Virus (4 page)

Mr. Adepeko his math’s teacher
enjoyed beating the students, so being flogged by him came as no
surprise. Mr. Olorunsogo’s beating shocked him. The guy had never
laid a finger on any student before, so what had
changed?”

“Daydreaming are we?” Tunrayo said
in a droll tone.

He turned facing her smiling
slightly. “What kept you? I was beginning to think you guys wanted
to spend the night at school.”

“E beans?” Tunrayo shot back with a
laugh speaking in Pidgin English.

“Staying in school from 8am-2pm is
more than enough for me thank you very much.”

“What is more than enough for you?”
Chike asked suddenly appearing beside them. Tunrayo and Wole gave
him long exasperated looked before sighing and walking
away.

“Hey wait__ what is more than
enough?” Chike cried hurrying after them.

“Never mind Chike. Let us just get
home.” Tunrayo snapped not turning around.

He sighed, the look on his face
growing hard. He was on the verge of giving Tunrayo a stinging
retort when he spotted the hard look on Wole’s face. Taking a deep
breath, he continued walking with a glum look on his
face.

His face brightened considerably
when he spotted Eze the mad man crouched beneath the large tree a
few feet away. He appeared frozen in time. He was in the same
position he had been in when they walked by in the
morning.

Smiling Chike edged towards him. He
had barely taken two steps when his shoulder was seized in a
viselike grip. Tunrayo furious gaze moved closer stopping just five
inches away from his face.

“Don’t even think about it.” She
spat out through clenched teeth.

“And why not?” Chike growled
refusing to be intimidated.

“BECAUSE WE WILL SLAP YOU SO HARD
YOUR HEAD WILL FALL OFF.” Wole snapped bearing down on him, looking
even more furious than Tunrayo did.

He was a bit taken back by the fury
he saw on both of their faces. He regularly butted heads with
Tunrayo so he wasn’t surprised by her reaction. Wole on the other
hand was another matter. He usually stayed out of it when he and
Tunrayo had their little squabbles. To have him support Tunrayo now
came as a great surprise.

“We are serious Chike__” She growled
still looking furious. “__this your fascination with Eze must stop.
If you keep making fun of him the way you have been doing he is
going to attack you, mark my words.”

“Oh really__” Chike began breaking
towards his right in a fast sprint heading towards Eze.

Wole and Tunrayo tore after him
pulling to a halt when he stopped two feet away from
Eze.

“Chike stop it!” Tunrayo yelled
thoroughly incensed now.

“Oh really? And what if I decide not
to stop it? You go beat me?”

Having no answer to that she simply
glared at him; she couldn’t say what vexed her the most. The fact
that he was stubbornly refusing to stop taunting Eze or that he was
speaking in Pidgin English. The look in her eyes grew so frosty
that a shiver ran down Chike’s spine.

“Stop fooling around Chike. Your
obsession with Eze is getting scary.”

The look on Wole’s face was just as
hard as Tunrayo’s own. Chike met their hard gazes with a defiant
one of his own for a total of thirty seconds before he sighed and
walked away from Eze. He turned after three steps and stuck his
tongue out at him. As before, Eze’s eyes and body remained
motionless. His eyes and body were fixed, focused on what he alone
could see and feel.

Tunrayo sighed in relief and started
after Chike. Wole gave Eze one last look and hurried after his
friends. He glanced back after ten steps and was shocked to
discover that Eze’s cold dead eyes were following them. His cold
gaze made his heart skip a couple of beats. Steeling himself, he
turned and hurried after his friends with Eze’s eyes fixed on his
back until he disappeared from view.

45 minutes later

Wole walked down the long narrow
street leading to his house. He was alone now. Tunrayo and Chike
had left him at the point where the bush path joined the main road.
He sighed as he remembered the cold silence that had engulfed their
ranks as they made the forty-five minute trek back home.

Tunrayo was furious with Chike. He
could not say he blamed her. Chike could sometimes be as stubborn
as a goat. She had barely glanced his way as they walked. The few
times she did, her eyes blazed with rage. Chike returned her angry
looks with defiant ones, as was his way.

He sighed again as he considered
this. He had known Chike long enough to realize that he was very
stubborn. If he came back to the world again, Wole was very sure he
would come back as a goat.

It was the things you insisted he
did not do that he loved doing. If you did not want him to do
something, it was better you told him to do it. Then chances were
he would not do it. He had never met anyone quite like Chike
before.

The strange thing was, as annoying
as he could be Wole could not help liking him. He suspected that
Tunrayo also felt the same way. A smile lifted the corners of his
lips as he thought this. Tunrayo was furious with Chike now, but he
knew she would not be for long. Their fights hardly ever lasted
more than a day or so, so he was not worried.

“You appear deep in thought. What
worries you my dear boy?” A warm very pleasant voice asked rousing
him from his deep thoughts.

He turned slowly, his eyes coming to
rest on the wizen old man seated on a wooden bench on his right.
The bench was backed against the concrete walls of the sunflower
bakery, which was the only bakery Oraromi had. The old man wore
long baggy trousers made out of faded Ashoke* material (expensive
Yoruba ceremonial cloth). His wrinkled torso was covered by a dirty
white singlet, his jaw line almost hidden by scraggy looking facial
hair. The shock of white hair on his head was growing afro
style.

Scattered around him were more than
two dozen shoes, all in various states of repair. Directly behind
him was a wooden box like container, which held needles, razors,
pins, threads, bits of leather, shoe polish, and half a dozen other
things, which he needed for his trade. After all a cobbler was
nothing without his tools.

“Good afternoon Baba Adora.” Wole
said bowing low; his bow was a sign of respect for the old and
elderly in Yoruba culture.

“Good afternoon Woleayo.” Baba Adora
replied looking pleased by his bow.

Wole sighed. He could not understand
why Baba Adora insisted on calling him by his full name. He
shrugged with a disinterested look on his face. It was probably
something old people enjoyed doing.

“You look well young Woleayo. How
was school today?”

“It was fine sir.”

“Hope you learned well?”

“I did my best sir.”

“Diplomatic answer__” Baba Adora
said chuckling. “I like that. You are well on the way to becoming a
great man.”

“Thank you sir!” Wole exclaimed
looking very pleased. His smile disappeared a few moments later at
Baba Adora’s next words.

“Don’t let praise get to your head.
That is the first thing you have to learn. Be meek and humble. Add
hard work to the mix and you will discover that the journey to
success is already half done. Praise has been known to have brought
the downfall of many great men so beware.”

For some strange reason, the way
Baba Adora said it made dread steal into his heart. He could not
dwell more deeply on the ramification of that feeling because Baba
Adora was speaking again.

“You go home and rest young man. A
glorious future awaits you.”

Looking a little puzzled, Wole
walked away, heading towards home. Baba Adora watched him until he
disappeared from view. When he could no longer see him, he turned
his attention back to the shoe in his hand, which he had been
stitching with a long needle and shiny black thread.

As he bent down to continue his
task, he paused glancing at the small cluster of blue-black clouds
gathering on the horizon. A sad somewhat fearful look stole into
his eyes.

“The blue-back clouds gather once
again__” He murmured, seemingly unaware that he had spoken out
loud.

He continued working choking back a
deep sigh. He could not allow himself to think of such things. Not
now, at any rate; he considered that thought once again. NOT EVER!
Thinking only brought the bad things closer. Maybe this time, the
bad things would not come.

Chapter Eight

Collins and Judith

He was furious. Yeah that was really
the understatement of the year. He was enraged. How could Judith do
this to him? He took several deep breaths to calm himself. If he
continued in this state, he could well strangle her when he saw
her.

He had to reason with her and try to
talk her down. To succeed he knew he had to be logical and not
emotional. She clearly was not thinking straight. Their entire
conversation flashed through his mind as he thought
this.

“Hi baby__what’s up? Wasn’t
expecting your call.”

“A lot is up Collins. I know you are
not going to like what I have to say so I will just go ahead and
say it. Collins I AM PREGNANT!!”

His eyes hardened as the words I AM
PREGNANT flashed through his head. Maybe she was kidding and this
was her idea of a sick joke. Who knew? With women there were no
certainties.

As much as he enjoyed sleeping with
them, he had not quite figured out how their brains worked. He
could not figure out how they reasoned or if they even reasoned. In
his opinion, the average woman’s mind was a control hub filled with
bad wiring.

It seemed almost a travesty that the
sweetest piece of equipment to pleasure a man had to be found on a
woman. In many ways, he found them unworthy of such a gift. The
good God sure had a weird sense of humor. On the other hand, maybe
he simply got a kick out of watching women screw up men’s
lives.

It took every ounce of self-control
he possessed not to slap himself in the head. This sort of
philosophical thinking was not solving his immediate problem. His
eyes became even harder when he spotted her house at the other end
of the street.

“Let me off here.” He told the
okada* rider (motor cycle rider).

He quickly removed fifty naira from
his pocket and paid the man before climbing off the motor cycle. He
strode to her house with long purposeful strides. His jaw jutted
out and hard with his displeasure.

The door to her house opened as he
approached and Judith stepped out. Even as furious as he was, he
could not help pausing to admire her beauty. She was the prettiest
screw he had ever had. With his record with the women, that was
really saying something.

She had on a blue body hugging
dress, which showed off her assets. Her flawless hazel eyes were
red and swollen from crying. His face that had been softening since
she came out instantly hardened. He took a deep breath and
continued walking.

Her face did not light up the way it
usually did when she saw him. Instead, it grew even more glum and
sullen. That was not a good sign. Taking a deep breath, he drew
level with her.

“Hello__” He said trying to make his
tone sound neutral.

“Hi.” She replied. She sounded sad
but strangely determined. His heart skipped a couple of beats.
Licking his dry and parched lips, he took a step closer and
spoke.

“When did you find out?”

“This afternoon. My periods are
never late. When I didn’t see anything for two weeks I went to
check.”

“And?”

“What do you mean and? There is no
and. I am pregnant.”

“How far gone are you?”

“About a month and half.”

A long silence stretched on after
her response. A silence Collins eventually broke.

“What do you want to do?” Collins
asked after taking a deep breath.

“What do you mean what do I want to
do? You are talking as if it’s my problem alone. It’s our problem
Collins. Not MINE! OURS!” She spat at him.

He took another deep breath and
counted to ten in his head.

“I didn’t say it was your problem
alone__” He began slowly.

“But you sure as hell implied it.”
Judith shot back her eyes blazing with rage.

A muscle twitched in his jaw as he
struggled to control his temper. However, of course she was not
done, not by a long shot.

“Awon Okunrin sha! Won ma fe doo
obinrin. Ti oyun bay o, won fe sa! O le sa fun mi lai
lai*

“Men! They want to sleep with women.
When pregnancy ensures they will want to run. You cannot run from
me__ never!!”

“Calm down Judith.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down. Admit
it; you just want to run away don’t you?”

“The thought hadn’t occurred to me
till a few moments ago. Now would you calm down and let us discuss
this like adults?”