Flash Fiction

FLASH FICTION: The Dream He Couldn’t Share

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Aguba was inconsolable. He woke up crying loudly but his wife did not move a muscle even though she was awake. It was becoming a usual occurrence for him to wake up like this and she was already getting tired of asking why. Some nights he wakes up happy, some other nights, he cries out in pain.

She has made efforts in times past to stay awake and watch him sleep and she has come to the conclusion that he belonged somewhere. How else does she explain the deep breaths, the talks or the smiles? For some reason she couldn’t point out, she has been lenient with him this past month. Maybe it was her curiosity, maybe it isn’t. She deperately wanted to get to the bottom of it. But she hoped he wouldn’t see her desperation, considers it a weakness and begin to misbehave again.

*******

Aguba and Uju have been married for twelve years and they have two boys. Things were fine for the couple and their children until Aguba decided to mess things up. Infact there was no love in the area stronger than the one he and Uju shared. But Aguba just had to go and mess things up.

In 2014, he lost it big in the Ponzi scheme that crashed and has not recovered since. His house, life savings, credit-worthiness, and his wife’s love all went with the big MMM drain. Now, his wife can not bring herself to forgive him and may have sworn to make his “remaining life” really miserable.

On his part, his wished he had not made that big “leap of faith”. He was so sure it would click right and staking everything seemed like the best thing to do. He just didn’t see this misfortune coming.

Come to think of it, he was even not so bothered by properties he had lost. The one thing he considers a huge loss was his wife’s trust and love. For as soon as that happened, she switched on him. His once loving wife suddenly became a monster. Always angry, Uju would push him into the streets every day and ask him not to come back until he has made some money. Now, who would believe that he made that move for her? Who would believe that the plan was to boost the boutique business that she had started earlier that year.

*******

Aguba tried to make things work but Uju had her mind made up. Now Uju fights him and locks him out whenever they quarrel. She starves him and has succeeded in turning his children against him. For a long time, Aguba was alone. That was until he met Dera.

Dera is the woman who comes to him every night. She was fair and kindhearted. In the life that they share, he is the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company and she was his mate. There, mates work in pairs closing deals and acquiring new businesses. They were good at it and life was great. She was his sunshine until she is was killed in police shoot-out two blocks away from their home.

Aguba was devastated. He was inconsolable. He woke up crying loudly. His wife lets go of her anger and asks what the matter is. He can’t bear to tell her.