A girl hung herself in my office this morning, looking at her body slowly sway, turn and twist, I had to think about all the possible explanations I could give my wife. I have also taught about that empty fan hook before, it had this appeal, it looked like it could be useful for dangerous things like that. The air conditioner continued to run, it’s buzzing sound was as constant as the cold I felt.

I had to call home or at least the police, I could not touch her because my hands were even still shaking, I ran to take a seat as tears ran down my face. Yesterday was our anniversary, she was my mistress but I refused to show up as agreed. She sat at that popular restaurant in town, the one with the red and white designs, a rooster sign and the lights shining through from inside, I saw her waiting but refused to meet her.

I work with the deputy governor of Osun state, but most of our days were spent in the suburbs of Ilesha, we were not in the state capital for good reason.

Ilesha is sometimes silent, it has few roads and could make you feel like you are not really going anywhere far even when you had traveled around the town several times. The town is small but full of mystery, the witches and wizards are always accused of living in Ilesha or having their powers from that town. Even politicians come to Ilesha for good reason, here you meet powerful people and also in this town you can never be exposed for having a side chick, mistress or visiting Mama Caro’s brothel.

That was where I met my own mistress while working for Demade, the man who was hoping to get a handshake as the new representative of our party for gubernatorial elections. He wanted power desperately and so we visited Ilesha a lot, we met a lot of powerful people and talked about his ambition, we smashed bottles over the sound of uproarious laughter, we shared women and had orgies.

The women were everywhere, we did everything that fancied us. I was hesitant at first because I was the youngest in the circle of men who sat with us but somehow I felt like I was one of them. My wife too had become a boring old nag, she gave me no more joy and we hardly could pull off a dry hump.

So meeting Sade was like getting hot steaming efo riro with amala felifeli when all you have had all week is dry stale bread and tea. She assured me I did not have to join the orgies or become as terrible as the other men, that she understood my sense of allegiance to my wife and would still respect that space.

She understood that I was not so heartless to sleep with so many women and return to my wife like nothing happened, I knew my wife had become boring and empty but I felt I had somehow been a part of the reason so it would be too much betrayal to sleep with all these naked beauties who ran all around at Mama Caro’s house.

One girl, just one night, that’s what I thought but Sade was too good to be true. We became bedmates, talk buddies, she was also smart and understood why I was so interested in working with powerful men, she saw my good heart and embraced it, I never thought anything could go wrong.

My wife had challenged me a few weeks ago because you know how gossip flies but she had no concrete evidence. I had surprisingly started to come alive again, it was almost as if my wife and I had found ourselves afresh. Sade reminded me of why I fell in Love with my wife and I suddenly wanted us to work more than ever before.

I thought she would not mind, after all, I paid her after every date, I didn’t take advantage of her, I bought her clothes, took her on trips and even paid her some money to start a business. She even knew I planned to renew my vows to my wife, maybe she didn’t take me serious enough.

On the phone I sat outside in my car, watching her from across the street.

“I think I love my wife Sade,” I said to her.

“You always loved her, but what about me? I thought we had something.”

“Come on! It was just business..”

She cut the call after slot of back and forth, I saw her walk out of the eatery, I never knew she was headed for my office.

I just wanted a fresh start, my wife should never have to go through this, such a beautiful woman. I dial a number on my phone, it rings for a while.

“Booni Aburo, we are almost there, the reps are backing me, we get Osun for next elections”

“errmm that’s good but I have a problem, you know that Sade girl… ” Demade laughs at my prudish nature, every time he hears of the girl he laughs me to scorn for being a coward.

“what happened to her omo Iya? Hope she no give you problem?”

“She is dead, hung herself in my office, our office.”

“Jesu! Hope you have not called the police or anybody oooo.”

Demade is the king of politics, he does not understand sentiments and my ambition to be a different kind of politician.

All he sees as I explain is probably a bag of flesh that would become a scandal enough to ruin his aspirations. He arrives with his boys who swiftly clean up the mess, he looks at me and shakes his head, now I know I will never be different from him but maybe I still get to keep my wife’s trust, she will never know, we will renew our vows and be happy again.