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apartment was what they called a
self-contained unit. It had a sitting room, a bedroom, a toilet and
a bath. The kitchen was a communal kind of thing. The six of such
apartments that were in this building used the same kitchen. He
wished more than anything on earth that he could move them to a
bigger place, especially with the baby coming.
    If he could get a two-bedroom
apartment, one room for them and the other for guests, until the
baby was old enough to stay on its own. However, he could not
afford it. Being a geography teacher in a second rate secondary
school in a town as small and insignificant as Oraromi did not
offer you that many high paying job options.
    He realized that he had been
extremely lucky to get the job he had. There were literally
thousands of jobless graduates roaming around on the Nigerian
streets. He did not have to look that far to find an
example.
    Joke was one of the unlucky jobless
ones. With a degree in Accounting and a master’s degree in
Economics, she was no pushover. Not that he was resting on his oars
either. He had a bachelor’s degree in Geography and a Masters
degree in Educational Administration and Planning. He was also
planning to go even further and get a PHD. That was in whatever
century their finances grew stable enough. With a baby on the way,
he did not see it happening anytime soon.
    Another sigh burst from his lips as
soon as he thought this, before he could dwell anymore on that Joke
stirred, her eyes fluttering open slowly. Anger surged on his
insides. There he had gone and done it. Now she was awake. Silly
dolt that he was, he had woken her.
     

Chapter Four
     
    “What’s wrong?” She asked,
immediately becoming alert when she saw the serious look on his
face.
    “Nothing__ just
thinking.”
    “Of?” She asked sitting up with some
difficulty. At five and a half months, it was not as easy to move
about as before.
    “Just things___.” He replied his
voice low and distant.
    “Worrying about money again are
you?” She asked with a, you cannot fool me look on her
face.
    He froze. How in the world did she
always know?
    “Babe__” She began leaning forward
and running her cool hands over his heated skin. “I have told you
time and time again that you should stop worrying. We will be fine.
We always pull through.”
    Her confident words did not reassure
him. He nodded simply to pacify her and managed a wobbly
smile.
    “You know what you are my darling?”
She asked leaning closer still and planting her cool lips on his
cheek.
    “What?” He asked with his eyes
closed as her lips touched his cheek.
    “You are a WORRIER!!!
JEEZ!!!”
    A wan smile crept on his face.
Warmth filled his insides and he could feel a bubble of laughter
building. She was a gem. She always knew how to make him feel
better. Joke was the true personification of the word soul
mate.
    “We’ll be fine darling. We always
are. Remember what Pastor Silvester said? God will never leave us
or abandon us. He will be with us even to the end of the
earth.”
    He sighed and lay back down on the
bed. Those words for some reason brought less comfort than they
usually did. Seeing this Joke sighed and patted him on the stomach.
Her soft pat brought a smile to his face and for that, she was
grateful.
    “It is well dear. You best get up.
You don’t want to be late for work do you?”
    He nodded and got up immediately. He
did it so quickly that Joke could not help wondering whether he had
just remembered that he had to get to work. Before she had even
finished thinking this he was already in the bathroom. A couple of
seconds later the sound of water running greeted her
ears.
    She got up___slowly. It was time to
start preparing breakfast. She did not much relish the thought of
walking down the long staircase to reach the kitchen, but there was
nothing else for it.
    Like Alaba, she wished more than
anything that their finances would improve so they could get a
bigger place. Unlike him however, she did not fixate