03: New Wife

Kiefer sighed audibly as he peeped through the windshield of his vehicle at the traffic before him.

He had underestimated the traffic, forgetting it was a Friday and a few days after payday. All the vehicles were fueled and out on the roads.

Now his White Range Rover Evoque was stuck in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam.

''Why don't you want to have kids?'' his passenger asked.

"Thought you were asleep."

''You have everything going for you," she asked instead ignoring his question.

''Like what?''

''You have the looks and you're settled. It's not like there is a shortage of women for you to marry.''

''It's just not my thing,'' he said, leaning down to change the channel.

''I think it's selfish.''

He looked at her amused. ''It is?''

Quincy turned to face him.

"When did it become a thing to want a child? It is just a natural process of life.''

''True, but I won't be any less of a human if I don't have any.''

''You just haven't met the right woman yet.''

''Never even began the search," he replied, a subtle smile gracing his face.

''Don't you want to leave a legacy?''

''I have built my empire from scratch,'' he pointed out.

Quincy chuckled and shook her head. '' That is not the same. That's material legacy. I am talking about a legacy of substance,'' she told him as traffic began to move. She smiled at him before she looked out at the world outside, dreamily. "My dream was to be married by twenty-three and pop out half a dozen kids before I was thirty-five."

The look on her face turned cloudy."I am a year shy of that and nothing to show for it.''

''You know you can always adopt.''

Quincy shook her head. ''No, adoption is not for me. I want to have my child - to feel her grow in my womb to experience all the bad and good that comes with being pregnant. I want to give birth to my child,'' she said, running her hand over her tummy, the dreamily look returning to her eyes.

''But when all else fails...''

''Your biological child can never throw the love you bestowed on them back to your face. Eventually, no matter what you do for them, adopted kids will always sort out their biological family; there is no worse heartbreak than that for a parent,'' she bluntly told him as the dreamily look she had a second ago disappeared from her eyes.

Silence filled the car, as each was lost in thought. As they moved away from town towards Simonville Estates, traffic became lighter and they got to her house in no time.

Quincy stared at the house in trepidation.

"Will you be alright?"

A simple question yet, she had no idea how to answer it. This was supposed to be her sanctuary, the place she could find her peace but of late, it had been anything but that.

"Yeah."

Her reply was barely audible. If he had not been staring at her, he would have not heard her reply.

"Sure?"

Quincy nodded in assurance, pulled the handle, and got out.

"Thanks for the ride." Grabbing her bag, she got out and closed the door.

"It's nothing. Good night."

She watched his car disappear into the night before she turned back to her house. Taking a huge breath, she braced herself for the inevitable as she took steps towards the house.

''Mummy!'' the youngest Chibesa exclaimed when she walked through the kitchen door and ran to her.

A surprised Quincy lifted her and hugged her close to her body.

''Chichi, when did you get back?''

Chibesa had left with her mother-in-law a couple of months back to go to the village. Her mother-in-law, for the fifth time in the space of a year, had just left with the child.

She didn't care how the frequent trips had affected the girl's school work.

When she had complained about it, she had told her Chibesa was her grandchild and she could do whatever she wanted.

"Quincy, what right do you have to tell me what to do with my son's children?'' The old woman had queried.

'' Mom!''

''Stop acting like their mother, you are nothing more than a glorified nanny.''

Quincy had been too shocked to react. She had always known that her mother-in-law resented her; she had just never imagined she would take it this far.

All this had been happening in front of all the other children and Samuel who had been busy browsing on the phone oblivious to the happenings around him.

''In fact,'' she continued, ''I am giving you a year to conceive and bear my son a child. Failure to which, I want you gone. My son did not marry you just to be a decorative object. Your main aim of joining this family was to continue the lineage of our clan.''

'Mom!'' she had exclaimed, her mouth agape from the shock.

''After the year is over, my son will have to choose a wife from the many fertile women who have been woman enough to bear him a child. If he doesn't want any of them, I will bring him one from the village.''

Quincy's heart had burnt and her stomach had churned with indignation at the woman's words.

Quincy had said nothing as the woman had gone on with her tirade of disrespectful comments until she had to excuse herself when Chibesa, who was sick at that time, fell asleep.

Her complaint to Samuel fell on unsympathetic ears. That had been the start of her problems.

''In the morning, daddy picked us up.'' The girl's voice cut into her memory trip and brought her to the present.

''I missed you,'' she said, hugging her tighter. Despite everything, she did love the kids.

Two months was too long for a mother to not see her child. What was worse was that her calls to the old woman went unanswered.

However, if it was her son who called her, it was a different story. They could talk for hours. And whenever she asked to speak to Chibesa, she would cut the call or give a flimsy excuse.

''Missed you too mummy. What have you brought for me?''

Quincy chuckled and put her down. She retrieved one of the takeaway bags that Kiefer had brought, from her handbag. He had not touched his food while she had munched down hers like a glutton.

''Wow! All these are mine?''

''Go share with your sisters,'' she told her.

She pulled out a chitenge wrapper from her handbag, wrapped it around her waist, and walked into the sitting room. She knelt by the door to address the two elderly women who were watching a Nigerian movie in the lounge.

''Mom, welcome back.''

Her mother-in-law, a thin wrinkled woman in her sixties who had been widowed in the prime of her youth, barely spared her a glance.

The other woman, the young sister to the late woman's husband, looked her way. Her name was Audrey; Audrey the second youngest was named after her.

''Thank you, Quincy. It's good to be back home. How have you all been here? Everything okay?"

'' Everything is okay, Aunt Aubrey,'' she replied. '' Have you been here long?''

''I came in the morning with your mother-in-law,'' she replied, her smile never leaving her flabby and wrinkly face.

Her mother-in-law cleared her throat and shot her sister-in-law a look.

The sunny smile on Aunt Aubrey's face faltered. She looked from her sister-in-law to Quincy, her smile turning apologetic.

''Quincy, your mother-in-law and I have been gone for some time now. Do you have any good news for us?''

Quincy looked down at the question.

The said good news was her getting pregnant.

That was all she was good for in the eyes of the two.

''Why are you wasting your time? We all know she is not woman enough,'' her mother-in-law, Mrs. Chansa said.

''Have you already had something to eat?'' Quincy asked instead, '' you must be hungry. I will go and prepare supper and heat your water. You must be exhausted from the long journey.''

''Oh don't bother,'' Mrs. Chansa said. '' My daughter-in-law already took care of that.''

Quincy looked at her puzzled.

Daughter-in-law? Which daughter-in-law? She only had one son. However, she didn't have to wonder for long.

The door to her bedroom opened, for a second, she thought Samuel, her husband had returned from work, which would be a first, as he never was home before the witching hour, instead, a woman walked out.

She was rotund, dark, and very beautiful. Quincy trailed her eyes from one woman to another.

She noticed her mother-in-law's eyes light up when the woman shyly walked over to them and sat on the carpet at her feet.

Quincy's heart thumped against her chest as it dawned on her who the woman was. She cleared her throat to speak but Mrs. Chansa beat her to it.

''This is Megan, my son's new wife,'' she told Quincy as she settled back comfortably on the sofa. ''I hope you don't give her a difficult time or else you will hear it from me. She has already settled in the room and your things have been moved to the girl's bedroom.''

Quincy sunk to the floor hopelessly as the other woman, Megan cast her a shy smile.

CARLTON TEMBA HOTEL

"What the hell is the meaning of this?'' The young woman demanded from the man as he stepped out of the shower after their steamy tryst in the luxurious hotel.

The short, trim, and light woman waved the phone to his face. ''Who the hell is Megan?''

The tall man, whose name was Samuel Chansa wiped the water off his face, walked over to her, and grabbed his phone away from her.

'' Boundaries Tina,'' he said as he went to sit on the bed to read the message. His mother was reminding him to come home early as his new wife was waiting for him.

''Boundaries? But when you are opening my legs there is no such thing as boundaries? Who the hell is Megan? Why is your mother calling her your new wife?''

Samuel sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at the naked petite curvy slay queen as he began to dress up. ''Get dressed we have to go.''

The thirty-year-old crossed her arms over her ample chest and restlessly tapped her foot. '' You had your mother bring you a new wife? What the hell Samuel? You promised me once Quincy left, that I would be your new wife.''

''Look, nothing has to change between us because of Megan. You know you are my number one baby girl.''

''That's a load of BS and you know it. I want marriage and nothing else. I am sick and tired of being your second best to Quincy. I am entitled to you as much as she is.''

''You know that's impossible. It is culturally impossible.''

''Heeee!'' she exclaimed and planted her hands over her wide hips. '' Culturally wrong eh? After eight years and a child together, where the hell do you get the nerve to pull the culture card on me?''

''You know what I mean. Mom would never consent to that.''

''To hell with your mom Samuel, you promised. You won't use me and dump me for some village chicken.''

Samuel stood up to tuck in his shirt.

''You never intended to marry me did you?'' she continued just as his phone rang.

He reached for it and cussed at the screen. His wife Quincy was calling him. He wasn't looking forward to the dramatic night ahead of him. He had hoped to avoid having this confrontation with Tina. Unlike Quincy who was calm and could be forced into submission, Tina was temperamental.

Tina grabbed the phone from him, read the name on the screen, and then threw it back at him, her eyes flashing dangerously.

''You don't even have any intentions to chase that half-woman do you?'' she hissed. '' You are a coward and a bastard. You will not make a fool of me Samuel. You will marry me, I will not let you get away with this. You will come crawling to me Samuel, I will make you swallow your vomit.''

''Tina, come on. What we have is good. Why do we have to label all this? Isn't this more fun?''

''Fun huh? I will show you fun. Just you wait and see,'' she said as she turned her back to him to head to the bathroom while swinging her arsenal. She let out a loud kissing teeth sound before banging the door to the bathroom.

***

In the candle-lit room, a woman in her mid-fifties knelt in the circle of thick black candles. She was clad in a black wrapper that matched her soul, on her wrist and around her neck; she had black, white, and red beads.

On her head, she had a circle of cowrie shells crocheted on a dried umbilical cord. Before her, was a clay pot, draped with black clothing, beside it, smoke steadily rose from the bundled dry sticks of boneset, mistletoe, agaric, and bistort.

She pulled the clothing away and stared into the large pot. An evil smile spread on her face and her eyes lit up with glee as she stared at the contents of the pot.

In it were two voodoo dolls and an old, used sanitary towel. The two fabric stuffed dolls were stuck with the cut-out pictures of two women. She reached in and took out a voodoo doll that had the picture of Quincy stuck on its face.

She reached for a pin from the pot, pricked her finger, and then pricked the doll on the stomach after which she let the blood drip on the stomach area.

All this while, she chanted an inaudible spell under her breath to tie the young woman's fertility.

When she was done, she placed the doll back inside on the old sanitary towel that Quincy had used for her first cycle, over twenty years ago. Scooping the ashes of the fertility plants that had been burning in her clay pot, she scattered them on the doll's stomach and continued with her evil chant-like she did once every month.

When she had placed the doll back into the pot, she reached for the other doll. This one had a picture of an elderly woman. The eyes of the doll and the picture had long been yanked out.

She lit the candle that lay beside her pot, then dropped the wax into the holes where the eyes ought to have been. She took two pins and stuck them inside each wax-filled eye.

As she waited for the wax to dry, the words of the spiritual herbalist she had sought help from a good thirty-four years ago rang in her mind, mother and daughter were never to meet, the day they did, would be the day the spell would be undone.

She smiled as she placed back the blinded voodoo doll next to Quincy, confident it would never happen.

***

It was almost midnight when Quincy heard Samuel's voice in the sitting room. She had fallen asleep in the girls' bedroom where her things had been moved.

Natalia and Audrey slept on the top bunker bed while she had taken the lower bed with Chibesa who was cuddled close to her.

Aliyana had gone for the weekend to her mother's who lived in Chawama and Genevieve was just four houses down at Quincy's parent's place. Her sister Ophelia adored the girl and usually picked her up for weekends and outings.

Excruciating pain tore through her causing her to double over when she stood up from the bed.

No, not again please, she silently prayed as tears stung behind her eyes.

But even as she said the prayer, she felt the sticky wetness between her legs. Clutching her lower gut as the pain intensified, she grabbed her toiletry bag and went to the bathroom.

After her bath, as she gulped down some painkillers, she sat in the corner of the room and wept silently. Every month she hoped for a miracle but that miracle never came.

She walked out of the bathroom when the voices had quieted down. The light in the sitting room was off; they had all gone to bed.

Soft voices in the darkroom of what was once her marital bedroom carried to her. She heard her husband laugh at something followed by the soft chuckle of Megan.

She stared at the bedroom door for a long time. Tears stung her eyes and cascaded down her face. Her chest rose and fell with her suppressed tears.

As Megan's coquettish giggles reached her ears, It felt like someone had tightly squeezed her heart. Samuel hadn't even bothered to come and explain things to her.

Instead of heading back to the bedroom, she would be sharing with the girls, she went to the kitchen, boiled some water, and sat with the hot water bottle on her stomach.

''Quincy,'' Aunt Audrey called her from the doorway. She looked up at the elderly woman.

''Aunt Audrey, did you want something?''

''Did you just have your periods?'' she asked, looking at the painkillers on the table and the hot water bottle on her stomach.

Quincy cast the elderly woman a vain smile and looked down, tears welling in her eyes.

"I' m sorry,'' the old woman continued sympathetically. ''Just keep trying, I am sure one day God will hear your prayer,'' she said to her and walked out.

Left alone with her misery, Quincy broke into fresh tears.