By David Maillu
Published December 3, 2024
Wakiki and Mbesa were not ordinarily girlfriends. They had been high schoolmates when they parted and Mbesa went to college while Wakiki went to Teacher Training. Both ended in being teachers because Mbesa studied Education and joined teaching.
When time came for marriage, Mbesa became Wakiki’s best bride and, after three years, Wakiki repaid Mbesa by becoming her best bide girl. By then Mbesa had not conceived and was anxiously waiting for her first child. What made her jealous was that Wakiki was three-months pregnant during the wedding after which she delivered a gorgeous baby girl and carbon paper of the husband.
Mbesa and her husband had already been consulting their doctor for conception. One day she even cried to the doctor, “I’d be satisfied absolutely to have even one child, daughter or son.”
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Wakili’s second child came when Mbesa and her husband were still seeing their doctor. It was out of the question that Musau, her husband, was infertile because he had a child with his former girlfriend. The child resembled him openly. It now appeared, the problem was in Mbesa’s system. When the doctor’s prescriptions didn’t work she went for traditional help. Just one child, please.
Her friendship with Wakiki had increased. In a way, Wakiki was sympathetic to her friend. Often she inspired Mbesa by saying, “I’m praying for you. Rest assured you will have a child one day.”
“When? I’ve been looking in vain for that child for over five years.”
“You’ve got a long way, have faith. The child can come even after waiting for ten years. If it has happened to many women it can happen to you too.”
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Musau and Mbisu, their husbands were not good buddies of each other. Mbesa’s husband was an introvert who spent most of his time reading when he wasn’t working. Wakiki’s husband was a man-of-the-people, drinking his life to happiness. Mbesa was getting worried that her husband might reconsider his former girlfriend because of the child. She wasn’t a beautiful girl, but she had a son for him. There were rumours that he was thinking of becoming polygamous.
Then something strange and terrifying happened when one night Mbesa had a clear dream in which a voice said clearly, “Go to Musau and ask him to father the child you’ve been dying for.” What the hell was that? She should go to bed with her best friend’s husband! She screamed the dream out, “Evil spirits, get lost!”
However, she had never been prepared for what happened thereafter when the same dream and the same voice pestered her three more times. But the voice used different words to say the same thing. It was a female voice. She felt confused. She froze and she stopped communication with Wakiki. What evil spirits was out to tempt her?
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She shared the matter with her Christian mother who jumped to warn her, “My child, be careful. That’s the voice of a devil.” Then the mother, gripping Mbesa by the hand, prayed strongly to God to drive that devil away. She offered her daughter to Jesus.
But even after they parted, the mother was left asking herself the same things the daughter had asked, “Can that voice be wrong sounding the same things four times?” If she had to go for it, where would she start and end and at what cost? Her heart boxed her wildly when she thought of sharing the information with Wakiki, knowing too well how Wakiki would shoot her out and call her devil.
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She went to a diviner who, unfortunately, didn’t say much other than telling her, “Listen more to yourself.”
“Where would such voice come from?” asked Mbesa.
“It’s a voice from with wilderness.”
“Meaning?”
“You are the one who wants to have a child. That desire is the one attracting spiritual voices from anywhere. It could be the spirit of someone in your ancestral line.” She mystified it, “It could be the voice from within.”
“What should I do?”
“The dream, is your spiritual conception. You can keep or abort it.”
“Mbisu is my girlfriend’s husband.”
“So?”
“I can’t do that.”
“Have you told Mbisu anything?”
“Oh my God!”
“Then ask that God for the interpretation of your dream?”
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Mbesa, had dropped going to church when she went to college and since then she had been drifting in no-man‘s spiritual land. She didn’t know much about African spiritualism for having been born and brought up in a Christian home. She had already noticed Mbesa was highly depression and confused. Twice Mbesa had broken into tears while they were talking. But Mbesa would not disclose anything fearing the consequences.
Now Wakiki started worrying for Mbesa. By that time, the same voice had returned to Mbesa this time asking, “Why has Mbisu not given you the child?”
This time when she met Wakiki she openly said, “Please, leave me alone to die my own death.”
“Mbesa, I’ll die with you.”
“You can’t.”
“Friend are for helping each other.”
“There are friends and friends,” Mbesa pressed.
“Oh, my God! For all those years I’ve not been a friend you can trust? So, you’ve been pretending to be my friend all along!” She stared at Mbesa glowing with heat. “What the hell have I done for you to drop me just like that? Mbesa, you’re killing me!”
Mbesa wanted to vomit the puss of her spiritual boil over Wakiki when a voice from within cried, “Not now.” Wakili noticed that Mbesa was trembling . She felt awfully moved. “Wakiki!” Mbesa said in a highly shaken voice. “I can’t tell you now. But I can do it tomorrow,” she said just in order to get rid of Wakiki.
“I’ll be at your door tomorrow early in the morning,” Wakili said confidently and walked away.
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Knowing how serious Wakiki could be, Mbesa planned to run out of the house earlier in the morning before Wakiki arrived and then, thereafter author an excuse. But she miscalculated Wakiki’s determination to hear what was killing her best friend. Wakiki knocked at the door exactly at seven o’clock in the morning when Mbisu was still in bed. It was on Saturday. “Oh my God!” Mbesa cried when she opened the door to meet Wakiki’s face.
“I told you.”
“I didn’t know you meant so early.”
“I suspected you’d avoid me if I came later. I’ve been studying you. There’s you don’t want to share with me. I’m ready for it now, now! If you tell me to go back and come later I will not go. Mbesa, I’m ready to die with you.”
Wakili discovered why she could not die with Mbesa when Mbesa told her the full story. Wakiki’s face went dark.. For a moment, she appeared lost. Mbesa stressed, “The dream has come at least five times!”
“Meaning?” Wakiki asked stupidly.
“You wanted to die with me, didn’t you?”
Wakiki went silent
“Shall we die together now?”
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Wakiki tried to evade the death, “I can only speak for myself, not for my husband.” She worried, “Have you told my husband?”
“No!”
Wakiki swallowed and realized she must visit the bathroom. They were talking in Mbesa’s car, away from the husband. Wakiki excused herself for the short call then burst out of the car. She was shocked when she returned and found Mbesa had driven away. That instantly was a red flag. Now she concluded there must have been a conspiracy between Mbesa and her husband and, perhaps, Mbesa had come to preempt the consequence – an existing pregnancy. She went aflame, ready to defend her territory concluding Mbesa, being more educated than Wakiki, was playing a dirty game on Wakiki to justify her infidelity. So, Wakiki cooked the story using Mbesa’s emotional ingredients and served her husband with the menu. It was a claim of a clandestine affair between her husband and Mbesa.
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Musau backfired against the accusation and in the cause of the argument, he lost his temper and slapped Wakiki. He called her names and summarized, “Stupid woman!”
To Wakiki, her husband’s expression of anger and beating was nothing more than a confirmation that he was guilty. Men happen to hide their guilt from wives by using terror.
But as days unfolded Wakiki realized the damage she had inflicted on her husband. Mbisu couldn’t forgive Wakiki quickly and he had become very aggressive. However, he decided to meet Mbesa face-to-face and try to apologize on her behalf, “My wife acts like a soldier. Soldiers are trained to shoot before thinking and then find out the victim’s guilt after he’s dead. My wife has given me a sketch of what transpired before her explosion. Now I want to hear from the horse’s mouth the full story.”
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Fighting against embarrassment, Mbesa unfolded the weird dream as Mbisu listened carefully, somewhat, with a hidden amusement. He laughed at the tail of the story. They exchanged pregnant looks but at the same time trying to avoid direct stares.
“Does Musau know this?” asked Mbisu.
“Maybe he knows, but not from my mouth. Wakiki has scandalized it. I guess it has become a household topic.”
“What do you think your husband would say about this?” Mbisu asked a question he knew Mbesa wouldn’t have an answer for. Leave alone reality, what husband would be amused to hear his wife is dreaming about seeking being made pregnant by another man? He had lived with the suspicion that his wife, like many barren women would dream of, she could be tempted to get a child from another man. Knowing how desperate she was for a child, he wouldn’t mind too much if she got it, only that he couldn’t challenge her to try it.
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Mbisu had never imagined being close to Mbesa in any way as they had become today. She was more beautiful and youthful than his wife who had been worn down by having mothered three children. Mbesa still maintained college-girl features with breasts still starchy. After the delicate and short conversation, they exchanged hard looks, but decided to parted blankly, each locked up in his or her mind. Mbesa was left with a feeling that, although they had said nothing, they had reached somewhere. She went home to check on the calendar… Let it be for whatever consequences, if time struck, she would call him for a cup of tea or something somewhere. Or she would pay the family a visit on foot and then ask him to give her a lift home.
Mbesa was flabbergasted that, after two months following the night fling in Mbisu’s car, she discovered she missed her month period. She rushed to report it to her mother. After three months she disclosed to her husband, “I think something has happened. I’m pregnant.”
“Are you?” was the only question he asked.
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Finally, Mbesa had a healthy deliver of a baby girl. She lived to remember how active her husband’s eyes were as he tried to find out suspiciously the identity of the infant when a nurse held the little soul before his eyes crying, “Mt Musau, congratulations, here’s your daughter.” Mbesa, too, with heightened curiosity, searched on the soul’s signs of her husband’s features, just in case it had happened after so long. But the ears, without doubt, were Mbisu’s.
The matter simply went silent as if nothing bad ever happened. However, the flame of the family friendship between both families burnt weakly appearing, like a lantern with diminishing fuel, the flame would give up.
Three years afterwards Mbesa became pregnant. Surprisingly, her husband was the father of the pregnancy. The mystery of her dream heightened as her mind, from time to time replayed the diviner’s words, “It was a voice from the wilderness.”
