http://penastory.com/2016/03/30/mother-vs-wive-blessing-ajagbe/

When Kunle told her that his mother was coming to spend the weekend with them, she knew she was in for it again. She wasn’t ready for their usual hassle especially not this weekend that she has a lot of readings to do. On Monday, she would be presenting a seminar at her place of work, therefore she needed all the quietness she could get. Nneka had come to the conclusion that her mother-in-law hated her. Since she got married to Kunle, she and his mother have never once gotten on well. They would always end up throwing words at each other. It has never ended up in any physical combat, but the use of words wasn’t something that could be avoided. Nneka had on different occasions tried to make peace, but Mama would always look for a way to make war.

Why? She couldn’t understand. Was it because she was Igbo? So, what if she was Igbo? That didn’t make her any less human neither did it make her culture inferior to theirs. Nneka had also thought that may be the woman was jealous. Jealous that her son was going to spend the rest of his life with another woman. Jealous that her son now had to place more priority on his wife and not her anymore. Nneka had a 100 different reasons she created in her head as to why her mother-in-law was always disgusted at her existence.

The Weekend wasn’t something she was looking up to. In fact, she wished she could slow down the hand of time, but she couldn’t either. The week was running fast and the weekend was approaching with rapid speed. Mama was to come on Friday and go back on Monday. Nneka why the old woman had to come and spend the weekend with them when they were all living in the same Ibadan city. Her own mother who is in Ilorin doesn’t even come to visit that often. Nneka had tried to tell Kunle about his mother coming to visit them all the time, but he said, “she is my mother and she can come as many times as she wants to”.

This time, the argument started because Nneka cooked Jollof rice for Mama. The poor lady who was tired after coming back from a hectic job managed to cook a delicious meal of Jollof rich with one lap of chicken and one cat fish for Mama. The older woman looked at the food with spite and said that she wanted Pounded Yam and Vegetable soup not Jollof rice. By the time the argument started Kunle wasn’t back from work yet. He always did miss their arguments. Whenever he was around, the both of them would pretend to be best of friends, but when he was away, they did not hide their cat and rat like behaviour.

“I want Pounded Yam and Vegetable soup,” Mama repeated. “And not some leftover food”.

Nneka felt really insulted. Leftover food! The food that she had taken her precious time to prepare. “Mama, this is not left over food”, she said calmly. “You should have told me you wanted Pounded Yam and Vegetable soup before I started preparing this. Besides, this is my house and you should at least manage to eat whatever I offer you”.

That was when Mama called her and Igbo witch. If she didn’t have the intention of killing her, why did she want her to manage to eat the Jollof rice even when she wanted Pounded Yam and Vegetable soup? As if calling the poor lady Igbo Witch wasn’t enough, Mama started shouting and begging the neighbours to come and rescue her from a killer. Thankfully, Kunle came home before things could get out of hands. Mama wasted no time in narrating everything to her son and all he could do was shake his head.

He said, “Mama, do you think I’m stupid?” The older woman looked at her son, puzzled. Where was he going with this?

“I know the both of you pretend to like each other whenever I’m around. It just so happened that today things got out of hand. What is wrong with the both of you?”

Even Nneka became confused. She had thought that he was taking her side as a good husband, but when he said, ‘both of you’, it was clear that he was on neither sides.

“Why can’t you two look past your differences whatever it may be? You are my mother and you are my wife and I love the both of you. One may be more than the other, but that shouldn’t be a reason for the both of you to hate each other. If you don’t want me to join in this hate battle, I want you two to settle your scores right now, right here”.

The two women shot a quick glance at each other and looked away. No one was willing to apologise first. Kunle looked at his wife and mother and wondered what he had done to deserve such stubborn women. He was already giving up hope when Mama voiced, “I’m sorry.” Kunle was shocked that his mother was the one apologising first. He had thought it would be Nneka. Nneka herself was surprised and whatever despise she had towards the older woman varnished at that moment. She smiled and went to hug her mother-in-law saying, “I’m sorry too.”

Source : PenAStory www.penastory.com