“If you don’t put that thing off right now, I will smash it against the wall” my father screamed standing by the door; the consistent ringing of my phone must have woken him up. I quickly picked up my phone and pressed the ‘silent’ button. The old man disappeared into his room; I quickly answered the unknown caller.
“Guy how far? Why are you being a sisi? Is it because of what happened between me and Amarachi?”
Can you believe this guy? No atom of remorse. and that is why I call him the perfect pig head; he offends you and makes you feel terrible afterwards for your reaction to it.
“Did you actually call me to tell me this bullshit?” I asked Bobby.
“Not really, my initial plan was to scream at you and never to call you again after the call for your childish reaction to what happened last week. We are friends man, buddies. Why should you hate on a brother for a cheap girl’s fuck up. Face it man, would she still not have given it freely to others if you two had ended up dating? And then you will die from the heartbreak”
this is not what Bobby is supposed to say to me, I know. An apology would have been better, but no, Bobby wouldn’t do that. But on a second thought, I looked past his attitude and thought more on what he had said; Amarachi had the intention of dating me, yet she slept with my best friend; her girlfriend’s boyfriend, now tell me why she wouldn’t sleep with hundred more guys in the street? And based on that thought, I apologized to Bobby for my ‘childish reaction’ and that settled it; Bobby and I became cool again and I agreed to meet him at a brothel three streets away.
I stood outside the brothel, drinking the erotic scenario with my eyes; I have walked past this brothel several times but have never dared to go in with all these half naked females bating their eyelids sexually and making sexual gestures at every male that steps in; and now I am going to walk in to meet with Bobby. I didn’t ask why he chose to meet at a place like this because I already know that no matter his explanation, it’s always going to be something crazy. I walked in with shaky legs, looking around like a lost dog.
“Hey, Baron! This way!” I looked to my left and saw Bobby standing with an older lady; he beckoned to me to come. I walked up to them and Bobby started up with the unnecessary introduction.
“This na my main man o” he said to the lady who looked at me and flashed me one massive heart stopping smile. Bobby and I exchanged glances; he winked at me and smiled. To be honest, I did not understand whatever it is he was trying to say to me; I was lost.
“E go be na” Bobby said to me.
“Are you going?” I asked him. The lady lead me away down the corridor before Bobby could reply.
“So you are a virgin?” the lady asked as she got open the door to room 14. I was dumbfounded, couldn’t say a thing to that question. She led me inside the room and shut the door behind us.
Two hours later, Bobby and I are walking down the road, a big smile on my face, Bobby looked at me, feeling like a big pimp. It had just stopped raining and due to the bad condition of the street, everywhere was flooded; the flood high up to our calves.
“You have been smiling for the past twenty minutes, you are not the first person to have sex, you know? And by the way, you owe me. Don’t tell me you think that was for free"
I couldn’t help but smile some more. Truly, I haven’t said a single word since I left that room, just this glow in my eyes and smile on my face, so I totally understood Bobby’s sentiment. We heard sirens wailing as several jeeps sped by, splashing dirty water on us. We stood there transfixed and too angry to say a word. The second jeep looked familiar to me. Where have I seen that jeep before? I couldn’t remember.
“Who were those?” I asked between clenched teeth.
“Guy, you no vex reach me o, but you see as I mellow bah? Na that bloody military General be that o, so make you hold your mouth before person go castrate you”
at the mention of ‘castrate’, cold shiver went down my spine. Not now, my ‘johnny’ has not yet served its purpose. I have heard of the name before; Abubakar Danjuma, but have never seen the man. It was approximately a month later that General Abubakar Danjuma’s jeep brushed me as I was crossing to the other side of the road.
Bobby and I decided to ignore the incident; it is not like there was anything we could have done about it in the first place. We walked on down the road for about ten minutes and the heavens opened up again to let heavy rain pour to the earth. There was no place to run to for shade, plus we were already soaked to our skins, so we decided to walk in the rain. We waded through the rising flood until we got to Bobby’s street; we said good night and went our separate ways. On my way home, I observed nobody outside; the rain must have kept them all indoors. I got to my compound and was surprised to find everybody outside, parents stood by their children in front of my house with anger and disappointment on their faces. My mum stood with my dad and the crying Ugochi in our veranda. They are all trying to talk at the same time; no one is interested in what the other has to say. I couldn’t make sense out of the gathering.
“Ugochi, are you sure my son is responsible? Because I will not take it likely with you if you are accusing him wrongly” Mr. kalu threatened.
“She did not say he is responsible, she only said he is one of the boys in this compound that have slept with her”. My father retorted.
“I found out this morning and I had to question her, she pointed at almost all the kids in this compound and so far, none of them have denied it”. My mother added.
“How then do we know who is responsible?” Mrs. Gana asked.
“Since she is just three weeks gone, she can tell us the names of those she has been with within that time”. My landlady whose son is also accused added.
Ugochi was about to speak, “we will ask her privately and we find out who is responsible”. My father cut in. “Get inside you rotten girl!” he screamed at Ugochi. The little girl broke down in tears and walked into the house. I couldn’t wait to hear what the grownups had to say anymore, I sneaked into the house from the backyard. I could hear my mum’s voice from outside as she apologized weakly to the parents outside whom in turn rain abuses on their immoral sons. My dad’s voice could be heard from the room as he attempts to scream down the house. The neighbors even had to speak to him from outside to take it easy on the little girl.
I listened to my dad from my room; nobody is aware of my presence at home. My dad stopped shouting instantly, I tried to eavesdrop. “If you ever tell anybody that I touched you, I will kill you. Do you hear me?” my dad said in a hushed voice. The little girl gave no reply, so I believed she must have nodded positively. I couldn’t believe my ears. My dad, sleeping with that little girl? Unbelievable! I did not know whether to keep mute about this or tell my mother about it. I thought about this for days and came to a conclusion; even if I tell my mum, there is nothing she can do about it, it will only add to the numerous burdens she already shouldered. So, I kept the truth to myself. One week later, Ugochi was sent home back to the village to stay with my grandma till she has her baby. Tongues kept wagging, parents looked forward to hearing from my parents on who is responsible for the pregnancy, but heard nothing. And that was how the story died down. I stayed away from home for close to a week. I couldn’t bear to look my mum in the face and definitely couldn’t stand my dad’s presence. This is a man I hated so much, and now this? I thought he deserved a medal for ‘the worst husband ever liveth’. Don’t ask me where I got that idea from.
Yours truthfully, Baron Chidalu
Chidera Reginald
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