N3.6 million wedding crashed after one week: the concluding part of a true-life story shared earlier on this blog.

Jokingly, she protested; “You want me to rent a wedding gown, but you’re going to wear a brand new suit that day with your friends and best man, right?” I chuckled and told her that it was different, as we were returning from the eatery after we had met with Asabe.

The next day, the aso ebi arrived from Dubai, and Tara began to call all her friends and relatives. She also displayed it on social media. Many of these people resided outside Lagos, and most of them promised to pay before the D-day. According to Tara, she was going to make over half a million naira profit from the sale of the Aso Ebi, and I felt proud of her in a way for being so business-oriented. January came in no time, and plans were in top gear for the wedding. The estate agent came for the rent too, but there was no money. “Please give us until the first week of April,” Tara told him on the phone that evening. “We will pay after the wedding.” The agent was Yoruba. He promised to talk to the landlord on our behalf. The rent had been increased after the renovation in November of the previous year. It was six hundred and fifty thousand naira initially, but it was raised to eight hundred.

When he called the next day, he told us that the landlord had insisted we pay half of the rent and pay the other half by April. Tara and I agreed that I should sell my Nissan Almera car so that both of us could manage her Toyota Camry. “I don’t want this to disturb or disrupt our plans for the wedding,” she told me. Four days later, we found a buyer for the Nissan and let it go for four hundred and fifty thousand naira. That day, I transferred four hundred thousand naira to the landlord. From that day, I began to use Tara’s car while she shuttled to the office, but most times she returned home complaining bitterly about the unruly attitude of passengers or bus conductors.

When it became hotter, I decided to let her have the car while I shuttled even though my office was farther than hers.
Soon, we began to hear about the coronavirus pandemic in China. The news began to filter in whispers. As a nurse, we were being conscious of the health implications if it got into the country. I expressed this fear with Tara and the outburst from her silenced me.
“We are a peculiar race, a royal priesthood. Have you not heard what Daddy said? This is when those who aren’t serving God in truth and spirit will know the mistake they are making. As a child of God, you need not fear.”

“I began to notice that my wife was becoming very restless and always answering her calls secretly sometimes.”

Tara did not even believe the Italian man’s story when the minister for health, Osagie Ehanire announced it on the 27th of January. She waved me off when I told her that hundreds were going to die.
“We are not going to be counted among the dead but among the living. Fear not because fear is the opposite of faith..”
After then, I didn’t bother to tell her anything again. All her concentration was surrendered to the wedding that was approaching. I decided not to bother her with the issue of COVID 19 anymore.
Along came the rapid spread of the virus as I earlier feared but my fiancée still believed that all would be well. By the middle of March, it began to get clearer to her that things would not go in our favour as she had expected. Many of her friends and relatives all over the country began to give excuses why they wouldn’t be able to make it to the wedding. The fear of the unknown made them all withdraw into their shells.

On the 28th of March, we had our wedding, but the seats were empty. Most people were already conscious of the virus and afraid of social gatherings for fear of their lives. Even though we offered to provide sanitizers and face masks, people were still scared to come. Again, there was a rumor that the president was going to impose a lockdown on Lagos and Abuja the following week. It became very obvious that we had miscalculated and built our castles in the air.

No one gave us a car gift. I was shocked when the makeup artist painted my wife into a demon that day for all that money! Tara was a very pretty woman who ordinarily needed no lipstick or eyeliner. How she allowed herself to be talked into this whole makeup thing made me sick.
Before the end of the day, Tara had become a bomb ready to explode. She quarrelled with everyone including her bosom friend, Adeola who was the bride’s maid and Asabe the wedding planner. It was during the lockdown that the realities dawned on us. As a nurse, I was among the frontline workers and was always at work. But Tara could not go to work as airline staff.

I began to notice that my wife was becoming very restless and always answering her calls secretly sometimes. Again, every so often when her phone was ringing, she would not answer. I didn’t want to ask what the matter was because something told me that whatever she was hiding, I was definitely going to find out soon.
On the 4th of April, her friend Adeola stormed into our house in anger. I was at home that Saturday and needed some rest after having worked all night at the hospital. I was sleeping on the couch.

At the top of her voice, Adeola raved and vituperated. “Tara, I won’t leave this house until you give me my one point two million naira today. I don’t care who you go to sleep with this time to get it. You blocked me on WhatsApp and Facebook and refused to take my calls. How ungrateful! You are sending me three hundred thousand naira out of one point five million. Was that our agreement? You are so callous and wicked. Do you think I don’t know that Alhaji gave you five hundred thousand naira last week after you went to sleep with him at Eko hotels? And you’re sending me only three hundred thousand nairas from it…”

Wild horror lined my wife’s face as Adeola spilt all the beans. I could not believe my ears. I was shocked when I found out that Tara had gone borrowing from the microfinance bank where Adeola works to finance our wedding; a wedding that was a disaster! A wedding that left us in debt! And for this senseless reason, she had turned herself into a cheap whore!
That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
All her endless pleadings fell on deaf ears as I quickly gathered a few of my important belongings and left the house. The more I try; the more difficult it has been for me to get my mind off it. I have been squatting with my friend since then and avoiding all those who have been calling to remind me that marriage was for better for worse.
This worse scenario is beyond me; too bitter a pill for me to swallow!

ALL FOR AN EVENT by Japheth Prosper
(A true story).

What a pathetic story? I wish this was just a fiction. Please drop your comments and advise Charles. Thanks.

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