adminsoothing music.
Her dark hair flowed right to her bejewelled neck.
Her large round eyes illuminated the vivacious lass’ already bright face like bulbs.
Sweetness was well spelt out in the room and the moment she opened her mouth to welcome me, I could not resist salivating at the sight of her milky white teeth.
Here was a product of one of God’s finest creative moments.
My probing and lustful eyes saw no blemish on this fair woman.
Before I could declare the purpose of my visit, her phone rang. The person on the other end of the phone did not give her chance and seemed authoritative.
In the twinkling of an eye, the woman’s jovial mood had disappeared.
She cried like a motherless lamb while affixed to the phone where unkind words were being poured into her ears.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” is all she could say to the person on the other end of the line who did not care to incline an ear to her side of the story.
After the call, Shuvai told this writer that her husband was accusing her of being loose after finding male garments among the clothes she had sewn at home the previous night.
The husband, she said, demanded to know how she had landed the deal, measured the client’s waist and in whose presence the deal had been struck.
“Varume vanonetsa mhani. I am trying to help him look for money and he is busy accusing me of infidelity. How do I help him raise the family? This James is just suspicious,” the teary blonde said with pain written all over her face.
She poured her heart out and asked me to leave for fear the husband would feel jealous on seeing a man in the shop.
So troubled was Shuvai that she told me almost half the story of her life even though this was our first time to meet after a friend had told me of her skill.
But as a tailor, how was she supposed to work without correctly measuring and taking down the sizes of people who had hired her?
Is there a world where only women exist to avoid trouble with the untrusting husband?
But she is not the only woman in that predicament.
Cleaners, caterers, teachers, florists, bankers, vendors and shop assistants are all in trouble.
And some of their customers do not make the situation any better.
“I want to be served by that shapely lady who is always wearing a broad smile,” some customers growl while standing next to the woman’s husband.
“Sweetie ndeipi. Todii nhasi,” some customers say to married women, plunging them deep into trouble.
Very few men take kindly to seeing their wives doing business with men even if it is a purely business deal.
“If you are serious, why don’t you let me deal with your wife? If that is not possible, then come through my husband,” some women tell you out of fear of their husbands.
As I pen this piece, there are countless women who have been sent packing after being accused of becoming too familiar with members of the opposite sex.
A typical case of being confined to the state of hewers of wood and drawers of water!
Innumerable women have been bashed after men, who possibly look much better than their husbands or believed to be in better economic circumstance than them, come searching for their services.
Some women have been maimed or even put to the sword for this.
“If your business involves dealing with men then it’s not good at all. Something tells me deep down that you are up to no good. Please stop this business before I kick you out,” some men who will be feeling that their resilience is being tested in the most difficult way often tell their wives straight in the face. But it’s not always a case of women on the receiving end.
The male customer may have dogs set on him or bashed lights out like a common criminal.
“May this be the last time that I see you dealing with my wife? If I see you here again I will kill you,” some guys will tell you.
But those who are coarse and unpolished will kick you straight in the face.
Gentle reader, a woman, no matter how ugly or old is not the kind of a valuable to share.
Mukadzi wemumwe ndivambuya vako tambira kure.
There are some men who have changed their drinking holes and habits after learning that husbands of their service providers will be keen to understand the nature of their business with their women.
“I will pay whatever amount of money you want guys. All I want is for that chap to explain kuti chinangwa chei chaainacho chaarikuronga pahurongwa hupi nemukadzi wangu?” I heard a certain old
man telling a gang of thugs at the Kopje area in Harare.
Even if someone is refusing to pay for some- thing they bought on credit, the surest way to fix them is to lie to the most possessive of men in the hood that you saw the man’s wife talking to the creditor.
Unenge waripisa sora. Chinotsva chete!
But possessiveness, while critical in this day and age of the deadly HIV and Aids, flies right in the face of economic emancipation.
Most women are failing to realise their maximum potential for fear of causing emotional unrest on their spouses. Scores of women have lost lifetime opportunities after their husbands have contested to their wives plying their trades in male-dominated fields.
Some husbands have cost their wives their jobs by walking straight up to the chief executive demanding to know why their wives would have been sent on a trip abroad. A good number of chief executives have also been spat on or boxed for sending married women on long trips.
Possessiveness has also claimed the scalps of even church pastors.
Some men, including Ghetto Blast, do not want to see these men of the cloth anywhere near their home in their absence.
“Kana zviri zvitadzo regai tife pane kuti madam vanamatirwe ndisipo,” I heard a certain barber saying this week.
But is it a crime for a woman to work in a male-dominated field?
What’s wrong with her doing business with men?
This issue, gentle reader affects, almost every woman.
This is why most of them die poor or choose to just become Permanent Home Defenders because the moment they seek to go visiting they are accused of bed-hopping.
Some guys have the cheek to accompany the mother of the house to church just to ensure love poachers are kept at bay.
It’s a punishable offence if the woman dares seek alternatitive transport should the event finish earlier than planned. Haubve panzvimbo dhara risati rakoromoka!
Some men demand to know where their wives go during their absence to the point of hiring some loafers to check the madam’s movements.
Gentle reader, the best way of dealing with a married woman is to pay cash because if you buy on credit the husband will demand to know kuti imari yei.
To cover this problem of suspicion and cheating, most men are now working with their wives.
But this has created even further problems. Some not-so-cultured male animals will propose love to her right in front of him and perform some random acts of caring that send you mad.
Women who sell flowers are not spared. Their husbands demand to know where these flowers are ordered and where the deliveries are taken.
Cases where men work with their wives are not at all enjoyable. Each time the wife laughs, the husband is quick enough to demand justification or establish whether or not he would have missed part of the action.
Gentle reader, while it is important to work with each other or care for one’s spouse, the extents to which some people go defy logic and poison the love of their life’s career.
Online Reporter