Jeremiah, part of the love triangle

30 Aug, 2015 - 05:08 0 Views

The Sunday News

WE have dealt with the subject “pain is a woman” to the point of monotony. But at times it is quite necessary to hit hard on an issue. Jeremiah deserts his wife of four years, Matilda. The final straw came when he caught her in bed with another man. The automatic conclusion is that Jeremiah was justified to walk out on his wife following that unfortunate incident. However, hold it there till you hear the finer details of the cause then you can make an informed conclusion. Like Fatima and Sofia, Jeremiah has to be at the Rotten Row court to attend Sofia’s trial. Fatima was to be there since she was Sofia’s mother. Jeremiah was to be there because he was the one and only witness who was present the day Sofia’s husband died. The question still stands, why was he there?

Jeremiah looks back and wonders why he ever married his wife at all. He says theirs was a torrid four years of incompatible cohabitation. So incompatible that they remained childless, after four years of marriage. Something unacceptable from a traditional perspective. He finds it hard to pinpoint if the childlessness was the principal cause of their separation. Could it be the unexpected reunion with Sofia, his childhood sweetheart that had put the death nail into the already troubled marriage?

Surprisingly, despite all the betrayal, Jeremiah still loves his wife Matilda. After the reunion, Sofia had started to dominate his dreams. That went on and on until Matilda had to ask him, “Who is this Sofia anyway?” Jeremiah was unclear in his response and stammered desperately, like a child who has been caught licking grains of stolen sugar. His wife clarified that the Sofia he was always dreaming about. Defensively Jeremiah asked her how she knew about the people he always dreamt about.

Matilda went on to tell Jeremiah that there has been a lot of talk about him and a certain married woman whom he had been seeing quite a lot those days. She asked, “Could this Sofia, this woman of your dreams, could this be the same married woman that I have been hearing so much about? I must, however, warn you that she is married to a very influential man, a very big man indeed. I hope you realise the folly of getting involved with that kind of person.” Is Jeremiah not cheating on his wife?

The writer is not immune or cannot ignore talking about the cancer or vices afflicting the community he lives in. When Matilda warns Jeremiah that Sofia is married to a very influential man, a very big man she implies that some people are untouchable. Such people cannot be challenged and crossing their parts can be catastrophic. Jeremiah cannot believe his ears, but Matilda tells him that she is giving him a piece of advice.

Matilda persists, telling him that the woman he is dealing with is the wife of a councillor and he is educated enough to know what a councillor is. She tells him that Sofia is married to a very influential man, a very dangerous man indeed. She hoped Jeremiah realised the gravity of his actions letting him know that they could even lose their flat because of that Sofia of his. Jeremiah is furious and threatens Matilda never to mention that name again. But Matilda tells him that they could lose that flat because of his foolishness reminding him that she had to press a button to get the flat.

This is an example of corruption. Matilda tells us that she did not get the flat fairly but some underhand deals took place. We already know that what she did eventually led to the breakup of her marriage. She was caught by her husband in bed with an official from the housing ministry. Jeremiah is defiant telling Matilda never to mention that name again. Matilda asks if he thinks she is more important than that flat. She relates that she had to press a lot of buttons for them to get that flat, so he had to be careful whose toes he stepped on. In fact, that councillor with whose wife Jeremiah was fooling around is a very close friend of the minister of housing and construction.

After Matilda had stormed out of the bedroom, Jeremiah remained doing some introspection. He asked himself whether that was the kind of stuff that kept couples together “till death do us part”. The physical attraction that had existed between them was no longer there. There was now this deep emotional gap between them. The constant reminder about his failures and how the flat had been obtained had become a thorn pricking deep into his manhood.

Jeremiah accepts his failures. He says: “Being the poor teacher that I am, I do not need these constant reminders about what a big failure I have turned out to be.” He says he does not need anyone to remind him of his too many failures as he knows that he is the epitome of failure. Everything he has attempted has ended up being of no consequence. Even the poems he treasured so much have apparently failed to impress anyone else. All the publishers he has approached have thrown them back at him accompanied by single sentence rejections.

All the publishers found the poems either “too moralistic” or “over written”. Above all, he had failed to get Matilda pregnant, a fact which Matilda would always find opportunity to remind him about. Jeremiah is looking back on all these. He has walked out of his wife Matilda and has been seeing his childhood sweetheart. He is faced with reality now. In two hours’ time he has to be at the Rotten Row court attending Sofia’s trial. He is the only witness who was present the day Sofia’s husband Nyati died.

Sofia is waiting to be tried for murder. Jeremiah says whatever her fate turns out to be, he will never forgive himself for the role he played in the unfolding saga. No doubt about it, he is convinced that he played a pivotal role in the unfolding of this drama. Find out what happened in later issues.

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