Hello there! Its been ages and my page has gone rusty!
Let me quickly drop this short story inspired by a true life event to wet your appetite as i prepare to drop something bigger that i have been working on.

Where are my goons at? Domawoleye is around your neighborhood!

The house is full; friends, relatives and well wishers throng in and out in jubilant mood. The occasion is the tenth year birth day anniversary of Tanmiwa my son and the twin sister Tanimola. They are also Taiwo and Kehinde respectively. The occasion is grand because aside from celebrating their date of birth which coincidentally is Abayomi my husband’s birth day, we are also sending them off to Accra in Ghana for their secondary education.

Every one had something nice to say to them because they were simply adorable. They both cleared all the available prizes to be won at their primary schools graduation.
The twins share the same birth day with my husband Abayomi so he is equally resplendently dressed for the occasion. I had to gear up too so as not to be the odd one in the pack.

Grand ma had to close her shop at Ibadan to attend the occasion, all my six sisters in-law came with their husbands and some of their children. My Children happen to be the only grand children of the Abegundes because my husband is an only Son, thus the importance attached to them by the family is understandable. My sister’s in-law booked in advance for my Children to come spend every holiday with them. Sometimes I had to call on three different families in order to know where the twins actually are.

Last long vacation they had traveled to Ibadan to spend the holidays with their grand ma, they spent only a week there before Aunty Jumoke my husband’s eldest sister went to take them to her house in Abeokuta. After one week in Abeokuta, Biola my youngest sister in law had gone to take them out of the country to Ghana. The twins are not just my Kids but the family’s. Now Biola has gotten admission for them in a secondary school in Ghana. It was a herculean feat to arrive at because Abayomi had wanted Tanmiwa to go to the Nigerian Military School Zaria and Tanimola to Air force military School Jos but grandma and the Ladies would have none of that. They said it was mean of Abayomi to send the twins to Military Schools so Biola got admission for them in Ghana which was preferred over all other expensive schools offered to be sponsored by the sisters.

The twins are my only Children and the source of my happiness in the family of the Abegundes. Prior to their birth, my marriage was at the verge of collapse while I was losing my mind. My life was miserable until I met someone that took me somewhere. In short, let me tell you my story.

My people have a saying that “It is the head of a Child in a house that invites another”. The cries and whining of a baby in a house will certainly pave way for more children.

I have been married for eight years without conceiving let alone having a miscarriage. I have been through a lot of excruciating humiliating experiences, I lived in the shadows of my real self, and I seldom contribute to extended family discussions. I have been so traumatized to the extent that even if anyone is trying to be kind to me, I think he or she is pitying me due to my childlessness and if anyone is as much as being frank with me I feel as if he or she is not having pity on my childless condition.
I was always at cross roads with every one even Abayomi my husband and this has brought about a tensed atmosphere in the house, especially when my in-laws are around. My only companion is my phone or my shop.

My sisters’ in-law’s last visits is another episode that had further darkened my mood.
After the usual exchange of empty and bland pleasantries, they seized the opportunity that Abayomi had gone to work and gave me two choices.
It was either I conceived and bore a Child or I gave my consent to my husband taking a second wife who would conceive and bear them children, they further said that if I am destined to have a Child in the life, then maybe the head on the child to be borne by the new wife would invite children by me into the house.

Stella, am I God that gives Children? I asked. What have I done to you and your Sisters that you have decided to make my life miserable! Why Stella?

Give us Children! Moyo give us Children! Is that too much to ask for! She asked clapping her hands
Eight solid years have passed yet no show! All you do is eat, sleep, press your yeye phone and brood about the house! That’s all! Is that all you will do with your life? Please we need babies in this house! Our Mother needs to see her grand children! I mean the Abegunde grand Children! Stella continued as I ran into my room to cry myself to sleep.

The most painful thing is that Stella and I were school mates in the university, in fact we were friends and she actually linked me up with her brother Abayomi. Our relationship deteriorated over the years due to my childless state. Stella married the same year with me and she now has three Children and expecting the fourth. She feels responsible and guilty for linking a barren woman with her elder brother, she once told me that the family at large blames her for giving her brother a fellow man to marry and she has vowed to remedy the situation at least to redeem her image in the family.

My mother in-law Mrs. Abegunde is the loveliest any woman can ask for. She seldom visits but calls at least twice a week to encourage me and pray with me. She manages her Local restaurant in Ibadan and is always busy. She has sent several native herbs to me but the truth is that I abhor native concoctions since childhood; she must never know that I do not take the herbs she has been sending to me. I disposed them.

My husband Abayomi Abegunde is a gentle man, he tries to hide his concerns from me. I know he is not a happy man because of our childless situation coupled with the pressure from his family. But before me, he puts up a bold front as if all is well. He shields me from the tantrums of Stella and Biola their last born. He is an only male child with six siblings, their father died after Biola was born. Abayomi is the third born. All his sisters are married with Children. Even Biola that married two years ago has two children already, I attended all the naming ceremonies and I was made to carry all the children as the priests dedicated the children; this was supposed to be a blessing to me. The children were supposed to be points of contact between me and my unborn children.

I went to help them bath and take care of their babies when they were born until after the ninth grandchild was born by Abayomi’s elder Sister in Abeokuta . The Woman had politely insulted me. She asked when I would be tired of visiting them whenever they gave birth. When will we come to your house nah? She had asked jokingly. It was like a thousand darts to my heart. I left her house the next day and returned home to my husband. Mummy Abegunde has fourteen grand children from her six daughters. None from her only Son, my husband; after eight years of marriage.

Abayomi and I have done every medical test there is and we have been certified okay by the Doctors. We have been placed on fertility drugs to boost our chances of conceiving. We have changed five different churches through the years, we now secretly attend a ministry pastored by a strange man of God that performs miracles and prophesies. He had said we would have children within one year. He has been saying this since four years ago now and we are tired. We have supported all the churches financially through the years and now my husband is fed up. He doesn’t attend any church any longer, but I still attend. It still makes me feel good whenever I listened to the man of God prophesying and when I see other people receiving their miracles during prayer and deliverance sessions.
I have attended more than twenty five deliverance sessions and every time I was told that the demon blocking my womb has been exorcised and cast into hell. I have been flogged to exorcise demons from my life; I have been bathed by four different men of God. One of them was even pressing my nipples, I kept quiet until I realized he had developed a hard on. when he grabbed my breast from behind and began to moan softly, I pushed him into the river and scuttled away with my clothes.
Another Man of God had suggested inserting holy oil into my vagina with the aid of his joystick, I was stark naked before him in his holy of holies chamber after he had rubbed my body all over with the holy oil. He used his joystick to actually insert the oil in me. I did not tell my husband any of these sordid experiences. I have been through a lot.

My husband decided to open a provision shop for me to keep me occupied and take my mind off my problem. The Shop was built in our compound with the entrance at the fence facing the street, I sell basic family needs. My husband leaves for work as early as 5.30AM daily in order to beat the Lagos traffic. I open the shop at 8.00AM after the house chores.

Abayomi suggested that I employed a house help but I declined. I was afraid of what Stella would say. House help? She would ask. To help you to cook or to help you tend to your baby? I could imagine her making me cry the more. All the jewelries my husband bought for me I locked away, I do not even make my hair any more, I simply plait “all back” and look simple. I have no right to look flashy. A childless woman. I do not even drive my Nissan Xterra when Stella or Biola is around, I would rather take a commercial tricycle if I need to go to church or market.
Kilo nmu inu re dun na? Biola had asked me on a certain day that I returned home from the church singing praises, she asked what was making me happy. Se o ti l’oyun ni? She had asked. I felt the jab of a jack knife to my chest. So I cannot sing praises to God and be happy again simply because I am not pregnant? I had asked her.

Is it today that you started singing praises? She said mockingly. All the prayers and praises and night vigils equals to Zero! She teased.
Biola you are not my God! Biola you are a woman like me o! I challenged
Joor! Joor! Joor! She shouted. Please I am not a woman like you o! I am a fruitful woman! Look at me very well! She turned round for me to see. Can you see this? She pointed to her bulgy stomach. Can you see it? She asked again. Get yourself into this shape then you can compare yourself to me!
My husband was not always around when they came in to taunt me. And they knew better than visit during the week ends when he would be around. This Biola used to call me Aunty Moyo when I married her elder brother. She was in her final class in secondary school then. Now she calls me by my name and I am afraid of her.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

My face was swollen as I stood up to attend to a customer who just entered the shop. I have been crying.
“Madam, are you okay”? The woman asked me.
“I am fine customer”! “You are welcome”. What do you want to buy please?
“Haba madam”! “You have been crying”, “see your eyes”! The woman said
I broke down and started crying all over, she came over and pulled me together and I cried some more.
“Talk to me madam”! “Talk to me”! She encouraged. And I told her the story of my life, the first time I would do such to a complete stranger.

“I understand what you are going through madam”! The woman said. “I was in your situation some years back until God made a way for me”.
“How”? I asked. “You conceived”?
“Technically yes”! She said.
“Technically”? I asked.
“Yes dear, let’s say I have my own children now and that is all that mattered”.
“Please how did you do it”? I asked. “I have tried everything in this world to no avail, medically, spiritually and even traditionally”! “I have visited Babalawo because of this matter”! I confessed. “My own case is worse! I am born barren”! “My sister, I am losing my mind”! I started crying all over.
“Madam, take it easy, I will be back here tomorrow at noon and I will tell you what I did, you hear”? She asked.
“I hear ma”! “I will be here waiting”. I said. She bought some groceries and left while I cried some more and prayed before falling asleep in the shop.


“I was without a Child for fifteen years after marriage”. “My case was peculiar because I knew I was being punished for the reckless life I lived in the past”. “As an undergraduate in Port Harcourt, I was everywhere”! “My dear, I was a Rocker”! “There were a lot of white men in that oil City back then and the night life then was so sweet”. “My dear, I went through school, and school went through me”. Money was not my problem; I did not go home for holidays from my year two until I graduated. It was the N.Y.S.C scheme that sent me to Sokoto state that saved me from myself. I joined the Nigerian Christian Corpers fellowship NCCF at the orientation camp and from there I relaxed”.

“My husband does not know about my Campus life. After marriage, I was conceiving but having miscarriages. The drugs I have used to terminate and prevented pregnancies in the past have rendered my womb useless. All medical interventions were futile”.

“In the fourteenth year of my marriage my husband started changing. He started by keeping late nights with flimsy excuses. Later he started lying that he was working over night at the Office until he started going for training outside town and staying away for days and sometimes more than a week. Whenever he came home and I went through his things, I smelled strange female cologne on his T shirts, I see strands of female hair in his travel bag, there was a time I even saw nail cortex and condoms in his travel bag. What I was facing from his relation and mine was double what you may be facing now because I happen to be an only child to my parents so they too wanted a grandchild, my mothers wahala was more than my mother in-law’s! I knew I was in trouble, so I pulled a fast one”.

“So what did you do”? I asked Mrs. Oprie, my customer who had visited as promised.

“I visited Doctor Amaka Mbonu in Aba, all the way in Abia state”!
“Doctor Amaka”? Abia state? “Is she a gynecologist or something”? I asked
“Doctor Amaka as we all called her runs a maternity home in Aba, the husband is the pastor and founder of Intercessor Ministry, a church that shares the same building with the maternity home”.
“So how did they help you”? I asked.
“Well, I think it is better experienced that told”. “Whenever you are ready, I will take you there. She said”
“But what exactly did you do nah”? I asked. “How did they solve your problem”?

“They made me the mother of two lovely boys’; they helped me regain my rightful position in my husband’s house and in his life”! “Now I am the apple of his eyes”! “They helped me to become the favourite wife amongst my in-laws, my mother became a happy and proud woman even in my father’s house because she too was an only child to her parent , she gave birth to only me and all the while I was childless, my father’s people said the childless gene is from her family. So my two boys within three years dispelled that assertion”.
“My husband bought me my first Car after fifteen years in marriage after the birth of my first child Jeremiah; he changed the Car again when I gave birth to the second boy Ezekiel”.

“Wow”! I was so excited. “You actually conceived and gave birth”? I asked
“My dear, as far as the world is concerned, I gave birth”! “They all saw me pregnant”!
“For real”? I exclaimed. I was excited already. “Please when can we travel to Aba together”? I will discuss with my husband tonight.
“Whenever you are ready, I will make out time for the journey. Whatever takes me to Aba, I must reach my family house in Port Harcourt” she said

The sign post reads MBONU MATERNITY HOSPITAL (The Last Bus Stop). 4 Pond Road Aba. I silently prayed for this place to actually be my last bus stop in my quest for a child. Mrs. Oprie had already called the Doctor as we entered Aba from Owerri air port, so when we entered the hospital and sat at the reception, Mrs. Opris as she is fondly called, called the Doctor again and a nurse came and ushered us into the Doctors office. She did not waste my time neither did she mince words.
If you want a boy, it will cost you four hundred thousand naira, three hundred thousand for a girl and if you are lucky to have a set of twins we shall re negotiate depending on their sexes.

“How is this done please?” I asked. You haven’t even carried out any examination on me!
Doctor Amaka laughed out loud.” What are you saying?” She asked. “Madam Opris did you not tell your friend what we do here?”
“No Doctor!” Mrs. Opris said. “I wanted her to hear it from the horse’s mouth!” If I told her the truth, she might not come”.
“Tell me what truth?” I asked, looking from one woman to the other.
“The truth!” Mrs. Opris said
“What truth nah?” I asked. “Now you are getting me scared!” I said.
“Okay! Okay!” Listen, Mrs..ehm
Moyo! I offered

“Mrs Moyo! Thank you!” Said the Doctor. “Let me tell you how it works here! Our job here is to help people like you all over the county and abroad. As a matter of fact, I have lost count of the number of women we have helped here; it is over five thousand to say the least!”
“Once you are ready and you pay our acceptance fee of fifty percent, we shall put you on a food supplementary diet and some drugs. In a matter of months you will start adding weight and develop roundness around your stomach, your legs and your face. People will start seeing you as being pregnant. At the same time I will match you with one of my girls, one that has the same blood group with you. She will become pregnant and I will take care of her until she delivers here. You will be visiting from time to time as if you are coming for ante-natal care during which time you will fraternize with the supposed surrogate mother of the Child. It is okay by us if you do not want to know the girl at all because some of these girls can turn saboteurs tomorrow”.
“You will bring your husband here, but two things are involved”.
“What?” I asked.
“It is either you want him in on our little secret or you do not!” “If you do not want him in, then when he comes, we would act like a regular hospital and collect his blood sample and yours and make him believe we want to carry out some tests on you two. We will then study your menstrual circle and advise you on when to copulate. After then he will start to notice the physical changes in you, you will tell him that you have not been seeing your monthly flow and of course you must ensure he doesn’t see you menstruating! Is that clear?” She asked at this juncture.
I nodded my head.
“You will be here three days before the girl’s EDD and when the child is born, the mother is paid off and the child is handed over to you for life!”
I exhaled aloud.
“At this point we shall issue you a medical report about your breast milk being contaminated”. “You don’t have to be worried as that will be explained to your husband by me. You will not breast feed in front of your family, always ensure the baby is well fed so he or she does not cry for food when people are around because I know our people. Some People will visit you just to be sure you are the biological mother. In the presence of such people, take the baby inside, fill his mouth with milk from the feeding bottle then put your breast in his mouth and come out to greet such people with the baby’s mouth on your breast”. “When they see milk smeared on your breast, they will spread the news!”
Wow! I exhaled deeply.
“But it is easier if your husband is in the picture!” “This is mostly possible with couples where the man is the one who has fertility issues”. “Then the secret will be between the two of you”. “Another reason why we need the blood samples is to help determine the right girl to match with you”. “That’s the summary of it!” Doctor Amara said with a clap of the hands,
“Blood of Jesus!” I murmured.
“My dear! That is our calling o! Did madam Opris tell you that my husband is a Pastor?” Doctor asked
“Yes she did”. I answered.
“Good!” “We can even organize the child’s naming ceremony and dedication at our church, we will snap pictures and have video recording of the events. You can travel from your home for two months and tell your husband that you are coming here to deliver, we have accommodation here. He can come and visit and we will tell him we are keeping you under observation. On the naming ceremony day he will come around and everything will be done smoothly. Some people tell friends and relations that they have gone abroad to give birth but they are here in Aba bidding time and after two months they return home with their baby”.
“Blood of Jesus!” “You have this all sorted out!” I said.
“Na today?” Madam Opris asked.
“E don tay nah!” Doctor answered.
“Wow! I don’t even know what to say now. I need to go back to Lagos and clear my head first”. “I hope it is okay for me to go home and think it over?” I asked.
“Haba Madam Moyo!” Opris exclaimed. Yes nah!
“Okay, thank you Doctor!” “I really appreciate your time; I will definitely get back to you”. As I stood up, Madam Opris also stood and she gave the Doctor a hug. We went to Port Harcourt to visit Mrs. Opris parent at Rumuokuta. We spent two days before returning to Lagos.


A month after my return from Aba, on a quiet Sunday morning my husband woke me up from sleep. I sat up and wiped my eyes from sleep.
“What is it honey?” I asked
“We need to talk honey”. He replied.
“About what?” “Can’t it wait till morning?” I asked.
“I can’t sleep honey; I have been ruminating over it for a while now”. He said. “It is about us”.
“Us? What about us?” I asked alarmed. Even though I could guess what it was about.
“I don’t know how to say this honey but the summary of it is that I have decided to take a second wife!” “The pressure from my home is too much! Mama is sick now and for the first time since I married, mama expressed her fears of dying without seeing my Children”

A certain cold came upon me and my heart beat began to rise. Abayomi has reached the zenith of his defense and tolerance. His mind was made. He would do anything for his beloved mother. I have to tell him again about the doctor in Aba.

I stopped him from talking by placing a finger on his lips. “Don’t say more honey, there is hope in Aba, we shall go to Aba by weekend to see the Doctor I told you about last month. She has invited me again but said I should come with my husband”. We made sweet love and slept until late in the day.

So that was about eleven years ago as the Kids are now ten years old and our secret has been between us. But as I write this story today I am four months pregnant. I mean real pregnancy after nineteen years in marriage and forty four years of age. I did not even know I was pregnant. How would I know when I have never been pregnant before? I was still seeing my monthly flow but the flow was light, not heavy as usual and I had ascribed it to age. Menopause was knocking. Well Abayomi and I are happy and highly expectant. We won’t be bored when the twins leave for Ghana.
“That is how I was able to keep my home from falling apart. What woman would want a rival?”

THE END.

Wow.

undoubtedly the best writer on nairaland. can't wait for the big 1 thanks for this all the same.

Doma I've missed you o..I wish this was longer.

Domawoleye is back!!! Good to hear from you after a very long break, wish this was longer though.

I missed reading this type of stories on nairaland. Stories that are real with meaning, I mean good stories. Most times I don't even visit the literature section again because what we have there is junk. Thank damawoyele for this. I no do mistake follow you.

sir u are good no tell anybody more of this story please