Nosa's Wedding Read online

her often, taking time off from work at an architecture firm to spend weekends with her. It was on one of those visits that Nosa had announced that she was pregnant. That was six months ago.

  She slid her hand across her belly, and closed her eyes as Mercy continued working on her face. It was time for the eye shadow, liner and mascara. Nosa’s thoughts drifted away again. She vividly remembered Osaze’s reaction to the news that she was carrying their child. He was ecstatic. She had been very worried beforehand that he would deny responsibility for the pregnancy. So, in her nervousness, and in a bid to prepare him for the heavy news, she had devised a plan: she would take some of the money he regularly gave her for her upkeep, and prepare his favorite dish: pounded yam and egusi soup, complete with bush meat. She was still undecided as to whether to break the news to him while he was eating or after he had devoured the meal. However, when visions of Osaze choking on a piece of bush meat assailed her mind, she decided to wait until he was done with his food before breaking the news to him, gently. But, as it turned out, all her precautions were unnecessary.

  “Osaze, I am pregnant. About three weeks far gone. The doctor confirmed it two days ago when …”

  He did not even allow her finish her sentence. He had jumped up in joy and swept her up in a warm embrace, and then announced that they would have to get married before the baby arrived. So, there was never a formal proposal, but he had unceremoniously given her an engagement ring the following week, on her birthday. And with the informal engagement, came the need to inform the two families of their decision.

  In all the years they had dated, Nosa had never met Osaze's parents. It wasn’t like she had not tried to meet them, but Osaze was always giving her excuses. They did not sound like excuses at the time, but in retrospect, she reasoned that that was what they were. The first time she had asked, he had said that his parents had travelled out of the country on vacation. Nosa was in her final year at the university then, and amidst the work and stress that came with that, she had not remembered to ask to meet them after their 'supposed' return from their trip. And Osaze had not brought up the issue again.

  After graduation, while waiting to be posted to her place of primary assignment, one of the requirements of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), she had asked to meet his parents again. This time, Osaze offered another plausible excuse: his parents, who lived outside Lagos, were visiting close family friends in Enugu. Apparently, these long-standing friends of the Idehen family had a daughter who had just given birth to twins after 5 years of barrenness. It was this daughter that Osaze's parents had gone to visit as well as her parents. Nosa remembered that she had even said a little prayer for journey mercies from Enugu back to his parents' home base in Benin City. But she still had not met them, and had not seen pictures of them either. Osaze had told her that he had left pictures of his parents and siblings - Osaze was the eldest child - at their family home in Benin. And Nosa, of course, believed him.

  However, with a wedding now looming on the horizon, Nosa knew that she had to meet Osaze's parents before the D-day, and she looked forward to it. They picked a date, approximately two weeks after the pregnancy announcement, to go and visit his parents. Nosa who had never been to Benin, even though her parents told her that was where she was born, was excited to be killing two birds with one stone: visit the city of her birth, and meet her sweetheart's parents, and relatives. The day they had picked was a Saturday, and Osaze had decided to drive them down to his parents' house himself. The trip took several hours, and Nosa had drifted in and out of sleep, not knowing where they were half of the time. At a point, Osaze announced that they were in Benin City, but then added a new update: he claimed that one of his younger sisters had called him to tell him that his parents had temporarily moved from Benin City to a 'small town' outside Benin, but still in Edo State. So, there was a minor change of plans, as Osaze put it, warranting the need to change their destination to this other small town instead. The whole thing did not make any sense to Nosa, but she had accepted it, reasoning that at the very least, before the day was over, she would have met his parents.

  It was almost nightfall, when they reached a small village about one hour outside Benin City. Ordinarily, the trip from Benin to the village should have taken just 15 minutes or so, but the combination of bad roads and unfavorable weather - it was raining heavily - made the journey longer and more arduous. Nosa had woken up from her umpteenth nap in the car, to see that they had pulled up to a small hut in this village. The sight of the brown thatched roof hut set against the orange glow of the sky sent chills down her spine; it looked eerie. But that was not all. Osaze led a very shocked and confused Nosa into the hut to meet his parents, who he had claimed were retired University lecturers. The two people who stood before her looked like they had never seen the inside of a classroom in their lives. Mr. Idehen wore a tattered and torn singlet with an old wrapper loosely hanging on his waist. Mrs. Idehen was similarly attired, except that she wore an old blue cotton blouse, and her wrapper looked like whatever color it once had was now lost to many buckets of water. If Nosa had to take a quick guess, she would have said that they were both farmers. But she was not thinking at that point. In fact, during the entire visit, she had been very quiet. How could she tell her parents, who ran an advertising agency, and lived in Ikoyi, that this was the family of the man she was about to marry? She decided she wouldn’t. After all, they lived outside Lagos, and she would barely see them after the wedding. If ever. These were the thoughts on her mind as they made their way back to Lagos the next day, after spending the previous night in a small motel in Benin.

  By the time they returned to Lagos, Nosa had fabricated the perfect story to tell her parents when they asked about the visit: she gave them the version of Osaze's story about his parents that he had always told her, i.e. that they were retired lecturers who lived in Benin City. And that everything was as she had expected it to be. However, she added that they had fallen on hard times, knowing that her parents would question the financial state of his family.

  Osaze had never tried to explain the state in which she met his parents. Or why everything he had told her about them was contrary to what she observed. And Nosa had not asked. She was carrying Osaze's child, and was only too grateful that he was going to marry her. As far as she was concerned, this minor detail about his parents was something she was prepared to live with. All she told Osaze when they got back to Lagos, was that she was not going to go through the rigors of a traditional marriage. Furthermore, her parents would only meet his parents on the day of the wedding. She knew that she could convince her parents on the latter point. She was the only child after all, and whatever she demanded, they would comply with. But first, Osaze had to meet Nosa's parents.

  From the moment Osaze walked into the Osagie household, Mrs. Osagie, Nosa's mother did not like him. And she made it clear. Mr. Osagie had gotten along fine with Osaze, asking questions on politics, which Osaze answered eagerly and intelligently. But, Mrs. Osagie had been very quiet during the visit. And after Osaze left, she told Nosa and her father why. She said that Osaze had a bad aura around him, and that her spirit did not agree with him. She also said something else that Nosa would never forget: that Osaze's eyes twitched anytime he spoke, and that he was too quick to answer questions. In Mrs. Osagie's mind, those were the tell-tale signs of a man who could not keep his word.

  Nosa had burst into tears at her mother's words, accusing her of trying to destroy her happiness using irrational excuses. As she wiped her tear-stained face with the back of her hands, she had said emphatically to her mother:

  "I will marry Osaze, whether you like it or not. I am carrying his child."

  Ordinarily, Mrs. Osagie would have dealt Nosa a heavy slap for her rudeness, and also for what she termed 'family disgrace,' but Nosa's delicate state prevented that. She had reluctantly agreed to the wedding, silently praying that ever
ything would go well for her only child. After this initial disagreement, the wedding plans had gone along without a hitch. That is, until the following month, when Nosa was two months pregnant.

  She kept having the same dream three nights in a row. In her dream, she saw herself sitting at a table, spread with all kinds of delicacies. Before sitting down to eat, she would look down and see her feet clad with beautiful shoes. As soon as she sat down to eat, a heavy wind would blow all the food away, leaving the table empty. At the end of the dream, she would be barefooted. The beautiful shoes were gone.

  At first, she had thought the dreams were a side effect of the pregnancy, and dismissed them casually. However, by the third dream, she was alarmed and rushed to tell her mother about it. The moment she opened her mouth and started telling her mother about the dream, she began to feel sharp pains in her belly. The pain intensified, and before she knew it, she was on the floor, clutching her belly and writhing in pain. Mrs. Osagie rushed Nosa, who was unconscious by that time, to the hospital. By the time Nosa opened her eyes, a