THE TAXI DRIVER 5

 The Taxi Driver

 Episode 5

“I’m afraid my husband might find out one day. I keep telling him I have night shift in the hospital. He might start suspecting me. I think he is already suspecting my movement and phone calls. I’m so scared! I can’t keep doing this anymore. The lies are becoming too much.” Uju said. The time is 9pm and she had just arrived the DPO’s house to pass the night.

“Why not divorce him? Divorce him and marry me.” The DPO said. Uju was bewildered by his suggestion.

“How could you think of a thing like that? Are you crazy? Have you lost it? How could you ask me to divorce my husband barely a month after our marriage? What will my family think of me?” Uju asked. The DPO was coming close to her and he wanted to kiss her but she pushed him off with anger on her face.

“Come on Uju, don’t pretend as if you are not worried about the tight corner you are in. I mean, you have slept with me without your husband’s knowledge. You are carrying my baby and you are still sleeping with me almost every night. All these are bad enough. I think divorce is the best so that you can finally marry me and settle the whole thing. By the time you marry me, you will stop being worried of your husband finding out about us. Period!” The DPO said. He sounded very serious and convincing and Uju was beginning to listen to his words with rapt attention. 

“Was this your plan all along? You planned to use tricks and lies to snatch me off from my husband? The man I fell in love with and married? Why are you like this?” Uju asked.

“I’m not evil! I’m just being practical and realistic. That’s how life works. Look, there is no way of coming out of this situation. Or what do you plan to do? I’m not prepared to let you go and abandon me. My heart and everything I own now belongs to you and my unborn child. I can’t even sleep a night without you. And I know you feel the same which is why you keep coming to my house.” The DPO said. He went to the fridge and brought out a bottle of red wine. He also brought two cups and poured the wine for the two of them.

“I’m seriously worried right now.” Uju said as she took a sip of the wine from the glass cup. The red wine poured on her lips and left a mark like lipstick.

“What do you want to do if you cannot divorce him?” The DPO asked. He was looking at Uju directly in the eyes. At that time, they were both sitting on the sofa. The DPO took Uju’s hand and he was playing with it, throwing it up and down like a tennis ball. Uju’s voice has calmed down. Her heart was seriously worried and she has been secretly thinking of how to come out of the tight corner she found herself.

“I ask again, what are you going to do?” The DPO asked. He kissed Uju gently on her lips.

“I honestly don’t know! I’m confused! I can’t confess to my husband that I’m pregnant for another man. The shame is too much. I will rather die than do that.” Uju declared with an air of seriousness on her face. She took another sip of the wine.

“Do you still love your husband?” The DPO asked. The question took her by surprise.

“Yes of course! Why are you asking?” Uju asked. Deep down in her heart, she knows she was not being completely sincere with the DPO. Even the DPO knows this. She might still love her husband but the love is no longer the same as it was when they first met. The love was now cold. So many things has happened and water has passed under the bridge.

“Answer the question sincerely. Do you still love Ejike?” The DPO asked again. It was a difficult question.

“I love him, but not as much as I loved him when we got married. Right now, I will be happy if I wake up and don’t see him anymore. I can no longer face him with all the lies I’m trying to cover up. They lies are becoming a burden on my shoulders. I cannot say I love someone and still be doing these hurtful things behind his back.” Uju said. That was her heart she just poured out. It was the whole truth.

“So do you love me?” The DPO asked with a smile on his face. Uju felt as if the DPO poured pieces of broken bottles on the floor and asked her to walk on them. It was a difficult question.

“I think I’m getting used to you. We are spending a lot of time together and my love for you is growing. It’s growing above the one I have for my husband. It is getting to the point where I crave for you. I yearn to have you inside of me.” Uju answered.

“That’s it then. I love you too and it is time for us to do something about our love. Let’s take it to the next level.” The DPO said. Their emotions have charged like hot iron. They can no longer turn back.

“I don’t have a ring right now, but I will still ask you to marry me.” The DPO said as he knelt before Uju and popped the question. She said yes and they both hugged and they ended up in the bedroom where the consummated their love. When they finished making love and the DPO had slept off, Uju wondered why men sleep each time they finish ‘kerewa.’ 

But her heart also went back to what brought her into the DPO’s house for the first time about four weeks ago. She thought she was fighting for love but she ended up killing the love between her and Ejike.

“This is not entirely my fault. I can’t keep blaming myself. I wanted to secure our freedom and things got messier! I’m not an angel.” Uju said as she slept off with her right arm wrapped around the DPO.

Around 7am in the morning, Uju woke up and took her bath in the DPO’s house. She was ready to leave.

“So how do we get rid of my husband? I can’t just marry you when he is still there and I’m still living under his roof. What do we do?” Uju asked.

“Let’s kill your husband.” The DPO said without a single thought. He sounded as if he was talking about killing a chicken.

“What? Are you out of your mind? Are you joking? I can’t kill anyone. I have never handled a weapon before.” Uju said. She was almost shouting.

“Don’t shout! I’m not joking. And you don’t need a weapon to kill anyone. You can use poison. Use rat poison. Use ‘ota pia pia’. Any poison can do that. Just put it in his food. That’s all.” The DPO said. 

“I’m not killing my husband.” Uju said as she stormed out of the house and headed home. But words are like seeds, once planted, they must germinate. So, what the DPO said sank into her head and she was seriously considering doing it when she was in the taxi. She concluded that it was a good idea worth trying. Besides, the DPO will cover her up in case of any arrest, or so she thought.

“I will do it.” She said as she opened the gate of the house and entered the compound. Ejike her husband was no longer at home as he has gone out for his taxi business.

Normally her husband comes home to eat everyday by 12pm.

“This is a perfect opportunity. I’m sorry Ejike but I have gone too far for me to turn back.” Uju said. They had no cooked food at home, so she went to the market and bought some condiments which she used to cook vegetable soup. On her way back, she branched off to a roadside shop and bought raw acid in a small plastic bottle.

When she was done cooking, she poured the bottle of acid into the soup she dished for her husband. As usual, she made eba and served the food on the dining table. Uju picked up her phone and called her husband to come home that food was ready.

“I’m sorry my dear Ejike. But this is the last food you will be eating on earth. I loved you but the devil got into our marriage and ruined it. I’m sorry we are ending it this way, but I can’t turn back right now.” She said in her heart when she dropped the phone after calling her husband.

Ejike was already very hungry so he drove home straight within 30 minutes after Uju called him to come and eat.

The pregnancy was beginning to weigh Uju down so much. She easily falls asleep because of tiredness. She was deeply asleep on the sofa when Ejike returned to eat his food. Ejike did not want to disturb her by waking her up so he went straight to the dinning table where his food was served and washed his hands with speed.

Watch out for episode 6.

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