Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Stay With Me |
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Yejide is a Nigerian woman married to Akin. She never gets pregnant, which makes Akin's family upset. One day Akin's mother "Moomi" comes over and tells Yejide that she has gotten a second wife for Akin to impregnate named Funmilayo, or Funmi. Moomo is optimistic that Yejide will view Funmi as a "younger sister".
Yejide's reaction is a bit different from what they had hoped for:
I turned to my husband again. “Akin, you knew about this? You knew and could not tell me. You knew? You bloody bastard. After everything! You wretched bastard!”
Akin caught my hand before it landed on his cheek.
Yejide was so upset that she gave Moomi and Funmi spoiled beans to eat, and when they went home they had to make an emergency stop by the side of the road to shit in the bushes. This is only the first of many funny scenes in this book.
Click here to see the rest of this review“You know they all have diarrhoea now? I had to park by a bush for them to shit. A bush!”
“If it makes you feel better, Funmi couldn’t make it into the bush fast enough. She soiled her dress.”
Heheheheheheh.
Funmi as a second wife was Moomi's idea, not Akin's. Akin knows he can never get Funmi pregnant, but more on that later.
Yejide is a hairdresser and Funmi comes over to visit her at work to become friends, calling Yejide "our mother" and telling her how good it will be for Yejide when Akin starts boning Funmi.
“Our mother, there is no need for all this-o; we have to be friends. At least for the sake of the children we will have.” She went on her knees again. “I know people say you are barren, but there is nothing God cannot do. I know that once I conceive, your own womb too will be opened."
Yejide doesn't feel her womb opening; instead she tells Funmi to get the fuck out and never return.
Moomi, Akin's mom, is angry because Akin does not seem to be boning Funmi. She confronts Yejide, telling her to deny Akin sex so he will bone Funmi.
Moomi lifted my blouse and laid a wrinkled palm on my stomach. “Flat as the side of a wall,” she said. “You have had my son between your legs for two more months and still your stomach is flat. Close your thighs to him, I beg you."
Yejide, desperate to get pregnant, climbs a mountain with a goat to get the blessing of someone named the Prophet Josiah. But first, she had to dance with the goat.
“You will have a child,” the man beside me shouted and the moaning stopped. He opened his eyes. “Behold your child,” he said, pointing at the goat.
“Hold it close and dance,” he commanded.
The moaning stopped and the men began to sing. I shuffled along, holding the bundle to my chest, labouring under its weight. The singing switched to a quick chant and my pace quickened. I sang with them.
He tugged at the front of my blouse. “Breastfeed the child.”
After he whispered those words, it was natural for me to reach behind my back and unhook the ivory lace bra I wore. To lift up my blouse and push up my bra cups. To sit on the ground with my legs stretched out, squeeze my breast and push the nipple to the open mouth in my arms.
Yejide breastfeeds a goat, heh heh heh.
Having breastfed the goat, Yejide becomes convinced she is pregnant. She stopped bleeding from her v_gina and her breasts were so tender that putting on a bra makes her sexually excited.
But Akin knows she is not pregnant because he hasn't boned her in months.
Yejide gets several ultrasounds, which all show she is not pregnant. She refuses to believe it.
The doctors think Yejide is a retard.
