Ndigi Visits Majula
He rushed to his in-law’s house and banged the door.
“Bang! Bang!” He repeated.
“Who is breaking my door?” Majula shouted as she went to open her door. Who did she see? “What do you want in my house? Can I help you?” She scolded him.
“I want my wife and children! Can I see them?”
Majula became agitated;
“Look at this fool! Are you insulting me? Do you have a wife and children here? So far as I am concern you have no wife here since you abandoned my precious jewel and denied her two precious children whom you denied and we have already returned your bride price; get out now and do it fast before I pour hot oil upon you! Gerdel is in the final phase of traditionally marrying her next week; get lost poor loser!” She shut the door at his face.
Ndigi
He went into tantrums;
“You cannot deny me my wife and children, I still love them; over my dead body would I ever allow Gore that traitor of a man to go Scott free to inherit my wife and children! I’ll get back my sweet wife and children, God willing!” He rushed back to his hamlet raving, ranting and wailing.
Back to the House
Majula came back into the house and found Deg sobbing bitterly as she eavesdropped their conversation and heard Ndigi shouting requesting to see his wife and kids and Majula’s response.
“I want to go back to my husband; I still love him and it is over my dead body that I’ll marry Gerdel, he is arrogant, conceited, rude and self centered. Our kids are asking after their father I have to take them to him,” she pleaded with Majula.
“Over my dead body would I allow that, all the months you stayed here was he giving your upkeep? He is a batterer, a parasite and a rogue, he does not deserve my precious daughter and two beautiful kids; Ndigi is past it is now Gerdel who is present. He is an opportunist he abandoned you and his kids to blind fate, now that he heard that a rich suitor has come to marry you he has come running to ask for a family; would he have asked for you if no person of substance showed up to marry you? Let him go to hell and hot there for all I care!”
Ndigi
He soliloquized and blamed himself;
“Is it not true that I played myself into the hands of the serpent? I should have known better. That Gerdel lost to me not because I am more handsome or richer; he lost to me because I won my lady’s heart due to my earlier character of concern, love and friendship but it eroded when I allowed Gerdel to poison my heart towards my wife as it is said sour grapes. What am I going to do? Should I kill myself?” he contemplated but upon second thought he changed his mind.
“If I kill myself it will favour Gerdel who will easily inherit my family; I’ll go to the place of the ceremony and tell my story to whoever wants to hear; if not heard I’ll embarrass them by killing myself here and then and see how that wedding can take place?” He contemplated and felt self-pity.
He reflected on his love life with Deg, the fun, love making, the food, warmth;
“Wasn’t I ungrateful? I took my life, my lady for granted! Had I known!” He sobbed bitterly.
At the Ceremony
The elders of the clan were about to conduct the ceremony and started by asking Deg to show them the lucky man when Ndigi appeared and shouted from a distance for the ceremony to halt;
“Don’t chew his kola Deg he is a fake and betrayer, listen to my story first before you finally make your decision!” He begged but Gerdel was impatient;
“Let the ceremony go ahead, the loser should not delay us a minute!” He barked.
“Gerdel is a Judas, don’t marry him; is this a dream? Wake up!” He slapped his cheeks.
“It is a reality show wake up to it!” Gerdel barked.
But Ndigi collapsed right there and then.
“I am the master planner who manipulated your thoughts about my lost love and intended wife I estranged you from her and accelerated your split through you because I cannot penetrate her because of her devotion to you. Payback time! Didn’t I tell you?”
The Story Unfolds as narrated by the Narrator
Reflection
Gerdel was playing draught with his two friends Sandiago and Gheran then the village beauty past them then he stopped and watched her passed by;
Ndigi teased and alerted his attention;
“Lower your gaze eh! She is not meant for village paupers like us the rich/super rich guys all over the place are queuing for her. Your attention please!”
But Gerdel is unhappy;
“I am not a pauper don’t ever refer to me like that again; by God’s power I’ll get her,” he boasted.
“You are day dreaming you cannot marry her period you better cut your coat according to your cloth,” Ndigi warned.
“Who is talking about marriage here? I am talking about bedding her just as I do to other village girls.”
“Are you not insane? How can you talk about the most beautiful village beauty like that? When are you going to be serious? HIV/Aids is real be careful!” Ndigi advised.
“Fagaru! (Protection) That is my watch word! I am well protected,” he bluffed.
Ndigi continued;
“You can never get here, the rich/super rich suitors will always out smart you even with your charm on women, as for you charming her to lure Deg in bed I am not part of your evil plan count me out!”
Degene and her friend Yaa Ndaxte
As the maidens headed for the stream they met the two friends Ndigi and Gerdel. Deg walked past them without greeting as Yaa Ndaxte entertained Gerdel’s discussion.
“Where are going to, the stream I guess?” She nodded her head;
“I sort of like your friend but she is unapproachable, talk to her for me, I love her.”
“Okay I’ll talk to her.”
“If you do and are successful I’ll owe you a favour and you know what that means; there will be rewards in cash or kind trust me there is nothing I can’t do in this village, I am the don my dad left me vast farmland as an only son.”
To be Cont.
