Prisoners of Lust

Nine

Jummai thought about how dreadful it must be to spend the rest of one's life in bondage. She tried to imagine how horrible it would be to live a lie; a double life of pretending to be happy but actually being sad. She mentioned out loud that she found it appalling how two people could be together yet be so far apart. Then Indo smirked and reminded Jummai that it was just a long-term version of what they did.

"Yes," agreed Jummai, "Faults are mounds. We step on our faults to see other people's faults." She cringed at the thought of her past experiences. She only needed to find a way out. Never did she look forward to any of the encounters. Jummai scrolled her phone's call log. Looking at Hamisu's number, she thought to herself, what good is lust when it does not last. It was something bitter with the illusion of sweetness, a hollow delusion of emptiness. Worldly desire is a dead end and Jummai wanted love that would transcend the heavens. She wanted to be whole.

Inna interrupted Jummai's psychedelic thoughts and talked about how the arrogant politician who proposed to her bought his way through politics by illicit means.  She ridiculed him saying that with all that he amassed, he could not keep the mother of his children happy. Society would not point out that he was an irresponsible and selfish man.  No.  Society will only see an ungrateful and impatient woman. "The fact that he abuses her mentally and emotionally will not come up when people gossip about her "unwise" decision," said Indo.

"Maybe she is enjoying the wealthy life," said Jummai. Indo scrunched her nose and playfully pulled down Jummai's veil over her face. "The biggest cliché in the world is 'money can't buy happiness' and that is as solid as it gets," said Indo. She explained that the trips and gifts were temporary highs that served as compensation for a husband's absence and lack of affection. "Short-lived lust", completed Jummai.

Indo had the luxury of mingling with the elite, but she still despised them.  She said they were all cultists spilling people's blood for ill-gotten wealth.  Then she spoke of how her father died on an expressway that was allocated billions of naira, just for the contractors and government officials to make nonstandard roads to the demise of the people they were suppose to serve. With disgust, she said the foundation of their filthy lives was built on blood and bones, and that is why ghosts and spirits will always haunt them, taunting them with ingratitude and greed.

Indo said if her father were alive, her mother would not have been forced to give her up at a young age.  Indo's mother took her case to family elders and courts, but her cries were ignored. They would tell her that a woman alone cannot raise a child. Indo ended up living with her father's brother. His wife did not want her there, so Indo became a stranger in the house.

Indo was just a child and she was deprived of being nurtured by her mother. With a stern stare, Indo said her uncle was a good man in the community, well known and respected, but a bad man behind closed doors. She stopped talking, but in her mind Indo recalled the terror of being trapped behind those closed doors, trembling in fear and withering in pain, deprived of her innocence.

"You know the worse thing about monsters, Jummai?" asked Indo, "They have the friendliest faces and the sweetest smiles." Fidgeting her slender fingers, Indo talked about people who use a saintly façade to cover up their demonic character.  She said such people were described as having the beauty of a snake, "...with their sinister smile, trapped in their hypocritical abyss." Jummai noticed that Indo mentally drifted to an uncomfortable place, as she bit her lip and took a deep breath, letting out a deeper sigh.

Jummai pictured her love's face, the kind-hearted handsome Hamisu, and then told her friend that some smiles were genuine.  Indo snorted and told Jummai that she found her optimism irritating.  She then said, "I'm not sure I want to be a vessel for a man. I don't want to be the object he keeps at home while he has a self-destructing life outside."  Indo adjusted her flimsy veil, flapping in the keke breeze, and continued, "If I have to be used, let it be on my terms and then we use one another."  She said there was no need being with a man who did not value her.

Jummai shook her head and said that men will have a lot to answer to on the Day of Reckoning. Indo clucked her tongue and said, "Let us be honest with ourselves, there is so much discussion about women, we fail to acknowledge that men too are forced to be in relationships they don't want to be in." She said that men have their preferences but are often forced to marry women who are not their choice. And no matter what that woman does, she will never be his preferred partner.

The two discussed how unfair it was that men were often cajoled to marry from their tribe or their family's choice. It was absurd that men were expected to bring home a good girl also known as the sacrificial virgin. They shared several stories of men who married for appearances, but still maintained extra-marital relationships with the family rejectee. Jummai agreed and said that it took discipline to remain steadfast, and that not every human had that. One had to have firm belief to avoid being imprisoned by lusts.

Jummai told her friend that with time, they would find their place in a good family.  Indo sadly shook her head, and said she was afraid she offended too many women to live a peaceful life.  Instead, she would work on her afterlife by being charitable.  She said "those people" were sinful by choice because they had opportunities to live good lives.  They chose to turn their blessings into curses.  She would use her curse to be a blessing.  And hopefully, hopefully, she will make heaven; a realm free of misery and pain.