Odoziaku - S01 E01

3 months ago

Odoziaku - S01 E01

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 1

Odoziaku, Episode 1

"Hello! Good morning. I'm calling you from Jumbo Bank. Please, am I on to Odoziaku?" A female voice said over the phone.

Odoziaku was in the kitchen cooking evening meal for her family when the call came in. She had the phone in her left ear while turning her soup on the fire..

"Yes. Good evening. This is Odoziaku. How may I be of help to you please?" She asked. She stopped turning the soup so as to pay closer attention to what the caller had to say.

"You attended an interview in our bank today and I'm calling to let you know you are successful. You have been appointed the branch manager of Jumbo Bank at Ilanje Street, Lagos. You are to resume work on first thing tomorrow morning. Please check your mail, your appointment letter has been sent to you. Please accept my congratulations." The female caller said before hanging up.

Odoaziaku dropped the phone and it almost fell into the soup. She was so happy that she jumped out of the kitchen and ran to her husband Aku who was sitting in the living room. Since she relocated from Enugu to Lagos to join her husband, she has been looking for a job without success.

"What is it?" Aku asked. He stood up from the sofa and sharpened his ears like those of a rabbit.

"I got the job. I got the job! I got the job finally!" Odoziaku shouted. Her husband stood up and they both hugged. He kissed her passionately and he went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of red wine and two glasses. He poured a glass for himself and the other for Odoziaku and they immediately clang their cups in celebration.

"I'm happy for you my darling. You have been jobless for six months. Finally, you will start going to work. How much is the salary?" Aku asked with a smile on his face.

Since they got married six months ago, he has always felt overwhelmed by the responsibilities that came with marriage. His N70,000 salary became inadequate to cater for himself and his wife. They have been battling to survive since then even though they don't have children yet.

"Well, I have not checked the salary. I have to open my mail." Odoziaku said. She rushed to the kitchen to pick her phone. When she got there, she realized that the soup she was cooking has burnt into coal. She quickly turned off the gas and rushed back to the living room to meet her husband. She gave no thought about the soup because she was overwhelmed by happiness that the soup became nothing to her.

Odoziaku quickly put on her data and just then, the expected mail flashed on her screen. She opened it immediately and read it to her husband's hearing.

"Oh my goodness! Honey, the salary is N800,000." She scramed. The salary was not entirely a surprise to her. She is a very good banker who has had a lot of experiences.

She only resigned from her former bank in Enugu because she had to join her husband in Lagos. She was earning N400,000 in Enugu. It was a huge sacrifice to leave the job and join her husband. Aku had refused to resign from his job and join her in Enugu. His pride did not allow him do that. He said it is the woman that should join the man, not the other way round.

People advised him to relocate to Enugu and meet his wife, but he refused. So Odoziaku left her N400k per month job to join her husband, who was earning N70k in Lagos.

"That is great news. We need to go for a Thanksgiving in church. Our lives have changed with this job." Aku said. He poured another glass of wine for himself and also poured more for Odoziaku. Both of them drank themselves to a stupor and slept off in the living room after making hot and passionate love.

Aku her husband, was the one who woke up first the next morning. He tapped Odoziaku to wake up and prepare and resume work at Jumbo Bank.

"Time to go to work. You must not be late. This is the day I have been waiting for." Aku said. He sounded as if the job is his own.

"Are you not going to work?" Odoziaku asked her husband. He seemed very absentminded and unwilling to even take his bath as he usually does each day when preparing to go to his teaching job. He hates that job so much and has only been going there because there was nothing else he could do to feed his family.

"I asked you a question. Are you not going to work?" Odoziaku asked Aku again. She was brushing her teeth in the bathroom and her husband was pooping.

"I'm never going to that school again. I'm done!" Aku said. It sounded like a joke but her husband was serious.

"What do you mean?" Odoziaku asked. She temporarily brought out the brush from her mouth and spat out the foam formed by the Close Up toothpaste.

"Why are you saying you won't go to work again?" Odoziaku asked her husband again, now more forceful.

"Odoziaku my darling, I'm resigning. You now have a good job. A job that pays N800k. Hello! Why should I continue to work? From today on the family is on your shoulders." Aku said. He stood up from the toilet seat and used water to wash his bom bom before leaving.

Odoziaku was surprised at what her husband just said. She has always known that her husband hated his teaching job, but he can't just resign without even telling the school.

When she was done dressing and getting ready for work, she met her husband again in the living room. Aku had gone to the kitchen to make noodles for himself and he was at the dinning eating like a child preparing to leave for school in the morning.

"Honey, why are you resigning from your job? I know I now have a good job that can take good care of us, but it is not our culture that a man should stay idle at home while only the woman works. Igbos don't do that. It is an abomination. "Odoziaku declared. From the look on his face, she immediately knew that her husband did not like what she just said.

"You have not even received your first salary and you are already abusing your husband. That is one bad thing with you women. Only the appointment letter is making your head to swell. You are already calling me names. Are you saying that I'm lazy? I have been the one taking care of you for the past six months. Have we been starving? I said I won't go to that school again. Is it by force." Aku was shouting and his voice was making Odoziaku very uncomfortable. So she refused to talk back. She didn't want to start the day with argument.

"It's fine if you don't want to go. It's fine." Odoziaku said to her husband with respect in her voice.

"Take this paper. This is my account number. Tell the bank to be paying your salary into this account." Aku said when Odoziaku was stepping out of the house. She was shocked to hear that.

"But I have my own bank account. Why should the salary be paid into your own account? Are you the one working? Odoziaku asked.

"Shut up your dirty mouth and do as I say. I'm your husband and you are my property. I determine what happens in this house. I paid your bride price. Your money belongs to me and I will determine which account it will enter." Aku said. His eyes were turning red and Odoziaku began to wonder why her husband just changed overnight just because she got a good job. She has never seen him like this.

"It's my money! I'm the one who will work for it. So why do you want to collect it?" Odoziaku asked. But before she could say more, her husband landed her three dirty slaps that left her face swollen and redish. Aku has never laid his hands on her before. It was like the job she got is a curse rather than a blessing to the family.

"You hit me?" Odoziaku asked when she regained her composure.

"Yes! And I will hit you daily if you challenge my authority. This is just a small taste of what will happen to you if by the end of the month I don't see N800,000 alert in my phone. I will show you the difference between egbe and egbe." Aku said.

When she got to work, she was almost late. She was shown a very large and beautiful office with so many things to make her confortable, She also got an official car and a three bedroom official residence as the bank's branch manager. She decided that she will not tell her husband about the house. That one will be her security incase her husband's character towards her gets worse.

Odoziaku was given a file to file in her documents and bank details. Just as her husband instructed, she put his account number in the space left for salary account.

"We noticed a mistake in your file ma. The name on your salary account is not the same as your name." A clerk in charge of keeping staff files tells Odoziaku.

"Oh! That was not a mistake. That's my husband's account number. My salary should go into it." Odoziaku said. This was painful to her but she had to do it. She was very scared of her husband.