It was a Saturday morning. I was playing with the kids in front of our house when I saw three men approaching our house. Two of them were in police uniforms while the other one was in plain cloth. The speed in their strides was telling a story of urgency. It looked like they were going after a criminal. I stopped for a while and watched them. I asked in my head, “Who’s in trouble early this morning?” But the direction of their footsteps pointed in my direction and every step they took brought them closer to where I was playing with the kids. At two meters away, I was sure they were coming to me so I asked the kids to go to mommy. They ran off before the men got to me.
The one in plain cloth was giving the orders; “Yeah, this is the guy. Arrest him.” He told me, “If you don’t want to create any scene, just keep quiet and follow us.” I thought I was dreaming. All my life, I’ve never had any issue with the law so what was he saying? I asked respectfully, “Please what have I done that I have to follow you? Where are we going?” The men in police uniforms didn’t look like they were ready to do any arrests. It was rather the man in plain cloth ordering them to arrest me. I was looking into their eyes. They were doubting their actions. I kept asking what I’d done wrong but no one was willing to say anything.
My wife came out and the kids followed. I hated the fact that my kids would see me getting arrested by the police. I told my wife to go back in with them but she wouldn’t listen. She asked the same question I was asking the police; “What has he done? What has my husband done that you have to arrest him?” The man in plain cloth asked, “Judith is your sister, right? And you’re not aware that your husband has been making attempts on her since she had been here? Two nights ago, he tried again and since he couldn’t get her, he used his fingers. Your sister reported it to me, hence the arrest.”
I went numb. “Judith reported to you that I’ve been making attempts on her? Where? When?” While I was asking the questions, I turned to look at my wife but she avoided my gaze and looked at the floor. My heart broke into pieces. I asked her, “You don’t believe them, do you?” She picked up her phone and started making a call. The men in police uniforms were unsure of what to do. It was like they were being pushed to do what they didn’t want to do. I heard my wife screaming on the phone, “Judith where are you?” I didn’t hear her answer. My wife said, “You sent the police to come and arrest Ken?” The man in plain cloth answered, “She didn’t send the police. I brought the police. I’m also a police officer. Tell her….”
Before he could land, my wife gave him the phone. He said, “It’s me. He has to face the law or he won’t stop harassing you.” By this time, our neighbours were up and surrounding us trying to get the details of what was happening. They got the impression that I raped my wife’s sister and that was why the police were there. I didn’t hear what Judith was saying to the man in plain cloth. My wife asked him to put it on a loudspeaker but he didn’t. After the call, he told the guys in police uniform, “Let’s go. She says she’ll handle it herself.”
They started walking away but the man in plain cloth had the last words; “You can’t cover your sins forever. You’ll definitely pay for it one day.”
My wife’s sister, Judith came to live with us when she was only twenty years. She had completed SHS and was writing remedials. She wasn’t a clever girl so she had to write it three times before she got admission into one of the technical universities. Those days they were called polytechnics. She didn’t get accommodation on campus so she continued living with us while getting tertiary education. She wasn’t someone I would talk to or even play with. The relationship was formal. We were not fighting but if you left the two of us in a room, we would say no word to each other. She was my wife’s sister and I wanted it to remain like that.
After school was the national service. She stayed with us and did her national service too. She would join me in the morning and I’ll drop her where the next car would take her to her office. During those days, we talked a little. The relationship was getting better than before because we could hold a conversation for five minutes straight. Mostly, I was encouraging her to work harder so the company would have a need for her after the service. When she had issues with her role, she would discuss it with me on our way home and I’ll give her my opinion. After national service, she wasn’t retained so she travelled back home to her parents.
I thought she wasn’t coming back again or she’ll find a job before coming back but a few weeks later, she was back. While she was away, we had freedom in the house. All of a sudden, the two-bedroom house we were living in felt like a three-bedroom house. Our two kids kept asking of her but they had a bigger place to play. Our firstborn had a whole room to herself and I can imagine she loved it. But she came back to make our place so small again.
I told my wife, “Your sister. It’s about time she left us alone. She’s done with school. She can stay with her parents and look for a job. After getting a job she can rent her own place so we can have space in this house.” She responded, “That’s exactly the plan; to get her a job so she could leave but she can’t stay in the village and look for a job. She would be here while we help her get something to do so she can leave us in peace.”
Judith would leave home and won’t come until the next day. It was clear she was sleeping in a man’s house. My wife was aware but didn’t say anything. I was the one asking her whereabouts each time she didn’t come home to sleep. One day my wife told me, “Judith is not a child. She’s thirty years. When I was her age, I was already married. She can’t stay indoors all the time. She would need a husband and that’s how husbands turn out in the end.” Once her sister approved of it, I didn’t protest. She could be gone for days, come home today and leave the following day. It didn’t matter to me what she chose to do with her own life until one day, I came home and see a man in the house.
I thought he was our visitor so I asked my wife who he was and she answered, “He’s Judith’s visitor.” I was pissed off and I expressed my anger right in front of my wife; “It’s not enough that she sleeps outside these days? Does she have to bring them home? This is our house and I won’t allow that to happen. It should be the last time this would happen.” My wife didn’t say anything but I assumed she told Judith about it so from there her attitude towards me got colder. I didn’t care about her again until that morning when the police and the man in plain cloth came to arrest me.
When she came home, I confronted her in the presence of my wife. I wasn’t going to play soft because of the impression the scene left in people’s minds. The first question was, “You came here when you were just a girl. Have I in any way tried to have my way with you?” She answered, “No, you haven’t.” My wife took over, “So what was that for?” She answered, “It was a clear case of miscommunication and misunderstanding.” I asked her to explain and she started beating about the bush. I told her, “I’m suing the man who came here with the police and I’ll add you to the case. What happened this morning was very critical. Neighbours saw what happened and if I don’t work hard to clear my name, they’ll assume what they heard was true. You better explain what just happened.” She answered, “I lied to him and he took it seriously. That’s all. There’s nothing to explain. I didn’t know he would take it that far.”
This is what happened…
She was finding it difficult to get a job and because her sister told her about my displeasure toward her continuous living with us, she decided she would leave even though she didn’t have a job. She went around telling her numerous boyfriends stories just to get money from them to rent a place. She met that guy in plain cloth not too long ago. He is a policeman. She told him I’d been harassing her in the house and she didn’t feel safe. She needed to leave as soon as possible to a place where she could find safety from my perceived claws. The man in plain cloth promised to help her but asked for a little time. She was getting impatient so she had to make the story more dangerous to push the man to act. She spent the night with him the morning they came to arrest me. It was that night she told the man in plain cloth that I tried forcing her and since I couldn’t succeed, I used my fingers.
She was trying to make the man see the need to act fast but the man acted the wrong way. He woke up the next morning and told her he was going to the station to attend to some issues. He went to the station to pick up two other officers just to come to my house to terrorize me. She told the man a lie and the man believed it. He came to the battlefield to fight for his love but he was fighting a lie. When I got the whole story, I got angrier. A man came to my house to embarrass me because of a lie?
The Story Of My Worst Valentine–BEADS MEDIA
We went to the station with her when the man wasn’t in plain cloth. He looked like a disciplined man with his cap on. My wife asked Judith to tell him exactly what happened and she did. He leaned back in his chair with regrets written all over his face. He apologized to me and asked me what he could do to make things right for me. He brought in the two officers to also come and say their apology. He then apologized to them for bringing them into his shame. It looked like he was the head there looking at the respect he commanded there. Wholeheartedly I forgave him and even respected him for what he did. In his mind, he was arresting a rapist. He was lied to and I was lied on. We were both the victims of a woman’s lie.
I let go and asked her to leave my house. My wife didn’t protest this time. When she left, I took a deep breath in and said to myself, “It was a nightmare but nightmares also end.”
— Ken
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