OLD ENOUGH YET UNMARRIED: Episode 3.
It’s a few days to Valentines and I already know 2 people are going to be lonely like me; I’m
talking about Oby and Charly of course.
I still can’t get over what Yemi just told me, maybe if I tell you Charly’s story you’ll understand
why I’m so emotional about it.
Charly met Moyo about 3 years ago when she had just got the job at the oil company. At the
time, Moyo was jobless as he had lost his job at the bank when his unit was implicated in a
fraud scandal. That was when he discovered he was hypertensive.
Hypertension is also known as high blood pressure; it is a long-term medical condition in
which the pressure of blood in blood vessels called arteries (which carry blood to the various
organs in the body) is constantly high.
It can be caused by underlying medical conditions, eg. kidney problems or thyroid problems,
taking certain types of drugs, such as oral contraceptives and alcohol abuse. This type of
hypertension is called secondary hypertension because it has an underlying cause.
The other type of hypertension has no underlying cause, it develops gradually over time and it is called primary/essential hypertension and is the most common type seen in most people.
Moyo had the primary type of hypertension and at the time he was not experiencing any
symptoms. It was just discovered by chance at the hospital when he went there to complain
about something else. The truth is most people with hypertension might not experience any
symptoms initially till it becomes really bad, that’s why it’s called the “silent killer” and that’s
also why going for regular medical check-ups is advised.
Like I said before, I still don’t understand how Moyo stole Charly’s heart because usually
she’d never even date a guy with no job, he was so broke that he couldn’t even afford to buy
himself an ordinary toothbrush, but Charly didn’t mind, she was too in love with him. She
paid all his bills, including his house rent, although eventually he had to move in with her
when they realised it was more economical. She even went out of her way to enrol him in a
gym and prepare him low-salt diets to help improve his blood pressure. Before we knew it,
she was pregnant with his child. She had initially planned to terminate the pregnancy, but
Moyo begged her to keep it with promises of marriage. He even gave her a promise ring to
show that he was serious. Of course that further motivated her; she used her connections in
the oil company to get him the job he now has. Two years and a child later, Moyo was now
getting married to someone else. Now tell me why I won’t want to remain single after hearing
all these?
Yemi and I later decided to invite Charly over for lunch after church the next day and
carefully break the news to her when she was in a relaxed mood.
Whoever came up with the saying “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” must have been
a very wise man because I still can’t get over how Charly reacted to the news. All I can say is
thank God she doesn’t own a gun. She totally flared up when Yemi told her and started
breaking things; even I became scared. I started to wish we had chosen to tell her at her
own place instead, maybe she’d have broken fewer items!
After what seemed like forever, we were able to calm her down. She demanded to see the
wedding website, so we made sure to use her own phone to open the website just in case
she decided to fling it away from her afterwards. Surprisingly, when she saw the picture she
was more shocked than angry, she just sat there staring at the phone with tears in her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked, putting my arms around her shoulders.
“Moyo’s secretary,” she replied.
READ ALSO : Old Enough Yet Unmarried – Episode 2
“What about her?” I asked.
“That’s Moyo’s secretary,” she said, pointing to the picture on the website. “She resigned 6
months ago, the devil! She’s behind everything,” she added, wiping her tears and getting up
from the sofa.
“Where are you going?” Yemi asked when Charly picked up her bag and headed for the
door.
“I’m going to the fool’s place. Somebody is surely going to get hurt and it won’t be me!” she
said, storming out and slamming the door behind her.
While I sat there still trying to recover from the shocking revelation, Yemi ran after Charly in a
bid to stop her from causing any more harm. By the time she reached the gate, she was
already speeding off in her car. We tried calling her phone but she rejected the calls. All we could do was pray she wouldn’t commit murder before the end of the day.
When my phone rang a few hours later, my heart skipped a beat. I was half expecting Charly
to call to tell me she had been detained at the police station or something crazy along those
lines and, sure enough, it was her calling.
“Where are you?” I asked when I picked up.
“In my house, where else would I be?” she replied sarcastically.
“I hope you haven’t done anything crazy?” I asked, quite concerned.
“I only went to give that idiot a piece of my mind,” she said. “Oh! and I made sure to leave a
little reminder of my not-so-friendly visit on my way out,” she added with an evil laugh.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Remember the new Range Rover Sport I told you the fool just bought?” she asked.
“Yes, what about it?” I questioned.
“You’re still asking…” she said. “I smashed the windscreen. In fact I would’ve deflated all the
tyres if it wasn’t for the nonsense security guard who literally carried me out of the
compound,” she continued.
“Gosh! Charly that was too harsh!” I said.
“How can you say that?” she shouted. “Can you imagine? He had the guts to tell me he was
getting married to her because she was pregnant and her parents wouldn’t support her
having a child out of wedlock?! How does that even make sense? Do my own parents enjoy
having grandchildren out of wedlock?” she asked angrily. “I’m sure he’s doing this because
she’s a Yoruba babe(Yoruba is one of the many tribes in Nigeria), his mother never wanted
him to marry me because I’m from Benin and I will show him not to mess with a Benin babe,
that wedding will not hold as long as I’m alive. By the time I’m done with him, his
hypertension treatment will shift from lifestyle modification to lifelong medication,” she
hissed.
I think it’s only right to interrupt the story at this point to explain that last statement. When a
person has hypertension, as a form of treatment they are usually asked to make certain
lifestyle changes like reducing their salt intake, doing regular exercises, maintaining a
healthy body weight, reducing alcohol intake and quitting smoking. In some cases, these
lifestyle changes alone are enough to control high blood pressure. In cases where lifestyle
changes fail to control it or when the blood pressure is very high, the person might need to
take anti-hypertensive drugs to control it. Some people may need to take these
antihypertensives for life.
Moyo currently didn’t take any drugs for his hypertension, and Charly had done a good job
helping him out with lifestyle changes. I just hoped all this drama didn’t really make him start
to require drugs to control his blood pressure like Charly predicted.
I didn’t think I had ever seen Charly so enraged in all my years of knowing her, but I couldn’t
blame her, Moyo had seriously messed up and now Yemi and I had to find a way to fix his
mess.
Charly vowed to do everything within her power to stop the wedding, and she had already
sent Andrew, her 2-year-old son to her mother’s place to stay in preparation for the battle
ahead. I really hoped for Moyo’s sake that she’d change her mind before the wedding.
– Written by Dr O
Find out what happens next in Episode 4