THE LOVE TANK 4

THE LOVE TANK
EPISODE 4
Written By: Oyekunle Lizzy Oyebola

As I followed the man, my heart raced and my heart jumped up and down as if it was playing tin-ko tin-ko!

Just then, we got to the front of a house and he asked me to stop. I stopped!

He told me to look at the porch of the house and tell him whatever it was that I saw and I really looked but couldn’t find anything! I mean, nothing at all!- at least nothing that caught my fancy!

He pulled me to the porch and I saw a mat covering something up. He asked me to pull the mat off and I was shocked and ‘re-asked’ to be sure. He said ‘yes!’

I opened slowly even as my hands shook as if they were actually going to fall off! As the mat was about being totally removed, the creature under the mat took a hold of my legs!

“Ah!” I exclaimed as I adjusted in the chair that I was sitting in. My heart was racing as if in a racing competition against my rib cage. I held on to one of the files on the table as fear took me in his hands!

“Go on!” I said when I discovered I had garnered some stamina and Dan continued his sorrowful tale again.

On and on he continued with his story and I shook in the corner of my office as if the fear was actually going to swallow me off.

The hand was gruffy against my skin and in utmost, thick fear, I threw away the mat and beheld the ugly looking creature. It was staring at me in the face, smiling with very ugly teeth. It tightened its grip over my legs and I fell to the ground as I called out to the man who brought me to save me but he didn’t answer as he shook his head.

“Ah, why?” I asked agitatedly. I loosed the first three buttons on my shirt so that the air from the Air conditioner will run its course in my body. I felt so hot!

He said the monster was a person I knew and that I should look clearly at it, I will recognize it well.

Well, I steadied and looked into its face and looked deeper until I recognized it oooooo

“It was my wife!” Dan said over the phone

“It was my husband!” Debbie said as she looked into my face and I sat up and laughed, quite relaxed now.

“You are laughing! You don’t cease to amaze me Zee. What’s funny, huh?” Debbie asked, fear in her voice

“How do you feel about the dream? How?” I asked her and she swallowed the spittle in her mouth

“I feel miserable!” She said and I smiled at what had happened. She was already miserable and it was a good opportunity for her to bend to learning. That was my thought

“So, you see that you have a great role to play right?” I asked and she sat up and banged the table.

“You don’t seem to understand, do you Zee? My husband is a monster! He is into Ogbonni rituals now!” She burst out and my mouth became suspended

“Ogbonni?” I asked and she nodded as she drew close and laid her hands on mine!

“I have the gift of the interpretation of gift Zee or have you forgotten?” She asked, her mouth driving strangely that my eyes could only watch on as my heart rose with uncertainty

“From the dream, it is either he has started cheating on me and has contracted a sexually transmitted disease or he has joined some cults and he just can’t touch me because I bear fire in my body! Or both!” She said as her face lightened up.

I took my hands away from her grip and stood up slowly as I wondered how Debbie’s thought had become so degenerated to the point that all she could thing of of her husband was black magic and all negatives!

As my head rested on the window panes, I looked back at her, seated in the chair. She kept on raising her hands up as she muttered some things I couldn’t hear. She hugged herself and placed her hands on her head simultaneously like a typical yoruba woman whose only son was saved from accident would do.

I was on the phone with Dan when Debbie rushed into my office to come and share the same dream her husband had had the previous night with me.

I saw the agitation in her face as she jumped across to see me. She didn’t even greet me as such or wait till I drop the call. She just jumped into her discussion sighing and gesticulating as she did!

But seeing the direction she was taking a divinely-given dream too, I knew I had to stop her before things get worse!

I was vexed in my spirit by all her drama and I walked straight to her and slapped her across the shoulder.

“Wake up Debbie! Wake up!” I almost shouted

I was allowing my feelings to interfere with my job but I needed to talk sense into this lady that I called friend.

She looked up at me and I looked into her face too.

“What movies have you been watching? Please can you answer me?” I asked and she looked shocked but I was not ready to let her go anywhere until she had told me.

“What!” She exclaimed, feeling very humiliated by my actions

She stood up and looked into my face as tears rushed into her eyes

“You slapped my shoulders and have the effontery to ask me irrelevant questions all because I came to you for counselling? Zoe!” She exclaimed and I stood straight and shook my head, my mouth curved

“I am sorry!” I said but she could never be pacified.

“Don’t tell me sorry girl! Do I look that pitiable to you that you are bringing me so low? Do I?” She asked again as she picked up her handbag.

I knew what she was about doing so as fast as my legs could carry me, I ran to the door, turned the lock thrice and removed the key to her amazament.

She crushed against a sofa and broke down into tears the more.

I knew what was killing her!- It was pride!

Even while we were in school and we had the slightest of all arguments, she would break into tears and remind me that she was five years older than I.

“Zoe!” She exclaimed and I walked towards her where she was seated on the rug, her face buried in the sofa

“Debbie” I called out too and she shook her head

“Is it because I gave you this gift of friendship that you have decided to come and deal with me this way? Why are you this proud? Is it because your husband gave you an office and a secretary? Is it because you have so great self esteem? What self esteem is it sef? Why are you overconfident? What do you have now that you will not….” She kept on saying when I stood up and started clapping, a plastic smile on my face.

She stopped to look into my face

“Is it because….” She wanted to continue talking but I shook my head

“Stop Deb! Just stop!” I exclaimed, my face definitely carrying so much anger because she looked into my face and really stopped whining or complaining

“Deb, you haven’t changed still! Its almost ten years since we left school, yet you haven’t changed!” I said and sat in the sofa beside her.

“What!” She exclaimed

“You are still as proud as ever Deb! You are still as egoistic as ever! You think about yourself and you alone and if anyone seems a little okay than you, you seek to pull such down and make that person feel very miserable!” I exclaimed and tears fell her face

“Me!” She exclaimed, looking so hurt

“Yes you!” I replied too as my voice started shaking

“You are always right and anyone who tries to tell you your fault, you hate such!”

“Ah!” She looked really deflated as I spoke on but I wasn’t done!
“You hate heated argument but that is your specialty! After causing some issues, you carry your bag and want to leave or you carry your visitor’s bag and throw her out! You don’t resolve matter but you make it worse by avoiding it!” I said too as my small voice tried to reach its height

“Me?” She cried the more

“Yes you!” I said as I shook my legs in such desperation as to drive my point home

It was a life time opportunity and if I missed it that time, she would hate me and I would forever never be able to forgive myself

I needed to make her understand that she was not the best person in the world and should learn to love and accept others as well.

“Zoe, I hate you!” She exclaimed with so much confidence, her voice betraying her afterwards as she cried the more.

“I can’t believe that, never!” I said and she looked deeply into my face, her mouth widely open.

“You doubt my hatred for you? Should I swear?” She asked and I started laughing hard

“I can’t ask you to swear darling sis because we are christians. The bible says our yea should be yea and our nay nay. You have said you hated me but I insist that in your heart of hearts sis, you love me like kilode” I said and she looked hurt the more.

“And you say I am proud? You are the proud one here!” She said and I laughed out loudly the more

“Sis, when you try so hard to pass your point across to your loved one especially to the hurt of such person, its pride!” I said and she looked alarm. I bet that if she had a gun, she would have shot me ….hehehe

“Take your key and open that door for me. I have to leave now!” She exclaimed loudly, laying more emphasis on the ‘Now’

“You want to leave us with our unfinished business?” I asked and she gave a facade smile

“Your proud sis has to leave now. Give me the key!” She said with more firmness as she stood up, her bag held so closely to her chest.

I held the bunch of keys into her face and though she looked shocked because she probably wasn’t expecting me to surrender quickly, she snatched it from me and walked to the door

I had to do something to save the situation!

“Big sis!” I called her and she looked at me, her face wore a very funny look as if to say ‘Better don’t make me to say what is in my mouth to you!’

“When you came in the other time, I was on the phone with Dan” I said and she fumbled with the key with all stubborness as she tried opening.

“You also asked me at the beginning of today’s session why I was smiling after you shared the dream with me” I said as I started walking towards the door as she had so great difficult opening the door.

“The exact dream you had was the one your husband had also. I was thrilled. That was why I smiled at the greatness of God!” I said and I noticed that she wanted to listen with so much interest but after her face reached mine, she gave me an ‘I don’t care’ look and kept fumbling with the key.

I reached for her shoulders and she gave me a terrible look

“Don’t you think you are both sick to the point of becoming monsters?” I asked and she shot me another look that could send to hell!

“Dan can be sick for all I care but I am not sick! I am not a monster! He is the monster! He is the one that needs deliverance!” She started breathing fast and I shook my head

“I am sure that you care! I am sure that in the deepest part of your heart, you love Dan deeply!” I said and she smiled faintly as she shook her head

“You talk with so much confidence girl! You talk as if you know me better than I do myself. Your confidence is too irritating!” She said and I smiled

I started walking back to my chair.

“You love him so much that you are afraid of acknowledging it! You love him so much but your pride wouldn’t even allow you admit that you do! The words ‘I love you’ have even died in your mouth! Even when Dan says he loves you, you don’t feel he does! Something tells you its a lie! You want to discuss it but you can’t even bring yourself to discuss it! Something won’t allow both of you communicate” I continued talking with all determination, my back turned to her

If this method fails, I will give up totally! I thought to myself.

“When you couldn’t reconcile your differences, you decided to build a wall round you and your children and to hell with Dan! You still care about him but if he cannot communicate, that is his problem! You have your children and damn any husband!” I continued to say and swallowed intermittently.

I heard some sniffings and my heart brightened up within me as I tried to listen the more

“Take your key! Take!” she shouted and I turned to look at her

She was so deep in tears. Her eyes, nose, the entire face was red in tears!

As I made to collect the keys from her tears-soaked hands, she pulled me close into a very tight embrace and continued crying

“You know too much darling! You know too much!” She cried on

“Why do you know so much? Why?” She cried on as she blew my back

She cried for a long time and my back suffered some more punches even as she did!

She was broken!

I had touched her soft spot!

 

 

((Watch out for 6))

Nota Bien: I am so sorry for the delay dear friends. I had so many personal stuffs to do that I really didn’t have time for the social media.

I love you all.