The Swing

There are things you wish you can “unknow”.
Knowledge has a way of changing perspective
and altering the course of one’s life.
His wife was cheating on him, he knows
it for a fact.
He had not confronted her about it.
He didn’t want to.
He regretted that he knew!
It hurts
She was cheating with her former boyfriend!
A guy she dated before meeting him!
Those “old” flames that have refused to die!
He was usually above the pettiness of jealousy
but her clumsy attempt to pretend all was
well was the first sign! He just kinda
perceived her “fakeness”
It was the suspicion that made him observe
other things!
He got her lover’s details and knew they
met at a Hotel twice a week.
He didn’t know what to do!
He loved her with all his being!
When they met, she was broken and vulnerable,
he nursed her, and loved her with all his heart
He picked her up by 11:45 pm at night,
she was stranded!
Her boyfriend of five years had suddenly
left the country without warning!
He also left with her life savings and didn’t
even leave a note. When she was told,
she wanted to die!
That was the night he saw her by the roadside
She was crying on and on!
He gave her a lift because it was a dangerous
side of town and she would have been hurt!
He took her home, paid her attention,
helped her to get back on her feet and
soon they were dating! He married her
two years later, their marriage had everything!
And yet she was cheating on him five year’s
later with the same guy who broke her!
His first instinct was to confront her
But that would end the marriage!
He didn’t want the marriage to end
He just wanted her to stop!
He wanted her to do right by him
He wanted her to be his again
She tried to cover it up
She was not heartless or perhaps she
was also trying to figure things out
and avoid a scandal!
But the knowledge was killing him
When they make love, “he” was all he
could think of He wondered how she
reacted to his lovemaking If they ever
talk about him!
Eventually he talked to her younger sister
He asked her sister to tell her to stop!
His wife came home eyes blazing!
“How dare you go to my sister, you have
a low IQ, of all the people you can approach,
it had to be her! Are you daft?
Trying to make me lose respect in my family”
He apologized!
She wouldn’t hear it
She packed her things and left!
He realized he had played into her hands
She had been waiting for an excuse to
leave and he gave her one
She left him, without as much as a backward
glance He was left with two children
She dumped him callously!
He made attempts to mend fences
She wouldn’t hear it
She travelled out of the country with her lover
She left him in pieces
His mother had to move in with him to help
him with his children
He didn’t hear from her for two years
He met someone else, a youth corps member
in his office
Love talks started
Youth corper was weary
She didn’t want to marry a divorcee
Especially one with children!
He went all out even involved his mother
in the wooing
Youth corper reluctantly agrees
They set a wedding date
Pictures were splashed on the social media
Then she surfaced
She had somehow managed to be dumped again
One Saturday morning she showed up with
his pastor
Pastor talked “It is a spiritual attack,
she had a soul tie with the other guy!
She had missed her children!
She was out of her senses!
Please forgive her!
Count it not against her!”
Two days later, Youth corper went to check
him at home
Youth corper met her
She screamed at the youth corper
“You are not scared! You want to come into
a settled home
You are distracting my husband
Go find your own man!”
Youth corper left in tears
He was driving home
He saw…
He picked youth corper
Youth corper called off the relationship
He got mad
Went to his house
Threw his ex out
Called family and friends
“I don’t want to see her again
” Went to youth corper ”
She came to the house to wait for you,
that was manipulative and cruel”
She is gone
The marriage held as planned
He married youth corper
One month after the marriage
He got a job in Lagos
They relocated from Calabar to Lagos

PS: The marriage is three years old
They have a daughter
He says Youth corper saved his life
Youth corper says “I thought I had lost him”