#In Our Neigbourhood

Of a man’s affair with a mad woman

By Sunmola Olowookere

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A mad woman has fallen in love in our neighbourhood. Higor who was the object of her affection had been meeting with her in a clandestine affair. Residents rumoured that he was having sexual relations with her. The development took on a funny twist as the mad woman began to pay visits at his house ostensibly to check on him after sorely missing his attention.
In a normal situation, would two lovers who had missed themselves not cling with longing and desire onto one another after such long absence? Yes, normally, they should have done that.
But it was not so for Higor because his lover that came visiting was the neighbourhood’s popular loony wench. It was instant chaos as Higor vehemently denied ever knowing her.
He flogged her off his premises. Despite his protestations of innocence, the residents and even his wife could not bring themselves to believe his claims.
Why is this? Why would a man go in to a mad woman? However, the woman is not the regular spitting; raving mad lunatics that one would run away from in the streets. She was already responding to treatment as she was undergoing treatment in a nearby church. One could be walking by her and not know that she was mentally unbalanced.
However, there were days when she would show her true colours. She usually began those days by singing. She would sing gospel songs, veer into secular songs and in the midst of it ,jump into lifting hymns.
At those times, the neighbourhood would for sure know that it was that time of the month for heŕ.
So indeed for a man without scruples, she is okay to bed. Truly, Higor though not a young man has no scruples.
He is a hustler with no conscience or shame. He is also the unelected and unarguably the leader of the touts in our area.
The touts consist mainly of some of the okada riders that ply our neighbourhood and some artisans. He had also been an okada rider at a point though he no longer owns one. He owns a rickety car which he used for transportation business. He used the car to carry loads such as foodstuffs, building materials e.t.c. however, people rarely patronize him because he had failed his customers many times and the bad news had spread. Hence people see him as a ne’er do well.
Instead of finding ways to improve his life, he spent his unproductive hours with his cohorts at the junction constituting a nuisance. Though with no concrete evidence that he was bedding the mad woman, tongues still wagged.
It took a stranger twist when the pastor of the church came to visit Higor at home. He took Higor to task over his misconduct. However, Higor was unrepentant and he maintained his claims of innocence.
The unexpected happened. When the flasco with the mad woman took place, no one thought that was what it would result into. Yet tragedy that has happened in Higor’s household is unspeakable.
Nobody ever thought that such an incident would be the result of Higor’s escapade. The pastor that was taking care of the mad woman came to Higor’s house.
We all saw the pastor storm out furiously, describing him as an infidel who does not know God.
He seemed very angry and if he had been more so, smoke would have been coming out of his ears. Nothing
prepared the residents for the tragedy that happened a week after the confrontation as Higor’ s wife took ill.
Residents all thought it was malaria but she died two days. The whole lane was thrown into mourning. ‘The woman had been an industrious but unassuming woman, People began to see the Pastor’s visit to their household in a different light.
They rumoured that he had probably placed a curse on the household. When a man commits an atrocity why should it result into death for his wife? The man should have been the one to die, they argued.
She had many friends during her lifetime because she sold groceries in’ the neighbourhood. Many people bought from her because she sold her goods at the same rate as those in the Oba’s market. She even sold goods to some families on credit with the understanding that they would pay her when their situation improves.
Her death was a huge shock to the residents. It was a terrible time. Even Higor with his entire blustering and uncaring attitude was flummoxed and brought low. She was buried amidst tears the following day. Her family insisted that she should be buried in her bedroom as compensation for the life of sacrifice she made. She built the house the family lived in out of her sweat.
Her children cried as if their heart would break. They were almost uncontrollable as they hit themselves against the floor in grief. Their grief was understandable because their mother had been the one seeing to their needs. as she was the breadwinner of the family. She paid their school fees and bought their books. Whenever her husband needed money, he would offer to look after the shop for her. When she would have gone to the market, he would browbeat the children and take money out of the shop’s proceeds.
She worked like a man during her lifetime. Her husband and her children are now shaping up after her demise. Even now when residents look at her shop which her children are trying to maintain in order to keep body and soul together, they found it hard to believe that she was gone.

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