The Counsel

Something happened the day after 
he beat her blue-black for cheating 
on him 
The boundaries of their relationship 
shattered 
He was not an abusive person by nature 
but that singular act of raising his hand 
to slap her once and her response, not 
defiance but acceptance made it worse
It was raining that night 
He was in severe pain He had just been 
discharged from the hospital after a week 
He barely escaped with his life 
He had been poisoned by an unknown 
person 
All he could remember was sitting down 
to sit in a palm wine joint in front of his 
girlfriend's school 
He had left his own school around 10 am 
and got to her school before noon 
She was having lectures 
He had walked into the school premises 
and seen her in the classroom 
He had a key to "their" room but he 
decided to wait for her at the palm 
wine joint 
He was not in a hurry
The palm wine joint was built with 
palm fronds 
It was very crowded 
A lot of students sat in the "joint" 
drinking and smoking cigarettes and
other smokables all-day 
Some had finished their classes, 
some didn't bother going to class 
It was champions league season and 
the discussion was mainly about the 
match they watched the previous night 
He listened to the discussion while 
he drank He finished the first calabash 
of palm wine before feeling the 
tightness in his stomach 
Within a minute, he was feeling nauseous 
and dizzy 
He was feeling hot from within, sweat 
broke out all over him 
He felt his throat closing up 
He began to cough and beat his chest 
The next thing he saw was blood, 
dripping from his nose and mouth 
By this time, people had become 
alarmed 
Somebody brought palm oil from 
somewhere 
They forced palm oil down his throat 
He tried very hard not to close his
eyes 
He knew he would die if he did 
The voice of the crowd kept muddling 
together in his ears 
It felt as if his senses were shutting down 
Suddenly everything went black 
He woke up three days later in the hospital 
There was an Intravenous line in his arm 
He felt cold all over
He heard the voices 
Three female voices 
One said "I knew something like this 
will happen. She is our friend and 
we didn't tell him to desist from this 
wickedness. 
People will assume we are all the 
same because we walk together. 
People are already talking all over 
campus, why dont we sit her down 
and talk some sense into her head? 
Another voice, also that of a female 
said "We are just guessing here. 
Nobody has any fact." 
The third voice was very well known 
to him. 
It was the voice of his girlfriend's 
best friend, "This guy told our friend 
he would kill her boyfriend if she 
doesn't leave him because he cannot
share
Our friend told this guy she had left 
her boyfriend 
Boyfriend shows up in the school not 
knowing what was going on 
This guy and boyfriend meet at the 
palm wine joint 
A few minutes later, her boyfriend had
 been poisoned and you are saying we
don't have facts? 
I dont want to be complicit in anyone's 
crimes 
I came here because our friend's boyfriend 
had always been very kind to me 
Our friend knew what happened 
That's why she had been crying silently 
for the last three days 
Did you see her saying a word? 
That was guilt
He heard everything but soon the 
words got muddled and he slept 
off again 
He woke up two days later 
This time he felt light-headed and normal 
A doctor was standing right by his bed 
The doctor smiled at him and said 
"Ayorunbo" meaning "He that barely 
escaped death" 
He smiled too
He was alive 
The doctor told him he was poisoned 
It was a local poison made out of wild 
mushroom and another substance 
The doctor told him the case was 
reported to the police but nobody 
had been arrested 
The doctor was sincere with him 
He told him he was resuscitated twice and
was almost transferred to another hospital 
but for divine intervention 
The doctor told him they got the antidote 
to the poison by sheer luck 
The doctor asked him if he was a cultist 
He said No 
The doctor said from what he heard, a 
cult guy poisoned him over a lady he 
was involved with 
The doctor told him to return to his 
school and leave the lady alone 
Only the living can fall in love and 
get married 
The doctor left him to his thoughts 
A few minutes later, his girlfriend arrived 
in the company of her friends 
He recognized the voices 
He was discharged that evening 
He planned to go home as the doctor 
advised but it was too late for him to 
travel alone 
He decided to wait till morning 
She took him to her room 
They bought food from an eatery on 
their way home (He didn't want her 
to cook lest she finished the job her 
other guy started)
They ate 
He laid down to sleep but he couldn't
sleep
He kept thinking about it over and over 
All he had done for her was good in 
his opinion 
Her parents were very poor
 His parents were well off 
She had dropped out of school due 
to financial reasons 
He started sponsoring her education
from the moment she told him she 
was dropping out 
He had remained faithful to her and 
shared his resources with her 
From pre-national diploma year till 
her second year 
He had provided her fees, rent, clothing 
and feeding with joy 
He loved her with all his heart 
He wanted to keep quiet but he couldn't 
He started to cry 
She was reading a novel while watching 
him sleep 
She saw his tears and moved closer to 
him 
She asked him what was wrong 
He said "I think i am dying. I will like 
to go without holding any grudges. 
If i have offended you, i want you to 
please forgive me 
I feel you have offended me and i want 
to forgive you too, so i must ask you 
Do you know anything about this 
poisoning issue? 
Silence... 
She began to cry 
She nodded 
She told him she had been cheating on 
him for three years with several guys 
She said intended to be very
faithful but went to a party and slept 
with her friend's boyfriend 
She said she knew he would dump her 
when he finds out so she began to 
shop for his replacement 
Shopping for his replacement led her 
to many guys until she met this last 
one 
He wanted her for keeps but was a very
jealous guy 
She said she didn't know he would be 
coming to visit her 
If she knew she would have told him 
not to come to visit her 
said she was sorry 
That was the moment the blood rushed 
to his head and he began to beat her 
He just couldn't control himself
He almost killed her
He had to rush her to the hospital 
in the middle of the night when blood 
started dripping out of her ears 
The same doctor that spoke to him 
was on duty 
The doctor said "I thought you were 
wise and I borrowed you wisdom but 
it turned out you were foolish! 
God gave you a second chance and 
you wanted to throw it away within 
twenty-four hours 
If she died you will be sentenced to 
life in prison 
That will be a waste of your life 
Is that what you would tell God you 
used your second chance for? 
Be wise and return home 
This lady will ruin your destiny if you
stay with her 
When a relationship gets to the point 
where your life and safety is at stake, 
the only wise thing to do is run!" 
He waited until she was discharged 
from the hospital 
He left and never looked back 
It was the best decision of his life