams… But I haven’t seen these dreams for a while now,’ she says.
‘Just dreams,’ I wave her off. I do not tell her he is the same man I saw on the night before the wedding. My thoughts are beginning to cloud. I am not spiritually inclined and have never taken dreams serious. But this case is chewing me insane. I lose my job in the same week. In my heart I relate it to the strange man in the picture. In reality it is my fault for taking a bribe from a customer. I become more of a houseboy while Adaobi goes to work. I wash our clothes and cook. I notice stains of sperms on our bedcovers each time I change them. I notice the stains even on the days we do not make love. I bring up the issue of the strange man again.
‘I see him at times still,’ she admits.
‘What!’ I raised my voice.
‘Honey, there are just dreams.’
I nod my head in agreement while my heart is saying something different.
I begin finding it difficult sleeping at night with her figure beside me. I try to imagine the strange man making love to my wife, and my heart boils. On a certain night my eyes are closed but I am seeing a python lying next to me. I open my eyes and it is my wife lying next to me. I close my eyes again to see if I was just imagining, and I still see the same python. I spring out of the bed for the sitting room. I have never had such complications and fears around my life. The following morning Adaobi goes off to work without saying a word to me. I get a call that my only investment in life is being destroyed by the government. It is a building that houses more than twenty tenants. The reason the government gives is for the sake of city-planning. My last source of income has sunk, and I will now depend on my wife who I am now so scared of.
She comes back from work in tears. I cannot go near her for fear.
‘I will leave you, honey,’ she says. ‘The man in my dream would not let go.’
I mope like I am insane meanwhile she is the one sounding insane. I watch her pack her belongings. And I watch her leave in silence. I begin to think of how long I would survive with my savings before I am able to find a job. A week later, I get a job. My life starts getting better day after day.
I do not think of Adaobi. I will admit that I linked her to my ill lucks. A day comes when the photographer behind my most complicated photograph calls.
‘Sir, they say your wife ran mad.’
‘Where is she?’ I panic.
‘Sir, with due respect, if you like yourself, stay away from her oh…’
The photographer scares me so well that I severe all my contacts with members of Adaobi’s family. My own family do not say anything concerning my marriage to my surprise. I am a bit sceptical about the world we live in today. I believe in my heart that not only humans dwell in the world we live in.
Wow! I was so caught up in the fluid narration from one event to the next that i didn’t even take note of any flaws! This was one riveting fast paced story and i loved every line of it!
I have heard and even read about stories where otherworldly beings meddle in the affairs of man.Many people may dismiss it as hocus pocus but the fact of the matter is that if you believe in angels that you sure as hell better believe in demons!
..the worry glint on my face’…a glint is often associated with the eyes because of its reflective features.The eyes are the windows of the soul so i think it would be better to say the ‘worried glint in my eyes’
do you remember seeing him,i asked bitterly…realistically,he shouldn’t have asked this question bitterly because he never asked his wife if she knew the chap with the golden horn in the first place…
Those are the only things i noticed for now but other than that,great job Idoko! Keep em coiming!
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@Estrella, I appreciate your dropping by… All the points you made have been noted… Cheers.
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Idoko! this is makes a good read.Thoroughly captivating.
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@writefight, thanks… You are the man!
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Idoko, this is nice. i ditto estrella on the fast paced nature. tho i thot the part about the dude in the picture WITH A GOLDEN HORN should have caused more alarm like “WHO THE WHAT IS THAT??” rather than just “do u remember seeing him?”. makes it seem like dudes with horns are a normal thing.
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@neo-light, thanks, and your points have been noted… The husband tries to claim he’s fearless… hehehe and this wife sef…she knew the whole truth all the while…
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@Idoko and Estrella, do u know of the story in the bible that had this kind of thing?about a guy who was lookin for a wife and God sent him to a lady in some not-too-far village who had married seven times but i think they either died or left her. and angel appeared to him and told him what to do to get rid of the “spirit husband” (as its called in my neck o the woods). the remedy had something to do with fish and smell and stuff. can u remember?
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@neo-light, I am not familiar with that bible story to be sincere… Will try to fish it out…
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Not sure dere’s such a story in the Bible
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the TENSE again…this was better than the SMIRKS OF A RAPIST but i did not enjoy the story fully because of the tense…that’s my own opinion sha!
I get a call that my only investment in life is being destroyed by the government. It is a building that houses more than twenty tenants. The reason the government gives is for the sake of city-planning. My last source of income has sunk, and I will now depend on my wife who I am now so scared of.
She comes back from work in tears. I cannot go near her for fear.
‘I will leave you, honey,’ she says. ‘The man in my dream would not let go.’
[[[[[[Later that day, i get a call from a friend that the only source of income i had left was being destroyed by government agents. It was a building that housed over 20 tenants and it was being demolished to accommodate the city's planning. With my last source of income gone, I will have to rely on my wife who now scares the hell out of me.
My wife returns from work that day in tears but fear would not let me go near her.
she looks at me with eyes full of tears and says, "I am leaving you. He wouldn't let go."]]]]] JUST MY THOUGHTS!
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@neo-lite…yeah..i remember that story in the bible..the book of Tobit.The archangel Raphael had to help him get rid of the demon that was tormenting her…you catholic?
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I already misfired on my first reply to neo-lite’s question on this issue. Guess I need to brush up my Bible knowledge. Could u please let me know where this is in the Bible?
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@neo-lite, coming to your comment i think you have a point about the HORN and reaction stuff
?@estrella, me i no see that one for my bible o!
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@xikay it’s in the apocrypha.
?@idoko nice story
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@ouduehi, thanks. I appreciate…
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You are a star
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Many Thanks @Wealth
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This was a nice read. It flowed well, very fluid- welldone.
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@Elly Turtoe, I’m glad you love the flow…
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Nice story. Loved the pace of the story. But the story doesn’t sound realistic. Especially the picture part. But it was still an enjoyable read. About the bible part, will ditto @xikay.
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@Jaywroter, thanks man, at this point I will confess that this story is based on a true story, a testimony in the church I attend…
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Many points have been noted already.
I quite agree with the observation of the fluidity of the story, very interesting and thrilling too. Well done Idoko.
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Well done sir!!!
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@Raymond, me appreciate…
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apocrypha, yeah
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i like the way the story reads………..its like, you dont care if we believe the story or not, and yet i found myself wanting to believe that such a thing could happen, it was a case of be carried along or left behind.
?keep it up
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@Chika, I thank my stars that you were desiring to believe the story… Thanks for dropping by…
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Good story and also well written…
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Thanks, Ayo… You are the man.
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I was beginning to think, is this Idoko? Then I got to the end of the story and saw that it is MAGIC REALISM!
You pulled this through Idoko, although personally I have an issue with writing in the first person.I believe it detracts a lot from the writing.I like it better when tenses are mixed, but sometimes that is even harder to pull.
All in all, good story.
Well done!!!
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Hahaha… Lawal, in our Nigeria, Spirit Husbands are no be joke… lol. I just had to tag ‘Magic Realism’ for the sake of justifying…
Thanks… You are the man!
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Hello Idoko,
Nice story. Quite realistic because I’ve heard of people who have had similar situations, don’t know how true, though, but I can relate with the story.
You can work a bit more on the plot, describe the wedding setting and show us ‘how the wedding went fine’. Let the photographer tell us something more about her insanity. Work some more on the tenses and tighten up the conclusion, Also I think the story can do without your last sentence as we’re already there, you drove us there right, don’t spell it out.
Thanks for sharing, hope my comments are helpful and I’ll be glad to read more from you.
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Idoko, I enjoyed the story - I found so compelling that the typos I saw didn’t distract me, and I read it fast all the way to the end. I did think the ending didn’t quite resolve matters; what exactly was the deal with the wife and the horned man?
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An interesting read…very fast paced too…But, man, it sure gives one the shivers!
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thanks, Ukamaka…
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