6. What Devil?
"Who said the beautiful ones are not yet born, eh? Not when I am seeing one in front of me right now," Gozie my best friend teased, taking both my hands.
"Turn around for me, baby girl. Show me what your mother gave you!" she shouted excitedly. She held my hands while I reluctantly turned around just to make her smile.
"Girl, I'm turned on! Let's go fuck. Look at that big ass, those boobs. Who are you? Where did you come from, you sexy goddess?! I need you for the night, baby."
I laughed hard, throwing my head back.
"Ewwww! Free me, joor. Girl, I'm in no mood for your jokes. I'm a married woman now, remember?" I said, flaunting my ring finger in her face.
She sighed and sat down, her mood suddenly turning sour.
"Please do not remind me of that tragedy," she hissed.
I looked around her small parlor, furnished with expensive leather chairs, a bar, a fridge, and a standing air-conditioning unit. Everything looked nice, and she was looking beautiful too. She must have found herself a new man.
I stifled my laughter while shaking my head, deciding to ask her about it later. Ignoring the couch, I sat down on her fluffy rug in the middle of the small living room because it reminded me of the one I used to have before I married Cletus.
I took a fluffy pillow from the sofa while I watched, bemused, as she strolled over to the fridge to get us something to drink.
"Juice for me, please," I shouted.
"As always. Anyway, what's been going on with your marriage and Cletus?" she asked after taking what she needed from the fridge.
She returned to the sofa with a pack of juice and a glass in one hand and a wine-filled glass in the other. She sat down and watched me inquisitively. As she poured the juice into a glass for me, she sipped her wine. I took a sip of my juice too and gulped hard.
"I love this," I moaned.
She looked at me with the I-asked-you-a-question-don't-dare-pretend-you-didn't-hear-me eyes.
"Everything is fine. Cletus has changed. He is now the perfect husband," I lied. I took another sip of my juice and buried my head in the glass to avoid her doubtful gaze.
"You know I don't believe that, Miracle. I know you well enough to know when you are lying. It is quite obvious that you are not telling the truth. How do I know this? I noticed immediately when you walked in that you took a lot of time to do your makeup so I wouldn't suspect a thing. But on the contrary, that's exactly what convinced me that you are not fine because the Miracle I know doesn't do much makeup. She was confident in how pretty she was, especially after waking up. Now, you do a full face of makeup just to visit me—your friend, who lives a few blocks from you and has seen you at your worst," Gozie said matter-of-factly. "He has finally destroyed your self-esteem, hasn't he?"
"I just wanted to do my makeup. Is that bad?" I defended.
"It's too suspicious, so I'm sorry, but I don't believe you when you say it's all good now."
As she spoke, her face was contorted in a deep frown. Anyone who saw us now would have thought we were enemies pretending to be friends. She looked at me with a mixture of pity, anger, and frustration. Sighing, she leaned back in the chair.
"I see no reason why you still choose to stay with him after all he has done to you. If, after all you have sacrificed for him, he still treats you this way, then he doesn't deserve you. Sorry to say, but he is a monster, and you need to leave him. Why do you keep suffering for an ungrateful man in the hopes that he will change? People do not change because of prayers; they change because they want to, and trust me, he doesn't want to change!"
I exhaled, placing the glass of juice on the middle table, exasperated.
"Gozie, for God's sake, stop it! Can you please drop this topic? I can't leave him. It is against God, and it is against the Bible. What about my daughter? She needs a father figure, and I don't want her growing up in a broken home. You don't know how that affects kids."
"So you think Cletus is the best father figure for her, ba? I laugh. You know as well as I do that his presence in her life is doing more harm than good to that poor girl, whom it is your duty to protect. It's better she doesn't have a father than to have a wicked one. She would grow up hating men or thinking abuse is the only form of love. Who even told you that a dysfunctional two-parent household is better than one where a single parent loves and protects the child from harm?"
"I love him, and I won't let the devil succeed in pushing us apart, in separating us. This is the devil's handiwork, and I'm sure he's being possessed or manipulated by an unclean spirit," I interjected, trying to reason with her.
She stood up angrily and started pacing the parlor. I couldn't tell her about his past, so I had to settle for this.
"You make me very angry, Miracle! Who is the devil? The devil is your husband, who abuses and beats you. The devil is your husband, who has no heart. You sit here claiming he's being possessed. Possessed by what? You lie! That's a lie from the pit of hell.
"The devil is feeding you all those thoughts so you remain with him until he kills you. Then your daughter will become an orphan because, as far as I'm concerned, she has no father!" she shouted in frustration, the veins on her neck practically popping out.