PROVIDENCE

The serenity of her environment became false as she recovered from the deafening slap she had just received. Her senses gradually came to life and numerous memories she had tried to suppress flooded in. It wasn’t the first time he slapped her to prove his superiority but this time it was different, she neither wailed nor broke out in tears. She looked at him with purpose and intent as he barked at her and continuously shouted, “where have you been since morning."


His screams irritated her ears like the incessant buzz of a housefly. She kept still as the sound of his yelling became suddenly distant and soon inaudible. Her suppressed memory had started clouding her reality. She saw herself in a room that was void of happiness by the mournful faces that surrounded her. Her father had just died and if not for the gloomy faces, the scene might have being mistaken for a celebration that was yet to start. The neighbours and relatives trooped in to console the family.



No one could love her father an inch more like Loretta did, she usually beamed with smiles whenever she saw him. She was like a clone of her mother who gave up her breath to give her life, which made her father love her more than anything in the world, for she was in all way her incarnate. The cold hands of death aided by her step-mother snatched her father away and she was left to face the world alone.


Mr. Combs was a man of the kindest of spirit; it was argued that he couldn’t hurt a fly. After his wife died he stayed in solitude and took care of his daughter alone until help came from Lilly. He remained a widower for five years but after much persuasion from his friends and family, he succumbed and married Lilly. “How women change?” Was always the thought that crossed his mind whenever he was alone with his thoughts? Lilly that he so much loved became his instrument of torture. She frustrated him with her sickening behavior and terrible nature. Mr. Combs, a man that couldn’t stand the sight of blood, left a man dead in the pool of his blood. His wife had broken him and made him exceed his breaking point.



Mr. Combs, knowing how lustfully his wife ogles reverend Paul during church service, became suspicious when it became a routine for him to visit his home whenever he was away from work. He could tolerate everything from Lilly, but the betrayal of infidelity, that he couldn’t live with. On a hot sunny afternoon while sitting alone in his office, He decided to find refuge in his sacred sticks. As he puffed away three rings of smokes into the air he recollected how his wife subconsciously parted her laps at the sight of the young clergy man who was recently transferred to their parish. He couldn’t fathom why the canal thoughts he had tried to suppress were rushing in, instinctively he picked up his car keys and decided to act on the information of the reverend’s visits which were made known by his daughter by leaving work earlier than usual for home.



Hearing his car horn, Mrs. Combs was in panic and tried composing herself in the best way possible. He knew something was up because, aside the look of somebody that rushed to look decent that she displayed, the scornful look that he was used to getting was replaced with a smile and accompanied with “welcome my husband.” She tried her best to make him avoid the corridor adjoining the bedrooms by claiming his food was ready, something he gave no thought to as it was a rare occurrence. He made his way to her bedroom as they slept separately. She was smirking as his search proved futile but unfortunately for her, he found a shirt that seemed to be concealed in a rush inside her dressing mirror drawers. It was soaked with sweat and stained with red lipstick stains. Nothing could get her out of this as it wasn’t his shirt and he couldn’t even remember the last time they got intimate.



The mixed feeling of a broken heart and the triumph at ascertaining his wife’s infidelity robbed him of his senses and ignited his heart with great anger. It was the first time Loretta heard her father scream so loud. She wasn’t so sure if he was the same man as he ordered her to shut the door when she came to check what was going on. Lilly denied not knowing where the shirt came from. It infuriated him more as he went into his study to pick up the hand gun that had always given him shivers whenever he looked at it. It was for protection, but this day it served another purpose. His intent was to threaten her to confess. Lilly was terrified because she had never succeeded in provoking him that much. He screamed, “Confess!!! You Jezebel of a woman!” and then shot five times around the room without aim.
The wardrobe was slung open by the lifeless body that fell to the ground.. TO BE CONTINUED….