Dating : Gbe.se.le

English translation: Ban, claim

To forcibly take ownership of a property mostly by a higher autority.

I’ve always been the smartest one in school. I was so intelligent that I won the King’s scholarship to go to secondary school.

He even sponsored my education to study in an Ivy League university.

I remember my mum taking me to his palace the day before I was supposed to leave for school. I saw the King and his 3 wives sitting beside him. The eldest sat proudly, closest to the king, she didn’t say much but I admired the kind of confidence that radiated out of her posture. The way she held her head high, smiling gracefully at me, and nodding, agreeing to everything the king said. The one I presumed to be his 2nd wife, had a frown on her face. I stared at her, she smiled briefly and took her face away from me.

The last, the one who looked like the youngest had a very ‘uninterested’ look on her face. She kept fiddling with something in her hands. I was seated on the floor with my mother by my side but I couldn’t stop wondering what she was playing with. I tried to stretch my head to peep, but the King’s constant need for a response at the end of every statement caused me to look back at him and respond from time to time. My mum even pinched me at some point when she noticed that I was distracted.

The king prayed for me. He chanted all sorts of prayers. He then gave me a bead bracelet and asked me to wear it on my left wrist. He said it will always give me protection anywhere I went. And anytime I was in trouble, I should just count the beads and say “one for mother earth, one for the heavens, whatever I desire heaven and earth provide” in my native tongue.

I remember trying this once when I was worried I was going to fail my final exam. I had made a very big mistake that I thought was going to cost me graduating with distinction. I touched the bracelet mockingly but hopefully and said I wanted an A in the course. Miraculously I had an A. I was shocked but I wasn’t going to believe that a bracelet brought me this luck. I mean, I was a well educated Ivy League girl and science has thought me enough not to believe in such nonsense. Besides, I was also a Christian. I know science and Christianity didn’t agree often but those two together were enough to help me dismiss the idea that this bracelet could help with grades. It must have been God, I concluded.

I graduated with distinction and I was already getting different job offers even before I graduated. I however decided to go home instead. I felt my degree would be of greater good to the people of my community, besides, my final project was looking for ways to provide solutions that works in third world countries. I already wrote various proposals that I was ready to submit to various companies and the Federal Government so as to kick start my project. I was already getting pledges before I even submitted a formal proposal.

When I finally got home, my mum and dad were so excited. My dad was now a chief in the town. My mum insisted that I went with her to greet the king. We went to his palace that evening.

It’s been about 4 years now and the king looked exactly the same as the last time I saw him. They already redecorated his visiting room. The concrete floor was now covered with marbles. The once very hot room was now fitted with an industry grade air conditioner. This time, we didn’t have to sit on the floor. There were now leather chairs surrounding the throne of the king. We stood there till the king arrived because we were not allowed to sit before the king. He came out, this time without his wives. My mother would later tell me they were all on vacation in London.

The king smiled at me, looking very excited. He stood up and gave me a very tight hug then a peck on my cheek. It felt strange but I didn’t think of it as anything. He put his hands around my shoulder and asked me various questions. Questions about how it was like schooling, hope I wasn’t allowing boys to disturb me and I was facing my studies. He asked for the bracelet he gave me. I had left it in my bag so I told him it was home. He said good, hope you didn’t damage it. I said no. He then asked his guards to take me to the other room while he speaks to my mum.

The guard did as instructed. The talk didn’t last long. The guard came back to get me and he escorted my mum and I out of the palace.

My mum had a strange look on her face. I hadn’t seen her in that mood in a long time so I searched my head for a while to determine what the problem could be. Unsuccessful, I asked her what was wrong. As if snapped out of her thoughts, she smiled “nothing my dear. I’m so happy you’re home” and the smile disappeared as quickly as it emerged.

Early the next morning, my parents called me to the living room. I was scared. Wondering what I had done wrong because I know my parents, they only call you to the living room this early when you’ve fucked up. Lol.

“My daughter, please sit down”

“I don’t know how you’d take this but as your parents I need you to listen carefully…”

I heard admire, king, love, marry, wife and I went into a strange panic attack.

“What!? Daddy no way!”

It’s been a month since I was given the news. The king liked me and wanted me to be his fourth wife. We got married about two weeks later. It was such a scary moment for me but my mum kept reassuring me that the king was a very wonderful man and he was going to take care of me. She even gave me examples of Esther in the bible. She made it sound so enticing. After fighting for a long time and even threatening to run. I finally gave into it.

The wedding was big, various state governors and very important people were present.

I can’t forget that night. I was taken into a large room which had a lot of white and gold. The bed was covered in white sheets. The wood of the bed and the side pillars were also white with golden flowery patterns. The bed had a large headboard with a round opening in the middle. A well sculptured lion head was protruding from the round opening of the head board. The maids took me into the bathroom, carefully took off my clothes, placed me in a bathtub and cleaned me. When I got out of the bathtub, they dried me with white towels and massaged my body with sweet smelling oils and ointments. They took my arms and led me to the bedroom. They asked me to lay on the bed. I did as instructed. I laid naked on the bed. I knew what was about to happen but I didn’t think about it for a while but once I was alone, the thought flooded my head.

I suddenly remembered that I was no longer a virgin. I had a boyfriend during my 2nd year in college, we didn’t last long but we had many sexual adventures that should probably be kept to myself.

I had heard a lot of stories about African culture and I knew the kind of stigma that surrounded not being a virgin on your wedding day. They would put a white sheet on your bed that should get stained with the vaginal blood which the husband would have to bring out as proof that you were a virgin.

Hmm, maybe that’s why this bed is covered with white sheets. I thought to myself.

I suddenly felt this weird feeling of shame, like I wasn’t going to be good enough for the king.

My Ivy League self kicked me, you are a strong woman. You will not let society dictate how things should be for you or what to do.

The wait also made me panic even more. The room suddenly looked like the depiction of a sacrifice room in movies. There were candles everywhere that made the room a little dull but gave it a pleasant aroma. I kind of got bored of laying there so I got up, covered myself with the towel and walked towards the radio that I had spotted on the wall right in front of the bed. On getting closer, I realized that it had a record player. I opened the shelf under the radio and saw a collection of record discs. I went through them and found one of Bob Marley. “Hmm, I didn’t know the king listened to music” I turned the radio on and placed the pin on the record. I checked the back of the case to check for the track number for “turn your lights down low” then tried to locate it by moving the pin head around. I turned the volume up a little and danced, in a bid to calm myself down.

I suddenly went into some kind of high which I have a feeling was caused by the incense burning beside the candles on the large drawer that stood against the right wall of the room in between the the entrance and the bathroom door. The left side of the room was covered with windows.

This high caused me to dance uncontrollably, constantly putting the pin head back to start the song again and increase the volume. I didn’t even hear the door open. The king held me from behind and said I smelled so good. I jumped a little, startled, but I quickly calmed down. I turned to him and smiled. He kissed me on my lips and told me not to be afraid. He took me back to the bed and laid me back on it, naked. Then he went into the bathroom.

He came out, fully naked. I turned away because I wasn’t prepared to see “the king’s” nakedness.

He climbed on top of the bed and came on top of me. I looked into his eyes for a second but quickly took it down to his chest. He had what looked like a bullet wound on his right chest. “Don’t be scared” he said again. I looked at his face. He suddenly didn’t look so old to me. The king was in his forties and he still looked like a young man. He was well built and his arms were muscular. He would later tell me stories of his time in the army and all the military training he got. “Are you a virgin?”, he asked. I was too embarrassed to say anything. Then we got into it.

Next morning, I woke up to maids and the other wives surrounding me. The wives sat down on the edge of the bed while the first wife was calmly sending different commands to the maids. She asked them to clean up all the candle wax and clean the whole room.

After a while, she looked at me. “Oh, our wife, you are awake.” She had such a pleasant accent. “We are here to explain to you how things are done in the house so you can understand your roles and responsibilities.” She explained everything from cooking routine to ‘sleeping with husband schedule’. It was going to be a monthly thing. Each wife gets a whole month with the king. It used to be 4 months in a year for each wife but since I’m now part of the team, they recalculated. She also talked about medicals and she became very serious when she got to this topic. “Now that we are all one, it is important for us all to take care of ourselves and also our husband. We should all be careful to make sure no one does anything stupid that would ultimately affect the rest of us”. I noticed the third wife look away. I began to wonder why. Did something happen that I didn’t know? I wanted to ask but it would have been too weird so I just kept nodding in agreement. Oh and I was assigned a personal bodyguard. I suddenly felt so important. Oh my, I’m a queen. I felt like I was about to live in a fairy tale except mine had a little twist.

*

The next few weeks were different. I remember how I used to have dreams of getting married to a young man whom I fell in love with. How we would both grow together and raise our beautiful kids together in the suburbs. Full of love, hope and dreams. I never imagined my life was going to take a twisted turn. Then my mum’s words would come into my head “There’s a difference between falling in love and loving someone. Falling in love will always fade away. But you can grow to love someone and that is what keeps a relationship strong. Falling in love is just like a beautiful cloth, it fades over time. You will grow to love him and that will surpass all you’ve ever learned or known about love.”

I told the king about my projects and he supported every single one. He even called some business partners for me to pitch my ideas to. They all loved it and agreed to invest in my project. I later found out that the first wife was also a very educated woman. She told me she was a project manager and offered to help with my project. We quickly became close. She would tell me from time to time about when she first met the king. Way before he was made the king. They met in college and they fell in love. He was an engineer and she was a business administrator. The former king later died and he was in line to be the next king. As a gift, he was given another wife, the 2nd wife. She said she was so rude at first. Always eyeing her and disrespecting her. She said she couldn’t figure out why at first but she would soon realize that it stemmed from inferiority complex when the king married his third wife. The King went to a Hall dedication in the town’s polytechnic. The building was named after him. During the ceremony, he met a couple of young girls who came to greet him. That was when he saw her. She said she was so sure it was because of her large buttocks and luscious breasts. Her exact words lol. She said she knew her husband well and she had caught him many times lustfully staring at the buttocks of various ladies. Even the wives of his chiefs. She said she knew she didn’t have that kind of buttocks but she made sure she made what she had work. Experimenting and doing many crazy things with him. She didn’t really go into details, she just winked. That wink told me more than she was saying. I laughed so hard at the way she narrated this story. She said “what, you think because I’m older I can’t spread my legs wider than you?” I almost passed out laughing.

She said, in her opinion, the second wife was the most beautiful, with her slender figure and a beautiful skin but she was always angry, maybe because she was the only uneducated one. The third wife was unforgiving with the way she constantly corrected her english, snapping and hissing in disgust when she mispronounces words. It wasn’t like her english was any better though.

I was always curious about the third wife. A very good looking young lady. I figured she was just a few years older than I was. She was always busy doing one thing or the other. Constantly typing away on her phone. She seemed like such a mysterious character. Always disinterested in what we all had to say. I wondered who she was always chatting with on her phone. Sometimes she would go all night talking to God knows who on her phone. I knew it was none of my business but I really wanted to know her story.

One day, I took a walk in the king’s garden. I wanted to see the little zoo my body guard kept telling me about. He wanted me to see the king’s lions. I took the day to visit this zoo.

I walked to mazes of well groomed plants that acted as walls on each side of the walk way. I could see the black gate of the little zoo with “Animal Kingdom” written in white on a black board placed over the gate. At a point, the wall of plants stopped and I could now see a pond on both side as the walk path turned into a bridge that connects to the zoo. I figured that the pond surrounded the whole zoo. Most likely to prevent animals that escape from crossing to the other side. I looked left and in the far distance, I could see trees and close to the trees, I saw someone who looked like the third wife and a man. I wasn’t sure who the man was but judging from the black shirt he was wearing, I figured he must be one of the body guards because they all wore black fitted shirts and dark shades. This man in black was however touching the lady in strange places. She was backing him and it looked like he was kissing her on the neck. I was in shock. I wanted to ask my bodyguard to confirm but I feared that if my suspicions were true, it would only cause trouble so i didn’t.

My curiosity however grew a hundredfold. I needed to get to the bottom of this.

I began to study the third wife’s movements. When she went to bed and so on. She usually spent a long time in the livingroom, always the last to go to her section of the house. One particular night, I decided to stay up late with her then later laid down on the sofa, pretending to be sleeping to see what she would do. I covered my head with a light blanket that I could partially see through. She looked at me, to make sure I was sleeping, then typed something on her phone. She quietly got up and turned off the living room light, stayed for a while to make sure I wasn’t moving. I didn’t move. When she realized this, she went in the direction of the first wife’s side of the house which was close to the exit. I got up immediately and trailed her. Silently following behind at a close distance. She opened the door that lead into the first wife’s section of the house. I followed her. It was dark. I got into the first wife’s mini living room and quickly hid behind a sofa. I peeped to make sure she hadn’t noticed. She didn’t. I noticed something in her hands, it was dark so I wasn’t too sure but it had the shape of a big kitchen knife. I suddenly became scared. AH! IS SHE PLANNING ON KILLING HER? I thought to myself. I started panicking. I thought I had to do something but my heart was already beating uncontrollably. She opened the door that led into the first wife’s room and shut it behind her. I saw the light of the room come on. I knew I had to do something now. I thought of going to call the guards but I feared that the first wife would be dead before they got to save her. I decided to do something. I wasn’t going to let her kill my only friend in the house. I scrambled around to see what I could grab to protect myself. I saw a wooden statue and grabbed it as I quickly dashed towards the door.

I placed my ear to the door. I could hear people whispering but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I was however sure I heard a man’s voice. It seemed to suddenly make sense to me. She must have been planning with the guard in the garden to help her kill the first wife. I tried to wonder why they would want her dead though. It wasn’t like they were fighting or anything. It made no sense to me. I placed my hand on the door handle. Took a deep breath to give me some form of courage.

Then I burst through the door.

Three naked people. A guy wearing a black mask, holding a whip and two women on the bed. One was on all fours while the other was behind her sticking a round wooden stick into her behind. I suddenly figured that it was what the third wife was carrying in her hands. It wasn’t a knife at all. They all turned towards me, surprised.

What is going on here?!?!