IN THE EYE OF A STORM

After about 30 minutes Ugo went back into the living room. It was pitch dark, but she spotted his bulky frame on the long sofa; she touched him lightly, knowing that he wasn't fast asleep. " Sweetheart, please come to bed, i've been begging you for close to an hour. What's bothering you?"
Her husband of 15 months shrugged slightly and responded gloomily, "Go to bed, i need to get to the root of this matter."  "I tried, but I couldn't sleep" She whispered softly, "Why have you been acting strangely, since you had a bath? Did you remember something? Is it the business?" "GO TO BED you cannot help me with this." He said, his voice raised this time. She sighed deeply and went in again. For the third time that night.

As she lay on the bed, her mind searched through the events of the past three hours. What could have led to his mood switch, she thought. She had a feeling it had something to do with her stealthy movement in the laundry room. That was where she kept her little savings, and he had come in to pick his laundry while she was trying to calculate how much money she had left. She hurriedly hid it, and put the bedsheets in the washing machine. He stood, perplexed for a while; "Why are you acting like this?" he said, "You! Why didn't you knock before entering" she fired back. He stood in shock wondering what had come over her, as she left him in the room behind.
She knew her raised voice was uncalled for, but she was flustered. She didn't want him to know she had any money. He had a way of making her pay for expenses he usually paid for, whenever he noticed she had some money. So she had learnt her lesson, she never had any money.

Ugo had always been a light sleeper; immediately he opened the door, she woke up but laid still. He came to her side of the bed, tapped her lightly and said "Babe, sit up i need to talk to you." She could sense where this was headed, he didn't trust her, every move she made had to be clearly explained. Eventhough, she had done nothing to deserve distrust, he just did not trust her. Infact, he trusted no one. He was that broken.

She sat up and he continued "I have something to ask you, why have you been acting strangely?" "How so?"she responded, fully aware of what he meant; her suspicions were right. When she got no reply but silence and a fixed gaze. She decided to come clean, so as to quell further problems. " Sweetheart, you know i told you i didn't have any money, i do. I was counting it when you came in, i didn't want you to find out, that's why I acted that way."
He heaved a deep sigh, "Okay". From his response and tone she knew he found her explanation plausible, she thought it was over and was about to lay back to sleep, when he said "Sit up, i have something to tell you."
She sat up again,wondering what it could be this time.  

To be continued next week...