08

against all odds, the next morning she came to get me up

- get up ! we're going back there to get your things!

joel stayed with the little ones and when we arrived the gate was still closed. I rang and it was an Olympian-calm Arthur who came to open the door.

- hello arthur

- hello ma'a

- Can we come into your house?!

he just shifted like please. she came forward, i followed her and arthur closed the procession. her mother was already waiting for us with her hands on her hips in my living room. my mother coldly said hello to which she replied as coldly ready to respond. my mother turned to me

-magguie

- Mom…

- you say you don't want to sleep with your husband anymore, why?

- ask him well Cathe! I have never seen that ! I'm at my son's house he pays the woman he maintains because he asks her to assume her role as wife it becomes a matter of state?!

- tclaire let the little one express herself! tell my mother

- arthur you don't want me to say out loud the reasons for my refusal. all I ask of you is that we talk about it with a clear head and behind closed doors. but you threw me out like a filth!

- the other there even I did not digest. i accepted you as my own son arthur while you led my daughter astray. so that today she is treated like this at your house?! if she was mugged? if she was raped?! chased out of her own house in scanty, torn clothes? his fathers must hear that! I certainly no longer have a husband but my daughter still has her uncles

- ah khol my miss (leaves before my eyes)! I say my son was even nice! What did he hijack on your daughter that she herself hadn't already started?! I say it loud and clear he had to beat her even

- arthur you let your mother talk to your wife like that?

- [he lowers his head] …..

- Arthur I asked you a question!

- all the French that the other one gives us is that even why? Why did you bring your daughter here? they got married that they can't divorce? arthur the child commands you in your house. I say no ! I come to settle here. it will stop there

- Magguie get up and get your things. he didn't find you on the street. if he really wants you he will know where to find you

- that's it, take your daughter and bring her home! we will have seen everything with the youth of now

I took most of my stuff and the kids' stuff and Mum and I left. without a word. the way back was done in silence and in a very tense way. mom got pushy

- good magguie, since then I tried as best as I can not to interfere in your life as a couple. I did everything to be a mom for both you and your husband. but since his mother only protects the interests of her son, I think it is my duty as a mother and father to protect yours! what exactly is going on with your husband?

- …….

- he confides in his mother, you should do the same. what is the problem with you and your husband in the bedroom: you can tell me anything

- Mum, it's hard to say… I would have really liked to talk to him and fix this problem, but as I explained to you when I arrived here at no time yesterday, he didn't even want us to talks about it and wanted to take advantage of me.

- what is this problem that you cannot talk about?

- ……

- Messi how do you want me to help you if you don't help yourself?

- mom let me talk to him first then I'll tell you

- did you see him as someone who wants to talk? in any case you don't leave here without a family base. he will also understand that my child does not fall from the sky!

once at home i tried to reorganize my life as best as i could by asking anita to come over to mum's instead. the very distance between mother's house and the children's school is a whole different organization. Fortunately, the 3rd trimester does not take long. I don't know where I'm going but I'll most certainly be fixed by the next school year. I just don't make hasty decisions. naturally each of my sisters got involved. I still haven't told anyone. most vocal hono has promised him death by his own hands the next time he stays here. alma doesn't want to hear about it anymore. my brothers then lost all their esteem for the character.

A full month goes by like this where my sisters even sent me money so that I could start a permanent activity and get out of this system. I haven't heard from Arthur so far, who doesn't even try to hear from his children. I understand that he is in his spiral of non-acceptance of his illness. he won't die with me!

one morning as the doorbell rings i send anita to open

- even this is a paper for you.

she hands it to me and it is a summons to return to the marital home. the gentleman is right behind her.

- hello mrs., I'm mr. melvis yogo please sign at the bottom of the page please…

- hmm! did i say out loud

I went inside the house to find mom I handed her the document

- it's what ?

- read yourself

- hmm! he is serious huh!

- I have to unload it

- yes, it must be unloaded

I sign at the bottom of the page and I give the coupon there to the gentleman who is leaving.

- you still don't want to tell me what's your problem with your husband messi? in the eyes of the law he is right in his procedure.

- it is before this same law that I will prove him wrong… leave it!

- but I'm still going to call a family council. you didn't just marry two, your fathers were there and blessed your union. if it says it has to end between you, they have a right to know. since then I don't even know if papa jean is aware of what his wife and son are doing. it's high time for the big family to come together on your case

(….)

it's 8 p.m. and all the seats in my mom's living room are taken. the last time there was a gathering of this order at our house was in view of my marriage to arthur, today it is our separation that brings them all back. I observe Arthur discreetly. he seems in bad shape. he has lost weight and his face is devoured by anxiety. is it due to our dispute? is it due to the acceptance of his status? has he encountered problems at work because of his recent slips? It's sad but I continue to worry about him. He's still the guy I gave my virginity to and the only one I've known in almost 10 years. all my landmarks everything I know about life with a man, be it the boyfriend the fiancé the husband the father of the children I discovered it in his contact. I could even have stayed with my husband on the condition that he finally settle down and that together we meet a doctor who tells us how to move forward despite this illness. I really don't understand why he let things go this far. Really, I do not understand.

- I am truly sorry to see the circumstances that bring us together here this evening

said papa jean, my father-in-law. a man without history who prefers his life in the countryside rather than coming to squat in town like his wife who takes her son for her husband there. my two uncles brothers from my father papa mathieu and papa simon are there, as well as my mother's older brother papa emile. arthur, mum t'claire and her two sisters ange and mélanie too. everyone pulls the face there it looks like a penguin and throws me hateful looks while chipping me as soon as possible

- as the real person who wears the panties in the zogo family is you teclaire, you are therefore going to explain to me your son, your dear daughters and you how you came to put someone else's child, orphan of his status away from marital home at midnight?

- it was barely 11 p.m. Jean!

- and you see a difference there, enlighten you?

- oh! Dad, what are you even defending here? a little upstart like that that arthur pulled out of the hole. grumbles angel, one of my sisters-in-law

- Mrs. njike I remember that I entered her house twice, already carried my grandchildren, you got married just to fill your husband's marble cabinet. respect if you don't know you shut up!

- jean what does it mean that you talk like that to the child in front of strangers?

- enlighten you these people are not foreigners. it is about our beautiful family before god and before men. by the way, that's enough! women shut up! one more word and I'll get you out of here. arthur I'm listening: why did you kick your wife out of the house at midnight?

- wèèèèè jean was born ya (how is it)?! it was only 11 p.m.…. come in again mom enlighten you

- [papa jean in a peremptory tone] get out!

- zaa (sorry)?

- enlighten you if I repeat myself you will misunderstand me. get out of here right away!

- dad what does it mean that you embarrass mom in front of people? if she goes out, I go with her and she comes to my house, don't pick her up there!

- the stupidity in this family only comes from the zang. get out my daughter. maybe you never noticed that I never set foot in your house? I don't have a problem with that. I don't date complicated men. take your mother and go out. you chose your path, your mother supported you tenaciously, 4 years later she continues to support you, don't just go to maternity hospitals to steal people's babies. we hear that here every day.

I burst out laughing! it's true that angel from the top of his 32 years has no children. she has been married for 4 years to a rich man from the western region but we have heard rumors that he is sectarian and has tied her belly but well, what will we say it is not really my hobby. Melanie, on the other hand, doesn't have much luck with men. she is already a mother of 3 children with two different fathers and lives with the father of the last and all the children in yaoundé.

- Arthur, I asked you a question. be a man and come out of your mother's skirts. what's your problem with your wife here?

- ahem ahem. Good evening everyone….

- ……..

- I have no particular problem with my wife; she left the marital home more than a month ago following an argument and I even sent her a summons to return to the marital home and to this day she has still not returned

- hmm!

- calm down Magguie it's not your turn to speak yet! I am my mother

- and what was the subject of the dispute my son?

- the object of the dispute dad?

- do I speak French well here or?

I see Mr. my husband who begins to fidget uncomfortably on his seat

- Oh dad! I just asked her to fulfill her role of wife that evening and she refused me

- Really ! so why is she married if it's not to satisfy her man?! says mum tell you

- you're still the ? didn't I ask you and your daughter to get out of here?

- tsiiuuuppp !!! Mom ! come let's go! we are not going to let ourselves be insulted like this for such bullshit!

- angel it's me your father you call bullshit?!

hmm! papa jean is up and seems out of it! it's my uncles who calm him down by holding his hand while for the first time I see meuma teclaire fearing a situation and quickly leaving the room, pulling his daughter by the hand who follows her, pulling her face. mom just claps her hands to show that she's overwhelmed by what her eyes live and what her ears hear. mélanie, who had remained in the background until now, approaches her brother and whispers something in his ear. for the first time in a long time Arthur's gaze meets mine. his gaze shifts, embarrassed.

- OK, we can pick up where we left off. Arthur, if I understood correctly, your wife left the house following her refusal to assume her role as a wife, is that right?

- yes dad that's right

- hmm! I say again

- maggie shut up! my mother told me

- Has this happened in the past my son?

- how ?

- I don't speak easy French zogo? I ask if I have already arrived in the past

- … No

- OK. Why didn't you try to understand the reason for his refusal?

- ……

- why did you let him expose himself to the dangers of the night that night?

- ……

- don't you know that the husband is also the father of his wife? his family his uncles present here entrusted him to you. if something bad happened to him that night, you would have explained to his family that you didn't keep him, why?

- ………….

- GOOD ! magguie why did you refuse to take on your role as wife that night?

all eyes are on me

- …. Arthur knows why. and he knows very well that this situation can only be managed by the two of us. I didn't want to involve the family. I wanted to talk to him that night and he threw me out like a slob at no time. with my torn babydoll. if my neighbor didn't lend me the kaba it's because I arrived here at night in light and torn clothes.

- eeeee âna! my child that I gave birth to! said mom

- my brothers-in-law, does one of you have something to say? ask dad john

- I do. says dad mathieu who continues: we live in an era that we have to catch on the fly otherwise we are disconnected. a wife does not refuse her husband out of sheer fantasy to the point where he tries to take her by force. and the fact that this child does not tell us clearly why she refuses her husband means that there is a deep problem that the two do not want to express to us. arthur you are our son to all here present. we saw you evolve with our daughter. your children are still very young to suffer the consequences of irreversible acts so I really don't want to know any more, my brothers and brother-in-law, if you ask me for my opinion, let these two children alone for a while and talk about their future. but I want to make this clear to both of them: do not commit an irreversible act. always think in the interest of the children. i said my thing

- I completely agree with you. adds uncle simon. i think something serious is going on let them talk

- Good Arthur, so you can go and consult your wife and you and in two days we will meet again here to decide together how to approach your future?

- ……….

- I want to. that's all i've been asking arthur for. I said

- good cathérine while the children discuss there serve us then your hedgehog there. I came with good palm wine

dad simon is an atmosphere and food chef! always the right word to lighten the mood and his laughter is always high and fat. so i get up, followed by arthur and we go out to sit in the yard. silence reigns for a few moments before he decides to speak

- I am going to take care of myself in the native way. I was told about a guy on the east side who has already cured people with this disease

- arthur these people are dream sellers… you must consult a doctor who will examine your cd4 level and identify exactly the stage at which you are. people live a long time with this disease, as long as they follow a healthy lifestyle.

- we'll see…..

- you haven't looked for your children for more than a month arthur

- ….

- your daughter is very angry with you

- it will pass! it's just a kid.

- I don't think so… but tell me, what prompted you to get tested?

- It's that bitch Maéva who must have infected me. she is definitely pregnant and her test is positive. she told me and I went to get checked too.

- I thought your reports were always protected?

- there have been one or two times where we have done it without protecting ourselves

he scratches his head, embarrassed.

- arthur do you want your children and me to come back home?

- …. I don't know. first let me treat myself to the native then we'll see

- and what excuse are you going to give to the office?

- I'll pick me up when I get back

- How so ?

- I had problems in the end they fired me

- What ?!

- do not speak loudly!

- who knows?

- person

- But… how are you going to get by without a job?

- I go east first. I'll see when I get back.

- ok, give news from time to time.

- what are you going to say to your people then?

- that you are on a mission in the east of the country, it is when you return that we will advise

- OK….

he got up quickly and went back to whisper something to his father. then he moved in with my uncles and they ate everything merrily. Seeing him smile like that, I felt how much he was eaten up by all the problems he was facing. it was after 10 p.m. that he and his father left. I didn't know what was waiting for me then, letting Arthur get out of my parents' house like this.