The Masked Poet
Page 29
'But sweetness we got married yesterday. It was very real. It was our marriage. We are in a marriage.' Robert reminded.
- Any marriage founded on a lie isn't fit to be called a proper marriage. The best term for it is a 'deception.' And that is what this shenanigan is: a deception!
- But it's been contracted. It is legal.
- Exactly what I mean - on a lie! That's all I need to invalidate it. Or don't you think so?
- But you promised you'll love me irrespective of my face.
- A human's face, not a chimpanzee's.
- Sweetness I can't believe you keep addressing me as a chimpanzee.
- Things must be said the way they are. I'm sorry if you are offended. I truly mean no offence but this is no time for pretences.
- What about your marital beliefs? You just can't throw it away now?
- You can't blackmail me with that. In as much as there will arise certain vicissitudes, and unplanned in marriage, no one should deceive a partner with real issues which has to do with her consent only to tell her later she can't get out of it because she had been deceitfully married. You really should have told me!
- Alright then, if I had told you, would you have married me?
- Oooooppss! ......... Somebody finally hit the nail on the head! This is what I have been saying all along. I WOULDN'T HAVE AGREED TO MARRYING YOU, I WOULDN'T HAVE MARRIED YOU, and we wouldn't be here. Therefore, there never was a marriage between us in the first place. You see, A BEAUTY LIKE ME(lets even leave out the queen) CAN NEVER, EVER MARRY A BEAST. I don't think there is one who will do that anywhere except in fairy concocted tales. In real life, I only marry prince charming. And that's exactly what I will do!
'But madam,' Mr. Same asked Robert's mother after a period of deep thinking while the couple fought. 'How did this happen?'
'It is no fault of mine.' She explained. 'Nature gifted him to me this way. Medicine call it primacie ostrengliostriases, a rare condition with an occurrence probability of one in over 5 billion, where a human has a face of one of the primates. It is one of those times when evolution theories are vindicated. A clear example of the missing link. Of all the people in this world, this fate chose to befall me and more pitiably, my precious son.'
- Has there been an history as this in your genealogy or that of your son's father?
- None whatsoever. I have been accused of being a witch, unfortunate, wicked, and all sorts since I gave birth to him as such has never happened in both families.
Robert started crying, wailing aloud and uncontrollably.
'Calm down my son.' Mr. Same comforted. 'It's no fault of yours. And you too madam, I'm really sorry about this undesirable life's vicissitude. I feel for both of you. I don't want you to count your woes over your son's condition or even think he is a mistake. These rare permutations happen during human fertilization. To show God loves him, look at the gift he has blessed him with! All the same, despite it, there are certain people you can't lie to about it. One is your doctor, another, your pastor, your lawyer too, and then, a potential love partner. That reminds me, what about his father?'
'He abandoned us once he set his sights on him just after his birth; calling him an abomination, and me, a witch.
- My God, that was so irresponsible of him! But why haven't you tried plastic surgery?
- My poor family was unable to raise the amount needed for that in his infancy. They also advised I waited till he was old enough to make that choice by himself. They were right as when I eventually saved enough money for the surgery, news came in of how that was the remote cause of Michael Jackson's death, he reneged on going through with it as he preferred a longer life to the short glamour of a handsomely crafted face. We resorted to the use of masks to veil his face when he kept encountering constant abuse from his school mates when he began his elementary education.
- Hmmmnnn......... This is a very difficult situation and truth is, it is my daughter's shot to call. I can't force her; it is a choice she has to make. Hence she was not given that opportunity earlier, she will have to make it now. I'm not the one who will be living with your son or otherwise, she is the one. But daughter, in as much as I know I can't force it on you, yet permit me an advice: the face may change, but the personality doesn't. Since you are so into his person way before you saw his face, perhaps you can learn to see that and not his face. Better still, let him continue wearing the mask!
'Please my daughter, I know you really love him, please give love another chance.' Robert's mother pleaded on her knees.
But Delight ignored her pleas as she addressed her father.
'Daddy, thanks for your advice, but I have made up my mind - this can't work. No matter how things get padded: focus on his personality, or allow him continue with the use of masks; the damage has been done already. In fact, I think I should be suing the Masked Poet for a novel trauma he has caused me. I particularly hate primates because of their hatred for humans and the way they attack us whenever they see us. As it were, when l close my eyes now or even switch on my imagination, all I see is the Masked Poet's apelike face. Once I see him, or even his masked face, that primatal vision takes over and I get real scared when this happens. I can't even stand the thought of kissing him again with that mask on! Daddy, my psyche has been scared and thus, there is no way Robert and I would happen again, not even in a fresh lifetime! I'm done with this farce called a marriage!
'Please sweetness, I love you.' Robert pleaded. 'I will write you the best poems! In fact, a thousand a day if you want. I will see to it your primatal trauma is wiped off your memory and sensorium courtesy of a special poetic therapy l will come up with.................
- Shut up! Just shut up! You deceived me. What is a poetic therapy without integrity? I am not interested in your remedial therapy neither am I interested in your poems any longer. I don't even want to see you again!!
With that, she stood and walked out on all gathered while Robert chased after her, pleading. He stopped at the door when she banged it after her..............
He sent her a rhyme later that afternoon:
The ugliest man in Africa
has his own Veronica
a former ugly Nigerian president
has a loving antecedent
cos they gave love a chance
please give our love a chance.
She replied with a rhyme too:
Those uglies are human
chimpanzees are unhuman
before your intellect gets skimpy
never come with a poppy
nor get yourself happy
because: UGLY, IS PRETTIER THAN CHIMPY!
She afterwards switched off her phone and from that moment, went incommunicado.
He called and called, sent many more poems, but her phone was unavailable, and the poems were never replied. She couldn't be found in her apartment, neither at the office as she stopped going to work. After a period of fruitless frustrating search, it dawned on him she was probably out of town. He decided to use a very powerful and unavoidable medium - that of a song. He carefully chose the song's lyrics before going to the studio. He made a brief introduction before the song:
'To my one and only love and beauty queen, Delight. Sweetness, wherever you are, I love you; please come back home.'
Then he moved to the song's content:
I'm walking in the city
looking, looking for my love
oh my love!
I'm moving in the streets
searching, searching for my love
oh my love!
Have you seen my love?
I'm asking
is she somewhere here?
I'm asking
has she passed you by?
I'm asking
has she gone afar?
I'm asking
Bridge 1
Let nothing come between us
it's you and me forever
we'll brave the stormy weather
for the love we share t
ogether
no one should put asunder
not even wedded brides
cos the love I have for you
is the love Christ has for me
Chorus:
If you see my love
tell her that I'm sick of love
I long for her love
and I'll die without her love.......
Darling I hope that you remember
Jesus, Jesus is our love
the perfect love!
His name we love the most
is saviour, saviour is our love
oh our love!
Have you seen our love?
I'm asking
is he somewhere here?
I'm asking
has he gone afar?
To heaven
can you take me there?
To see him
Bridge 2
We don't have to go to heaven
cos he came all the way from heaven
to lay his life for us
even before we knew him
and now you have this knowledge
your love should be like his
cos the love he's shown to you
is called agape love
Chorus:
If you see my love
tell her that I'm sick of love
I long for her love
and I'll die without her love
(repeat once)
Afterwards, a jazz interlude played with the sax, and the song resumed with an unsegmented repetition of the first and second bridges; and then, a continuous repetition of the first ambit of the chorus till it faded.
He promoted the song on multiple radio stations and other media platforms including the social media. Interestingly, for its lyrics and melody, it became a hit and as was the aim, it got to her. Wherever she was, she heard it. She also reacted to it.
Few days later, she was in a studio to wax her version of a response song:
Philosophies have been sounded
suggestions have been offered
fairy tales springing everywhere
the gullible falling for them
fanatics latching unto them
dreamers making it a pastime
never considering its logic
never subjecting it to reason
of how beauty loved the beast
of how beauty bore the beast
of how beauty kissed the beast
even how beauty transformed the beast
but they are lies
but they are lies
you see,
Chorus:
Truth be told
truth be told
beauty and the beast can never happen
truth be told
truth be told
cos beauty can never love the beast!
To generation after generation
this belief's been imposed
many wishful of an experience
their senses soundly beclouded
of how beauty loved the beast
of how beauty bore the beast
of how beauty kissed the beast
even how beauty transformed the beast
but they are lies
but they are lies
you see,
Chorus:
Truth be told
truth be told
beauty and the beast can never happen
truth be told
truth be told
cos beauty can never love the beast.
(repeat)
Bridge:
Beauty is pretty
the beast is ugly
beauty is presentable
the beast is detestable
beauty is altruist
the beast is egoist
beauty is moral
the beast is immoral
beauty belongs with the light
the beast belongs with the night
they are two parallel lines
which never ever meets.
Chorus:
Truth be told
truth be told
beauty and the beast can never happen
truth be told
truth be told
cos beauty can never love the beast.
(repeat till fade).