Hello everyone.
Actually, my name is Gbenga Kajopaye, I'm a student of University of Ibadan, and I'm currently studying English Language, but that's not the matter. The real deal is that I am a writer, and my first full-length books that I wrote have just been published on Okadabooks. I'm sure many of you have heard or know about Okadabooks, but I'm even more certain that you haven't heard of Gbenga Kajopaye nor his books, and I'm trying. I've published a full-length novel titled The Married Bachelor, and also a collection of short stories(twelve short stories) titled The Long Walk And Other Tales.

Title-The Married Bachelor

Genre- African Romance Fiction

Description-The Married Bachelor is the story of two young couples whose marriage capsizes just a week to their first wedding anniversary. Simi accused Teju of cheating on her, and with the backdrop of economic recession flaring up everyone in the country, the problems escalate. Teju tried his best to gain back his wife's trust before their first wedding anniversary but to no avail, only to discover Tiwa, Simi's friend was behind it all.
The Married Bachelor is a touching and heart-rendering story of love, betrayal and bittersweet reconciliation, depicting a typical marital crisis in modern day African setting.

Title- The Long Walk And Other Tales

Genre- Collection of short stories

Description- The Married Bachelor is the story of two young couples whose marriage capsizes just a week to their first wedding anniversary. Simi accused Teju of cheating on her, and with the backdrop of economic recession flaring up everyone in the country, the problems escalate. Teju tried his best to gain back his wife's trust before their first wedding anniversary but to no avail, only to discover Tiwa, Simi's friend was behind it all.
The Married Bachelor is a touching and heart-rendering story of love, betrayal and bittersweet reconciliation, depicting a typical marital crisis in modern day African setting.

This is a short preview of The Married Bachelor below


THE LOVE BLACKOUT
Jumia Black Friday






1
Everything began to fall apart in Teju's home when he came home late on Jumia Black Friday night and Simi accused him of cheating on her in broad daylight. Teju got home late beyond usual, it was already fifteen past eleven in the night when he drove in, in his Toyota Sienna LE. Though he was a little happy, he was exhausted and famished. He knocked on the front door wearily, and with a loud yawn, but instead of a response from a sonorous and high pitch voice, saying "I'm coming!" there was a silence looming in air as an omen that all wasn't fine. On a typical night, Simi would open the door with a lustrous smile diffused on her face. She would give him a deep warm peck, take his suitcase and suit from him and remark thus "Oh, my baby is goddamn tired, why don’t you take a shower while I dish up your dinner". But now, he could only feel the stillness of a strange night. The fatigue he had, had so much deflated the alertness of his nervous system that he mindlessly banged hard at the door again, that the thud it produced could have woken the whole neighbourhood. The silence remained except for the slow metallic creaking of the door as it opened ajar. Now, that was an ominous sign to Teju as his nervous system was hyper activated. Could some armed robbers or assassins have raided his home and taken his lovely wife from him? Or could she be so forgetful to have left the front door opened and gone to a deep and careless sleep? All these questions rioted through his awakened mind as he dashed into the house, then through the dark hallway. When he got to the sitting room which was also dark, he stopped short. One could see the wrinkles these whole lurking maze sketched on his face even from the darkness, the adjoining stairs and the kitchen were also dark. There was a strange darkness which clouded his mind that he felt drowsy, he felt like collapsing on the ground. By now, the fact he was tired had become a mirage, he was sweating profusely and he suddenly felt like going naked; he tugged at his tie which seemed tighter than it was as he made for the switch at the left corner of the sitting room in effort to first send out darkness at least. He was half way when the light abruptly came on. He squinted and shielded his face with his hand before seeing his beloved wife standing menacingly at the switch as though she was going to switch off the light again and disappear.
"For God's sake, you scared the living daylight out of me, what is this drama all about?” Teju asked half indignantly and with half relief. The relief he felt relaxed his tensed muscles and it seemed his fatigue which was earlier flinched from him had been restored to him as he slumped heavily into a nearby black sofa. He felt a toothsome coldness grazing over the little perspiration on his forehead and using the hem of his tie to wipe it off he took a look at his wife who was still standing and looking at him both with threat and disdain, and this alarmed him.
"What is wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"The breeze has blown, and I have seen the anus of the hen" growled Simi. Teju was startled, but he allowed the words submerge into him, and wondering what that idiom could imply, he spoke
"So? What is so exciting about seeing the anus of a hen?" he asked sarcastically
"You freaking jerk!" Simi raved
"Excuse me?" Teju said, rising from the sofa with such agility which you could think had left him a while ago.
"Oh you think I didn't know, you think I haven't seen you with my two eyes?" Simi said, feigning to burst into tears
"What is it, baby?" said Teju as he made to come near her
"Stand back! Don't come near me!" Simi wailed at the advancing Teju who stopped short with a really confounded face minced with tiredness.
"I saw you... I saw you with a cheap dirty girl you call a personal secretary from the stinking pit of hell on a blasted and blighted date... eating and laughing away your own marriage... your own love and family." Simi had said this sturdily amidst weeping, her tears lacing her chubby rosy cheeks; she was now leaning against the wall with her face buried in her two hands. Teju could now see the root of the drama staged by his lovely wife who he knew loved to back her expressions with drama, perhaps to show the gravity or prominence of the matter. Teju remembered he had been out with his personal secretary to meet a potential and promising client. They had fixed an appointment with them at Cold Stone Creamery. Teju had a business belief that better agreements were reached with clients over a delicious delicacy and with an adorable damsel present. Though Simi had remonstrated vehemently against Teju accepting Ebun as his personal secretary, he had ignored her with the wave of the hand. Simi said that her spirit was not comfortable with Ebun, that she had standing breasts, shooting buttocks and slow eye lids which were good for nothing but seduction. Though he was not sure if Ebun was seductive nor was he certain if he was going to overcome if she tempted him, he had once again had his way, he had insisted on retaining Ebun as his secretary because she was more like an asset to him for making excellent deals with prominent clients. Now the same girl was the one ripping their marriage apart just a week before their much awaited and anticipated first wedding anniversary;
"Look, it's never like you think. I wasn't on a date, I was on a business mission with my personal secretary, and I suppose the moment you saw us was when we were waiting for our clients” Teju explained in a low and soft voice
"You are a devilish liar... you stinking liar!" Simi groaned silently, shaking her head frantically in downright disbelief.
"Look, baby, you have to believe me. When you saw me, was I kissing her the way I do when we are on a date? Or was my ring off my finger as cheats do when on a date with another woman?" Teju said firmly but still in his low voice, hoping to conjure up images of his blissful moments with her in contrast to what she had seen when he was with his personal secretary, but everything turned out worse.
"But you came home unreasonably late, just as cheats, hellish womanizers and bane adulterers do!" Simi blurted out, her voice was now high, and her face in a menacing grimace. Teju just stared at his wife, has something indefinite come loose on her head? What else could he attribute to the madness that had made his wife compare him and indirectly call him an adulterer?
"Where are you coming from?" Simi gnarled silently as Teju looked up at his wife both in surprise and in fear, in fear that something nasty was about to happen.
"Where the hell are you coming from?" She wailed, obviously desperate for an answer from her astounded and tongue-tied husband. Teju was already trembling from the very foremost strand of his hair to the sole of his feet, but he wasn't aware of it all. His white shirt and black suit were already soaked in sweat that they seemed to have merged with his skin. His throat cracked, his tongue was dry, and his lips glued stubbornly to each other, even though he wanted to tell her he had only spent some time with his friends in the bar, arguing about who was to blame for the economic recession. He wanted to tell her how he had made an impromptu speech which amazed his listeners. He had said 'We've always had a knack for having a bittersweet change. And we always had a miraculous and effortless way of earning whatever we had a knack for. Changing from imperialist to nationalist government, but concurrently thwarting and distorting the whole system; surely, our earnest love for bittersweet change is vast and indivisible. Or what else could we call a change where you see Corruption jumping out of the window, and Recession walking gallantly into the room with his own cushioned chair?' and they have applauded him. He also had an interesting gist about how happy he was that he had secured seven deals in just a month, a feat no one had ever attained in his company. He wanted to tell her that he was going to be compensated with a bonus which was half his salary's amount; that his boss had ordered a new personal computer for him on Jumia, being Black Friday. He also wanted to tell her that he had also ordered a coffee maker and washing machine which she had been clamouring for at discount prices on Jumia. He wanted to tell her so many things to make her smile broadly, and tell him how much he was a darling, how much she loved him, but he couldn't get himself to make a sound. Before long, Simi dashed out of the sitting room into the kitchen and Teju followed. Getting to the door, Teju saw a knife in the air; Simi was trying to attack him with a knife. He ran back to the sitting room as Simi followed him, he was really paranoid now. It was pretty unfortunate that Teju saw the knife first before he saw her face. Her face in closed contortions was animated with the bitterest of hatred and malice. Teju feared her face even more than the knife, and didn't underestimate her as she threatened with the knife. She gave him a hot chase round the centre table, spurting out curses and threats at him, and swinging her blows desperately for sometime before Teju cleverly seized the knife from her. Her face was tightened as she stared at the ring on her finger, and suddenly she slid out the ring off her finger, and with all the residue of her strength tossed it at him. It missed him completely, though he ducked as it made tiny clank-clank sounds on the tiled floor. She broke into a loud cry perhaps to show she was deeply hurt for failing to kill her beloved husband who had the effrontery to cheat on her in broad daylight. She ascended the stairs, like a child beaten in a fight by his mate. She was halfway up when Teju asked
"Where is my dinner?" Teju could see the surprise in her face as she stopped short on the stairs. Teju had a knack for being odd, for indifferently contradicting his own situation. Simi turned round and stared in awe at Teju who was at the foot of the stairs for sometime before she replied
"You better consider yourself lucky I didn't cook for you, or you'll be dead by now" she said as she finally disappeared, still sobbing silently. Teju had to put on his thinking cap. She was quite true about that, if she had cooked for him, poisoning his food could have killed him better than trying to stab him. He always knew when his wife was up to a joke, but this was apparently no joke, something unwholesome had happened. He feared he could not sleep with his two eyes closed, someone who had the gut to physically attack him with a knife could have the gut to sneak up to him while he was asleep and pin his heart to his bed. As he was brooding over the new and unprecedented qualms that had just crept into his life, he trotted sluggishly back to the sitting room. He took the ring on the floor and collapsed into the sofa, took off his shoes and socks, and began to contemplate which of the two he was going to do: ironing out the issue on ground with his wife or going into the kitchen and improvise a way to put the raging hunger at bay. Unfortunately, he was too tired, when tiredness was peppered with hunger; it seemed you are drunk with something more intoxicating than undiluted palm wine. As he sat with his body ultimately un-tensed, and stretched out, he felt his spirit leaving him, and his sight blurring out. He saw a floating and faceless feminine figure undulating towards him. The figure stopped in front of him and uttered unintelligible words, and subsequently let out a deafening laughter of scorn. Teju could hardly decide what it all was, if it was a mere hallucination or if it was a trance, he could not say. Everything seemed unreal and real at the same time; it was like been in the middle of death and life, heaven and earth, consciousness and unconsciousness. He muttered gibberish words to probably the feminine figure which had varnished, balanced on the sofa, and then drifted slowly like evening tide into sleep.


To buy and download The Married Bachelor on Okadabooks for #300 click the link below
https://www.okadabooks.com/publication/edit/6684

To buy and download The Long Walk And Other Tales on Okadabooks for #200 click the link below.
https://www.okadabooks.com/publication/edit/6686
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