The new temptation

My first inclination was to ignore it but I feared that some late caller might decide to phone him and disturb our sleep. I couldn’t risk that happening, especially since the last ten days of Ramadan mean a great chance at night worship which a disturbed sleep won’t allow. So I reached over him to […]

My first inclination was to ignore it but I feared that some late caller might decide to phone him and disturb our sleep. I couldn’t risk that happening, especially since the last ten days of Ramadan mean a great chance at night worship which a disturbed sleep won’t allow. So I reached over him to pick the phone. That was when I realized that it was in the palm of his hand.
 He must have fallen asleep while replying a text or something.
Because his hand was outstretched, I couldn’t reach it. So I had to walk all the way to his side of the bed to put off the phone. But before I put it off I realized that the message he received was a WhatsApp one. I have a great weakness for WhatsApp messages because I always receive something positive through them. Out of sheer curiosity I clicked the icon to open it. I got even more excited when I found out that it was an image message that was sent.  I love WhatsApp images and have quite a collection in my own phone. So standing by his side of the bed, I simply clicked open the message and immediately got the shock of my life.  It was a beautiful picture of a heart surrounded by flowers. A cupid arrow has struck at the heart and a few drops of blood are dripping down. Even the drops of blood are heart-shaped ‘I can’t get enough of your love, you are the red drops that nourish my heart’ was the message at the bottom of the picture.
With hands shaking and heart pounding I just slumped on the bedroom chair. Her name was saved simply as ‘Sweetie’. Still glued to the phone screen, I finally regained my reflexes and began to look up what she had sent earlier. It appeared that the message from Sweetie was a response to his earlier one. My husband had sent her a message that read ‘Hope you remembered me with every bite of fruit you ate at iftar. You make my life shine every day. I can’t wait to see you, all my love. xxx’. At this point I couldn’t stop the tears.
They were streaming down my face freely but I still went ahead checking all the previous messages they had exchanged. You can’t believe the kind of flirtatious, sometimes even downright licentious messages those two were sending to each other. Suddenly I felt that I didn’t know my husband at all. Could he be cheating on me? I wondered.
 I didn’t know how long I’d sat there snooping and crying.   I just remember finally putting off the phone and walking back to my side of the bed. Needless to say, sleep eluded me. It was thanks to my Adhan alarm clock that I was finally able to drag myself out of bed, after sleep overtook me much later. I immediately woke Habu up for sahur (pre-dawn meal) but told him to go ahead as I will observe my usual night vigil prayers before waking the children up to eat.’ Laila paused to pick a pack of pocket tissues from her bag and wipe away her tears.
‘I hope you didn’t confront him on the issue at sahur?’ I asked.
‘No, during the hours I spent lying next to him, unable to sleep, I made plans on how to confront him. Earlier on I had tried to wake him up and get it over with because I was tired of shedding tears in the dark, but I didn’t reckon with my husband’s deep sleep. He just turned over on his other side and went right back to slumber-land. That was when I decided that it will be better to talk after subhi (dawn) prayer. So after my night devotions, I woke the children up and served them sahur meal. Habu had eaten alone and gone in to make his ablutions. We had our meal in virtual silence because I was so pre-occupied with my discovery.
When the call for Fajr prayer began, I herded them into their room and instructed them to make ablution for prayer. I didn’t even keep them for our usual Qur’an recitation at dawn because I had to have this matter with their father over with. When we finished praying I told them they could go back to their beds and the relief was evident on their faces because they always find the dawn recitation tedious.
Anyway I made my way back to his room and waited while he returned from the mosque down our street.
He took a look at me and said: ‘Is anything wrong?’
‘No, why did you ask?’
‘Well usually at this time you are either reciting Qur’an with the children or you are back asleep but never sitting quite alert like this.’ He replied.
‘Maybe I have a reason to be this alert so early in the morning.’ I answered.
‘Really, and what could that be?’ he asked, removing his long brocade gown and replacing it with a t-shirt so he can get back to bed.
‘This is my reason’ I said, handing his phone over to him but with the message from Sweetie showing on the screen. For a few seconds he was speechless and unmoving. Then he walked away from where I sat to his side of the bed, still invoking the 5th Amendment to the American constitution. ‘I said that was my reason.’ I repeated.
‘And I have seen it, but nothing I can say will be of any use. Your mind is already made up to believe what you want to believe.’ Habu replied, lifting his feet on to the bed and covering them with our duvet cover. Overcome with anger at the casual way he was dismissing what kept me awake most of the night, I simply grabbed a corner of the duvet cover and yanked it off him.
‘What is wrong with you Laila?’ he asked angrily.
‘What is wrong, is that you are trying to brush aside an issue that gave me the most horrible night of my life.’ I hollered.
‘And is it my fault that you had a horrible night over something so insignificant? Why should you jump to conclusions just because a friend had sent me a joke?’ Habu demanded.
‘Because nothing about what your so-called friend sent and the previous messages you two shared sounds like a joke. Nor is the name you gave her anything insignificant. Or did you think I haven’t seen the other stuff you’ve been sending to each other? Well I have and it doesn’t look anything right or innocent.’ I argued.
‘Look, don’t raise your voice unnecessarily’ he pleaded raising himself up on the bed, ‘I said this is a joke between us because that is all that it is. She was a colleague whom everybody in the office called Sweetie when we worked together. Now she works in Lagos and we only ran into each other at the airport, a few months ago and exchanged phone numbers. You may find this hard to believe but I haven’t seen her since then, our only means of communication has been this social media. We never even call each other. So what is there in this to cause you sleepless nights?’ he asked.
‘Because everything I have seen in your messages suggests that you two are involved with each other. In any case, if you have an innocent, platonic relationship, then why couldn’t you share religious, spiritually uplifting messages in this holy month? Why should you continue the same old way of doing things? Doesn’t it mean anything to  you that this is Ramadan-il-kareem?’ I demanded.
‘Well you are right there and I accept that it is a mistake on our part.’ Habu responded in a reconciliatory voice. ‘I promise you I’ll end all such communication with her. I won’t respond to her if she sends any more messages and if she were to call me I will tell her that this friendship is over. Nothing is worth having you doubt me Laila.’ He declared. Moved by his apologetic tone I accepted his pledge and handed back the bed cover to him. I went back to my room to do my Qur’an recitation but the moment I finished my doubts came back.
Did he tell me the truth? Everything I read in those WhatsApp messages tells me the contrary. In the end I decided to see you and discuss.
What do you think Aunty Bint?’ My niece Laila asked.
To be continued.