Surprise!
It was a very sunny Saturday morning, and our wedding anniversary. I looked at my wife as she got ready to leave the house for work. She is a doctor and had been on call today. It seemed like yesterday she walked down the aisle to me. Wow! We are twenty-three years in marriage today.
I smiled at her, she smiled back. We have this thing we do in our anniversary; its more like a friendly competition, we see who surprises whom with the best anniversary gift. She had won five years in a row; I was definitely going to win this year because my surprise for her would blow her head off.
“So what are you going to do this year” she asked me, coming out clean with the question because she had stealthily tried to find out what my plans were. “Watch and see” I told her. I asked her the same question; she just said “hmmm”. I’ve discovered when a woman says hmmm, she’s really got something hot cooking. She picked her bag, kissed my beardy cheek and left. We had plans for dinner by 6:00pm tonight. Then, I would unleash my ‘BIG’ surprise.
We have been married for twenty-two years and we have no children, or perhaps God had not given us any. Over time we had come to realize that sometimes God says yes, wait or no! And there is nothing we could do to change that fact. He is GOD. Therefore, I had vowed to love Patience with the whole of my being. I had promised to always make her laugh and though we both sunk into lugubrious moods, we would trust and keep hope alive. I would be her husband and her son; and she my wife and daughter. We had just ourselves.
Patience, my wife reads a lot of books and her favourite authors are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Karen Kingsbury and I bet she could kill to meet them in person. Last year I contacted Chimamanda and started making preparations to surprise my wife this year. After much process, I got her to have dinner with us tonight. It wasn’t easy at all. My wife was going to faint! The idea that I had won this years’ anniversary surprise made me all jumpy and giddy. I was going to prepare her best meal, ‘Efo riro, bush meat and poundy’.
I had known what my wife had planned for me. We live in Accra and I had always wanted to visit Nigeria, to Jos. I had told her so many stuff about this place I had grown up in, and especially about the mouthwatering ‘Gwete’. I had tried to prepare gwete for her and on so many occasions failed. In fact the last time I tried it looks like ‘Acha pudding’ with cabbage and biscuit bone. LOL. Anyways, I heard her making plans for us to travel to Jos. I smiled.
Its 5:00pm, I had finished the cooking and all, set the table, lit the scented candles and did all the romantic ‘orishirishi’ we see in movies. The door opens.
“Awww!” She squeals. I hug her and after small talk she saunters off, mounting the staircase to get ready for dinner. I had showered, shaved and dressed in a crisp white shirt, jeans and sneakers. We are one of those couples that still try to look young even in our aging years. Forty-five minutes later, she comes down in a black dress with silver studs in her ears; she looked breathtaking. Although I could still see the grey that stuck in her hair. As we sat, the doorbell rang. I smiled, my surprise had arrived.
“Baby, get the door please” I said and ran off to get my camera. As she opens the door, she sees Chimamanda and her assistant standing at the door. She screamed! And hugged the smiling guest. We all sat to eat. I watched them both smiling from ear to ear as they discussed so many things especially about her books and all. Its 7:30pm and I can’t wait for Chimamanda to leave so I could clinch onto my victory.
Finally, she left. We were clearing the table when I saw the brown envelope stickingvout from my wife’s purse. I knew it! It was our plane tickets to Jos. Smiling victoriously I picked it up and opened it. I was right, tickets to Jos and also…
I collapsed on the sofa, and I couldn’t quench the river of tears that had started to flow on my well shaven face. I was sobbing hard. That after twenty- three years (today) of marriage, God had decided to make me a daddy! My wife joined me on the sofa, we were crying for joy together because after so many years of God telling us to wait, He finally said yes.
My head was on my wife’s laps. I could perceive her cologne better. Interrupting our tearful silence she asks me. “So honey, who surprised who, who won this year?” With a mischievous grin, I looked up to her not wanting to carry last this year and said ” Na Godwin”. We both laughed looking ahead. We were going to be parents! God had surprised us both. Although, my wife keeps saying she won.
So, who won this time around?
He tried his best but she won him hands down.