Tales of Our Time

By Bennett Obi

Tales of our time is a collection of mind-enriching stories that will entertain, educate and enthrall you. It contains stories from the past and present properly arranged to meet the needs of both young and old readers; it has something for every reader no matter the educational, cultural or religious background of the reader. Do you want to know why the elephant has small eyes or why the tortoise has a broken shell or what happens to liars or what happens to trafficked people or what happens to people who claim to know too much? Do you want to know what happens to lazy house wives or what happens to over pampered children and many more? So ride on and you will be glad you did.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jul 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499087925

Bennett Obi

Dr. Bennett Onyebuchukwu Obi is a Nigerian born at Oraifite in Anambra state. He attended Oraifite Grammar school for his secondary education. He is an alumnus of the University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is a specialist in HIV/AIDS management. He has practiced his art at various locations in Nigeria, the Comoros Islands, Nairobi Kenya (very briefly) and Lesotho. He is married with three sons. He has published four other books; The Villager, Before the Dawn, Tales of our time and Gem in a Rubbish Heap.

Book preview

I LOST MY HUSBAND TO MY HOUSEMAID

G etting a housemaid to serve in the house is one thing but making her remain a housemaid is another. Martha was a career woman working in one of the reputable auditing firms in an African country. She was married with two young kids, a boy and a girl aged six and four years respectively. She had a loving and caring husband, Jude; and she was also a very nice, loving and caring wife and mother until she became a manager in her office. She was a dedicated worker and so her rise to the top within a few years did not surprise anybody. She could not cope very well with the office work and house work so she decided to get a house help. She wanted somebody that could take good care of their two young kids and her husband and so she went for somebody that was matured enough and not a small girl that would add to her domestic problems instead of helping to take care of the home. Joy the housemaid was a seventeen year old girl from their village. Her husband was a self-employed mechanical engineer managing his construction company.

As one of the managers in the firm her responsibilities in the office increased and so she delayed to come home most of the time. Even when she came home she either came with some work to do at home or she was very tired. She could not even give her husband food instead she would call Joy to serve her husband. She also worked on weekends and did not have time to look into the running of her home. The housemaid did the shopping, cooking of food, cleaning the home, washing the clothes etc.

If the madam was not in the executive meeting she was on tour of their branches country wide. She became married to her work and abdicated her responsibility as a house wife and mother. Her children and her husband might not even see her for days or weeks. She was enjoying her new position of authority and all the fringe benefits attached to it. The children then knew the housemaid as their mother to the extent that even when their mother came home she didn’t get the enthusiastic welcome that she used to get from them. As days turned into weeks and weeks into months her husband started to develop interest in the housemaid after all she was then the only woman of the house. The housemaid gradually but reluctantly took over all the functions of the woman of the house.

The husband and wife started to drift apart slowly but steadily. Martha either did not read the handwriting on the wall or decided not to care because of her love for her new position. So on one of the few Sundays she was at home she noticed that her housemaid was vomiting early in the morning and she confronted her but she denied everything. When she went to work the following Monday she took permission to visit a doctor that she was not feeling well. She went home and took her housemaid to the doctor instead and there it was confirmed that she was pregnant. She was very furious and when they got home she asked the lady to tell her the person responsible for her pregnancy. Joy was afraid and refused to say anything. When Martha tried to beat her up, her husband intervened and asked Joy to tell her madam the truth; Joy then said that Jude was responsible for her pregnancy. Martha collapsed on the floor and started to cry. Jude was unapologetic and was very furious at his wife asking her what she expected him to do when she voluntarily abandoned her marital duties for her office work. Jude declared there and then that he was going to marry Joy after all she was the one taking care of him. ‘What is the use marrying a woman that has another husband (her work) elsewhere’ he retorted. ‘I married a wife to take care of me and not to give me money’ he concluded. Martha could not endure that and so she left and Jude married Joy.

THE DESTINATION OF A HORSE RIDER WILL BE REACHED BY A DONKEY RIDER

J ack and Joe were childhood friends. Jack’s parents were rich while Joe’s parents were poor. They attended the same primary and secondary schools. They were both above average students. They all nursed the idea of becoming medical doctors later in their lives. When they completed their secondary education, they passed out with good grades. In fact they both got grade one (first class in some places).

Jack’s parents sent him abroad for his university education. It was fashionable in those days for rich people to send their children abroad for studies. There Jack studied medicine and returned to the country at the completion of his studies. He was offered a good job when he returned. He soon became a ‘big’ man. He bought himself a nice car, built a decent house, got married. In fact by our standard he was doing