Stay With Me

In 1992, though Akin arranged for Dotun to visit and impregnate Yejide, he is filled with rage when he catches them having sex. He recalls the first time he asked Dotun to impregnate Yejide and how, instead of going to the club as he had planned, he had waited and listened to them, feeling full of self-loathing and shame.

All along, he has believed that Dotun has only visited her three times to impregnate her. He has even told him that the deal is now off since the chances of having another child with sickle cell disease are too high. Enraged, Akin beats Dotun with the bedside lamp until he is bloody and unconscious.

Akin is surprised when Yejide ignores him and continues to visit Dotun in the hospital until he recovers. Moomi confronts Akin at work, demanding answers for Dotun’s condition, but he cannot tell the truth. She leaves, vowing not to speak to him until he explains himself. When Dotun is discharged, Yejide moves into the guest room and informs Akin that she will stay for Rotimi only.

Yejide attends a meeting at her in-laws’ house with Dotun and Akin and realizes that she is rumored to be the cause of their row. They lie, instead saying that Akin allowed Dotun to borrow money that Dotun lost gambling on a bad business venture. Her father-in-law is convinced, but Moomi assures Yejide before she leaves that the truth will come out.

At the salon, gossip about the election bores Yejide, who has no hope for democracy and does not intend to vote. Iya Bolu scolds Yejide for her habit of passing Rotimi off on her and then invites her to her daughter’s upcoming wedding in Bauchi so that she can set up a side business selling gold. Dotun arrives to say goodbye. He cannot understand that Yejide is mad at him and Akin both for deceiving her. They part on tense terms.

Akin receives a letter from Dotun, who has moved to Australia. Dotun asks for his forgiveness and to write to him, before explaining that he genuinely did not know that Yejide was not in on the arrangement from the start. Akin understands that Yejide’s contempt for him is due to his lies, but he cannot bring himself to write even after a second letter arrives. He feels no more anger, only shame.

Yejide begins to leave Rotimi with Akin during the night and retreats to her room to sleep. Akin acquiesces and sees Rotimi as a special gift, the only positive in his life. He tells her his own version of a story in which Iyamibo, the tortoise’s wife, cannot conceive, so her husband, Ijapa, visits Babalawo in a far country, who tells him to take her a meal without eating it. Ijapa eats the meal, becomes pregnant himself, and must beg Babalawo for help.

Doctors tell Akin that Rotimi has sickle cell disorder. Yejide refuses to stay with them at the hospital. Akin wonders if Sesan, Olamide, and now Rotimi are retribution for his role in Funmi’s death due to esan, or the universe’s sense of justice.

Moomi calls Akin to the market after she hears of Rotimi’s fate. She scolds him for not taking her belief in abiku seriously. She offers him another wife, believing that Yejide is cursed. Akin storms out, telling her that her meddling has ruined his life.

Yejide confronts Akin about his impotence and schemes during the presidential debates, when she feels that he may be caught off guard and apologize to make things right. When he will not talk about it, she takes it as a sign that he will never be honest with her.

When the elections come, Yejide votes despite her initial skepticism. Nine days later, the results have not been announced. Yejide prepares to attend Iya Bolu’s daughter’s wedding in Bauchi. Iya Bolu believes that Rotimi is joining her, but she stays in the car when Akin drops them off at the bus station.

Akin and Rotimi settle into their room in Lagos, where he plans to see his urologist about his impotence again. He hopes that despite all his troubles, a cure will bring their family back together. The urologist is sick and his appointment gets canceled, so Akin plans to call Yejide and work this into the conversation. He wants her to see that he is ready to talk about his impotence and that he has been trying to fix the problem in Lagos for years. Yejide will not come to the phone.

Rumors that the elections have been annulled play out on the news, and the streets close. Unrest grows. Akin uses the widespread fear to speak with Yejide, who is uninterested in any threat that the protests and police action may pose for him and Rotimi.

Noise and shooting intensify the next day. Rotimi runs a fever and then loses consciousness. Akin calls to ask Yejide if she knows of any emergency treatment, and she tells him to take Rotimi to the hospital. He tells her that he cannot because the roads are closed. Just as he prepares to take her on foot, the military begins shooting at protestors.

Iya Bolu lectures Yejide about her lack of involvement in Rotimi’s upbringing and accuses her of punishing Rotimi for her siblings’ deaths. Yejide cannot explain that she is afraid of losing herself completely when Rotimi dies. When Akin tells her that Rotimi has lost consciousness in army-occupied Lagos, she tells Akin that she will not return. She flees Bauchi for Jos, unable to face another funeral.