HER GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

Chapter 3: The battle of superiority

The battle of superiority was getting heated up. Thanks to Johnson and some of his drinking buddies he was going to teach his ungrateful wife a lesson on respect and family leadership. If only she knew the only reason she kept her job without being coerced into s****l favors was because him and Johnson were great friends. Other employees of her category had to get in bed with the biggest shareholders of the company like Johnson and his board members. Ben even secretly attended the s*x party that took place in Johnson’s penthouse. A lavish apartment with its own swimming pool and a huge hot tab. Most of the women were his wife's colleagues giving lap dances to Johnson and his boys. Showing sophisticated dexterity on the striper pole. No one could tell if those were the same hands that typed sluggishly on the office keyboard at work. The party ended with group s*x as he went back home to his Ruth. The thought of her dancing half naked in her undies to keep her job made his teeth rattle. He was convinced that other C-Suite names across the town had the same behavior and Insatiable hunger for women that’s why Ben wanted her to work in an environment he could control. He was a C-suite himself and he had done some things that he wasn't proud of but they satisfied his needs and some female employees kept their jobs. He saved some households from going hungry. But that was a long time then even before the pandemic when Ruth was pregnant after all he was better than Johnson and his buddies who fired some of the girls even after having a good time with them. Blackmail. While they had fun dragged and drunk there was a secrete photographer keeping an insurance policy of their naked pictures so that in case they thought about suing Johnson internet had something to talk about. Not just anything. Nudes for idle netizens were a ticket to driving someone into suicide. It had happened before to girls even Ben knew. His master morality-an intrinsic desire to create moral gaps between himself and his peers-was convincing Ben that he was better than them even though their sins were closely related.

"Mum! How are you", Ben said happily holding her mother in a tight embrace.

"Am fine you should be calling when you visit now I don't have something to cook for you", she said cupping his face I worry.

"Mum you worry too much I will eat whatever you cook", Ben promised.

"Look at you, so thin what is that learned girl feeding you? GMOs? I always knew she can’t cook"

"You surely don't wanna know that mum", Ben said taking a chair around the dining table.

They were in the kitchen. That was like Veronica's office since ben was a young boy. He remembered asking why his mum wasn't working. She was quietly stealing glances at Gideon and his father reminded him of what he learnt in Sunday school. The thing about women being helpers. It was the last time he asked. But as he grew and got exposed to the world he started to understand that his father was misinterpreting the Bible to favor his antiquities. To enact his control and every man in the village was doing the same. Mothers worked in the farms the whole day while their fathers went to work in the offices dressed in matching trousers and coats-he didn’t know they were called suits. That's not what he wanted for his wife or his daughter. He wanted her to work just like him. A big office with a secretary of her own. A housekeeper taking care of all house chores. Driving a nice car. But in achieving this he also involuntarily copied some of his father's control issues.

"Mmh, this tea never loses its original taste", Ben said.

“Where is the housekeeper”? He asked.

"She is on leave", Veronica answered avoiding eye contact. She was seated next to him.

"Mum! What did you do?" Ben asked with some seriousness.

"Okay I might have said some few things that she didn't like", she said making gestures. She still looked more beautiful for her own age.

"There's more what did you do mum?" Ben asked.

"I don't need her Ben am used to doing things myself... I mean your dad doesn't even like her cooking"

"But I pay her to help you don't I?"

"Put that money to good use boy am going to prep the room for you", she said leaving the room. It was his money but she was his mother. Money could not be compared to her mother’s wish. Ben lost the fight terribly. Working like a donkey was in her blood but he was not going to give up on her. Bens mum deserved some help just like his wife did.

*******

She had ideas of some team members and Tania was the first person she recruited on her team to fight for their rights and that of their children. She had done a lot of research on law suits they didn't work or pay off. Those wealthy board members and CEOs had the whole jury in their big pockets and government jobs were even worse in terms of corruption and harassment. She had called in a favor with her friends in high places to register a non-profit organization. Some of them had shown an interest in the venture and vowed to support her. That’s all she wanted from Ben too. Support. All her life Ruth had only loved him and he knew it. She had never imagined being with someone else that’s why she was cautious enough not bring rifts in their marriage that was doing well. She knew what ego meant to him and all other men. It was almost everything. Being in control and making decisions, dictating and being involved in everything. She did all that so that her children, unlike her, grew up with both their father and mother. It was an opportunity nature denied her as she was brought up in an orphanage. No father no mother just a bunch of catholic sisters who taught her good values she was struggling to pass to her own children. But in doing that she needed support from ben. And he had been a good dad. Sometimes he wasn’t but she chose to ignore that hoping he was going to realize his own mistakes. Luckily he did. But now it was the first time she was going against his word. She was fighting the wind-a long term tradition of a man decides and a woman executes.

"Mum where did you say dad went?" Mary asked playing with her toys on the carpet in the study.

Jake was poking his head out of the room. Secretly watching TV when he was required to do his homework. Of course she was watching him. Parenthood is all about surveillance. Closely watching your little broke friends do the things you once did but in a more elegant way.

"Jake! Do your assignment", She ordered.

It was a perfect way to change the topic. Mary was left hanging but her childish stubbornness could not be extinguished the urge easily. She was now giving her mum that empathy look that always put Ruth in a conundrum. Lazy puppy eyes, sunken cheeks and a fake running nose. The young lass was a master in non-violent blackmail.

"Oh sweetie, daddy will be home soon he went for a business meeting out of town he'll be back", she said tinkling her sagging wangs.

"Can you call him?" Mary asked with sadness in her voice.

To Ruth Sigmoid Freud’s Oedipus complex was a b***h. She hated it for two reasons. The first one being coerced to call her puffed up grumpy husband. And second it never worked in her favor while she was growing up. Her dad never gave Ruth a chance to miss him that was because he was never there. The only Oedipus complex she might have formed was with the priest who visited from the capital once in a month. He was a father figure to her and the other children.

"Okay let's see, gather around you too Jake I know you're dying to shred the damn book anyway", Ruth said grabbing her phone.

The first call went straight to voice mail. The conundrum was getting even more uncomfortable and convoluted. Ben was breaking the rules of engagement in their little war of superiority. There was no avoiding calls from one party. She was picking all his calls on time despite their conflicting relationship. Which was obvious because she had no job and maybe he was busy in a boards meeting or an investors meeting who knew? Their two children were innocent like angels who were not aware of their disagreement.

"Let's try again one more time?" She asked.

"Yeah", the children answered happily.

"Hello.... Ben! Bring your ass over here son your learned wife is on the phone", Gideon voice shouted from the other end of the line.

She regretted making the call. Her father in law Gideon had not changed even a bit. His language was still vulgar but she blamed the iPhone developers for not installing a parental control software on their epicurean gadgets. One thing stood out though. Ben had lied about laying low in a hotel room. But it was his home anyway and he was old enough to know what was good for him. Everyone lies even Ruth herself had lied to him more than a dozen time. It was out of necessity. She was just hoping there were no other disastrous lies she had no idea about.

"Hey dad...children say hello to your grandfather", Ruth said sounding withdrawn. Why did he lie? Was all her brain was asking her instincts.

"Hi grandpa", Mary’s face lit up.

"Hello grandpa", Jake said politely.

"Ooh my God Ruth why didn't you tell me you had children around, kids! Am sorry for that how are you?" Gideon asked walking around the garden. He signaled Ben to wait.

"We are fine grandpa", Mary said chuckling.

Jake did not want to steal away her limelight. Ruth had made it clear she came first then him and he had to behave like an elder caring brother. Which sucked but it was better than a stroke of cane on his thighs.

"What a coincidence! I was just telling your dad how I've missed you", Gideon said sounding nostalgic. Ben was making a thumbs up sign in the background. Their plan was in motion.

"Kids go watch TV I have talk to your grandpa... Say bye", she said. The conversation was getting more inviting. She also had something to ask of him.

"Bye grandpa", Mary said. Jake was halfway across the room.

"Bye, Ruth?"

"Am alone now dad has Ben talked to you about..."

Gideon couldn't let her finish, “Yes as a matter of fact he did"

"What do you think? I mean we've had our issues...your issues to be exact but we can put them aside and think this through", She said nervously. Ruth had no problem with her father in law. It was Gideon who had a problem with her and she didn’t know what it was. Well apart from the fact that she was learned and smart, probably smarter than his son.

"We still have them but I totally agree with you staying at home and looking after your children this housekeepers", He paused a little bit clear his throat, "They can't always be trusted"

"No that's not the reason I quit my job dad he didn't tell you the whole story...ooh my God he doesn't even know why I quit", She said sounding hopeless.

"Tell you what, why don't we talk about it when you bring my grandchildren sounds good?" Gideon asked winking at Ben.

"Yeah even better thank you, see you then", she said happily.

"Bye daughter", Gideon said and hung up. The fake necessity and verbal webs of politeness went unnoticed by inundated Ruth.

Everyone was happy. We all are happy not at all times but even at our lowest moments we always have something to be grateful for. It's just that we get so focused on what is making is sad that we forget what should make us happy. Ruth had never expected a kind gesture from Gideon in lieu of life changing events ones that she could have compared to a midlife crisis. While she was happy to get a second person willing to listen to her Ben and his dad were also in a secret celebratory mood. Ruth was falling into their plot. The guy was right- the guy who said going against the wind is a bumpy ride-he was very right. The call signaled the beginning of two things. Realization of her dreams and an etiology of stress, ulcers and questioning of tightly held beliefs.