The time is 1am and he is not back as she paces up and down the living room in anxiety. She looks out the window hoping he would be back. Felicia is heavy with child and now has more than one soul to worry about; the unborn angel and Chijioke her husband who makes her heart burn each time he keeps late nights. The usual reason is the traffic on the island which is regular; but since she went on maternity leave, the traffic had worsened as if she was the person that made it so.
The rain is heavy that night and Felicia was worried about Chijioke; they have being married for 3years and this was their third issue; the previous two died after a miscarriage and other being a still born followed suit. Frustrated and broken, Chijioke found a new companion, ”Bottles”. They came in all shapes and sizes; he slept with them, had then in his car boot and reeked of it all night.
The reason for her fear was that he would be with his ”best friends”, a title she once bore which was striped off her after all her love and support over the years. A honk at the gate gets her rushing to the window again and she sees the car pull into the garage and she rushes to the door and there he was; alighting from his Honda Sedan and she beckons on him and he snubs her almost immediately. The smell of this one, she knew; Vodka mixed with Hennessey and she knows Chijioke has had too much tonight again.
Chijioke got into the house like a wounded beast and she prayed not to be prey tonight. He storms into the bedroom and she follows carefully not wanting to cause any problem than what existed already. She walks close to him as he was already throwing up profusely inside the toilet after drinking himself to stupor and is gasping for air like a chased gazelle.
Felicia goes to the bathroom cabinet and takes a white towel to wipe his forehead but he shoves her away; slipping, she falls on the bathroom floor and in rage, he staggers out of the bathroom and hits a bottle on the floor as he tries to regain his balance. She gets up after hearing the sound of the broken bottle and walks close to her husband saying ”nke’m” in a soft voice. She asks him why he is doing this?
She moves closer this time and sits beside him on the bed in one final attempt to pacify him and angrily, he shoves her once again; this time around, she falls stomach down on the pieces of broken bottle and a sharp and loud cry fills the room; mother and child are no more, she breaths her last breathe and takes a last gaze at him; Chijioke realises what he has done. The Bottle is not the answer.
