ELUSIVE SON ii Elusive Son BY MATTHEW UZUKWU Feli Publishing, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, USA ELUSIVE SON iii Dedication For Eunice. ELUSIVE SON iv Copyright © 2022 by Matthew Uzukwu. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, without written permission from the publisher, except for a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Inquiries should be addressed to: felipublishing@yahoo.com or to uzukwu99@gmail.com Whatsapp Contact: (+12027467297) Matthew Uzukwu is on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. For other love novels and novellas by Matthew Uzukwu, please visit: www.lovstories.com You can listen to the audio book versions on Youtube. Type in Matnice Productions in Youtube to access the channel. Names, characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. ISBN: 978-0-9637326-4-4 ELUSIVE SON 4 Janet pushed and pushed until the baby came out. A nurse picked up the baby and said aloud to all in the room “It’s a girl!” Morris beamed with joy. He glanced at Janet, who appeared exhausted from the birthing. The baby was cleaned up and brought back a short while later and placed in the arms of Janet. Morris stood next to the bed and stroked her hair. Janet was unhappy and Morris sensed that. He tried to cheer her up. The medical personnel in the room gushed about the baby and how beautiful she looked, believing her mother was taking in the compliments graciously. Unbeknownst to them, however, Janet was distressed about her birth of another girl. She masked her torment with a forced smile, but only Morris knew that the smile belied the huge disappointment she felt. ELUSIVE SON 5 CHAPTER 1 It had been two weeks since Janet, caramel skin colored, tall and curvaceous, had given birth to her third child, a beautiful baby girl she named Happiness. Janet had two other children and they were also girls, a fact which bothered her because in her male dominant African ethnic group, a male child was considered exceedingly important to have. Morris, her husband of five years was an only son, and his traditionalist mother, a brown skinned and slim woman named Clara, wanted him to sire a male heir to the family’s vast land and crop bearing trees in their home village, deep in the African forest. Janet ’s first and second children were girls, and now her third try had turned out another girl. ELUSIVE SON 6 Janet was anguished and depressed. When her tall and handsome husband had introduced her to Clara as the woman he wanted to marry, Clara, a feisty and extroverted woman, had been unabashedly direct in her introductory exchange with Janet. She told her that the most important thing she expected of her as a prospective daughter – in-law was to bear a male child. Her son’s unique situation in being an only son invariably required of his wife to bear him a male heir, and Janet had better be up to it. “Did Morris tell you he is an only son ? ” she had asked Janet. “No, he hasn’t told me anything like that,” “Well, I am telling you that right now. The most important thing expected of you is to bear him a son. Are you able to do that?” Janet was aghast at the question. She was not a clairvoyant to predict what the gender of her future children would be. Most of all, she wasn’t God that determined such matters. Her instinct was to give a hostile answer, but she ELUSIVE SON 7 was meeting her fiancé’s mother for the first time, so she decided to be polite with her answer. “Mama,” she called Clara by the culturally accepted honorific for an older woman , “I am not God that knows what the sex of my children will be, but I will pray that He blesses me with a male child.” “I will pray for you, too. Morris has vultures for uncles, and because he is an only son, they are waiting, like the cadaver eating birds perched on a tree, for Morris to pass on so they can descend on his inheritance from his male forebears You are my family’s hope to stop them. ” “I have heard you, mama. By God’s grace, I will bear not only one but several male children for Morris. ” Janet lay on her bed next to Happiness, sad as she recalled the conversation with Clara immediately before she had married Morris and moved in with him. It had been five years since ELUSIVE SON 8 that encounter with Clara. She stroked Happiness’s face, happy to have her, but also depressed that a male child had eluded her again. Morris operated a business enterprise which imported consumer electronics for sale in the domestic market. He had left for work earlier in the day and so was not around to comfort Janet. Thoroughly drained from mental exhaustion, she reached for her cell phone on the center table to call Morris. The phone rang a number of times before Morris had picked up. “Hello,” Morris had greeted. Janet was quiet for about a minute because she had spontaneously begun to sob. “Hello,” Morris repeated the greeting, but Janet continued to sob. “Janet, what’s going on? Are you okay?” Janet stopped sobbing and finally spoke up. “Do you think of me as an in adequate woman?” “No, Janet, why would you think like that!” he admonished her. ELUSIVE SON 9 “This is my third child now, and it is another girl. I can’t seem to give you this male child” she said and broke out in sobs again. “Common Janet ! Stop crying. There will be another opportunity, okay. We will try again, so stop crying.” Morris conveyed a sense of acceptance of the situation, even though he had begun to feel concerned of late, primarily because of Clara’s pressure on him to consider marrying a second wife. Clara had visited with him the previous week to see Janet and the baby, and had stayed for three days. Before she left to return home, she had engaged Morris in a contentious discussion about her suggestion to him to marry a second wife. “...Son, this wife cannot give you a male child. It’s time to look for a second wife,” she had told him. “Mama, a second wife is not necessary. Janet and I are still young. There are many years ahead of us. I believe this male child will ELUSIVE SON 10 come. Please, be patient.” “Son, you will be thirty five years old this year, and you have been married to her for five years. Your father died at 40 years old. I want you to live a very long life, but anything can happen, and should the unthinkable happen to you, our family will lose everything to your avaricious uncles.” “Mama, I know the angle you are coming from, but I still insist that Janet and I be given more time to have this male child.” “I will be leaving for the village tomorrow, and I will be thinking about this void in our family, ” said Clara, upset at Morris’s intransigence. When Morris’s father, Louis, had died, Morris inherited land which Louis had himself inherited from his own father. Louis had two younger brothers and they also received portions of the vast land. These men, who were Morris ’s uncles, were Clara ’s sworn enemies . Morris was just nine years old when his father had died. His uncles ELUSIVE SON 11 plotted to banish Clara from the village so they could take over what Morris had inherited from his father, figuring the young Morris would never come back to his ancestral community when he became a fully grown adult. But Clara ’s strong will and resistance had been instrumental in foiling the plot and preserving the inheritance rights of her son. Morris’s i nability to grasp this history and marry a second wife to increase his chances of a male child annoyed Clara. Her ability to fend off her husband’s brothers was undergirded by the fact that her son was a continuation of her late husband’s blood line, and t herefore possessing of the right to his property, regardless of how old he was when his father had died. Clara worried about another battle over the property, were Morris to die prematurely like his father had, but Morris would not budge from his decision to stick with Janet, whom he loved. It was true that Janet had failed on her third try for that boy, but he was optimistic that it would happen someday. ELUSIVE SON 12 *** Janet bathed and fed her baby then prepared to host her own mother, who was coming to visit later in the evening. Sophia, Janet’s mother, was a cheerful and friendly woman who was the opposite of Clara. She was the mother of six boys and Janet who was her only daughter. She had a special bond with Janet because of this, and she was Janet’s c onfidante. When Janet had her first child and had been disappointed because the child wasn’t a boy, Sophia had admonished and told her to be patient. It was her first child, and she had more child bearing years ahead of her. There was thus no need to be disillusioned. Then the second child came and it was a girl. When Happiness was born, Janet had called Sophia from the hospital with the news and reiterated her disenchantment anew. “It’s a girl. I did not want another girl! ” She ELUSIVE SON 13 had complained, sobbing. Sophia comforted and rebuked her at the same time. “Stop crying, Janet. I told you not to worry so much about this matter. At God’s own time, you will bear a male child. ” Sophia arrived as scheduled for her visit. Janet and Morris lived in a three bedroom apartment in a middle class part of town. Happiness’s crib was next to a long couch in the well furnished living room. She lay in the crib and was neatly wrapped up in a light cotton material. She punched the air with her soft little hands and her eyes were fixated at the ceiling. Sophia approached the crib and picked her up. “My granddaughter,” she said to her, playfully. “You are so beautiful.” Janet sat on the long couch and watched as Sophia played with Happiness, tickling her and eliciting smiles on her face. Janet still moped, outwardly demonstrating signs of her displeasure. Her phone rang and she picked it ELUSIVE SON 14 up. It was her friend Anna who was calling. “Hello,” Janet greeted. “Hello Janet, this is Anna. How are you?” “ I am feeling very bad. ” “ Janet, d on’t be so hard and down on yourself. You must get back your self confidence ” Anna was among a few of Janet’s friends who knew about her problem. Anna had herself experienced difficulty in conceiving a male child until her seventh birth. She empathized with Janet and told her she could help in finding a solution to her problem. Her call to Janet was to discuss the solution. “Janet, I know of a witch doctor that lives in a thick forest several hours away by road that can solve this problem for you. ” “You must take me to him,” said Janet. “I will do so at the appropriate time, after your daughter is at least one year old,” said Anna. “I know I must allow reasonable spacing ELUSIVE SON 15 before my next pregnancy, but I want to be prepared before then, in case the witch doctor would need me to so prepare. ” “Okay then, I will let you know later in the week when I can take you to him. ” “Thanks,” said Janet in appreci ation. “You’re welcome!” Sophia had listened in on the conversation and she became curious. “What was that about?” she asked Janet. “My friend Anna has offered to help me solve this problem. There is a witch doctor she will take me to. ” Sophia was alarmed. “A witch doctor!!” she exclaimed, incredulously. “Please do not let a witch doctor come near you over this issue,” she warned. Sophia was a member of a Christian Pentecostal Church. She was deeply religious and her faith was heavily influenced by the pastor of her church who was a firebrand preacher. Pastor Edwin always exhorted his ELUSIVE SON 16 congregation to abhor anything that had to do with pagan worship. Pagans were all headed for hell, he often preached, and even Christians who had the slightest connection with pagan rituals and ceremonies were destined for hell as well. Pastor Edwin’s warnings were uppermost in Sophia ’s mind when Janet had made mention of the witch doctor. “Janet, you can’t involve a witch doctor in this matter,” she w arned. “You will be condemned to eternal damnation if you do so, and you will never get to conceive a male child by the pagan powers of this witch doctor.” “Mama, at this point I don’t care about whatever means puts a boy in me. Do you have a better alternative for me?” “The solution will come through prayers,” said Sophia. Sophia had suggested the prayers option a fter Janet’s first girl, and she had engaged Pastor Edwin who led weekly prayer sessions for Janet. But Janet’s expectations never ELUSIVE SON 17 materialized in her next birth. The prayer sessions had continued through her third birth, and the continuing disappointing outcome had challenged her faith. Pastor Edwin counseled her to accept the Christian dictum that ‘God’s time is the best.’ She was better off to continue in prayer, as God did not necessarily answer one’s prayers immediately. With continual faith and prayer, God does ultimately answer prayers, the pastor had told her. Sophia reminded Janet of Pastor Edw in’s counseling, and urged her to keep her faith and be patient for God’s miraculous work to occur. Janet was up against an impatient mother- in-law who had an urgent agenda to fill up an heir ship void. Clara had of late been haranguing Morris and pressuring him to marry a second wife, and Janet ’s only effective means of blocking that from happening was to bear a son. She knew Morris was resisting the idea, but there was a risk of him breaking under Clara’s relentless cajoling. Sophia’s caution about ELUSIVE SON 18 engaging a witch doctor was strictly based on her Christian faith’s abhorrence of the satanic rituals of witch doctors, but Janet saw nothing wrong in simultaneously pursuing Christian prayers and the black magic of a witch doctor. The goal was the same, she thought. The color of the cat that got the mouse did not matter, as long as the mouse was caught. “Mama, I hear your concerns about witch doctors, but we have tried prayers. I do believe in prayers, but I must try this witch doctor. His magic might work.” “Janet, your faith is weak. Pastor Edwin said a weak faith cannot resolve issues. You must therefore strengthen your faith...” The women were about an hour into their conversation when Morris had walked in from work. He was happy to see his mother-in-law. They exchanged pleasantries after which Morris put his briefcase down on a table and walked into the bedroom. Janet followed him into the bedroom. Morris looked exhausted. He sat on a ELUSIVE SON 19 sofa and was joined by Janet who rubbed his broad back. She took off his shirt and hung it in the closet. She next took his shoes off and placed them on a shoe rack in a corner of the room. “You look exhausted,” she told him. “What would you like to eat? I made rice, chicken stew, and fried plan tains.” “Make me a plate with all three items ,” said Morris. Janet ’s rise from her chair coincided with a ring of Morris’s phone , and it was Clara calling him. Janet’s heart skipped a beat out of concern about what she suspected the conversation would be about. She had become apprehensive of late about Clara’s calls to Morris Janet listened in on the phone conversation. “Hello, mama,” Morris had greeted. “Hello Morris, I hope you are well?” “I am, mama. I just got back from work.” “I hope that bad wife of yours made your food before you got home .” “Mama, Janet is not a bad wife; don’t talk ELUSIVE SON 20 about her like that, please!” “Son, it is my opinion that she is a bad wife. You need a new wife.” “Mama, I will call you back,” said Morris, who moved to end the conversation. Janet, who sat beside Morris and had heard the conversation, was hurt. Her eyes misted up from the emotional pain caused by Clara ’s words. Clara had sensed that her son had no interest in marrying a second wife, and she now pursued a new strategy, which was to break up the marriage. Janet rested her head on Morris’s right shoulder and sobbed softly. Morris tried to comfort her. He urged her to disregard his mother’s attack. “Janet,” h e called out her name while looking directly in her eyes, “nothing will break the love I have for you, not my mother, not anybody else. I know why she is doing this, but my love for you is total. I am not leaving you for anybody else.” Morris kissed her then got up from the sofa.