Isokene 16

PART 16
“ISOKENE”
(STOP MY WIFE FROM SMILING)
©️Opeyemi O. Akintunde
Henry and I stopped by a canteen to eat, I refused eating. He ate a whole lot.
When it was time to leave, Henry was being sluggish, I stood up and left him, telling him
he should catch up with me. After I left him behind and was already close to the main
road, I decided to look back but he was nowhere in sight. I didn’t see him anymore, I tried
going back to look for him but I couldn’t find my way back.
The routes I saw didn’t match where I had just passed, it all looked confusing....
I woke up from that dream and I was sure I heard God when He said....
“You left him behind a long time ago, Daughter, You are far ahead of him spiritually. Are
you going to leave him lost in the world? Or will you go back and find him?”
I broke down in tears, I knew what this meant. God wanted me to go back to Nigeria to
get back my husband, but God! This was not going to be easy! Just like in the dream, I
didn’t know the route back to my husband’s heart... He was like a stranger. We had not
spoken in months. His mistress was pregnant. He was in love with her... I had used the
route I knew best...PRAYER... But it didn’t work out!
I asked God again screaming in the empty room of my new house...
“God do you want me to go back to Nigeria?”
God didn’t say yes or No, I felt God was saying...” I am not a talkative“ rather I heard my
first daughter’s voice as she stood by the entrance of my room...
“Yes mummy, If you can’t hear God, You sure can hear me....I don’t like it here... I want
us to go back to Nigeria, the movies painted America to be some kind of paradise, but
now that I am here I am not feeling this place... I want to go back home and besides I had
a dream just now....”
“A dream?” I asked
“Yes I saw we all running a race but Dad started slowing down till we couldn’t see him
anymore. At some point, I told you Dad was no longer with us. You stopped and we all
went back to get Daddy... Then I woke up... Mum, I think Daddy may be in some form of
trouble in that village where there is no network for him, let’s go back home and find him”
My daughter didn’t know she just preached to me, as I broke down in tears. She sat down
beside me crying and she said almost the same words Isokene had said to me “Mum, although we have a beautiful house here in America, but it doesn’t make it our
home... Home is where you, Dad and us are....Mum, Let’s go back home.”
Home! Where was home and did we still have a home?
I called my brother in law and I told him I was returning home. He was excited and he
said
“Aunty, making mistakes are bad, but what is worse is when we don’t try to correct them”
Before the dream ,I had started working as a Dishwasher in a big restaurant, I had given
myself a new look, I went on low cut to avoid spending money on braids and all that. I
was ready to start a new life in America but here was God sending me back to Nigeria.
I stayed back for another two weeks to have the house sold so I could have my money
back though it was at a lesser price. I lost some money.
My children and I returned back home and as we got to the security post, we were met
with the shock of our lives...
The mistress had made my house her HOME.... She was now in charge, there was a new
Security man who didn’t know who we were, the color of our house had changed, there
was a new maid, and new furniture...My home had become her HOME....
I stood in total shock at how beautifully she had transformed everything and everywhere
in my home and had made it hers....
Just like the dream I had, I couldn’t find the way to my home again, this was Margaret’s
Home, Was there any hope of making it mine again? Why did God bring me home? She
had moved into my home and had become the boss.
As I stood transfixed, I told myself that she had every right to throw my children and I
out...We were the ones who left our place in the first place before she took over....
Was there hope for my marriage?
My children stood in shock not understanding a bit of what was happening....
To be continued