The Strength to Love and Walk

CredoFiction: Wakdok, Samuel Stephen


Eunice and I met during my last semester at the University. I had spent all my years in school playing and wondering what it would be like to get a woman of my dreams that can hold me down. I am not extra ordinarily handsome but I am good enough to get the ladies catch a glimpse of me when ever I passed. In the evenings when I would don my sports wears and head to the badminton court to play the game I love so much, the ladies turned and whispered among themselves. They talked about my broad shoulders, my hairy legs and my stamina.
On this fateful day on my way to the court I over heard one of the ladies asking her friend what it would be like to have this guy all to herself. That was a naughty comment to make about a stranger I said to my self, I just winked a smile at the ladies to let them know I heard their gossip. They giggled and as she turned to escape; our eyes locked. I saw in her shyness a kind of beauty only a goddess could possess, but the beauty is concealed by her bulgy eyes at the face value .Here was I, priding my self as one of the most admired guys in my hostel which sits adjacent the female hostel. All I could do was mutter some few words; “hi I am Fabian, I didn't hear what you girls were gossiping about if you don't mind can you repeat?” That was the beginning of a relationship that will blossom into a wonderful love affair. Eunice was as beautiful within as she was without, she was the flower any sane man would want to wake up with and walk around with. She was the flower who never lost her stigma and her beauty was as wild as it was soft.
I graduated and left Eunice to complete her final year in school without me. The time spent during my service year was lonely because I had come to appreciate her place in my life. She gave me love and fun, she gave me a purpose too. The friends I left behind in school who thought Eunice would fall in love with other guys on campus after my graduation couldn’t believe how she remained faithful to our relationship and rather decided to have my friends as her friends with none of them doubting her fidelity to me. I wish the same could be said about me, but I continued in my frenzy ways hitherto to when I met Eunice. My calls reduced but hers increased. Some times I purposely refused to pick her calls, rather than getting discouraged, she only became more resilient. Months became a year and I was through with my service year and she too became a graduate. I was once again lucky to get a good job with a consulting firm, as hectic as the work schedule was; I didn’t relent in my Casanova ways and that only broke her heart the more. The period between her graduation and service was spent transiting on the road between her parents’ home and mine, she was always the good lady who washed and cooked but I remained a guy whose ox never stayed in a place. Of course I was polite enough to be discrete each time she was around, but I couldn’t completely hide all the traces, she knows about my escapades. She would cry and tell me how much she loves me which I knew was true. She would go ahead to tell me she was not desperate, how she can get any man she liked. In fact, many men were on her prowl but she was just simply in love with me and she grew more beautiful by the day so I could imagine how many men would want to give her their cards and how many more would have been willing to throw money at her not to talk of if she decided to love any of them unconditionally as she loved me. Unfortunately I am not a one woman’s man and no matter how I try to appreciate Eunice and admit the fact that I love her, the spectrum was too wide that I saw all shades of beautiful and sexy ladies and I couldn’t help cheating on Eunice. I went to the extent of consoling myself that I was not cheating on Eunice since I had not married nor proposed to her. That was taking her love too far?
Eunice completed her service year and because she came from an influential family, she got an immediate appointment as a corporate affairs officer with the National Gas Company. Her pay check was good and she was always traveling in and around the country. Meanwhile I had become a chattered Consultant and set up my own consulting agency dealing in Power and Energy. The money was coming and I was also meeting the right people; the liberalization of the two sectors by the government was a blessing to people like me who are pioneer consultants in the fields. Of course Eunice proved to be very helpful by aiding me to meet the top shots at National Gas Company, the ministries of Energy and Power who were very instrumental to my agency getting a lot of contracts both for advisory and training purposes. With more money came more ladies, with more wealth came more urge to indulge but Eunice would only complain, yet she never walked away.
Interestingly she never caught me in the very act with another lady, either because I was good at my game or she never bothered to bait me or even both. The truth remained that she knew what I was up to and I never denied either. We remained a charming couple and we always caught fun to ease off the tension of our works. My family especially my parents were very happy with Eunice and my only sister was very comfortable in her company. My sister would prefer to spend the weekend in Eunice’s house but because Eunice will be in my house, my sister often found excuses to drop in anytime during the weekends. Her father is a politician and though he seems to be in one meeting or another; or travel to one location or the other, he would always ask of me and when ever we met, he would tell me to drop by more often. We discussed political events both locally and internationally and he is a good analyst like he said I am one too.
Years rolled by and I could see she was becoming ready to settle down, but now more than ever my passion to make more wealth and fame was getting into my head. I was not keen about talking of marriage either with her or any other lady I was dating. I had this faith that Eunice was not going to run away, she was going to remain and that gave me the excess drive to drag foot. Eunice was growing more beautiful and she was climbing her career ladder. She had the beauty, the money, the position, and the family connection, but she was waiting for Fabian to initiate a marriage proposal. As days went by I saw her impatience grow but not a bit of desperation, yet I was not having the courage to settle down. I saw the money I was making and the freedom of bachelorhood as a gold mine to keep enjoying. On some occasions she had threatened to leave me alone but she always returned- her love for me was unequivocal. “Fabian, why are you not ready to discuss this issue? Do you want me to grow old and then you will get a younger lady? Am I compelling you to do what you don’t want to do? This is five years since we started dating, five years of relationship and you have no excuses. The money is there, we love each other, and our families are familiar with us, what exactly is the problem? Talk to me Fabian”
This time I saw the despair in her eyes, the tears came rolling but quickly she regained her composure and took her car keys. She let herself through the door and reversed her car driving away as gently as she came. I did not notice my key that she slipped through the door as she went out, she had returned my key without my knowledge. She picked my calls whenever I called but she was not calling any longer. She stopped visiting too and it became more difficult to track her. She had a very tight schedule at work but she always created time for me, she had simply plugged me out of her schedules and was busy running her life as corporately as ever. She will come back as usual I said to myself. This time, it slowly began to dawn on me that she had moved on, but not until my mum asked me about the last time I saw Eunice did it occur to me that she got tired and had walked away.
I made frantic efforts to see Eunice and I was told she had traveled out for an International Conference of Global Gas and Clean Energy Summit in Doha. The conference was to last for 5 days and she would proceed on her annual leave to Tahiti. Eunice spent her previous vacations in Nigeria because of me, each time she asked me to plan my work so we could go on vacation outside the country I was always coming up with excuses, this time around she had freed herself from my yoke and was determined to give herself the treat she deserved after working so hard.
I became lovesick for the first time, and all the ladies I met did not seem to replace Eunice. Eunice had this beauty blended with humility. She was a good cook and not the lazy type. She was friendly to everyone and my mom had particularly told me it is not every day a man gets a lady with all those qualities in one person. Now I am beginning to see what I am going to miss. It won’t be until another three weeks before her expected return and it was too long a time to wait. I braved it and went to her mother for an international number to call her, I guess she must have discussed with her mother because I saw it in the woman’s eyes. The mom was not hostile but it was evident in her eyes that her daughter had been patient enough with me, hence I deserved what I got since I was not serious enough to know what I had in my hands until she slipped away.
“Fabian it is good to hear from you again, hope you are fine?’
“Eunice, how can I be fine when you bolted out on me?”
I could hear the laughter at the other end but it was not funny to my ears
“How did I bolt out, you were holding out against me and after five years I knew I couldn’t take it any more. I decided to leave you alone because as you know I am not a desperate lady. I have all it takes to get me a serious minded man for a husband, but love made me stick with you all these years. Since the love cannot be returned by you, I have made a clean break for myself. I had to come to terms with the fact that a relationship can not end in a relationship; it either ends up in marriage or it ends. Since I do not have the power to unilaterally make it end in marriage, I did the one that is in my power. A relationship is like a cheque; it is either good for payment and given value or it is not good for payment and returned. It cannot remain in transit for ever.”
“Eunice we can still talk about this, please when will you return to Nigeria?”
“Fabian I just got a job with OPEC in Geneva; I may not be coming back soon. I had severally refused to take this job offer because I did not want to live away from you, but as you can see I have made a break from the past and my relocation to Geneva is to allow me continue with my life. I have been patient, I have endured all your escapades, stomach all your secret girl friends, I have waited and prayed for the day your eyes will be opened to see what hurt you are causing me, time did not stop, it kept moving till five years without any seriousness on your part. You had me as a last card to run back to if and when you get tired, I was not in a hurry to leave but it was obvious you are not going to get tired and Fabian , unfortunately I have taken enough, my mind is made. I have walked away.”
That was when I finally realized that I gave Eunice a cheque that bounced severally until it went stale. Frantic attempts to get Eunice have a change of mind yielded nothing positive; the strength she used to love me is the same strength she is using to put my chapter behind her.

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