WHAT A LIFE.
  
  Episode 3&4.
  
  When Samantha turned around, she came face to
  
  face with Dozie who was running to the altar all
  
  disheveled. He was panting as his ring bearer came
  
  running after him. He ran to the altar and knelt down to apologize to the officiating minister. “What
  
  my eyes saw today, my mouth cannot tell, I
  
  escaped death by an inch”. He told the pastor.
  
  Pastor: “It is okay. Thank God you are here and
  
  alive. We will just get started with the exchange of
  
  marital vows. You can save the explanation till when you get into the bedroom with your wife”.
  
  Samantha was already angry and she wanted to
  
  ask him many questions but the words of the
  
  pastor deflated her anger and she waited till the
  
  time they will get home for her to unleash her
  
  anger on him. Pastor: “Dozie, do you take Samantha to be your
  
  lawfully wedded wife, to cherish and to love, in
  
  poverty and wealth, sickness and health until death
  
  do you part?”
  
  Dozie: “Yes, I do”.
  
  The pastor turned to Samantha who was all nervous.
  
  Pastor: “Samantha, do you take Dozie to be your
  
  lawfully wedded husband to…”
  
  The pastor was still talking when Samantha felt a
  
  bullet whiz through her ears and struck Dozie on
  
  his chest causing him to fall backwards into the hands of his bewildered ring bearer who was
  
  standing a step behind him with the a microphone
  
  in his hand.
  
  It happened in a twinkle of an eye and before
  
  Samantha could comprehend what was happening,
  
  the congregation including the officiating pastors had ran out for dear life. Even Eno, her maid of
  
  honour and the ring bearer had ran out. There was
  
  a great stampede as people fell on top one another
  
  in a bid to get out of harm’s way. Samantha ran
  
  towards him, knelt and took the lifeless body of her
  
  groom in her arm. She didn’t mind the harm the blood oozing out of his chest will do to her
  
  immaculate white wedding dress. Hot tears of pain
  
  and anger streamed down her cheeks and fell on
  
  the body now lying on her laps.
  
  Samantha: “Baby, please wake up. Open your eyes,
  
  don’t do this to me. It’s me your bride. I have waited all my life for this day, please just wake up.
  
  Noooooooo!”
  
  “What is it? Why are you shouting in your dream?”
  
  Samantha’s mother touched her on the sofa where
  
  she had slept off in the sitting room”.
  
  Samantha: “My God, mum. I had a terrible nightmare. Gosh it was so real”.
  
  Her mother sat beside her on the sofa when she
  
  noticed the sweet on her daughter’s forehead. “Tell
  
  me about the dream, my child”.
  
  Samantha: “I dreamt that Dozie kept me waiting in
  
  Church on our wedding day and when he did eventually show up, he was shot on the chest as
  
  we were exchanging marital vows”.
  
  Samantha’s mother: “Chimo! That is not a good
  
  dream at all. Why would anyone want my son-in-
  
  law dead?”
  
  Samantha: “I don’t know, mama. I guess it was just a dream. A figment of my imagination, you know”.
  
  Samantha’s mother: “Just a dream? And you woke
  
  up screaming? I think it is more than just a dream.
  
  We need to pray about it so that God can cancel
  
  whatever plans the enemy has against that day”.
  
  Samantha: “There you go again, mother. Pray, pray, pray, that’s all you have to say to anything that
  
  happens in this house. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous
  
  to you sometimes that you have to take everything
  
  to God in prayers? I mean, do we even need to pray
  
  about anything? Won’t God act if we don’t pray?”
  
  Samantha: “My dear, some of the things that manifest in our dreams are revelation from God.
  
  You can only confront the spiritual with prayers”.
  
  Samantha: “Mum, please. My wedding is in two days
  
  time and I got lots of finishing preparation to do,
  
  you know what? Enough of all the prayer and God
  
  talk, I need to go fix my nails against my bridal shower tomorrow”. She walked out leaving her
  
  mother speechless.
  
  ====
  
  It was the Bachelor’s eve day, Samantha was in the
  
  house getting ready with her friends. She had
  
  gotten a little red dress to wear and her makeup artist was busy mapping out contours. Eno was
  
  there with her as the maid of honor and she was in
  
  custody of Samantha’s phone and other personal
  
  properties.
  
  “Can you send a text to my hubby and ask him the
  
  hotel that he will sleep after the bachelor’s eve? I wanted to ask him earlier but I forgot”, she told UcenterDress covertible items to wear for maid of the bride
  
  Eno. Eno did as she was told and Dozie replied
  
  immediately telling her that he had booked room
  
  101 in Seaside hotel. Eno, immediately forwarded
  
  the message to her mother who had instructed her
  
  to get all information concerning all the preparation.
  
  The bride to be and her friends left for the
  
  bachelor’s eve which was to hold in Unique garden,
  
  Wuse zone 2. There was a lot to eat and drink and
  
  the DJ never relented in playing danceable music.
  
  Samantha was more than elated, this was her last night as a single lady and she was determined to
  
  enjoy it to the fullest. As she held Dozie’s hand in a
  
  romantic dance, she wished that the world would
  
  pause and that moment will remain forever. “I love
  
  you so much, you are the light of my life, without
  
  you my life is in darkness”, she whispered into Dozie’s ears.
  
  Dozie: “I love you too, my woman. You are like the
  
  air that I breathe, without you I cease to exist”.
  
  Samantha: “Promise that you will never leave me
  
  alone”.
  
  Dozie: “Cross my heart, love. I will always be here for you”. he gave her a passionate peck on her
  
  forehead.
  
  Eno was sitting in the company of friends when her
  
  phone rang and she excused herself to pick her
  
  call. Dozie’s best man who was staring at her from
  
  afar decided to use the opportunity to ask her out for he had been admiring her ever since he met her
  
  with Samantha few months back at his friend’s
  
  place.
  
  Frank: “Excuse me, pretty one”.
  
  Eno: “Are you talking to me?”
  
  Frank: “Of course I am talking to you. Who else is standing here?”
  
  Eno: “What is it?”
  
  Frank: “Hey, don’t go all serious, I don’t bite”.
  
  Eno: “And what is that supposed to mean? As you
  
  can see, I came here to make a call, I don’t have
  
  time for unnecessary pleasantries”. Frank: “Okay, I guess I have to get started then.
  
  You see, I have been admiring you right from the
  
  first day we met and I thought we could start
  
  something, who knows ours may be the next
  
  wedding to come up”.
  
  Eno: “Really? So, where do you work?” Frank: “Erm, I…usually…I mean…I just finished my
  
  Masters program not long ago and I am a teaching
  
  assistant in Kaduna state University”.
  
  Eno: “So, you look at me from head to toe and you
  
  say you want to marry me? I mean, of all the girls
  
  here, none caught your fancy except me”. Frank: “But love is”.
  
  Eno: “Eh-eh, hold it there”, she sized him up from
  
  head to toe. “In fact, I need to speak pidgin English
  
  to drive home my point. Look me well well, I am a
  
  very expensive chic and only well to do men can
  
  afford me. How much KASU dey pay you as teaching assistant wey you wan marry me? You
  
  know the kind designer things wey my mama dey
  
  buy for me from abroad? Can you afford it? I don’t
  
  blame you now, shebi it is condition that is making
  
  you talk anyhow. Because I accepted to do maid of
  
  honor for Samantha abi, that’s why you feel like we are mates right? I don’t even know where Dozie
  
  picked you up from. Among all the handsome and
  
  rich friends that he has, he couldn’t use any for best
  
  man except you. Abeg shift make I see road jor!”
  
  she brushed him aside and went back to her seat.
  
  Frank: “You don’t have to be rude, I will see you in Church tomorrow”. He called after her”
  
  Eno: “Don’t be too sure”, she replied.
  
  ======
  
  After the bachelor’s eve, Eno excused herself that
  
  she was going home to spend the night with her
  
  mother and then come back early the next day to prepare for Church. “You are my maid of honor,
  
  you are supposed to be with me tonight”,
  
  Samantha protested.
  
  Eno: “I know but my mother needs my attention
  
  urgently at home. I don’t even know what is wrong
  
  with her, she was sounding somehow on phone. I need to go and find out”.
  
  Samantha: “It’s okay. Just make sure you are here
  
  early enough before the makeup artist arrives so
  
  that she can make you up too”.
  
  Eno picked a cab to Seaside hotel where Dozie said
  
  he was spending the night. “I will like to see the guest in room 101”, she told the receptionist. Few
  
  minutes later, she was standing face to face with
  
  Dozie who was wondering what his fiance’s maid
  
  of honor was doing in his hotel room a night
  
  before his wedding.
  
  Dozie: “Did you miss your way or something? What are you doing here?”
  
  She pushed him and got inside the room and shut
  
  the door after her.
  
  Dozie: “What! Are you drunk or something?”
  
  Eno: “Shhhh…”She placed her index finger over his
  
  lips. Sssshhh” she cautioned again Dozie is shocked: “Why are you doing this?”
  
  Eno: “Because I have something better to offer,
  
  ready to offer you now”.
  
  Dozie: “And what is that?”
  
  Eno: “This”. She removed the dress she had on
  
  revealing her full boobs and rounded buttocks in her pink Victoria Secrets lingerie.
  
  TBC