“Baby, I want another wife….” He blurted it out loud just like that, from nowhere. They were walking home from the Coop, with their three youngest children. The girls were running around them, picking flowers and singing as Mary was pushing her one year old son in the pram. It sounded like some random crazy joke her husband had just made, so she laughed aloud. He was walking about a metre behind her, so she stopped and looked back at him. But then his eyes told her he was not joking, he was actually serious about this. He wanted another wife….in 2019, in modern Britain, so Mary stopped laughing. In fact she stopped pushing the pram. She let out a deep sigh, her eyes squinted, then she flung both her hands open into the air.
“What the….”, She couldn’t bring herself to complete the sentence, in fact her husband didn’t let her finish.
“Yes another wife,” He answered boldly, looking into her eyes and taking her hand. “It will be our financial breakthrough.” He continued. The craziest thing was she wasn’t upset. She tried so desperately to find those feelings within her, but they were not there. She wanted to scream at him and tell him how evil he was to even say such a thing. Her mind was racing. She wanted to tell him how humiliating this would be if people on social media would find out that her darling “Boaz” as she called him, wanted another wife. They had always posed as the perfect couple. Her story was the perfect love story envied by many black women, the world had watched her go through a public divorce, with many enemies rejoicing over her demise, she had fought a wicked pastor who had facilitated her divorce, and left her homeless with 4 children. She became a single mother in much distress. But then suddenly, before her many followers her story had changed.
A young dark man, six years younger than her, never been married before, from a different culture, from a different country, came from nowhere and whisked her off her feet. She dubbed him her “Boaz”, because he was the in every aspect the epitome of the biblical Boaz. He loved her children like his own, and had given her two more children, a daughter and a son. So everything was just perfect. He had came to take away her reproach, so she could not stop showing off her happiness. They were forever taking pictures, even when they went for a walk, they took pictures. Even when they were just messing about in the bathroom, they took pictures and she posted on her social media. She was also always writing blogs about how happy she was with her Boaz. But now he was about to ruin the whole testimony by declaring he wanted another woman. But she wasn’t upset. She was more confused than upset.
“Are you actually serious Nana, Another wife?” She was starring at him, searching his eyes. They sat down on a brick wall on the pavement. The girls, May and Destiny who were running ahead of them started coming back. Her husband took her hand, rubbing it gently and smiled slyly.
They had never discussed polygamy before, ever, and her husband had never shown her any desire of having multiple women. He had never cheated on her. He had always been a strictly one woman man, or so Mary thought. She had no idea where this had come from.
“Are we having a picnic?” 4 year old May asked.
“No darling, we are just taking a little break.” Mary told her.
“Look Mummy, I picked you some flowers,” 3 year old Destiny handed her mother some pretty white daisies.
“Oh they are beautiful Destiny.” Mary said as she kissed her little girl, “Now you girls play here for a little while, let me talk to Daddy.”
It was the summer of 2019, a few months before the Apocalypse, and Mary and her husband were staying at an air bnb with their 6 children. They were literally homeless for so many strange reasons, jumping from one air bnb to another. Mary and the children had dubbed the homeless experience the wilderness, were their furniture was at a storage, and in their car were suitcases of clothes and toys for the children. It was a crazy time, but it was fun at the same time. Mary’s husband, the King had been amazing through it all, he made sure his wife and children lived in luxury air bnbs and hotels, and he kept promising his wife that he would buy her a house, “soon.” Sometimes his promises seemed empty, because he was a hustler at heart, always trying so many things and telling his wife that one day he would “make it.”
So on this summer afternoon, they were staying at the house of her husband’s friend. Kwame, which he was running as an air bnb. Kwame had over 50 properties in the UK. At that time Mary and her husband saw Kwame as a billionaire, compared to where they were in life. Kwame was however a polygamist. He had two wives in the UK, and the women knew each other. Kwame liked her Nana, especially his ideas and wisdom. On the other hand, Nana wanted to learn from him how to get into the property industry. So the two men were literally trying to get as much as they could from each other. So Mary wondered, if this polygamous rich man had put the idea of taking another wife into her husband’s head.
“Did Kwame give you this idea, please just be honest with me.” Mary asked him.
“No he didn’t,” Nana answered her, “But he has said how both his wives have contributed to his Empire. Each has her own strengths, and he said he wouldn’t be were he is today without both of them”.
“And your point is exactly?” Mary interrupted him.”You getting another wife is not going to suddenly make you rich, hello you are homeless!”
“Even Kwame was homeless 4 years ago…” Nana said quietly, picking a small stick from the ground and breaking it, without looking at his wife.
“You know what, I can’t do this right now. I have far more pressing issues in my life than talking and planning polygamy!I need a house Nana!” Mary stood up and fixed the blanket covering baby Kwaku, who was fast asleep. “Come on girls, we are going home, if I should even call it that!” Mary shouted at her girls as she started pushing the pram, walking home, or rather to the air bnb, which was around the corner.
After she had walked a few steps, she looked back, and her husband was still sitting on the brick wall besides the pavement, looking at her, with that sly smile still. Sometimes he took everything like one big joke, and it really annoyed her.
“Polygamy will buy us the house sweetheart, because you will write about polygamy on your blog, and we will use your blog to find us a wife.” Her husband was almost shouting. Mary heard him loud and clear, but she refused to stop this time, she refused to even give him the satisfaction of looking at him, she continued to walk even faster, with the girls running after her.
“Mummy is Daddy not coming with us?” May asked her seemingly angry mother.
“No just leave him! He will come when he’s ready,” Mary snapped.
When Mary and the girls got home, her 3 older children asked her where Nana was, as they called him. Mary told them he was on the phone, and was on his way. She told her 15 year old daughter Tamara, her oldest child, to put the chips and fish she had bought from the Coop in the oven.
She desperately wanted to be alone, so she went upstairs. She entered the master bedroom, and closed the door. She just stood there, staring at herself in the mirror. She had dressed up especially for the trip to the Coop. She had put on her favourite dress, an orange crotchet off the shoulder long maxi dress, her favourite colour. She wore matching dangling orange feathered earrings. Her hair was neatly faded at the sides, and on top she was trying to grow some dreadlocks, she had coloured them blonde and was experiencing some breakage. But somehow the look was pulling off as deliberate distressed dreadlocks. She had come to that place where she was tired of the braids and all the pain and inconvenience which came with it, and she just wanted to grow her own hair.
Her husband always told her that her natural hair, no matter what it was, was way more beautiful than any artificial hair. As they walked to the shops, he had told her how stunning she was looking. He was always fascinated by her beauty, he would look at her in awe and tell her what a natural beauty she was, and Mary always seemed so surprised and smitten each time her husband complimented her, because she had been married to a man who never saw her beauty nor complimented her.
As she stared at herself in the mirror, the words of her husband was ringing so loud in her head.
“Baby, I want another wife. You will use your blog to write about it. Once we start this journey, doors will start to open. Kwame’s two wives have contributed to what he has today.”
“This is utter madness”, she spoke aloud. “Or maybe it’s not, deep down I have aways been fascinated by polygamy, is this a sign?”, she whispered to herself.
Oh her husband had a way of making her see things from a perspective she would have never thought of, sometimes he said things to awaken her deepest desires, her secret thoughts. The things she had found shameful all her life, her husband would say those things with ease, looking her in the eye. Sometimes she would think something, and he would walk in and say exactly what she thinking. He always provoked her mind, sometimes she hated it, and would snap, then afterwards she would think about what he had said, and yield to his thinking, and believe. It made Mary respect him. She respected him and saw him in a light she had never seen any man before, especially her ex-husband who was the very opposite of Nana.
When she looked at her husband, she saw a King. He had the ability to change her mind, to make her submit. It was the way he was with words, the way he spoke. When he said things, in a very twisted way, it would come to pass, even though Mary would initially resist. He was like a prophet. But a Prophet like no other, and he called her his Prophetess. They were daring together, they did the most crazy things together, and somehow everything they had always done together was thrilling and adventurous. Mary had been with Nana for only 4 years, but those 4 years felt like a lifetime.
It was the way he touched her, the way he knew her body. It was the way he had awakened her. He was her other half, sometimes they would be lying there together, and close their eyes and have the same dream. They were always in fits of laughter together, they literally lived in their own world, their souls were intertwined, the love was unbreakable.
“So why does he want to bring in a third person? The two of us are complete.” Mary thought to herself.
“Do you know what Solomon said?” The King said, looking at her standing at the door.
“Oh my gosh Nana, you scared me, I didn’t hear the door open.” Mary almost jumped.
“Because you are not here, come back for a minute,” He took the bible which was neatly placed on the corner of the dresser. Mary always made sure that the first thing she took on her wilderness journey was her bible. So the King began to read, “Solomon said, ‘Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall one will lift his companion. If two lie together they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?’ But do you know how Solomon ended this quotation?” The King asked his wife.
Mary sighed as she sat on the bed, shaking her head. The King sat next to her, stroking her hair and searching her eyes.
“King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived ended the quotation by saying, “And a threefold cord is not easily broken.” The King closed the bible, and kissed his wife on the forehead.
“Now let me go and attend to the children, Tamara has dished for them. I will leave you to enjoy your peace and quiet.”
Mary listened to her husband’s footsteps as he rushed down the stairs, the chaos of the children filling the spacious 4 bedroom house which was their home for the following two weeks.
“I am fed up of poverty,” She thought aloud. “I want to own a house like this. May the anointing of this man be ours.” She looked around the master bedroom, it was luxurious and beautiful, decorated with neutral colours all round. Her fingers ran through the velvet throw on the bed, and she smiled a little, her imagination starting to run wild with her. “Look at this”, she thought, “And this man is a polygamist in the UK, with a portfolio over over 50 properties.”
Before she had checked into the air BnB the day before, it was Kwame’s second wife who had come to clean the house. Mary had driven to the Air BnB with the children. The King had business to finish in town so he had told her to go and check-in and he would come home later that evening. So Mary had gone to the house, it was the biggest house Kwame had, very spacious, homely and pretty, but as they arrived to check-in, the place had not been ready.
“Just give me about 10 minutes.” Kwame’s second wife had met her at the door. Mary had already met Kwame’s first wife at a beauty pageant she was judging a few months before. So it felt strange to her to meet the second wife, who seemed so passionate cleaning the air bnb, helping in her husband’s business. Kwame’s first wife was the one who ran his hotel in Scotland, so the first wife lived in Scotland managing their hotel, whilst his second wife helped run his properties in England. Mary had seen the second wife at work, she had handed her the keys of her husband’s air BnB. Oh Mary had envied the second wife of Kwame, who even as she cleaned the Air BnB carried herself like a landlady, a real Bosslady, whilst Mary had stood there thinking about how homeless she was.
As Mary was running her fingers on the velvet throw on the bed, somehow, it made sense what the King had said to her, that Kwame’s two wives worked together and play a vital role in running his Empire. And it clicked to her, “A threefold cord is not easily broken!”
She jumped from the bed, and reached for the laptop on the dresser. She opened it and switched it on, making herself comfortable on the Kingsize bed. Her mind was racing. Her fingers itching. She loved this wild side of herself, it made her come alive. She went onto her blog and started to write.
The words were naturally flowing from her as she typed, like a fountain of water. Her pen was the pen of a ready writer. She felt so excited, but felt a little guilty for feeling excited about something so crazy. It felt like she was waiting to write this all her life! Like fire in her bones, she could not help it! She didn’t care what strangers on social media would think, or how they would laugh at her that her husband did not love her after all. The spirit of adventure and thrill filled the room as she typed…”Why my husband is looking for a second wife and I am happy about it!”
Inspired by real life events, illustrated by Mary’s son.
The Genesis Of The Revelation By
Mary-Tamar was Jean
jeangasho.com 