Sunlight had brightened the interior of the house when Enomma finally forced herself out of Edem's arms. The lantern had burned out near dawn, as she and Edem finally slept off. Sleeping next to him, cradled in his arms, had been one of the best nights of her life. They were in her village at Abak to see her mother for the first time.

They were offered akamu and akara that morning for breakfast.

Edem stared at Enomma with so much admiration. He was certain that she was pregnant this time. Her body was fairer and fresher than it had been when she first moved in to work for him and his wife Ini.

Edem took a sip of the Akamu and then nodded delightfully, "This is real akamu."

"My mother makes the best akamu in this village. She sells them," Enomma explained.

Edem went ahead and finished his akamu, but he ate just a ball of akara and gulped down one cup of water. He belched after a few minutes. Enomma widened her eyes at him;

'Madam Ini would have screamed bad manners if she was here. She is always forming madam perfect," she said with a disdain.

Edem's countenance changed from bright to a bit down, "I have told you, we won't discuss Ini anymore. It saddens me."

"Why does it sadden you when I mention her? Is she not a human being?"

"It inconveniences me when you mention my wife in our conversation," Edem said as he disposed of the cup of water on the concrete floor.

Enomma lowered herself to the floor, "You still call her your wife. You still make her superior over me, yet you won't stop diving into my bed every night when she is on her usual trips."

"Stop it this minute," Edem said, trying to control his words.

"I won't stop it. I know that the reason why you make me feel inferior before your wife is because she is educated and I'm not. But you have promised me that after I bear this child, you will send me to University of Uyo or even Unical," she said confidently.

Edem hissed, and shook his head.

"My mother will come, you will tell her that you'll marry me after our baby comes," Enomma said.

"I won't say a thing like that. I can't give promises I might not fulfill. I am already married, and I can't take a second wife."

"I know," she said softly as she placed her hands on his chest, "I know, just tell her like that, so that she won't feel bad."

Edem stared at her meanly and gave a soft sigh. "I have to go, I really have to get to Uyo before 4pm. The sandflies and mosquitoes in this village have defaced my skin," he said.

That morning, Edem told Enomma's mother about her pregnancy for him. She got up from the short stool she was sitting on and danced, twisting her waist in slow motion.
Enomma stared at her old mother with delight in her eyes.

She knew that Edem was her daughter's boss. And that a year ago, Ini his wife, had come with goat and yam to take her daughter to work for them as a maid.

EkaEno, Enomma’s mother, had not asked of Ini. She didn't see reasons why she would ask of her.

"Thank you God, I will carry a grandchild soon,” she clapped her wrinkled hands and put them up to the sky.

That evening, Edem drove back to Uyo in his blue Tundra. He was overwhelmed by the hospitality Enomma's mother had given him. He gave her the sum of fifty thousand naira, and asked her to fumigate the whole place.He knew that even if Enomma had their baby in Uyo, he won't let her go for omugwo at her mother's place, so that the mosquitoes won't devour his innocent baby's skin. He'd already imagined what his baby would look like--like him or Ini, even if she wasn't the biological mother of the child. He wished his baby would look like him or his wife.

"I want to eat mango!" Enomma screamed as she pointed at the women hawking mangoes in a tray along Ekomiman Junction.

"Did the doctor say it's safe to eat mango?" Edem asked.

"Mango is good fruit. Doctor don't need to tell me what is good for my baby, I know," she said in an Anglicized local accent.

Edem sharply took out his phone as the mango seller ran hastily across the road to them, he typed on Google, 'Is mango safe for pregnant women”

After he read through, he nodded and said, "Give her one thousand-naira mangoes."
The woman gasped, "Sa, the whole mango for my tray na five hundred naira."

"Okay, give her all of it," Edem said.

The woman emptied all the mangoes in her tray into a black nylon bag excitedly. "Oga thank you," she said excitedly.

Edem drove off.

Enomma didn't finish the first mango she'd started licking when she said, "I am tired already."

Edem became furious, "But you said you wanted mangoes?" he asked angrily.

"Yes, but I have lost my appetite now," she said.

Link: https://africanfictions.com/flash-fiction/behind-a-thousand-smiles-chapter-1/

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