Salvation Colony

Chapter Seventeen

99 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die Chapter Seventeen Cosmas Mfetebeunu I t took me an awfully long time to discover that Mr. Dennis was absolutely ignorant of whatever transpired between my sister and Dr. Essemo after he left them. He did not care about them. He had embraced his new religion with one mind and told himself often: “No man having put his hand on the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.” Although at the time Mr. Dennis was talking to me he did not actually mean that it was Dr. Essemo who had fathered the child, Dr. Essemo was indeed the father of the child! It all began very harmlessly, like a joke. As I would learn years afterwards, my sister spent 6 weeks at Dr. Essemo’s place after the disappearance of Dennis. Dr. Essemo found my sister most serviceable. She worked indefatigably all over the house, mopping the floor, weeding the garden and flower beds, cooking food, washing and ironing clothes. It was not in Dr. Essemo’s nature to go out hunting for girls or free women. He had, over the years cultivated the habit of spending his evenings at home or in his office. The thought of what Mr. Dennis had done to their two families was never to leave his mind. He never failed to pity my sister and to curse Dennis. I was to learn that one day as they sat together in the parlour he exclaimed: “Why did God make things like this?” “Like what, doctor?” my sister asked. 100 Linus T. Asong “Giving a good woman like you to a cow like Dennis and giving me a Jezebel like Gertrude!” he added. My sister looked at Dr. Essemo for a while and then said with calculated suggestiveness: “But have they not gone away, Doctor?” Dr. Essemo shook his head in disappointment. He saw in my sister a young woman starved of the pleasures of marriage, through no fault of hers. On her part, she too felt the same way about Dr. Essemo. She wondered why a nice man like Dr. Essemo was made to marry an obnoxious woman like Gertrude. She pitied Dr. Essemo that at that young age he should spend his time alone. Here were two adults who until lately had been separately married. They had both lost their partners, and it would be wrong to think that the thought of belonging to each other now never crossed their minds. This community of feeling became so strong that one night when Dr. Essemo returned from town after having taken a lot of alcohol, he strolled into my sister’s room and, as if she was already his wife, made love to her. The following morning, coming to himself he tendered an unnecessary apology. It was not a case of seduction because he did what she was most happy to do. Not that she was promiscuous in any way. The two had counted Dennis out of the human society. Dr. Essemo who was so glad to see him leave his residence unhurt, did not give him more than a week before he hung or drowned himself. He did not see how things could turn round and bring Dennis back into the society of normal human beings. My sister thought no less. In fact, she usually spoke of Mr. Dennis as “my late husband!” Although on such occasions she actually wanted to say “my former husband,” it reflected how lightly she thought of her relationship with Mr. Dennis. The sex act in itself was seen on both sides as a benevolent gesture. It was its aftermath which complicated the 101 Salvation Colony: Sequel to No Way to Die matter. In the first place, Dr. Essemo repeated the act three times, without even the excuse of alcohol. On the third occasion he warned her to inform him if she noticed any signs of pregnancy and he would perform a D & C on her. Anxious to have a child (her husband had repeatedly discouraged her from sharing the same bed with him for a whole year!) and lucky to find herself in a position to have one by a man so great as Dr. Essemo she hid her pregnancy from him. As a matter of fact, it was fear of discovery that prompted her to return to Mbongo. Dr. Essemo took the news of the...