Growing Apart?

admin Jan 28, 2021 1703 0

Happy Anniversary to the best couple
in the world
Wife: Hello
Husband: How are you?
Wife: I am good. How is your day?
Husband: Good
Wife: Today is our anniversary.
Happy Anniversary.
Husband: Happy anniversary.
Wife: I noticed many greetings on
social media wishing us a happy
anniversary. I find it confusing to
read comments from your close
friends saying “ best couple in
the world”; it sounds like a
complete joke, when they know
we rarely see each other.
We see each other at most ten
days in a year;
I can’t understand their reason
for making this comment, such
flattery. It is confusing to me.
Husband: Well, at least they sent
their greetings.
Wife: Their greetings are on
social media, no contact by text
or by email.
Husband: Silence
Wife: Hello
Husband: Yes
Wife: I sometimes wonder if we
are married. There is nothing more
to this relationship to indicate we
are married apart from a ring on
my finger; the ring is another story
and our pictures are interjected
because we are rarely together
to take a proper picture.
I feel sad that we are not together.
Husband: Look, I have told you
over and over again that we cannot
live in the same country because
we are very busy and one country
is too small for both of us.
I expect you should be able to figure
that out.
Wife: One country is too small for us?
Husband: Yes and you keep coming back
to ask the same question.
Wife: Okay. Since you don’t often call
either, please call the children, at least
once a month.
They go on for months without speaking
with you. I noticed they don’t seem to
care anymore.
Husband: Okay
Wife: That is about all.
Husband: Silence (breathing sound)
Wife: Have a beautiful day.
Husband: Silence (breathing sound)
Wife: Bye
Husband: Silence (breathing sound)
Wife: Hello
Husband: Silence (Goes off the Phone)
Wife: Okay

They had been growing apart for many
years
It started gradually
They met while they were both
undergraduates
He was studying Architecture
She was studying Pharmacy
It was a match made in heaven
Both of them were from very wealthy
homes
Both of them were from the same tribe
Her father was a business tycoon
His father was a diplomat
Her father accepted him the way his
parents accepted her
They got married four years after they
met at a fellowship
She delivered her
first baby girl the day their marriage
clocked eleven months
She was very happy and so was he
Then he was transferred to Lokoja
He fought the transfer with everything
he had but it was not reversed
She couldn't go with him because
of her job
She never wanted to become a
full housewife for any reason and
her employers didn't have an outlet
at Lokoja
He promised to come home as often
as possible and he kept the promise
until she delivered her second baby
two years later
He drove from Lokoja to Lagos every
friday to return to Lokoja on Sunday
Then he had the car crash that changed
everything
He walked out of the car crash unharmed
His car was crushed under a truck
Perhaps the accident reminded him of
his mortality
Perhaps someone gave him a wrong counsel
He started coming home once every
month
She tried to make up by travelling to see him
but he was always more concerned about
the perils of the road than being with her
He would say "You're junketing across
the globe to do what? Have sex? Please
grow up, we have two children now and
we owe them a duty of responsibility!
If anything happens to you, who would
care for your children?
I had an accident and all I could think
of was my foolishness in plying our
death trap of a road every weekend
when I could take things easy and
eliminate the risk
His words discouraged her from trying
and he stopped trying too
Soon they had nothing of interest to
share other than the children
She faced her career and he faced his
She got pregnant again, hoping it would
draw him back to her and reignite the
fire of their love but it had the opposite
effect
He practically stopped having sex with
her after she had the baby
He said she got pregnant because she
had refused to face reality
She never caught him cheating
She didn't think he was cheating
He too closed, too rigid, too stoic
He just locked himself in a shell
and became unreachable
And that was how their marriage
was reduced to once in a while
phone calls and a lot of fake smiles
Communication had all but dried up
To the whole world they were happily
married
But they both know the truth
The marriage was dead!
She was facing the reality of a dead
marriage, where a spouse spends
many years of endless hope in anticipation
for a change, enduring a relationship
that is bereft of life.
She wanted so desperately to raise
the marriage from the dead
but how?
She had no idea and she didn't think
her husband wanted the marriage
to be aything but how it was
A dead home with two living
occupants and their children