SCENE 3
REVELATIONS
Saturday 11:30pm
(Living room, ADE and REMI have just come back to the house from WOLE and DUPE’S naming ceremony. MAMA and SHOLA are asleep upstairs)
REMI: I’m sure they got tired waiting up.
ADE: Shola loves his beauty sleep, always the first to go to bed when we were kids.
(Goes to the drink cabinet to pour himself and REMI a drink)
ADE: You’ve been quiet all night, something on your mind?
(Changing the mood of the conversation)
REMI: Not really, just tired I guess.
(Sits down and takes her shoes off)
ADE: I know when you are tired and when there’s something on your mind.
REMI: I’m just fine, thank you.
(Snappy)
ADE: Does this have anything to do with the christening?
REMI: Why should it affect me?
ADE: You could have fooled me.
(Pause)
This has nothing to do with Mama’s visit? I told you, there’s nothing to be worried about it.
REMI: (Looking down) I wasn’t sure what to expect, so it’s a little daunting.
ADE: It’s my fault that we have never been home since we got married. Pushing things back, so I could gain my consultancy position.
REMI: Don’t do this, not tonight and if this is to ease the guilt of yesterday, forget it.
ADE: Yesterday?
REMI: Ade, I heard it all, me not having a child, the name calling, I heard it all. So please drop the act.
ADE: You call it an act? You know I have always wanted to give you a child.
REMI: Tell that to your mother. Maybe she can wave the magic wand and hurray! A baby will pop out of me. (Sarcastically)
ADE: Are you drunk?
REMI: (Stands Up) Oh I don’t need to get drunk to say the truth. I reckon you should go ahead with her plan of seeking help from another woman.
ADE: You do realise its midnight.
REMI: The wall clock is working perfectly and I do know what time it is. As a matter of fact, it’s just gone past midnight, honey, guess what? (Raising her voice) My senses are fully functional.
ADE: Keep your voice down. You don’t want to wake the street up with our problems.
REMI: (Raising her voice) Why the hell not Ade. Why the hell not?
ADE: Remi Coker, keep your voice down.
(Pause)
I’m sorry.
(Lifting his hands to his face)
REMI: Well now, he remembers my maiden name.
ADE: I’m sorry.
(Pause)
I’m sorry, that was a slip.
REMI: Your mother believes others can help, why not go public with it, makes the search for a fertile woman easier, don’t you think?
ADE: You are drunk, I knew you were going overboard at the party but didn’t want to make a scene.
REMI: I’m not drunk and don’t you dare call me a drunk.
ADE: There’s no need for this and you know it.
REMI: I think you should go ahead with her plans. If you remember your bible story, it worked for Abraham; he slept with his maid as advised by Sarah, his wife. Why shouldn’t it work for us?
(Walks towards ADE and places her hands on his chest)
ADE: You’re beyond surprise.
(Takes her hands off his chest in disgust and shaking his head)
REMI: Oh, please don’t be surprised sweetheart, it is perfectly normal in your culture to have a number of wives. Helps replenish the earth.
ADE: I am not my culture and when did we get here?
REMI: Tell me Ade, hasn’t it ever crossed your mind that your wife might be barren?
ADE: (Agitated) What? Are you out of your mind? Where is this nasty talk coming from? And…
REMI: Come on Ade, let’s be honest, your wife is a man (Short Pause) like you mother told you over the phone. Remember…
(Mimicking MAMA)
My son, the reason God gave man a wife was because he couldn’t conceive by himself.
ADE: My mother is an educated culturally minded and traditionally rigid woman but you,
(Pause)
I don’t know what you are turning into. Are you listening to yourself at all? You have metamorphosed into something else and just when did you start listening to my phone conversations?
REMI: Oh don’t act so surprised like you didn’t know.
(ADE picks up his car keys)
REMI: Just where do you think you’re going? We are not done.
ADE: I’m.
(As ADE exits)
REMI: Oh no, you are not going anywhere, you are going to stay right here and listen to me and I hope you mother can hear me too, so she has plenty more to report to your family.
(End of Scene)
SCENE 4
IYANLA
Sunday 2:00pm
(REMI is in the kitchen alone, sitting at the dinning table looking worried. Enters SHOLA with a gift bag)
SHOLA: Our wife, all by yourself? Which reminds me, before I forget again; I have been meaning to give you the gift I brought for you.
REMI: That’s a nice gesture but you shouldn’t have.
(Trying hard to hide her emotions from last night)
SHOLA: I wanted to. I saw it and knew you would love it.
REMI: Okay, surprise me.
SHOLA: You don’t seem excited at all about your gift. Is anything the matter
REMI: I guess you didn’t sleep in this house last night.
SHOLA: I went out with Kunle, got back this morning.
REMI: (Smiles) Well then, where is my gift?
SHOLA: This is Iyanla.
(Unwraps the gift bag and hands her a carved work of art)
REMI: Wow! It’s different. Thank you.
(Gives SHOLA a hug)
SHOLA: The beauty is in the meaning it carries.
REMI: Do carvings have meanings?
SHOLA: This one does. Staring at you with pride is Iyanla and her child strapped on her back.
REMI: Who is Iyanla?
SHOLA: Ha! Our wife, are you saying you don’t know who Iyanla is?
REMI: Do you mean Iyanla Vanzant, the author?
SHOLA: Me, I don’t know about that one O! But Iyanla means our mother has come. You’re our mother in waiting o!
REMI: Really?
(Taken back)
SHOLA: You don’t like it.
REMI: No, I think it’s absolutely beautiful. You know the way motherhood can be interpreted into a work of art.
SHOLA: Our wife that’s not why I got it for you.
(Silence)
REMI: That makes it even more meaningful to me, splendid, just beautiful. Any more gifts.
SHOLA: I didn’t mean any offence.
REMI: Not at all, you just thought to remind me. Now if you don’t mind, excuse me.
(Thumping the carving into his hands)
(As REMI Exits)
SHOLA: Our wife, don’t be like this eh, please, I didn’t mean to offend you.
(Staring at the work of art and following her)
I thought it would be nice to give you something beautiful with meaning.
The End…
