Nidhra & Pradha: The Second Act

By Oluwatosin Ojumu

...And then, the penny dropped: he knew this woman well enough to know the way her mind worked; she had dressed up that way especially for him! She had taken extra care of her appearance because she had wanted him to notice – and of course his starving soul had noticed. Now she had been completely subtle about it all; like he could always trust his wife to be, but her hair was definitely fuller, glossier than normal. Now she definitely put a lot of effort into her hair at all times, so to get it looking even better than normal was quite a feat, even for her. How he missed that hair! He remembered how he used to love running his hands through it, how soft it had been between his fingers...Once again he dragged himself back to the present. The subtle sandalwood undertones of that scent that she knew he loved on her lingered gently in the air between them. Her outfit was quietly, unobtrusively expensive, new, he thought, flattering. But the absolute clincher was her shoes. Seriously?! Who wears open-toed, stiletto sandals, of glittering gold, flashing freshly and prettily painted toes, purely for the purpose of handing the kids over to the ex-husband for the weekend?! Unless of course she actually was going on a date! Of course, that was it, that was the only thing that made sense! But then he thought about it and dismissed it. No, she really liked to take her time when getting ready for a date, and she would never have fixed a date for the night when he was coming to get the kids; sometimes the traffic was terrible and he would be a couple of hours late in getting there. No, that whole...appearance...act was purely for his benefit, no-one else’s! A tiny spark of hope surged in his heart.

And yet he felt as if he had to make sure.
“My Mum...wants to know...whether you are dating again?” Now he was the one almost blushing at the gauche words that had tumbled out of his lips.
Pradha ostentatiously threw back her beautiful head of hair and gave him a pointedly inquisitive look.
“Your Mum?!”
“...And I’m kinda curious too!”
Pradha looked him full in the face and then slowly, sadly looked away.
And that was when Nidhra finally made up his mind. This beautiful goddess was his woman. They had mutually pledged an oath to one another in front of hundreds of people. He was going to get her back, he was going to restore their family, he was going to run his hands through that beautiful, fragrant hair once again – actually more than once; many many many times – and this time he was never going to let her go...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oluwatosin Ojumu
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005310868

Oluwatosin Ojumu

I am a born again Christian writer, blogger and webdesigner. I write under a few different pen names, some of which are variations of my own name.Under this name "Oluwatosin Ojumu", I write mainstream (non faith-based) contemplative poetry and literary fiction. My poetry is mostly inspired by nature, and art, and beauty, and themes of memory, imagination, time, consciousness and explorations of other abstract concepts. I am currently writing a range of "Études" or "Studies" based on some of these concepts.My fiction is largely based on and inspired by existing classic works from great authors like George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre.Under "Tosin Ojumu", (the shortened version of my first name) I write mostly Christian material. I am producing an open translation of the Bible (New Testament) called "The Open Bible". I also write articles about my opinions on various Church and Christian matters, and I maintain a blog about my expectations and hopes for Christian marriage called "Finding Mr Huggie-Wuggie". This is also the pen-name I use for other non-fiction, including opinion articles about issues unrelated to my faith.I also plan to publish a few works under completely anonymous pen-names....! ;)

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Nidhra & Pradha – The Second Act

Copyright 2021 by Oluwatosin Ojumu

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Table of Contents

Nidhra's Mum

Beautiful Pradha

Back Inside

Deep Mutual Attraction

DiscussionsThe Date

Candour

Moving Forward

AnnouncementWedding Day

More work from Oluwatosin Ojumu

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Nidhra's Mum

Nidhra grumbled a little to himself as he answered the call and braced himself for The Onslaught.

Hello Ma. A few pleasantries ensued, and then, inevitably:

And how is your darling wife, my beautiful little Pradha?

"That’s ex-wife, Ma, ex-wife!"

What a sweet and lovely angel she is! So well brought up, so feminine and refined, such a dutiful and attentive daughter-in-law!

By this time Nidhra was practically gritting his teeth. Their conversation always followed the same trajectory. Seriously, sometimes he suspected that his mother loved his ex-wife more than she loved him. She did not take much pains to hide the fact that she blamed him for the break-up.

I miss my grandchildren Nidhra. If she was to get married again, I don’t think I would ever see them again. In fact, I’m surprised that no-one else has snatched her up already!

Ma, you see all three of them twice a week!

It is not the same Nidhra and you know it! I want you to find out if she is dating so I will know how to pray.

Mama, I can’t possibly ask her that!

My dear little Nidhra, don’t be so stubborn! I know how heartbroken you were when she left you. You have lost so much weight since then, and you have not even made any attempt to find anyone else.

At this he said nothing, as he could not argue with that.

"Just give it another chance Nidhra. I know your ego is hurt, but beautiful women like Pradha don’t come along every day. No relationship is perfect, so you have to make allowances for one another. You know, your father used to think that I was too ambitious and Westernised too, once!"

In the background Nidhra heard his father grunt in surprise and he smiled out of an affectionate love for both his parents. His mother was, and always had been the sweetest and most obliging woman to his father, and he knew his father adored her for it, and always had done. The idea that anyone, least of all his father could ever have thought her too ambitious was so cutely preposterous that he almost burst out laughing tenderly, and then he realised that that had probably been his mother’s intent; she had probably been trying to make him laugh. He sighed to himself as he acknowledged that his mother did indeed love him deeply, she truly wanted the best for him, and to her it was clear that that best existed in the person of his ex-wife. Moreover, his parents' marriage had been so long, loving and genuinely happy, that he had sought to emulate that for himself, both consciously and unconsciously. However, that did depend somewhat on having a willing wife...

Pradha was genuinely different from his mother. She genuinely was ambitious. It was not that he thought that she was too ambitious; in fact, he prided himself on being the kind of husband who supported all her endeavours and took pride in her achievements as if they were his own.

It’s just that in the day to day running of their life together, time had been such a valuable resource… and then the kids...and there just did not seem to be the space for both of them to throw themselves into their dreams…and he could tell that she was getting frustrated, but he was also being worn down by work, and his own career had only just really started to take off, and he had hoped that she could be patient…but instead she had started to see in him the ogre that she had always been scared of marrying…and he had not known how to reach out to her, how to calm down his own pride for the sake of assuaging her own…so he had chosen exactly the wrong strategy, throwing himself into work more than ever, leaving even less