Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Jealousy!



I ignored the tension in the room and dashed to the shower. The warm water seemed to drain away my stress. I stayed in the shower for about ten minutes then came out wrapped in a white towel.

When I stepped into the bedroom from the bathroom, I found Fred standing at the exact position where I had left him. He was on the right side of the bed but clutching my mobile phone on his right hand. My heart skipped a beat!

“What are you doing?” I asked moving closer to him.

He didn’t answer.

“Fred, are you snooping my phone?” I asked quickly grabbing the phone out of his hands.

“Kate, why is Sam calling you?” He asked. “I thought we had discussed about this.”

“I don’t know. That is why I didn’t pick up!” I said sitting on the bed.

“Kate, I am serious. Are you still in communication with him” He shouted.

“Don’t shout at me Fred. Can’t you hear what I am saying? I said No.” I said walking out of the room.

Suddenly, Fred grabbed my hand while I was walking away and pushed me to the wall. I slammed the back of my head on the wall.

“Oh my God, Fred what the hell?” I screamed rubbing my head.

“I’m sorry dear. I just….”

“You just what? It was just an accident?”

“Yes.”

“Just leave me alone!” I said and walked back into the bedroom and locked the door.

I was still rubbing my head as I sat down on the bed. How the hell did Fred become so violent? The way he pushed me on the wall just because of a stupid argument was just ridiculous. I have never believed in violence especially coming from Fred. I stood up and walked to closet to get my sleeping gown but I saw myself on the mirror. I had not noticed that my towel had dropped from my body a while ago. I was totally naked and had not noticed! I checked on the floor but couldn’t trace it. So I opened the door and found it at the exact position where Fred had pushed me to the wall. Surprisingly, he was seated on the floor in a yoga position. I pretended not to see him and closed the door behind me. I went back, put on a gown then back to the bed and slept.

 I woke up early the next morning and had a shower before going to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Fred was still sleeping on the couch. He was sleeping facing the seat but folding his arms up. He must have been feeling cold especially with the weather at the moment. I gave him a gentle tag to wake him up. He was startled but quickly stood up and went to the shower. I didn’t dare say a word to him.

We had breakfast, still in silence and drove to work. No one could have guessed that we had issues at home or between us. This is the day when I came to realize that many married people must have been hiding a lot of issues despite their beautiful smiles that they display. Wasn’t this a bit early for us?

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Case of the Ex Again?



We went back home in silence. The reality of seeing someone close to you suffer the disease was too much. I was glad that she was in high spirits despite the stress of the disease.

I was seated backseat on the left side of the car on our way back. The journey was smooth all the way except little traffic on the main junction of the highway to the city. The car stereo was on the R n B and Hip-hop play list which we moved our head to. Mike drove the car straight to his place and we all went upstairs. Ann and I got busy in the kitchen trying to make some delicious food for the two and a half men.

“You think we should cook the chicken pieces with rice?” Ann asked looking at the chicken in the freezer.

“Yea, we can coat it with some bread cramps then deep fry it.” I replied.

“You should do it. I am not familiar with that method.” Ann said handing me the chicken pieces.

“Okay, you do the rice and the soup.”

The food was ready in about an hour then we served. The baby was still on his mother’s breast milk so there was no much hustling for his food. Ann took him to the other room to breastfeed him first before joining us and we ate the dinner in front of the television. We were watching the ‘Crossed Lines” series.

“Damn, did she have to die?” Mike shouted banging his glass on the table.

I was a bit shocked so I quickly asked who.

“Her. Why did the bastard kill her?” Mike said pointing to the screen.

He was actually talking about the part of the episode where the blonde chick was killed by the serial killer. It was a bit unexpected but Mike was reacting too much. We all looked at each other and laughed.

“Baby, it’s just a program. You don’t have to be all worked up.” Ann said to Mike patting his back

“Yea, yea.” Mike said flipping his hands.

We watched about three episodes before Fred and I left to our apartment. It was still early but we needed some rest following the trip to see Pete and his lovely wife Angela. As soon as we reached home, we all headed to the bedroom where we all sat down on the bed while undressing.

My phone started ringing. It was still in my handbag so I stretched over and picked it up. Sam was the one calling. I ignored it. It rang again and Fred looked at me funny. I picked it up and hang the call.

“Kate, why don’t you pick the call?” He asked.

“It’s someone I don’t want to talk to.” I said and went ahead to change into something a robe before taking a shower.

We didn’t speak again about the subject. I was nervous about Fred finding about Sam calling me. How would he react? Sam was my past boyfriend and things didn’t end well between us when we were still together. He had made several moves to me a few months ago and even had an altercation with Fred but he was so persistent!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Angela



“Oh my God! I’m really sorry Pete. I had no idea.” I said. “I hope she gets better soon.”

“We hope so too.” Pete said clasping his hands.

“When did she discover that she had cancer?” Ann asked.

“Angela had been experiencing some migraines for a while so we changed doctors. He did the whole body tests and that’s when we discovered it was cancer in her breast. We had to be sure of it so we searched for another opinion from a doctor elsewhere and the results was cancer too. We have been undergoing treatment for a while now but the chemo is really taking her down.”

“We are so sorry.” Fred said patting his left shoulder.

The baby started crying. Ann stood up and carried the baby outside while swaying him left to right. We were left in the room silent without anyone knowing what to say.

“Oh…am sorry. Would you guys like some juice?” Pete said standing up.

We all nodded and he went to the kitchen to serve us. I thought I should help him out so I followed him and arranged glasses for him. We then brought the juices to the lounge area where I poured for each of us. Ann was still outside so I went and called her.

As we were chatting, I heard footsteps. I looked over at the stairs and saw Angela walking down. She was frail. Her steps were well calculated as if to avoid slipping on the red carpet that had been placed on the stairs. She supported herself by placing her hand on the wall. As soon as she noticed we were all looking at her, she smiled and walked over to us.

We gave each other a hug. She had really become light. I couldn’t feel her body well pressed to mine. There was also a strong smell of medicine around her. Her lips were cracked up but her soft smile tried to cover up the pain she was undergoing.

“Thanks guys for coming. It’s really nice to see you all again.” Angela spoke softly to us.
“Thank you for welcoming us.” Ann said.

“I can see the baby all grown up. Can I carry him?” Angela asked stretching her hands over to Ann.

“Yes, yes.” Ann said and started to lift the baby up to give to her.

“Baby, you think you can handle the extra weight?” Pete asked looking all concerned.

“I will manage.” She said while smiling.

She held the baby close to her chest and looked at him. You could see the love she had for that baby.

“Angela, we are really sorry to hear about your condition.” Mike said. “We hope you will get better soon.”

“Thank you guys. I am under the care of some good doctors and hope it will go away soon. But the treatment is really bad, the chemo is tough.”

“But will it be over soon?” Mike asked.

“I have twelve sessions left. It’s the after effect that makes it worse. The nausea, vomiting, headache, cramps and anemia really weigh me down. I am hopeful that I will be able to conquer it.”

Monday, November 4, 2013

Trip



“Where are you?” Ann called me again. “We have been waiting for a long time dear.”

Mike, Ann, Fred and I were supposed to go to a mutual friend that lived on the other side of the town. It was past ten in the morning but I was delaying the team behind. As Ann was busy calling me, I was still in the bedroom trying to fit into the clothes I had set out. Fred had left the house early since he had to pass by the workplace first before meeting at Mike’s house and therefore leave together.

“Ann, I don’t have anything to wear!” I responded back.

“What do you mean?” Get out of that house before we leave you!!”

“You won’t leave me.” I said

“Are you sure about that? I woke up earlier than you and had to prepare the baby. What were you doing since morning?” She asked angrily.

“I don’t know. These jeans are refusing to fit me today.”

“Just wear a dress and come over.” Ann said then hang up.

I tried again to fit in into the new dark blue jeans that I bought and finally after a long struggle, I managed to fit in. I wore a yellow blouse on top then quickly ran out of the house to the direction of Ann’s house.

From the ground floor, I could hear the sound of the baby crying. I looked up and spotted Ann holding the baby at the balcony trying to make him stop. I called her and waved frantically. She saw me and called out Mike and Fred and they started coming donwards and we met at the car park.

“What the hell were you doing?” Fred asked. He looked pissed.

“Sorry about that, some delays in the dressing department.” I replied.

“You kept us waiting for a long time Kate. An hour plus…”

“Sorry.”

Fred was really ticked off. I decided to ignore him and entered the car and sat at the front passenger seat. Ann and Mike sat at the back with the baby in the middle on the baby car seat.

The drive took at least an hour or so. The pal we were going to visit was a college met and he had also hooked up with a classmate. Fred met him in town the other day and he invited us for lunch at his place. He was waiting on the driveway when we arrived. He greeted us and let into the house.

“Hello Pete, long time.” Mike said when we sat down.

“I’m good…glad to have you around.”

“Where is Angela?” Ann asked looking around the house.

“She upstairs sleeping.”

“At this time?” I asked.
“It seems weird but she just had some of her medicine so she went to lie down a bit.” Pete said.

“Is she sick or something?” I asked.

“You guys didn’t know?” he asked surprised.

We all shook our head.

“She has breast cancer. Stage 2.”