The Best and Worst part of this story began during the college days and after Leslie’s mother graduated at 18 years of age.
Leslie’s mother sat by the large window in her room; it provided an unhindered view of the street as the building was the only tall house in the street. She was looking out at the children just returning from school and wondered how her once loving daughter that reverenced anything she says suddenly hates her.
The loud chatters from the children dulled the pains from the earlier battering she had received from her husband before he left for work. She recalled vivid images of her daughter at the age of the children and a little smile upturned her fine lips.
(The clock ticked on the opposite wall to the window and the fan up the ceiling worked on with vigor as if it could cool down the heat tearing this home apart…)
The loud ping from the timer she set on the reading table broke her reverie off. She had specifically moved the table there so she could bask in the joy of these young kids that didn’t know what life means yet.
She heaved out of the chair, jogged downstairs to the kitchen to turn off the oven and brought out a steaming oven dish with roasted, garnished chicken drumsticks.. She set it aside to put the second dish that contained the French meal that the chickens would compliment. She had gotten the recipe from online after her husband had complained he was tired of eating the dull Nigerian dishes she cooked all the time.
He complained a lot.
She finished with the cooking and returned to her room to write into that cute diary that contained all she couldn’t say to her daughter.
15 April, 2020
Dear Diary:
I know I did no wrong. No! I did nothing wrong! I couldn’t have been wrong to choose to marry a man I love at an early age of 18 and pretty soon after the grand wedding my rich lover gave me, I became a mother to a beautiful baby girl.
My schooling was fast because of the genius gene I got from my parent. I was double promoted in both primary and secondary school. I was lucky and smart to gain admission into the university at 16! It came as a shock to my lovers back then that I wasn’t even much old like they thought but guess I am an early maturer.
After all, I was the Big 3B (Beautiful, Bold and Brilliant). I wasn’t just a daughter of two geniuses that invented Bubba.com; the biggest online shopping platform.
I had the most childhood memories with my maternal grandma because I remember my parents were never around; they have too many responsibilities and I didn’t fit into any category. They dump me at Grandma’s place after they reported I was violent to a bully that was always teasing me that my parents don’t always show for parents’day.
I didn’t want to lurk around my parents’ shadow after that incidence as it was a bad luck in getting beaten or used. I turned down every always the suggestive statements that I bear the same surname as the bubba.com CEO and nobody dare argue with me. I’m tough that way. Hence the name – Big 3B.
I love being called the Big 3B as it reminds me why boys of my age and even older men flock around me just to have my attention.
You should see me back then, I was beautiful with all the curves in the right place and believe me when I say I derived joy from the attention. Even as a bitter and battered wife, I still get saluted in malls whenever I meet entourage of my old fans. The feeling never gets old.
Days went by, her writing only filling the void in her heart. She kept writing but not on all days. There are some days she was too weak to write because of the beating. She decided she was going to go for a checkup to know if there has been nothing that the beating has damaged.
Date: April 28, 2020
It’s been 28 days since I started writing to my daughter but today I just want to cry for my loss, pain, brokenness and bitterness that mixed to serve as my daily salad that I receive from my only child and my unloving husband.
I don’t want this to be long so maybe we should just go back to my earlier question: What have I done wrong at the early stage of my life to deserve a beating husband and a disrespectful daughter. Ha! If there’s a higher authority I’ve slapped in the face, punishing me like this cannot be a fair share of the punishment I deserve.
I married young and wrong, maybe that’s why I’m getting beaten every time and my daughter hates me. I was young and naïve when I met Jidenna and what a handsome, witty man he was. He was first the guy that noticed me without paying too much attention to who I was and that only seem to fuel my infatuation with him because no man can look at me and not want me somewhere alone for even the shortest time they get.
While in the university, I studied but partied hard. Like they say, ‘Life is too short.’ I lived that short life to the fullest, from class to night parties and club nights. It first started as an innocent escort to a birthday party that was filled with guys and ladies with fewer clothes on.
My friends made jest of me that I’m acting like a saint and it proved all I did them wrong. However, I proved to be wrong about that proving. That night, I smoked pot. The best feeling ever! I was so knocked out that I didn’t remember an inkling of what happened after the strobe light in the club was singing with the DJ. Funny right?
A car honked outside profusely like it was being chased. She stood up to see her husband’s car at the front of the house, outside the gate.
She quickly put away the diary like a taboo and quickly arrange her table. After randomly selecting a page in the Bible, she set it at the centre of the table.
She bounced back to the bed just in time for her husband to open the door and greeted with a loud thud of his briefcase on the dressing table close to the doorway. Good thing that was the first thing to receive the first blow.
“Why did you hire a stupid gateman? He is just as incompetent as you!”
He fumed as he strode in wide pace to where she sat perched on the edge of the bed like a bird waiting to be free to fly to a safe place.
“I’m sure he heard me when I honked first but just like you, he likes to defy me and today ends that!”
She did nothing as she looked at his shoe instead of his eyes. Saying anything will only cost her a slap or shove. She didn’t want that now. Her body still ached from earlier battering.
After he realised, she would say nothing to appease or flare up his anger, he walked into the walk-in closet with a loud bang on his trail.
Comflo Media Concept 