For the Dream of 5 Years: Chapter Thirteen: Mad Woman Dream

Shanice made sausages and porridge for breakfast. She had taken Dickson to daycare because she needed some private time with Dave. Additionally, he did not want Dickson to see Mike's dad in their house, coming from his mother's bedroom, probably in a towel. She had placed the breakfast on the bedside table, hoping Dave would wake up and eat, not like the previous day. She also hoped she would not have to take Dickson to the daycare another day. It was about 10 am, and Dave hadn't woken up yet. She was getting impatient. She stormed into the bedroom, pushed the door open violently, hit the wall with a bang, and forcefully uncovered Dave. "Your stay is overdue Mr. Man!" She yelled at him. Dave was deeply asleep and had a terrifying dream when Shanice burst into the room. In the dream, he was being chased by a mad woman. He ran as fast as possible, entered an abandoned house, and saw a bunch of empty dirty sacks at an extremely dusty corner. He quickly slid under them, panting violently, but kept his voice down by opening his mouth wide to take in more air so that the mad woman would not hear him in case she entered. Suddenly, the crazy woman entered the room, forcefully pushing the door, which hit the wall so loudly. He could hear the woman walk towards the sacks; he held them so tightly before they were forcefully jerked out of his hands, exposing his shaken body. "Your stay is overdue Mr. Man!" The yelling made his head hurt. How well did the dream match the reality? He wondered, holding his aching head and trying to come out of the sleep, into the real world, and face the mad woman in front of him. "Get the hell out of my house, Dave! I will not give you another minute of my life," she said, handing him his clothes that she had neatly folded and placed in the wardrobe the previous night. "Please, not now; I don't want to talk, Shanice," Dave whispered, trying to get under the sheet beneath him to keep warm and hide his nakedness, which he strangely felt was exposed. "Oho Oho! Don't humour me, hahaha," laughed Shanice sarcastically, pulling the sheet off him so forcefully that when Dave let go, she staggered and almost got inside the wardrobe. "Get up! Leave my house. My name is Shanice, not Michelle; take this nonsense to her," she ordered after gaining her balance. Dave had no choice but to stand up, covering his private parts with his hands, and walk to pick up his clothes that had fallen from the bed when Shanice pulled the sheets off. "Five years Dave, five years! That is what it has been. You told me you'd end things with her, that you would come back to your family," she said, throwing his belt at him that the buckle hit his head so hard he thought a stray bullet shot him. "Ouch! Shanice, you are crazy. Maybe that is why it has taken five years," he said, closing his eyes and rubbing his head to numb the pain. "You live like a queen Shanice, in a beautiful house and drive a good car. You don't work and never will; you'll only need to keep your China gloves business narrative believable because you can't work even if I gave you the money. You have no business discipline," he said, putting on his trousers. "Are you calling me unlearned again, Dave, are you?" She asked, moving closer, ready to fight. Dave knew Shanice was not a joke; she would break a man's jaw with her tough Luo hand. He sat on the bed to mean he did not want trouble. "Why did you pin me against the wall like an animal Dave? Is that what you do with that Ph.D. rich wife of yours?" She asked, hands akimbo. "I heard you got with her because she was sophisticated, well read, and monied. What has that done for you, Dave?" She asked, bending to be at his level. Dave did not like noisy confrontations; he was getting uncomfortable, but he stayed still, his elbow on his thigh and his head resting on his palm. Shanice was a forest of dry trees; she only needed one matchstick to ignite her. She would burn; she always wanted to burn and loved burning and bringing everything around her to ashes. Dave remembered how they met at his home about six years ago when he had visited his mom and coincidentally found her fetching his mother firewood. He found her a free spirit, a hard worker with the strength of a man, and an interesting kind of crazy. They had gone out a few times before she told him that she was pregnant for him. He had cheated on Michelle, and he freaked out about the pregnancy. He ran back to the city and immediately proposed to Michelle. He hoped he would forget about Shanice, that she would get rid of it, that she would get married to another man and tell him she was pregnant for him. He was hiding in the city and escaping from a responsibility he regretted creating. Shanice had asked about the whereabouts of Dave from his parents for a long time. When they learned about her pregnancy, they called Dave home and asked him to set things straight away. Putting things right meant setting a wedding date before the pregnancy started to show. He couldn't because he was already in love with a Kikuyu girl, a thing he knew would be hard to explain. "A city girl is not welcome here, leave alone a Kikuyu girl; I don't want my son to die. You have a Luo lady who has proven fertile and is already carrying your child." His mother said after disclosing about Michelle's tribe to his family. After many discussions, convincing, and pleading, he had managed to persuade his family about Michelle by lying that she was also pregnant and almost due. He had to draw a plot to benefit Shanice and promise her a comfortable life. When Dave told Shanice that he would not marry her but would take full responsibility for his child, Shanice went into a frenzy, a side of her he had never seen. He didn't want to have a wife that hadn't gone to school, but the level of crazy that Shanice showed that day made him decide that come what may, he wouldn't be with her. Shanice slapped him so hard when he asked her to terminate the pregnancy. "You must be dreaming! I will have this child, and it will have a graduate dad and live with him in the city," she had bellowed. Dave asked Shanice on a date to try to reason with her and devise a plan that wouldn't remove Michelle from the equation. Shanice had proposed two wives, but Dave said it was not an option. He had mentioned that Michelle was a learned woman, miss independent, with her own money, and from a well-to-do family. He had also said that she was a good girl whom he had dated for a long time and one that was still a virgin when they got together. After a long deliberation with Shanice, Dave promised her that he would get with her after five years when he would have made a substantial amount of money and have found a way to part with Michele amicably. In the meantime, he would get Shanice into the city and give her and their child a good life. To hide the transaction of this arrangement, Dave figured out that trading cryptocurrencies and sending anonymous transactions to Shanice would do the trick. Michelle would not suspect a thing. "I'm giving you up to the end of the year, Dave. If you don't tell your partner, you'll have a new year's gift to unwrap in the name of Dickson and Shanice. We will be in your house," she said. "End of the year!" She yelled for no apparent reason. She wanted to stir him, put him between a wall and a hard rock. "It hasn't come to this, Shanice?" Dave said, almost begging. "Try me, Dave; not going to school doesn't mean I am stupid. I am a city girl; I have woken up. Just try me, tell her, or I will. Dickson will call you Daddy while eating pizza at Blue Valley Mall next time," she threatened and left the bedroom. Dave threw himself backwards and lay flat on the bed holding his head. "What did I get myself into with this lady? I wish I never met Shanice; my goodness, my life is ruined, and I'm running out of time," he murmured. "End of the year, Dave! End of the year!” Shanice yelled from the sitting room. Dave wanted to bury his head in the ground to block her voice. He buttoned his shirt and left the bedroom. He was headed to the door to go when he was hit by something on his back. He looked behind and saw the broken TV remote hit the floor while Shanice continued watching the TV as if nothing had happened. He proceeded to the door and headed home, continuing with his sleep.