The Wife ESCAPED!

Caro was not very much a TV person, but there were programs that she would never miss for anything, especially local TV series full of intrigues, comedy and surprises. She had just finished watching one of her Sunday favourites, with Mary beside her, when the older woman suddenly cleared her throat. Caro immediately turned down the TV volume and turned to her guardian.

“That young man that approached you in the market, what’s his name again?”

“Tim. And Olly.”

“Hmm. Tim Manolly.”

“No o. I mean, that’s the name of his… his place. I think his name is Tim or something like that.”

“Okay,” Mary sighed, unsure how to introduce the crux of the matter. But Caro saved her the trouble.

“He came here again, abi?”

“Yes, he came,” Mary admitted, feeling like she was the daughter.

Caro nodded thoughtfully, but before she could say anything, Mary quickly added, “he said he didn’t mean to offend you by calling you beautiful, and he gave you his card because he wanted to offer you a free business training …”

“Ah! Mummy, don’t mind him. He’s a liar. Why didn’t he tell me all these things back then?”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“But he said you were not ready to listen.”

“How will I listen when he was smiling at me as if I’m a prostitute?”, Caro hissed.

Mary barely managed to convert a sigh into a yawn. As smart as her ward was, she was still a little girl in many things, especially when it came to interacting with the opposite sex. She had no problem with Caro being a virgin or being conservative about such things, but her fear was that it would never come to an end. The situation would perhaps keep getting worse till her dear daughter would end up as a nun or a wicked Mother Superior in some ancient convent in the middle of nowhere. What on earth could she do to make Caro more ‘womanly’ and less averse to the opposite sex? Timmy’s persistence could surely come in handy and perhaps some influence from her friends. But who was closer to her than Millicent and she had recently broken all ties with that one. Ha! This was not her fight, at least not directly. With another faked yawn, she wished her ward good night and went off to bed.

*****

Caro was totally concentrated on her work when she heard the hum of a car engine. She looked up to find an unfamiliar car come to a halt in front of the door-less workplace of Mama Tina, the woman she had been working with for some weeks now.

It wasn’t uncommon for customers to turn up like this, so neither of them were surprised. But when the driver stepped out of the car, Caro’s heart skipped a beat. When it resumed beating, her mind took an unsure stance. On a good day, she would have been angry that he had the guts to come here, but now, all she felt was… uncertainty!

Timmy made sure to remember all the advice he had received from the girl’s mother. His dark sunglasses, straight face, well-ironed matching clothes and shiny shoes were all aimed at commanding respect. With confidence, he marched to the place where Caro and the other woman were working and stopped at the entrance. He couldn’t help but notice that Caro was glancing at him every few seconds or so and she had a look of something like curiosity on her face. Not really curiosity to be exact, but she certainly looked eager to know why he was here. All in good time, babe. All in good time.

Timmy took off his sunglasses and greeted the woman, who immediately returned his greeting without taking her eyes from her work.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt, madam, but I’d like to have a few words with Miss Carolina here, in private.”

“Okay. No problem.”

And like magic, Caro, after receiving a nod of approval from her boss, got up from her seat and walked with Timmy towards his car! Timmy never thought this would be possible, not in a hundred years! But he couldn’t afford to lose his head now. He had to keep up the level of confidence.

When they reached the trunk of his car, Caro stopped and turned to face him, quickly taking a defensive stance, with her arms across her chest.

“So what is it?”, she demanded, squaring her shoulders.

“Well,” Timmy began, with no trace of a smile on his face. “I just came out here to make an official apology to you. I think it’s been long overdue. The way I approached you back then in the market was wrong. And I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to disrespect you and like I said, I am truly sorry. There’s another thing I wanna tell you… something important. But I need to know that you’ve forgiven me before I can continue.”

“Okay,” she shrugged carelessly, her face long since turned away from him.

“Great. Now, about your friend, Millicent. You really shouldn’t be angry with her. She didn’t deliberately give me directions to your house. Actually, I threatened to use my influence with her boss against her, so she had no choice but to submit and tell me what I needed to know.”

Caro’s face looked stony and her eyes were building fire, but Timmy boldly continued, “I wouldn’t have carried out my threat, you know. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that what I did was wrong. I know it’s hard to forgive, but I am sincerely sorry.”

He stopped there and proceeded to take a confident survey of his general surroundings, wondering if she could hear the sound of his wildly beating heart. As recommended, he let the silence reign for a few minutes before suddenly turning to her with a sigh, “I think I’ve taken so much of your time already…”

It was as if those words were her kickstarter – hearing them, Caro suddenly marched back to her workplace. Timmy followed at a more leisurely pace and greeted her boss one last time before leaving her with a big pack of gold-colored threads, which got him a lot of smiles, thanks, farewells and safe journeys, from the woman alone.

*****

After Timmy’s confession, Caro couldn’t stop thinking about how she had insulted and embarrassed her best friend. She knew she ought to apologize, but how exactly she would go about it was the problem. Another even bigger problem was finding out what on Earth had made her not smash Timmy’s head in when he made the confession. Was that bastard using some diabolical charm on her? By the way, why did he just keep bothering her? Why not just leave her alone and go after some other girl? In her experience, whenever a man made such advances to a woman, it was for the sole purpose of getting into her pants and if she didn’t want to pull it off, he would simply tear it off. The reason Timmy had not yet tried to rape her was probably because he had not yet found the right opportunity, or maybe he thought she would be too difficult to subdue? Either way, she was determined to get rid of him before it would be too late.

It was midway between her workplace and her home that Caro laid in wait for Millicent. Knowing her exact closing time, she sat on the balcony of a closed shop and waited patiently till she saw her pregnant friend walk past. Then she got up and quickly fell in step with her.

“Millicent Millicent,” she hailed affably. “How far na? How old is this your pregnancy sef?”

But Millicent gave no response whatsoever.

“Millicent, I’m talking to you na.”

“What is it, Caro? Have you come to insult me again?”, she demanded in feigned anger.

“But I did not know at that time that that Tim idiot threatened you na. If I knew, I would not have insulted you. Look, I’m very sorry. Please, forgive me.”

“Hmm. You’re forgiven. But don’t try that kind of nonsense again o!”, Millicent warned.

“Ah, I swear it will never happen again. In fact, that guy eh… what I will do to him the next time I see him eh…”

“Caro, wait first. Apart from this address thing, what did he even do to you sef?”, Millicent questioned in all seriousness.

“Ah. Did I not tell you how he came to the market to…”

“Yes yes, you told me. But what’s bad in that? It’s clear that he likes you na.”

“Which type of useless like is that?”, Caro hissed.

“In fact, it’s not even like. It’s love! Look at it na – a guy as rich as he is… chasing you everywhere. Don’t you see that the guy has gone mad? What else can cause that type of madness if not love? Or don’t you believe in true love?”

“You mean the love that the guy who put you in this condition has for you, abi?”

“Caro, don’t insult me o.”

“Ah ah, it’s not insult na. I was only asking whether your own too is true love. If it’s true love, he would not abandon you with an unwanted preg…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Forget it. Let’s just go home. It’s your life. Do whatever you like with it.”

Much later in the evening, when Caro had lain down to sleep through the night, she could not help but replay Millicent’s statement over in her head. Could it be possible that Mr. Cucumbers really loved her? And as for her, what did she feel about him? Hate, of course. But on second thought, it wasn’t just any kind of hate. It was hate borne out of fear. And what was she afraid of? Love? No! Rape, of course. But what if she was also afraid of love? Was she even capable of falling in love? She had never fallen in love with any boy before, not only because of her young age and the stupidity of most boys, but also because she feared that a love affair would most likely end with an unwanted pregnancy, just like in Millicent’s case. The most pertinent question though was, what would she do about Mr. Cucumbers? This was the only question that occupied her mind as she finally drifted off to sleep.