I am Married!

I am Married - a short story by LJ Kundananji

Judy took a long sip at the water bottle with a thoughtful expression on her face. There were beads of sweat on her forehead. She reached out for the handkerchief in the pocket of her overalls and swept it across her forehead. It was swelteringly hot. The midday sun was so hot that it seemed to be baking the ground. She could feel the heat in her boots. A gust of wind swept dust through the whole site. She shielded her eyes with her arm. Her first day at work was not as glamorous as she had imagined it would be. She was already tired.

She watched her fellow workmates as they merrily laughed and huddled over a meal of inshima (a thick porridge made from maize meal eaten along with relish) . They were all men. She was the only female employee. It was no laughing matter at all—it was almost torture.

“Ba Judy! Come and have inshima with us!” they invited. Their English was heavy with vernacular accent. She knew that they were trying their best to impress her. Being from university as she was, they obviously assumed that she would better like them if they spoke to her in English.

“Thanks, but I am fine!” she chirped, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

“Oo-o-ooh! You think that pie you ate will make you full? Work is hard; you need inshima to make you strong!”

“I’m fine!” she said squashing with her hand the paper bag in her pocket in which were the remains of her pie. She knew that she was lying but there was just no way she was going to sit among men, some of whom, for lack of decorum, had folded their overalls down to their waists and stripped off their shirts so that their torsos were nothing but exposed. It was enough to make a lady smart to death. For Judy, she had reached the extent of shading a tear or two. The food itself was prepared so badly that the inshima was as hard as boiled sweet potatoes and the kapenta (small fish) was extremely dry and fibred.

“Ba sister,” a stout man with a pendulous belly, whose name she’d learnt was John, shouted, “You will drop down dead after an hour if you don’t eat inshima.”

“No I will not!” she said. She laughed loudly.

“Don’t say we did not warn you.”

They soon quit trying to persuade her and continued scrambling for the inshima, which they scooped ravenously in large balls from a large pot, black from soot. The sheer size of those balls of inshima, as far as she was concerned, was too large to swallow. She observed them with discreet glances and could not help laughing.

Lunch break was one hour long. The workers who lived near the site usually scurried home. But those like Judy who stayed miles away had one of the following options: buy some food from the canteen at the entrance, carry their own lunch or join John and his innovative gang who cooked their own meals over a smoking fire.

Tired of watching the men and their glistening torsos, Judy decided to go to the restroom to have a cup of coffee or two. The restroom was located at the offices. They were temporal shelters made from corrugated iron sheets. The restroom had three comfortable armchairs and a little table on which lay a tray. On the tray were mugs and saucers and two little tins—one of coffee and the other of sugar. There was also an electrical kettle for boiling water.

She picked up the kettle and walked outside. She stooped over the little water tap, placed the kettle beneath it and opened the tap. The water splattered in. she gave a little sigh.

Suddenly there was a cough from above her. She jumped from fright and let go of the kettle. It fell to the ground; the water spelt out and formed a large pool.

“I am sorry Ba sister,” John said, bending up to pick it up. “I did not mean to frighten you.”

“It’s ok,” she said in a trembling voice as she straightened up. She felt quite silly and wished the ground could swallow her up.

John rinsed the kettle ad filled it up again. He gave it back to her. He seemed quite edgy too. Obviously her reaction had surprised him.

“Thanks,” she said. She reached out for the kettle, her hands shaking so terribly that all the water could have splattered out. John snatched it back.

“See!” he said jokingly, “You are so hungry that you are shivering.”

“No, it’s because you scared me,” she said feeling even more silly. She did not have the audacity to look him in the face. Her gaze hovered around his shoes which were dusty and unsightly.

“All of us here are your brothers,” he said in a lively voice to cheer her up.” You don’t need to fear us.”

“I don’t fear you, it’s just that—” she stole a glance at his face and noticed the expression on it. It was so uncanny that it made her heart thud in her ears. She had stayed around men long enough to interpret their gestures pretty well. He sort of leered at her—as if he wanted her in the way that men usually want women.

“I will plug it in for you,” he said as he walked into the restroom.

“I can do it on my own,” she said dissuasively, but he had already gone inside.

“What is you said?” he called from inside.

“Nothing,” she said with round eyes. She tried to move but it seemed as if her legs were stuck to the ground. She stood there for a while, petrified like a statue.

John, tired of waiting, popped his head out of the door. He frowned and walked out. He chuckled.

“You need not fear me sister,” he said with sincerity. “I greatly respect you a lot. All my friends there—we’ve been talking about you a great deal. You are a wonderful lady. It is nice to have a lady like you with us.”

He paused and reached out for his pocket. He removed a pie wrapped in a paper bag and handed it to her.

“I just got you this,” he said in a nearly pleading tone “Please take it and have it along with your coffee.”

She got it reluctantly. “Thanks,” she said inaudibly, so inaudibly he hardly heard. He smiled nervously and walked away briskly.

Judy stared at the pie in her hand with a sinking heart. She did not really know what to make of it. She knew John was not being nice for nothing. She was not that naïve. If a man was awfully nice to a lady, she’d learned, he almost always wanted something back. She slipped it into her pocket and dragged her feet inside.

The rest of the day was quite hectic. Her supervisor had assigned her to keep track of the flow of materials in and out of the site. He was a gregarious young man, tall, slender with a handsome look. Though her work was not as involving as that done by the men, she was tired all the same. She packed her bag wearily.

As she approached the gate, her supervisor’s car pulled up alongside her. The window rolled down.

“Hi there Judy!” he called merrily.

“Hi!” Judy replied in her usual jovial manner.

“Would you mind a lift?”

“Thanks, but I think I can manage,” she replied. She was a person who was very conscious about propriety. She felt it rather unfair that he should single her out for special treatment. She was no different from the other workers who were walking alongside her as far as she was concerned.

He frowned and put on a serious look. “There are some instructions I need to relay to you.”

She shrugged and opened the back door.

“Get up front.”

She obeyed and got in.

“How’s been your first day at work?” he asked after she was all strapped in and they had moved out of the site.

“Fine,” she said flatly.

“Feel free with me,” he said with a large smile.

“I will try, sir.”

“Please call me Tom.”

“Okay…” she shrugged.

“Are you married?”

Judy stared back at him with utter surprise. She looked slightly appalled.

“I thought you wanted to talk to me about work and not my private life.” She said with a slight hint of sarcasm.

“Hey! Don’t kill me!” he laughed nervously. “I am just looking out for your best interests.”

“How?”

“You see, this working environment can be quite precarious for a young lady, especially one that is not married…” He paused to see her reaction. She said nothing and stared out of the window with a grim expression on her face.

“What I mean to say is that…a lady as pretty as you are will attract a lot of attention from the guys, and all of them will try to get you to notice them.”

“Pretty,” she chuckled thoughtfully. “I am the least of all ladies…”

“No you aren’t.” he said in a terribly persuasive tone.

“Hmmm.”

“Anyway, what I am trying to say is; with so many distractions, it can be awfully hard for you to do your work efficiently.”

She stared at him with big eyes. He really seemed to genuinely care for her. “So…what are you suggesting?”

“Nothing really,” he gave her a slight smile. “Just that, for a while, it is going to take a while for you to get used to it. So when you don’t perform efficiently, I will perfectly understand. But eventually, the novelty is going to wear off, not just for you but for everyone else. At that time, you won’t find it such a big deal.”

“Wow—thanks!” she gave him a beaming smile. “You are very thoughtful sir; you surely look out for the interests of your workers.”

“I try my best,” he frowned, “and please, I told you to call me Tom.”

“Ish…forgive me but it is going to take a while to get used to it.”

“I understand…” he laughed.

For a while they drove in silence. There was a thoughtful expression on Tom’s face as he thought of what to say next.

“Judy,” he said finally, “Will you take offense if I told you that I am attracted to you?”

She gaped at him with big eyes full of amazement. She tried to speak but no sound came out. She stared down in silence.

“I guess that means no,” Tom said with a little smile of triumph.

“I need to get off,” she breathed, fiddling with the strap of her bag. “My home is not far from that junction.”

“Is that so?” he asked as he slowed the car down.

“Yes please.”

“Okay.”

He stopped the car. She grasped her bag and opened the door. Just as she slipped out, he held her hand. She stared at him goggle-eyed.

“Think about what I just said—how I feel about you.”

She shook off her hand and walked out. She gingerly closed the door. She stood by the road side watching him drive away. She waited till he had driven out of sight before she stopped a bus and got on. She slumped into the seat with a sigh. It was going to take her about forty minutes to reach home.

When she arrived home, she found that her mother had cooked her food, and it was all hot and steamy in the oven. She served herself, sat at the table and after saying a little prayer, she began to gulp down the food in a nearly gluttonous fashion.

“You must be hungry,” her mother laughed as she picked up some plates from the table and placed them in the sink. Judy stared at the ring on her mother’s finger and suddenly remembered Tom.

“Mom,” she began after noisily swallowing down the food in her mouth. “How did you know that dad was the right one for you?”

Her mother stared at her with a puzzled expression. For a while, she was at a loss of words.

“I did not really know…but he was kind, considerate and charming,” she said finally. “But above all, he was worshipper of Jehovah.”

“Okay,” Judy said, with a nod and a smile.

“Is there anything you would like to bring to my attention?”

“No…” she shrugged. “I just wanted to know.”

She lowered her head and continued eating.

The next day, Judy tried to work as hard as she possibly could. She tried her best to avoid running into John and Tom, but that was nearly impossible. Upon seeing her, they would both smile broadly at her; but she tried to act unaffected and professional. It was not easy. Today, she carried along some packed lunch—inshima, boiled eggs and some vegetables. She surely now had a good reason to turn down any invitations to lunch by John and the gang.

After a long day of work, it was finally time to go. Judy quickly walked to the restroom. She wanted to pack up quickly and leave to avoid confronting either John or Tom. But when she walked into the room, she almost suffered a heart attack. There was Tom, seated in one of the armchairs with one leg crossed over the other—they appeared to make some kind of six.

“Hi there!” he greeted upon seeing her. He smiled so broadly that his face developed some wrinkles.

“Hi…” she said faintly.

“Been waiting for you…” He stood up to his feet. He held one hand behind his back, as if there was something he was hiding. Judy was all petrified again. She stared at him with round eyes. Her heart was thumping loudly.

“I have something for you!” he removed his hand from behind his back and revealed a bouquet of red, beautiful roses. He held them out for her. She was taken by total surprise. Her whole body trembled as he walked towards her. She made one or two steps backwards. She pushed her quivering left hand into the left pocket of her overall.

“Please take them…” Tom prodded, moving closer to her.

Judy breathed in deeply and uttered a little prayer.

“I am sorry, I can’t take them,” she said in a trembling voice. At that exact moment, John walked in and stood behind her. She turned round and saw the look of shock on his face. He looked like he was going to pass out.

“Why can’t you accept them?” Tom asked, sounding hurt. Judy looked back at him. She shuddered when she saw the look of disappointment on his face. He was literally pleading. She pulled out her hand and held it up with the fingers spread apart.

“This is why.” She said with a look of determination.

“What!? You are married?” he gasped when he saw the ring on her finger.

“I have to go,” she walked to the table and picked up her bag.

As she walked out of the room, she left the two men standing there, petrified like statues—as if the proverbial cruel witch had cast a fatal spell on them.

When she was safely out of the site and on a bus, she stared at the ring on her finger. It glistened as if it was made of gold. But she knew it wasn’t. It had fetched too low a price to be genuine gold. She pulled it off and carefully placed it in her purse. Cheap though it was, it was extremely precious, because whenever she wore it, it whispered, very loudly indeed, the words: “I am married!”

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