IRAWO: My Quest for Freedom 9

My lips tremble with anticipation

At their meeting with yours

How will it go?

I really want to know…

My lips tingle with remembrance

Of sweet kisses they once had

Will they tingle again so?

I really don’t know

My lips were made for kisses

And kisses they will surely find

-Geminis Collide

It got to a stage where I could not walk on the streets without being toasted. Seniors, mates and even juniors were having boyfriends. It was called going out. I always referred to it as dating. I wonder where they were going to. Lol.

I got asked out in school. It is a mixed school. I turned down the bold ones. I just could not imagine myself with a boy.

During the holidays when I was fifteen and in SS 2, I decided to try out this going out stuff. I was taking an evening walk when this boy came to meet me. His name is Boriola. He was nineteen. He also lived in my area. Two days later, he sent his younger brother to call me. We walked towards a nearby close and we chatted. That was how it went on for a while during the holidays. 

The next holiday, he came with his friend, Kunle and we chatted. Kunle was Bori’s friend. Kunle said he liked my necklace. It was a gold chain with a ‘K’ pendant. It was given to me by my father. I wore that chain everyday. I had it on even when I had my bath. It was real gold. 

He refused to give it back. He said he wanted to borrow it for week. I told him to give it back and he ran away. I told Bori to get it for me because it was getting late and I had to go back home. He promised to collect it and bring it back the next day. I wonder where he met this thieving friend. I remember that they attended the same secondary school. They were once classmates.

The next day, my father did not go to work. He sat on the couch reading newspapers all day and when he was through, he watched the television. It was very unusual for my father to be at home. I was praying that he should go out but he did not. 

I think Bori called me on the telephone because my father called me after hearing a boy’s voice at the other end. It seemed that when he heard my father’s voice, he would cut the line.

“Kemi!”

“Sir!”

“Who has been calling you since morning?”

“I don’t know sir.”

“If I see you with any boy, you will be in big trouble”.

“Yes sir!”

I wanted to go into my father’s room and call Bori to tell him to stop calling me because it did not seem like my father was ready to leave the sitting room. I could not. My mother was in their bedroom.

The silly boy kept calling and the line was cutting. We had two telephones. As soon as my mother left the house to go to the salon, I went to my father’s room to pick the next call. I wanted to pick it before my father did.

The phone rang again and I picked it up to answer it. Surely, it was Bori at the other end. He was asking me if it was alright to bring back my chain that day. As I wanted to tell him that I would come to his house to collect it the next day, I heard my father’s voice in the phone. I froze to death! I did I not hear him pick the call too. If someone else picked the call, one was bound to hear a ‘click’ sound. It was most likely that he had picked the call at the same time as I did.

He said,

“Hen hen! Just come here! You are a stupid girl!”

I knew that I was already dead but I went to meet him.

“Who is that boy that has been calling you since morning?”

“It was my classmate sir. He wanted to know if I could borrow him my textbook,” I lied. 

Luckily, I was attending lessons to prepare for my GCE exams.

“Tell him not to call you again!”

“Okay sir!”

At the moment, I was free from his wrath.

That evening, I stood by our gate hoping I would see them pass by. I saw them. I went to meet Kunle to give me back my gold chain. He wasted time arguing on the matter. He said I should dash him. I was so angry. I just left them and went back home.

Unfortunately, my father had been looking for me. Immediately I came into the sitting room, he called me and asked me where I had been. I began to stammer. He went upstairs to get his belt. He beat me that night. He told me that my punishment was that I had to go to the barber and cut my hair. I guess he felt my long hair was the attraction to boys. Of course I cut my hair before going back to school.

The following day, I went to Bori's house to collect my chain. His room was in the boys’ quarters in his parents' house. He gave me my chain and apologized on behalf of his friend. We chatted for a while and when I stood up to leave, he came towards me and it happened! 

I was curious. 

“Did you just kiss me?” I asked.

“Yes, I did and I want more”.

“So this is how a kiss tastes, with your saliva in my mouth!” I had tasted the close up tooth paste on his tongue. Ayanma! Disgusting!

He came towards me and wanted to repeat the saliva exchange once more. I was ready for him. I slapped him and ran out. That was the end of our going out.

My second boyfriend was in my school. He was in the science class and I was in the social science class. I was sixteen and he was seventeen. 

He was a cool guy, gentle and easy going but not my type, so I thought. He was always being bullied by our classmates because he was quiet easy going. 

Once, he was hit on the head on the assembly ground during a silly game the boys played. I almost cried because that slap was hot! After assembly, I went to meet the boys that slapped him and quarreled with them. As the class captain, I was bold enough to talk to anybody. I was the class captain. I had authority.

The boys started to make fun of him and called me his mummy. I told him to come and report to me anytime anybody harassed him. So I was like his school mother and nobody dared to harass him again.

And then we began to fall for each other and that was how he became my boyfriend and a tomboy like me fell in love for the very first time. In the matters of love, never say never.

After school, he travelled to the United States for his university degree. Some years later, he asked to marry me. Unfortunately, he was too late.

To be continued.....