Never too old

By
Ekomaru Queenette.

Powdered up and prettier than ever, Uju smiled at the camera like there was a price to be given for the smiles, deep down she knew that she did not wish to be present, if only she had agreed to pick the job offer at Owerri , she would not have made it to Ibiene’s white wedding , she would have had an excuse to stay out of this ceremony that keeps reminding her of her not forgotten past.

She faded into the grim painful past.

After a long waiting period, Uju decided to date Obinna, her long time friend of 8years. She has dated all kinds, short, tall, dark, light, catholic, anglican, Igbo, yoruba. And she did all that for love, uju convinced herself that she has seen it all, and if she wanted to settle down soon, she had to put love aside and settle with somebody that was approved by all. She fished through her friends and found Obinna, he has been interested in her for the past 8years and he was persistent. After a year of dating, she got pregnant, happily she told Obinna and he said point blank I’m not ready for that kind of thing”. “What kind of thing?” She asked , “I’m not ready for babies” he answered. She was shocked . She could not believe that the same guy who refused to use a condom, the same guy who she knew for 9years now, was saying such a thing. Uju knew that Obinna’s parents wanted him to get married soon, and they wanted to hold their grandchild. She also knew that Obinna who is 32 years old, with a very good job and no responsibility was also ready for marriage , she asked her self what went wrong?

Then she realized that she was in love with Obinna, Uju had never in her life been in this kind of predicament. What will she do? She has brought shame to her family. Independent Uju was trapped, she did not have friends to talk to because they where all happily married. She tried to talk with Obinna, but he could not be moved. She accepted her fate and decided to keep the child.

Just when she made up her mind, she heard a news that obinna had two children from two different women. The first child was a boy of 3years while the second was just 6months old. Uju fainted, how could she be in this kind of mix. She could not fix her cool , calculated, loving and level headed Obinna in this scenario. She wondered why she did not figure it out all along. She knew that it was over for her, she will never be a dazzling spinster, sophisticated independent woman. How will she be? When she had no job presently, already the job offers she got where below her educational qualification, and she could not move to a new town with a small sum of N30,000 as monthly salary.

Uju decided to ease her mind by going for a wedding who her cousin Ihunna had come all the way from Lagos to Warri to attend, her cousin had convinced her to attend the wedding as her plus one. The party hall was decorated with blue ,silver and yellow, with flowers and beautiful table clothes, a 5 step round cake with blue and silver foundant icing decorated with yellow flowers, she was mesmerized by the scenery.
It was time for the bridal match, and everybody stood up cheering the newly weds to their sit, she couldn’t see from where she stood, but she was not bothered , beautiful Ihunna decided to get them a program, since they were absent from the church service where the program was shared. When Ihunna came back, Uju slipped the program handed to her into her bag without a glance. Next she was served food and drinks, engrossed in her thoughts and drowned in her sorrows, Uju did not hear a word of what was being said. She was totally absent minded. As time passed, it was party over and time to say goodbye. Ihunna tapped Uju who startled and gasped, she came back to reality. “Uju let’s greet my friend the bride, her name is Ivie , Ivy for short” Ihunna said , as they walked across the big hall, she sited someone in a suit that looked familiar , she brushed the thought off, her focus was on the beautiful bride and where she sat, Ihunna and Ivie began to scream , Ivie hugged both of them hug , and thanked Uju for coming, Ivie told her chief bridesmaid to call her husband to greet her friend from Lagos, as Ivie , Uju and Ihuuna chatted, they heard a voice from behind “Ladies” , Ivie said meet my husband, and they turned. Lo and behold Obinna stood infront of Uju smiling, when he saw Uju his face dropped and Uju fainted . Uju woke up to find herself in cab, being held by Ihunna, she immediately recalled what had happened earlier and tears began to stream from her eyes. When they got home Uju slept off because she was too weak to narrate her ordeal to Ihunna who cancelled her flight and called her boss for a sick leave, she needed to stay with her cousin who was obviously in need. Uju could not narrate her story to her cousin for three days, she did not eat, she formed the routine of crying and sleeping, on the fourth day she told her cousin about Obinna, Ihunna was furious and threatened to bring the house down, she wanted to call Ivie but Uju stopped her saying that she did not think Ivie needed all the hassle during this honeymoon period.
Life moved on for Uju , until she was asked to be a bridesmaid, will she ever be too old for that? Memories came flooding in, she let a smile caress her almost gloomy glittering face. Not a smile of victory or joy but a smile that questioned herself, “does this mean that at 30 she still have not learnt anything from her past experiences with men?”. She thought she has seen it all and done it all, she was a master of relationship and dating. Uju was confused, she asked herself if she will ever be a master of relationships, she wondered if anybody could be a master of relationship, what do men want? She remembered that she always thought that love was a feeling, until she became older and began to think that love was a skill that needs to be improved on. It was on this basis that she built her relationship with Obinna. Some are lucky , others are not, she decided. If the doctor had not told her she experienced the late menstrual flow because of hormonal changes, what would her life become? She remembered coming home full of joy after visiting the second doctor to confirm she wasn’t really pregnant. It was a bitter sweet message when she narrated the whole event to ihunna.
She brushed off her thoughts and came back to reality, its Ibiene’s day and nothing could hold her down from having fun.