Chapter IV
The months came and went so fast. I was in the village where I taught at a primary school and my friend Ireti was in Calabar working at the software firm. During the eleventh month of our NYSC program, I received a call from Ireti that he just got a new car. I was dumbfounded. I didn’t know whether to be happy at that point or to be sad. Why should I feel sad? Ireti was my closest friend. Why should I feel happy? It wasn’t my car. I didn’t know if I should be envious or not. Perhaps I was already, but what I felt was a mixture. I could feel the envy course through my veins but I couldn’t decipher the other part of the mixture.
I dropped the call, and took a seat beside the window of my cubicle-like room. Taking a deep breathe, hoping that the fresh night air would dilute the rage in my bones. Yes. Rage, I realized that was the second part of the mixture — envy and rage. Envy, because he had everything he ever wanted. Rage, because he refused to tell me the secret to his successive triumphs. Did he? The last time I spent the weekend at his house he told me really simple but strange things. But I found them difficult to believe. Not because they were strange, but because they were simple. I found out that we find it easier to believe strange things than simple things. Probably because the simple things are too simple for our intellects and the strange things too complex for us to understand which gives us an excuse to apply the concept of faith — we often say ‘just believe’.
I believed he told me only parts and pieces of the whole thing though, and that’s why they aren’t working for me because I have put them to practice since then and consistently at least for three months. I had given them up. It’s all nonsense, I said to myself and I forgot about them all until a strange thing happened to me, and I believed it because it was strange and interesting.
I saw a movie on a Friday in that month at a friend’s house which gave root to my believing in what Ireti told me months ago. The lead actress in the movie was exactly the kind of woman I wanted for myself. I had always nursed the picture of that kind of lady in my mind but I never really dwelled on the thought. I had always wanted a lady with an average height and chocolate butter skin, a lady who has conspicuous hips, full chest and large eye balls. I wanted her personality type to be melancholy or phlegmatic or both. The actress I saw in that movie matched that profile perfectly, then I began to imagine. I began to imagine that she was indeed with me and she was my spouse and anytime I did that I felt good like it was actually true. I felt so pleased with myself and life began to make sense to me. I noticed that everything about me physically changed — my dressing, my speech, my confidence. I started walking with a new swagger. I began to work out that month. There was no gym in the village but I improvised. I began to do sit-ups and push-ups to reduce my protruding stomach. I did all of these for her. But she only existed in my imagination. Yes, until the last day in June.
It was a rainy afternoon in June, it had rained from morning till evening and the streets were wet and muddy—they were almost flooded. I usually stayed a while in school anytime the streets got flooded that way, in a bid to lengthen the lifespan of my shoes. I opened a book I had downloaded on my phone in PDF format and began to read. It was a memoir of one of Nigeria’s great writers and I was just beginning to enjoy it. I would get engrossed with the book and lose touch with everything going on around me until a bolt of thunder would alert me again. The school was almost empty now, all the students had gone and those who remained were a few colleagues and I. After sitting for about one hour, I heard someone saying hello from the door. I looked up slowly from my phone reluctant to interrupt my reading. But as I did, my gaze was met by the softest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. My perception of the figure that stood before me that day was that of a religious faithful who had seen a god. That kind of beauty could not have existed amongst mortals. She’s one of the gods, I thought. I still think of her that way anytime I watch her sleep beside me, those eyes that could melt the fabric of anything.
“Hello” I responded. “How may I help you please” I managed to add.
“Good afternoon,” she replied her voice was sonorous “I would like to see the principal” she said her smile as radiant as a sunflower in bloom.
“I’m afraid the principal has closed for today. What do you want to see him about? I’m his personal assistant.” I lied; I wasn’t a personal assistant to the principal.
“Errm... actually I want an interview with him.”
“Oh?” I asked with a questioning look.
“I’m a tourist here and I would like to know more about this town, so I decided to interview the principal, and a few more people.”
“That’s quite thoughtful of you” I replied “the whole town is in a mess right now I would have taken you to his house.”
“Really, thanks. We can go in my car”
“Yes we can.” I replied and packed up my books to leave.
“Are you here alone?” I asked her immediately we hit the road.
“No,” she replied and my heart skipped ninety beats “I’m here with my family.” She added when she saw the questioning look on my face.
“Oh, cool.” I managed to say.
“Yes. I’m here with my parents and siblings. We flew in from Kano yesterday morning.”
My heart beat returned to normal and I smiled broadly with an accompanying sigh of relief. She gave me a sidelong glance and smiled in return. That fateful day, I met the love of my life. I knew it from the moment I saw her. We chatted about many things; about the fact that we were both strangers in the town, even though from different parts of the country — I, from the west and she from the north. She is Fulani and I’m Yoruba. We talked about the serene environment nature provided in these parts. We talked about our careers. I discovered she was studying to become a pharmacist. I told her I studied civil engineering. It was a happy day for both of us. It was as though we both have been waiting for that day. I cannot conclude that it was a coincidence that we had the same interests in; literature, history and antiques.
We interviewed the principal and he also introduced her to some chiefs whom she also interviewed. It was a fun experience for both of us. She dropped me off at my house and headed for the resort where her family was lodged.
After she left me in front of my house, I became aware that it wasn’t a dream. For everything its worth, I just saw the exact person I have imagined for about one month. Is it that real? I asked myself. This lady came all the way from Kano to Calabar. I had many questions and I needed quick answers to them. Why did her family decide to come to Calabar for a vacation out of all the vacation spots in Nigeria? Why did she come to look for the principal of the school where I taught? There are five schools in that town. Why did she come when I was in the school? These questions and more were the ones that occupied my mind. Nonetheless, I felt happier than I used to be. In fact, the happiness had started even before this incident occurred. I was so eager to tell Ireti what had happened and I also wanted to apply the same principles to other areas of my life. That was what I called the beginning of my life.