Preying Mantis: The Story of Tarissa by Lyn Thomas

Author:Lyn Thomas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780692467602
Publisher: Lyn Thomas-Ogbuji
Published: 2015-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

14

No Divorce

A lady told me the other day

No one can take her sweet man away

I asked her what was the mystery

She said coconut water and rice curry

MAGDA SPENT THREE weeks in England rather than the fortnight she planned for and which was the usual duration of her vacation trips there. The extension to a third week became necessary because John’s treatment not going well. For visa, business, and family reasons John had to return to Nigeria after three weeks of chemotherapy, but he planned to go back to the UK in a couple of months for more tests and follow-up. Magda returned to the U.S.

Two weeks after her return, her friends came to visit her as a group. Word had gone out about her brother’s illness and the women came to welcome her back and express their wishes that her brother would recover soon. But they also came because every time she went to England, Magda brought treats for her friends, mostly snacks and toiletries. Usually she came back with pound cakes, Cheshire cheeses, Digestive biscuits, toffees, and PG Tips tea. And whenever they visited her they had a good treat to English tea and took away confections.

As always, such a group visit on a Saturday or Sunday was also an occasion for camaraderie. Women like to exchange gossip and recipes at such gatherings and Len thought that women had more fun among themselves when gathered together than men had in their own caucuses. There were quite a few of them on this occasion. The sitting room could not seat a large group, so some of the ladies gathered around the coffee table, squatting on their haunches, Oriental style, on the deep-pile carpeting. Others sat on the extra-large bean bag that, six feet across, commanded the space in front of the fireplace.

Whenever they gathered like that Len served them wine as a livelier alternative or addition to the tea Magda brewed for them; then he would quietly withdraw to his study in order not to dampen their enthusiasm or get his ears burned by the raunchy jokes they sometimes shared. He only emerged every half hour or so to refill wine glasses or tea cups, and serve them cheese or crackers. The younger wives, who aspired to hosting small dinners like the ones Magda gave often, asked Len questions about the wines and cheeses. He and Magda were wine drinkers all the way to when Len was in grad school, and their home was always well stocked with wines. He was happy to oblige them: What wines went best with what dinner fares, which ones should be served chilled and which one at room temperature, whether it was safe for one to start with some vintner brand and then go on to others as the evening wore on, etc.

Today, one of the ladies described her reaction to the move “The War of The Roses,” which she had just seen. Unfortunately, Len had come in to refresh the drinks when the lady opened up on that topic.

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