Episode 14 : The Rich, The Poor, The Miserable Love

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When I stirred back to life, the party was already over and it was a new day. I was alone in a bedroom, quite dim but there was a cut of light slanted across the face of the wall opposite my pillow, giving the profile of the room off. I rose slowly, of course not forgetting it wasn’t my room. Towards the source of the light I went and drew the thick brown curtains apart to allow in a broader ray of light which nonetheless was strikingly too bright for my sleepish eyes. I covered my face instantly and turned around. I could pick the profile of the room in its complete entirety then, a miniature of a standard room, no paintings, no photograph, just an old chandelier hosting a spongy battalion of cobwebs on the roof and some odd odour of cigarettes.

I stretched my arms along with an intense yawn. I was in my shorts and singlet, my shirts and blazer weren’t in the room, I checked. Well, there was a door. I opened it and took a left towards an open door which led away from the dark tight corridor I walked through.

Yesterday’s living room where Mr. Oyeleye and I spoke! Nobody was in it. Damn it! I disliked being in shorts in a place that isn’t mine. I said my morning routine prayer while I stood there for a minute, just trying to think of what to think.

“You’re awake!” sang a sweet voice at my five o’ clock.

I whirled around to find Angel in a ridiculously skimpy shorts and light underwear that didn’t cover her navel.

“You slept like a dead man. It’s after one in the afternoon.”

I checked my wrist for time; my wrist was bare.

“I removed your watch but it’s with Teju. He collected it. And your dresses, they're laundered. You puked the second time. You can get back in them anytime you – oh my God! Why’s that?”

As she pointed her hand, I looked down at what she was looking at and saw a bulge on my private environment. Oh not again! This thing they call dick, will you ever stop embarrassing me?

“I need my dresses,” I tried to be as subtle as I could be.
“At least, say good morning first.”
“You said it’s after one. Good afternoon.”
“Yeah! Afternoon. How was your long night?”
“Fine. My…”
“Dresses?”
“Yes.”
“Of course! Follow me.”

There was no long walking around before we got to a tiny table in a tiny corridor upon which my dresses were laid out one on top of the other, and I quickly jumped into them and dressed up as fast as I could after I gestured to her to leave and she said, “Of course!”

I found her at the door just outside the corridor after I dressed up.

“If I were you, I’d be more concerned about lunch than getting myself huddled up in all those blazers and lots again.”
“Where’s my panama?”
“What’s a panama?”
“My cap.”
“That. It’s with Teju and he has gone out with his friends since morning.”
“Toro… where’s she?”
“She’s in her room.”
“Can I see her?”

She pointed at a direction to her left, looking like she was finding me boring and getting tired of it. Then I remembered Kevin.

“Is Kevin here?”
“No. He left with Teju.”
“Okay.”

She nodded wordlessly. I made a turn towards the direction she pointed.

“I’ll prepare your bath, after that, we can go out and eat.”
I looked back and nodded.

There was only one door to the end of the direction I went, I opened it without knocking. I already saw Toro on a bed, cross-legged with her phone in her hands before I knocked. She looked up and squeezed her face instantly. I closed the door behind me with a soft push and then I stood there, fingers crossed, lips parted; words refusing to pour.

I loved that young lady. I loved her so much, but I was aware, if she didn’t reconcile with me soon, I was going to let go, who wouldn’t? Kevin’s presence in the country was suffocating me.

“Benedicta wasn’t at the party,” I heard myself say.

She didn’t say anything at first, but then she dropped the phone and nodded.

“I know the school wouldn’t want to release her but if you’d asked, or even asked me to, I would’ve come with her.”
“We both know you’re not here to talk about Benedicta, so let’s just cut to the chase, please.”

Wow! This girl was no gentle Mary; mother of God.

“I came to ap—” network failed. I tried again, “I wish we didn’t have to be like this, on antagonistic ends, or maybe we’re not, maybe it’s just a normal thing but Philips has been sacked from the school. His work still lingers on though, but… I still love you. That’s the only thing that hasn’t changed.”
“Okay, I’ve heard you,” she said.
“You… Have you… forgiven me?”
She nodded. “I’ve forgiven you Tunde, but I’m sorry, we can’t be like we… like… I hope you understand. Kevin is…”

She stood out of bed with her phone in her hand, buzzing for notifications every now and then. She was in an outfit like her sister’s but hers didn’t leave the bellybutton open. She was going outside of the room, passed me by and I was watching her aiming for the knob. I wasn’t thinking; I just rushed after her and held unto her waist with my two hands, turned her around with her back against the door. I kissed her, she didn’t struggle. I kissed her again and then she kissed back, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist like she was going to wrestle with me. With her clung to me like that, I made for the bed and dropped her gently on it, tears in both our eyes, but then her phone rang. We both looked at it, ‘Kevin’ blinking in bold letters. She swiped her finger over the screen to decline the call but no, we didn’t resume to the kissing, she struggled free from me and soared off the bed. I rushed up again and went after her, but instead of kissing again after I held unto her, I received a hot slap which couldn’t have been expected from someone with a palm as soft as hers.

“Ouch!”
“I’m not falling for your hypnosis, leave me,” she shrieked and went out.

Damn it, I was hearing some whistling in my head. It must have been the effect of the slap but why did she have to do that? I smiled though. I was a bit happy; I sensed a certain positive change, one step at a time.

I didn’t use their bath but Angel did take me out after I washed my face with water and brushed my hair with a brush I picked out of a shoe in the room where I woke up. While we ate moin—moin with bread at some eatery on Banana Island, prepared in a way you couldn’t have imagined moin—moin and bread concocted, I looked at her face at some point and told her, “I’m in a relationship with Toro.”

She looked up at me and ceased closing her teeth on the food for a second, then for some more seconds until she slowly resumed eating. She nodded and smiled, swallowing uneasily.

“I understand that you…” I wasn’t sure I was being matured around the issue.
“That I what?” she demanded curiously.
“Nothing, but… okay, let me ask you this and I expect an honest response. What do you think of Toro and I?”
“Toro and you… I think it would’ve been good if there’s no Kevin, but since there’s Kevin, it’s a stupid idea.”
“I doubt Kevin’s existence changes anything now.”
“It does. How can you think it doesn’t? Did you see how compatible the duo looked together yesterday? Don’t mess with Kevin, I warn you.”
“What’s he going to do?”
“Nothing you’re not gonna do if someone is messing with your girlfriend I think.”
“Toro doesn’t love him. She told me herself.”
“Well, maybe that’s true, but he loves Toro and where does that put you?”
“It puts me above Kevin on her preference scale. Toro loves me.”
“Ah—ah, now that’s funny, Toro loves you? Toro doesn’t love anyone. If you keep on saying that, I’ll start laughing ‘cause nothing seems to be as stupid as you believing that my sister loves you.”
“She loves me.”

Silence…

“I see what your yesterday’s whole Cinderella stuff was all about now. You were feeling oppressed, drowning and catching at straws.”
“I understand you have feelings for me, but, you know, it’s not that I don’t like you. You’re beautiful but I love Toro and she’s your sister. That places us at a romantic impasse, don’t you think?”

She chortled then and leaned across the table towards me. I looked at her face as a bottle went up to her mouth and a gulp rushed down her throat. She spoke frankly then: “Kevin will kill you if you don’t leave Toro alone. And you know what? I don’t have feelings for you. Go and get bathed. You reek!”

She stood and stormed out of the eatery, her car revving off seconds later.

Sub’hanallah! What a wild cat!

The two guys sitting adjacent to my table were looking at me like they were going to burst to laughter. I looked back at them and gave them a gawp of ‘mind your business’. Then I abandoned the food and went out. I think neither of us remembered to pay for the lunch and nobody remembered to ask.

There was someone I needed to meet, been thinking about him; Mr. Francis, the former Registrar. I’ve phoned him once and he sounded quite like a gentleman. He lived in Obalende, and that was where I went next. We met at his house, a flat in a quiet corner, handsome man, married with two daughters or so the photo frames hinted me. They asked if would eat, I said I was okay. They asked if I would take wine, my heart gonged, ‘no way’. I took tea instead, great taste.

After the introduction of who I was and all sorts of irrelevant but traditional pleasantries, Mr. Francis placed his cup down and left his seat for the couch closest to mine and told me: “I loved that school, but the school didn’t love me, apparently. I guess my mistake is that I talked too much. I was warned to never do but I still talked a bit and that bit was too much. If you’d met me in school, you would’ve liked me; we’re almost alike in behavior. But that Council of Stakeholders, they fucked me up, big time. They’re hypocrites.”

Almost alike in behavior indeed, for how long have we been together, thirty minutes?

“The Stakeholders were the ones behind your discharge?”
“Who else can?”
“Hmmm… I see. I thought I could trust them.”
“Trust them? You better don’t. They’ll pretend to be friends, and then they’ll fuck you over.”
“How sure are you?”
“Very sure.”

He said a lot of stuffs and I listened carefully. And then I was finally forced to eat Semo with a delicious type of vegetable soup, which I enjoyed. I left around 6pm. He seemed to be happy to have had me around and not much sad to have left the school. That was a heads up. He told me bluntly that I would soon leave the school. According to him, there’s no escaping it, being made a Registrar is an expulsion on its own. He still wonders why people still tussle to go to that exit door.

I went back to my neighborhood that night with every thought seeming the best on my mind concerning what was to be the fate of all of us in that horrible story I’ve got myself into. Mary was calling me, her key was with me but I neither answered the call nor switched off my phone. I silenced it though, and all her efforts to speak with me were just a couple of blinking silence in the dimness of my pocket.

That night, a Saturday night, I slept with all my dresses and shoes on. I was thankful I ate at Mr. Francis’ house, eating at home would’ve been a stressful challenge. The following day though, I woke up at 4.30am and that was when I removed the shoes. I didn’t remove my phone from my pocket since the previous night until that morning when I put my pillow upright to the wall and sat against it.

Aunt Arike wanted me, she was desperate about it, why? Mary Martins wanted me, she was crazy about it, why? Phillips wanted to be Registrar; he was desperate about it to the point of getting sacked. Mr. Francis believed the Council walked him out, he was serious about it. Mr. Hakeem believed talking too much gets Registrars cooked, he was firm about it. Toro kissed me and then slapped me, what I was to expect next, I was curious about it. Angel got angry because I expressed my mind, she was stupid about it. Kevin was going to kill me, or so Angel threatened; I was… whatever about it. Must I leave the school and go for Toro while Kevin could kill? Should I go for Aunt Arike while Mary could get me sacked? Or maybe I should just stick with Mary, get Aunt Arike sacked and forget about Toro, happy-ever-after kind of ending.

The call to prayer was audible from a distanced mosque. Asalatu khaeru minna naomi! There would still be more calls before the final one. If I did not need prayers at that point, what else could I have needed? I went to the mosque that morning, prayed for guidance, survival, and wisdom. Above all, I prayed for victory over all my woes.

Time passed, I was sitting quietly on my bed, reading Barrack Obama’s Audacity of Hope, which a teacher in the school had actually lent me. At some point, I felt sleepy and dropped the book, he was talking about a particular time he placed his arm around George Bush’s shoulders and the Secret Service looked uneasy and jumpy about it. I dropped the book anyways and picked up my phone, mounds of missed calls from Mary, two missed calls from Aunt Arike plus a message which read: “I guess you’re still asleep. Call me when you wake up.”

I touched the dialer. I was to choose the network to call by, I chose MTN and the tones went on for few seconds before Aunt Arike’s voice came on.

“Hello,” she said.
“Hello. Hi,” echoed I.
“Good morning. How was your night?”
“Fine. Yours?”
“Hmmmm… Fine too. You missed my calls.”
“Yes, twice. I saw your message too.”
“Yes, when I realized you could still be asleep.”
“Yeah, I was asleep. So…”
“When are we meeting today? Your place as planned or would you like to come to mine?”
“Aargh… Anyone? But…. Today is Sunday.”
“Yes?”
“Aren’t you going to church?”
“Check your time; I’m out of church already. In fact, I’m coming over in my churchy outfits, unless you want me to go and change at home first?”
“No—no, eermh… anyhow, I… I actually have no preference. It’s not a choir garment, is it?”
“No, I’m not a worker.”
“Okay then, you can come.”
“Please don’t cook. I’d love to cook for you. I’ll buy some stuff on the way.”
“Okay… No problem.”
“Yeah, I love you.”
Silence...
“I love you, Adebayo.”
“I love you too.”
“See ya dear.”
“All right.”
The call ended.

I put the phone away slowly and sighed. Like seriously? Did I just give her a green light? What kind of creature was I? I was finally going to get Aunt Arike undressed too, wasn’t I?

There was a wall mirror I just put in my room few days ago. I stood to stand before it; a lean guy with a slightly bald head. What was every girl so cooked up for about me? If I were a girl, I wouldn’t love me, surely. I smiled for the glass, nice teeth though. I brush my teeth twice in a day, morning and night, mostly none at all on weekends or thrice depending on the kind of food I eat, but I had friends who had told me my lips are very attractive, that a girl can’t look at them and not think of kissing. Well, that makes me smile every time I remember it but I still didn’t really like the fact that Aunt Arike was on her way to my place.

I jumped back into my bed and buried my head under the clothes for a while, regretting everything I had done in the past month.

“Okay—okay, it’s just life gentleman, you’re growing up, that’s all,” I told myself and sat back against my pillow which was against the wall. Something caught my attention then, at the foot of the door, two pillars of shadows crept in from outside, they could only mean one thing; someone was standing out there, at my door. Actually, it was not unusual but why would someone stand out there and not knock? I suspected it was Aunt Arike, probably typing or reading a message on her phone, but why wouldn’t she at least say Hi first? She couldn’t have even come around so quickly unless she was already nearby when I phoned. The house was quiet, the Christians have not returned from church, the Muslims have gone to the Sunday programs; a badass Muslim like me was always the one left at home.

What? The shadows suddenly vanished. I stood then and went to the door, pulled it open and looked out into the passage, and there she was. I was caught in-between believing and disbelieving, lucidity and obfuscation. She was in a jumper and sports trousers with two thick stripes at its sides. A sport girl kind of outfit and her hands were in the belly pockets of the jumper, floating atop a blue jersey. She turned around to face me in slightly sodden eyes and we were stilled in an atmosphere of melodramatic speechlessness.

“Toro?”

She didn’t say anything in response. She only looked down, biting her lips, and I saw a ball of tear hit the floor from her eyes. And then she turned again and started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” I asked subconsciously and she halted again, not looking back though.

I just stood there too, so robbed of clues I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do or say or ask.

“I’m sorry,” she said through tears and ran towards me. We hardly held each other before our mouth magnetically fused as if they were sex cells in the crevices of the fallopian tube. We kissed, kissed and kissed in tears and that was where Aunt Arike met us.

I could’ve stopped but Toro was backing her direction and she didn’t see her. When she noticed I was not very responsive again, she stopped and looked at the direction I was looking, but Aunt Arike was already gone.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, noticing I suddenly felt stiffened up.
“Nothing,” I answered and lifted her off the ground, carried her into my room and like we used to do, we devoured each other to the point of spiritual unacceptability, committing the sinful act of premarital coition with the name of Jesus on our aroused tongues.

We slept briefly after few rounds, but woke up again to resume it. And then again we slept. Remained like that we peacefully were until she woke me up to complain that she was hungry. Yes of course, we had to eat, especially me. I looked up at the wall clock, 5:03pm. Holy shit! I rushed out of bed and got bathed. She watched me dressed up, quietly on the bed. I wore a round neck t-shirt I just bought with FUCK OFF written on its chest. I put on a blue jean and we went out together. She came by a car, the car she brought to Saffron Spice and Bar when we had our first date. I drove.

There was a Mr. Bigg’s nearby. We went there and ate without exchange of words, on and on until she finally spoke.

“You’re very silly,” she said.
“I am?”
“Yes, you really are. I was angry with you and you couldn’t even find a way to explain, plead or do whatever you had to do to get me back.”
“Are you… what th… I came to your house and explained everything! Unfortunately, to an empty room, thanks to you.”
She smiled.
“I came to Banana Island because of you,” I continued. “I think about you every time. I am summarily crazy about you. I almost died wen you kept avoiding me. I couldn't get a grip on myself and you just kept evading me.”
“Well, here we are, ultimately.”
“Yes, thankfully.”

I hate to be seen with gums of food stuck on my teeth, so I broke the bottle’s seal and poured us water. I rinsed my mouth with it stealthily and dropped the fork.

“My parents like you,” she said after she sipped her water.
“They do?” Like I didn’t already know her daddy did.
“Yes, especially dad. He checked on you thrice before he took off with mum yesterday. You were really silly that Friday night, competing with Kevin, getting drunk and throwing up all over the place, very silly.”
“And I guess you like being silly, don’t you?” I winked and we both laughed.
“Don’t do that again,” she was frank then. “And… keep away from Kevin. He’s not a good guy. New York has been harsh to him and he’s no more the Kevin he used to be.”
“But your brother likes him.”
“He probably doesn’t know him very well or maybe they’re birds of the same wing.” She shrugged and sipped water.
“Okay, let me tell you some things. I think this is the right time. Promise me you’ll not go away again for this.”
“Hmm… tell me!” She looked curious.
“Relax. Just promise me first.”
“I promise.”
“While I was still with you, I had… I had… never mind, it’s not important.”
“You’re not telling me again?”
“It’s really not important. Let’s forget it.”
“If you tell me, can I handle it?”
“Truthfully, you can but I’m not sure you will.”
“Okay, I promise, whatever it is, I won’t go away. Just tell me.”
“I slept with the proprietor’s daughter, at my place of work.”

Her eyes rose and she looked at me alarmingly, hungry for reasons, following my eyes.

“She more or less raped me but it wasn’t that. I didn’t struggle and… I already knew you, that’s one. When Phillips gave you a note that I’d like to… whatever was in the note, the day we had PTA meeting, I didn’t write that note, I didn’t know about it until later. I was already crushing after you and he only did that to help, that’s two. Right now, someone else wants to fuck me. A teacher. And… Angel, your sister too, she kissed me.”
“But… why are you telling me all these?”
“Ah… I—I—d—don’t know. I… thought I should be completely honest with you now so that you can help me. I need to leave that school and I’ll need another job. Everybody wants to have sex with me in that school, I mean, no, not that they all want to… I don’t know. If I don’t leave that school, they’re never going to stop trying to separate us. And who knows… it worked once, it could work again, more fatally. But if I’m outta there, I’ll have better chances with you.”

She sat back on the chair and drew in her lower lip.

“I’m sorry about your sister. I already told her I’m with you though.”
“Don’t apologize about my sister. Whatever she did, it wasn’t her. She was doing it for Kevin. They’re very close. My sister isn’t someone who sees a guy and falls for him like that. Trust me, you’re not her kind of guy. She doesn’t even have a boyfriend, since two years now. I overheard them. I know what she did or… tried to do. If you need to leave the school, that’s no problem. My dad gave you his number, didn’t he? Tell him you’d love to work in the US. After my convocation in Covenant in few months, I’d join you and we’d be there together.”

Just like that? Working in the US sounded so easy, away from the claws of poverty and tentacles of witches around here. I was so on top of the world!

“So, you’re not angry at me?”
“For what?”
“For what I said?”
“What?”
“Sleeping with the whole lot of… remember?”
“You’re a silly guy and our love is one hell of a strange love, a miserable love. Sleeping with someone, I consider it one of your silliness I know will not be repeated and I’ve forgiven you because I’m sure you’ll not repeat it. Damn it, why won’t I? I love you.”

My mouth was open then, no word came out. Indeed, a strange love; a miserable love.

....to be Continued!