The auditors had been at the bank all week long. Every new day of that week had felt longer than the previous one. It was Saturday and his leave began on Monday. He bought a six-pack of beer and drove home. All he wanted was to rest and spend time with his wife.
He said hello to the estate gateman as usual.
“Habari ya leo Musau?” (How’s it going today Musau?)
“Salama sana mkubwa. Kwani mmesahau kitu?” (Fine thank you sir. Did you forget something?)
David was a bit puzzled. So he asked the gateman what he meant. Looking a bit surprised, Musau asked, “Ah mkubwa si mmehama tu asubuhi?” (Sir, didn’t you just move out in the morning?)
David suddenly felt a chill down his spine but he decided not to ask Musau any other questions. He drove to his house and parked.
He proceeded to his door and tried opening it because he expected his wife to be home. The door was locked so he had to use his key. That was when what Musau had said made sense to him. The house was technically empty save for the 75-inch tv that he had bought before moving in with his wife, the fridge, a gas cylinder and a bed.
He quickly locked the door and sat on the floor.
They had had issues with Dolly but he thought they were the usual ones. In fact, they had gone through the roughest patch of their marriage the previous year after both of them cheated and the experience that would have destroyed them brought them together.
David sat there wondering what could have led to her leaving in that manner. He walked around the house thrice each time hoping to find answers. Then he finally saw a note on top of the fridge that was addressed to him.
“David,
I know this might come as a shock to you. I haven’t been happy for a long time and I don’t think you’ve noticed. I’m tired of coming second to your work and feeling neglected. I have left with what I feel I deserve. Don’t try to contact me.
Dolly.”
Suddenly, he felt light-headed and sat on the floor again. Nothing in the note made sense. He finally called his best friend Paul but didn’t explain what had happened. He arrived about an hour later. When he opened the door Paul gasped.
“Bro, have you been robbed?” Paul asked in shock. “Wait, but they left the tv and fridge? What’s going on?”
“She left me, bro,” David said, almost breaking down.
“What? Why?”
He handed the note to Paul. After reading and rereading it severally Paul remarked, “This doesn’t make a lot of sense. Were you having any major issues?”
“I didn’t think we were. She just complained that I didn’t spend enough time with her but we had a plan to have children at 35, which would have been next year so I needed to work harder and plan ahead,” David responded.
It was dark outside by now. That’s when they noticed it.
“Bro, she took the curtains too?” Paul asked.
“I would have been surprised if she had left those ones, ” David said almost with a smile.
“At least she left you the bulbs,” said Paul as they both laughed.
David remembered he had come with a six-pack. They sat on the kitchen counters and started to drink from the beer cans.
“What will you do?” Paul asked David.
“Get curtains first and furniture then figure it out.”
“Will you reach out to her?”
“You read what she said. Apparently, I didn’t deserve the courtesy of a proper conversation. She just left me. Four years of marriage and two years of dating and she just left, ” David said emotionally.
“Let’s go to my place for a couple of days,” Paul told him.
After days of sulking, Paul convinced David to go out to a joint in the city. That was where he bumped into a friend of Dolly’s who told them that Dolly had moved in with an ex-lover who had just moved back into the city.
“If she was moving in with someone else, why did she carry everything?” Paul asked. David could hardly speak after getting this information.
“Well, it’s more of the guy moving into her place, ” the girl responded.
Paul and the girl continued chatting because David left. It was too painful to listen to their conversation, especially because he had missed the signs. He began to blame himself for working too much to notice she wasn’t happy. Paul was there to remind him that she could have handled it differently. Although Paul’s presence made him feel better the image of the empty house haunted him for a while.
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