Chapter 56

"Sex partner, okwia?!" She flared a bit. "Oh, so that's what I'm, sex partner!"

"What else? You don't expect me to remain committed to a married woman who's already legally committed to another man, do you?" He retorted.

"Committed to another man, abi? I see... So, what are you insinuating? Are you saying this because you have found someone else? Thomas, let me even ask you this; are you cheating on me? Just last week, on my way back from school since you didn't come to pick me as you promised; I saw your car parked in front of Mama Ebele's house, the woman whose husband is a soldier and was deployed to Katsina last month."

"So?" He gave a subtle shrug, a frown still on his face.

"What do you mean by so? What were you doing there, Thomas?!" She demanded. "What business do you have with Mama Ebele that you had to go to her house?" She queried.

"Praying for her of course." Father Thomas answered defensively. "Njideka, do not forget that it's my duty to visit members of the church and pray with them."

"The same way you come to my house in my husband's absence to pray with me, right?! Listen to me, Thomas, let me just tell you now, if your plan is to break my heart, better think twice o! Better think twice! Because if I find out that you have been sleeping with other women, all hell will be let loose!" She vehemently warned.

"Oh, so I'm not allowed to sleep with other women when you still sleep with Nduka?" Father Thomas partially flared. "Isn't that unfair and selfish?!"

"He is my husband! We hardly even make love. You are the one I sleep with the more, so what difference does it make?!"

"Well, I do

t care, Njideka. You have no right to tie me down. We are not in a relationship!"

"I see...so, what happened to all those promises that you made to me the first four times you made love to me?" She scowled at him.

"Those were just mere words triggered by the spur of the moment." He murmured. "Almost every man makes promises that they cannot keep once they are buried in a woman...so don't blame me or hold me to ransom for being too carried away, Njideka"

Njideka laughed wickedly. "You want to try me, abi? You want to try me, Thomas! I'm warning you now but you want to prove difficult, right? If you push me to the wall, I'll do what you least expected me to!"

"Here we go again! The cheap blackmail!" The priest rolled his eyes.

"Cheap blackmail, abi? Do you want me to block mama Ebele and warn her to stay away from you?!" She asked now, her eyes filled with disdain. "You know what I'm capable of, Thomas! You know!"

Father Thomas dropped his folded arms and leaned away from the car as her threat got to him. "Please don't do that, Njideka, don’t do that...do you want to tarnish my reputation in this town? Will it make you feel better if you destroy all I've worked for and built for the past thirteen years?!"

"If those women are the ones throwing themselves at you and since you do not know how to tell them to stay away, I'm ever ready to warn every one of them off you! I'm a very jealous type, Thomas, and I don't share!" Njideka stated, fuming.

"That will not be necessary, Njideka. Stop overreacting and let me handle things my way." Father Thomas said softly, trying to mollify her. 

"You had better o! And the earlier the better!" She further warned and after a short unpleasant silence, she spoke again, "Anyway, so what about what we discussed? You told me that you'll give me an answer today."

"What?" He asked with a slight frown, trying to hide his irritation at how she had previously behaved.

"Ahan!" She drew her shoulders back and gave him a flustered look. "Have you forgotten the discussion we had two days ago after the hot sex that took place in your office?"

Father Thomas looked away now without smiling. "I'm sorry, but I can't run away with you Njideka." He grumbled after summoning enough courage to say it.

Her eyes narrowed now in disappointment. "You can't run away with me? Why not? Is running away and starting a life with me asking for too much, Thomas? If it's about money, I've told you that I'll steal all of Nduka's money which he hides in the house and that will sustain us till we can both get jobs."

"It's not about money, Njideka! You have got to understand that this is my life." He gestured around him with both hands. "I signed out to be a priest from the very beginning, and I'm not just going to throw all this away simply because of a woman. Besides, I've never for once mentioned it to you that I wanted to get married, have I?"

"Oh! So, you just want to be shining my Congo for free, abi? And yet you don't want to marry me! Your plan will not work! Listen to me, Thomas, all these things you are saying are just gibberish to me! Njideka does not take no for an answer, so I'll still give you some time to think thoroughly about my proposal, or since the bishop is now around, I'll go to him and tell him everything that has been going on between you and I, and I'll also make sure that I don't leave out the part where you raped Oluchi! Excuse me!" Njideka angrily said and began to stalk away.

The helpless priest sagged his shoulders and turned to look at her. "Njideka! Njideka! Come back na, it hasn't gotten to this! Njideka! Come, let's reason like two adults na!" He called but she completely ignored him and didn't stop. "What kind of problem have I landed myself into now?" Father Thomas grumbled. "This woman will be the death of me!"

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Nduka and his wife were busy watching the news on the TV when Njideka noticed him scratching his groin area for the fifth time.

"Baby, what is it?" She finally asked, unable to stay quiet any longer.

"I don't know..." Nduka answered with a puzzled frown as he scratched again. "Since the day before yesterday, my manhood has been itching me seriously... I even find it difficult to pee without pains."

"Really?" Njideka sat up now, swallowing hard and nervously scratching the back of her head. "What do you think the problem is?" She asked.

"I think that I might have an infection... I'm not sure though." Nduka answered

"It may be nothing that serious." Said Njideka. "I think it must be toilet infection."

"Toilet infection?" Nduka asked with a confused look. "I thought women only contracts such?"

"But men are no exception even though women are more vulnerable." Njideka answered.

Nduka scratched again. "I should probably go to the hospital for a test or this scratching will publicly disgrace me soon." He got up.

"Is that necessary? That will be wasting of money. We can just go to the nearby chemist and get some drugs."

"I don't do self-medication, woman. The hospital it is." He started to walk towards his room when Vincent who had been doing his chemistry assignment at the dining table, rose and walked into the living room, also scratching his manhood through his shorts with a  look of discomfort on his face. "Dad, I think I've the same problem too. Mine has been persisting since last week."

"You too?" Nduka stared at his son in surprise.

"Yes... I'm even having white discharge and what looks like rashes."

"Let's go to the hospital first and confirm. On our way back, we will buy the necessary things to disinfect all the toilets in this house... Go put on a shirt." Nduka told his son.

Njideka stood up now and began to panic as her husband and stepson walked to their various rooms to get dressed. When they returned, she clung to her husband's arm and asked, "Baby, do you want me to come with you?"

"No, that won't be necessary Njideka; just stay back. Before you know it, we'll be back."

"But the house would be lonely for me. Let me just tag along." She insisted.

"No, stay home please." Nduka insisted and left the house with his son. Throughout the time that they were gone, Njideka was restless and couldn't stop pacing the living room. After almost an hour of panicking, she froze when she heard the gate open and she rushed to the window to watch Nduka's car drive into the compound. Moving away from the window, she decided against going out to welcome him since she was so nervous. A few minutes later, when Nduka walked into the house, his face was hard and unsmiling. 

He tossed the two test results down on the center table and Njideka would have dived for them but she didn't want to give away how nervous she was. Turning his head, Nduka said to his son. "Vincent, excuse us. Go to your room!" After the boy left them, Njideka managed to find her voice.

"Baby, welcome... H...how did it go?" She swallowed hard.

Nduka scowled at her and she could read anger and suspicion in his eyes. "We did the test and we both tested positive for Gonorrhea!" He said coldly.

"Chineke! (God!)" Njideka exclaimed, feigning shock. "Gonorrhea kwa?! How come?! From where?!"

Nduka wasn't moved by her act, instead, he asked coolly. "Njideka, is there something I need to know?!"

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"Baby, I don't understand." Njideka said, feigning ignorance and trying not to buckle under her angry husband's scowl.

 "Njideka, you don't understand, right? You don't, eh? Since you are completely in the dark about what I'm talking about, I'll be very direct, dear wife of mine- Njideka have you been sleeping with someone else?!" Nduka flared.

"Haba! What kind of question is this? NOOOOOO o! Tufiakwa!" Njideka refuted. "Me, Njideka, sleep with someone else?! Are you trying to accuse me of adultery or what?!" She asked, trying to desperately but secretly hide just how nervous she was.

"That's exactly what it is, Njideka, or else-" He snatched the result off the table and gestured at it with his other hand. "... how come I'm positive when I've been nothing but completely faithful to you?!" Nduka asked.

"I don't know o... are you sure that your test result was not switched?" She tentatively asked.

"Switched?! Is that the best you can come up with?! So, my son and I just happen to have Gonorrhea together out of the blue?!"

"Wait o, Nduka!" Njideka stated angrily, since playing soft and innocent wasn't as effective as she had expected it to. "So, who infected your son?! Me?! You are not in any way trying to insinuate that I'd sleep with that little boy, are you?! That boy who the last born in my family is even older than! He's like a son to me for God's sake! How can you even think of such a thing?! Jesus!"

"I don't know what to think, but the doctor couldn't have been lying when he stated that this is nothing but a sexually transmitted disease!" Nduka barked. "I have never had an STD before until now! This is my very first time, Njideka, so how in God's name did I get it?!"

"All I know is that if I also have the infection, then it means that you were the one who infected me!" Njideka grumbled out an accusation, folding her arms as she angrily looked away.

"Infected you?! What are you talking about, woman?! How can I possibly infect you when you are the only sexual partner that I have?!" Nduka asked, annoyed and baffled.

"Bia, Nduka, do you see me scratching myself?! Eh? Have I complained of itching or pain during urination yet? Now that you have confirmed that you are positive, it simply means that I'm also positive! So, before my own symptoms start torturing me, just go and buy me my own drugs!" She stated, pouting.

"Don't try to change the topic here, Njideka! And don't you dare try to switch blames too! I still demand to know how I came by this infection and I demand to know right now!"

"If you really want to know, then you should be asking your son, not me, because I can swear that I've also been hundred percent faithful to you too!"

"What do you mean by I should be asking my son, Njideka?! Vincent is just fifteen years old for God's sake! Are you trying to pin this on my son?!" Nduka asked in disbelief.

"And so?! Do fifteen years old not have sex in this generation?! Before accusing me anyhow, why don't you call your son and ask him how he got a Sexually Transmitted

Disease?! I found out that after you traveled to the city, whenever I went to the church to see father Thomas, he sneaks his classmate into the house and does God knows what with the young girl!"

Skeptical about the claim, Nduka asked, "Even if that is true, how did I contract the infection, Njideka, or do I also sleep with my son?!"

"Nduka, stop acting ignorant, please! Just stop acting ignorant! Must I spoon-feed you before you put two and two together?! You are in your forties, so please act like it! Use your common sense for once!"

"Will you shut up and answer my question!" Nduka snapped at her.

"Fine, since you really want to know, let me break it down for you so that you can understand what I'm driving at! Your son sleeps with infected Chinasa, he also gets infected without knowing it! Now, he's the one who does your laundry; he adds your clothes to his pile of dirty clothes whenever he is about to wash them all. His infected boxers mixes with yours and contaminates it and then you put it on and gbam! Gonorrhea enters your system! Do you get it now?"

By the time she was done, Nduka was more confused than ever. "Njideka, I might not be really learned on this area of STDs but what kind of pathetic explanation is that?! How can boxers infect boxers, especially after being washed and sunned? Are you high on something?!"

"Oh, so you don't know that ordinary detergent and the sun are not strong enough to kill the infection?"

Ignoring her, Nduka turned his head towards his son's room, hoping to get a better explanation from him. "Dike!"

Vincent appeared a few seconds later, "Sir?"

"Is it true that you have been sleeping with your classmate....um... what's her name again??" Nduka asked, trying to recall the name.

"Chinasa!" His wife quickly piped in.

"Yes, Chinasa... Is it true that you bring her over to the house in your stepmother's absence?" Nduka interrogated his son.