Virus (5 page)

His voice was cold and dangerously
low. There must have been something in his eyes because she
immediately became silent and he could see fear steal into her
eyes.

“Now that we are both CALM__” He
began, stressing the calm. “What do you want to do about
this?”

When she did not respond, he pressed
on. “You know there is only one obvious choice here?”

“Which is?” She asked looking
suspicious. He took another deep breath and counted to ten before
he spoke.

“You are going to have to abort the
pregnancy.”

“I will DO WHAT??” She screeched
bearing down on him menacingly. His eyes grew as hard as pebbles.
He had had enough.

“SHUT UP YOU SILLY COW!” He roared.
She jumped startled taking several steps backward. She looked at
him with eyes filled with fear. The frightened look in her eyes
filled him great satisfaction. Yes let her be afraid. If he
frightened her well enough maybe she would get rid of the damn
pregnancy and leave him free to continue with his life.

“Let me explain some things to you
in case you are too stupid to figure it out on your own. I am not
ready to have a child at the moment__” He ignored the pained and
shocked look on her face as he continued.

“__and if you want to really honest
with yourself you’d realize you are not ready to have a child
either. Let us face it Judith, we are both still in school. Where
are going to find the money to look after a child? What will your
parents say? How will your father react? You know as well as I do
how strict he is__” He paused letting his voice drift off to give
her time to consider all he had said.

The tears brimming in her eyes spilt
down her cheeks in long streaks. “I thought you said you loved me.”
She asked. Her voice was teary and broken.

He had to fight the urge to snort.
“Love? Was she for real? Girls were so dumb. A guy had stripped you
down to nature’s bear essentials and just as he went for the kill;
aiming to slide into you, you go and ask him whether he loves you.
What in the world do you think he is going to say?

Of course he will tell you he loves
you. He might even tell you that he will kill his mother for you.
He would say anything to make sure you keep your legs wide open
long enough for him to slake his thirst with your body. However, he
did not say any of this aloud.

“Of course I love you, but we have
to be realistic. We cannot afford to have you pregnant now. You
have to remove it.”

A heavy silence ensured after he was
done speaking. There was no more to be said.

Chapter Nine

Sighs burst from Collins lips as he
walked away from Judith’s house. That had been a close one. He
vowed to use protection from here on out. Dallying with a woman
carelessly had its consequences. The most annoying part was the
silly creatures never had the good sense to insist that their
lovers use protection.

In fact, most of them preferred the
skin on skin contact. He sighed again. Well he had sure learnt his
lesson. No more risk taking for him anymore. A small voice in his
subconscious reminded him of the numerous times he had said the
same thing. He had made the same vow more times than he could count
and still he found himself doing the same thing.

Ignoring the recriminating voice,
his thoughts drifted back to Judith. A sense of relief threatened
to overwhelm him. He could not get over his good fortune that he
had been able to convince her to get rid of the
pregnancy.

They had an appointment with Doctor
Desmond by six pm tomorrow. His eyes narrowed as soon as he thought
of Desmond. The man was a slimy character. Most of Oraromi’s
residents were not that generous in their estimation of him. Quack,
danger to society and a real sordid man were just some of the
unsavory adjectives used to describe him.

If he were in a better place
financially, he would have taken Judith to a better doctor. He had
no choice now since he was desperate. A dog he hated did not
deserve to be neutered by Doctor Desmond. Being strapped for cash
always put you in an uncomfortable situation. He knew he would have
to borrow money from his mates to pay the bill.

He could not help thanking God for
two things. One the good doc was cheap and two he had mates who
were willing to lend a hand. He could not wait for
tomorrow.

Night

Alaba stirred the cocoa in his cup
watching the milk, sugar and cocoa turn into a creamy brown liquid.
His mouth watered as the sweet scent of cocoa wafted into his
nostrils. Joke sat on the bed a few feet away with a wan look on
her face. Her eyes kept fluttering. He knew it would not be long
before she fell asleep.

“Don’t sleep yet sweetie. Drink
this__.” He said handing her the steaming mug of cocoa.

Her eyes fluttered and then widened
as her gaze slowly focused. She took the mug from him and sat up
slowly.

“I am so tired__.” She murmured
lifting the mug to her lips. The hot drink sliding down her throat
made her a trifle less sleepy. Her dull sleepy look instantly
became alert.

“Feel better?” He asked casting a
worried gaze on her face.

“A little__” She began slowly. “But
the pain in my sides and lower back hasn’t lessened.”

His face grew pensive as he searched
his wife’s face. Then a speculative look entered his
eyes.

“Do you want me to rub Aboniki* on
it?” *Menthol heat balm.

“That would be nice__” She began
raising a hand to stop him as he started for the wooden chest where
they kept it. “__but not right now. You can give me a backrub as
soon as I finish drinking my cocoa.”

He sighed sinking down onto the
white plastic chair beside the mattress, which was the only piece
of furniture their one room self-contained apartment had. The
minutes ticked by as she sipped on the creamy chocolate flavored
liquid in her cup.

He watched her trying hard not to
bristle with impatience, especially when he saw the pained looks of
discomfort flitting across her face. The damn woman could be so
stubborn. His face grew thunderous. So consumed by his worry and
displeasure, it took him several seconds to realize she was smiling
at him.

“What?”

“Nothing__” She replied effecting a
disinterested shrug. “I read the message your body is sending loud
and clear; even if your mouth will not speak of it.”

“Really? And what message o great
and mighty sage Joke is my body trying to pass across?” He asked
failing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

“Never mind.” She said with a loud
chuckle as she leaned her head back and poured what remained of the
cocoa down her throat. Placing the cup on the linoleum-covered
floor, she carefully lay on her side with her back facing
him.

“I am ready.”

He practically leaped out of the
chair, retrieved the aboniki from the chest at the corner of the
room, and strode back to the bed where he knelt down beside his
wife.

Taking a bit of the strong smelling
cream on his palm he gently rubbed it on her lower back and sides.
In a couple of seconds, the whole room was reeking with acerbic
scent of aboniki.

“Feel any better?” He asked giving
her a worried look. His heart skipped a couple of beats when she
did not respond. Leaning forward, he peered at her face over her
right shoulder. The worried look on his face quickly turned to one
of love and affection when he realized she was fast asleep her
chest rising and falling evenly.

Sighing, he took the aboniki back to
the chest and returned to his wife, stretching out beside her on
the large mattress.

“Sweet dreams.” He murmured his eyes
beginning to flutter as he stared at the asbestos ceiling; within
minutes he too was fast asleep, their even breathing the only
sounds in the quiet room.

Wole sat up abruptly, barely
managing to keep the squeal of terror behind his lips. His body was
still, frozen as he struggled to calm his racing heart. It was the
same dream. It was always the same dream. Flying and then
plummeting to the earth at breakneck speeds.

This dream however was somewhat
worse than the others were. It felt so real. With the others, he
had always been able to tell that he was dreaming. It was not the
case with this one. However, that was not all, with the others he
always woke before he hit the ground. With this one, he felt the
hard slam as he hit the ground.

The sharp pain that came with impact
was only just fading from his chest. He rubbed his chest
experimentally. It stung for a few minutes and the pain disappeared
completely.

Sweat dribbled from his forehead. He
rubbed it off as a frown hardened his normally pleasant features.
The dreams were getting worse. It was probably time to tell
someone. His mind scanned through half a dozen names, but he could
not think of anyone of them he was even remotely interested in
telling.

His mum would probably listen, but
she was likely to insist he went to see the church pastor, and that
was something he was not keen on. The man made him
uneasy.

He thought of Tunrayo and Chike,
Tunrayo would listen, but would be frightened by the new
development. That he was most certain of. Chike would dismiss it
and probably suggest that he was having flights of fancy. That was
something he knew he could most certainly do without.

Then there was Alaba his geography
teacher. Wole could not understand why he even thought of the man.
It was not as if they were that close. Something on his insides
just told him that the man would listen if he told him.

The faint glimmer of light trickling
in from his open window caught his attention. It was time to get
ready for school. As if in agreement, he heard his mother’s loud
footsteps in the kitchen. Stifling a sigh with the palm of his left
hand, he rose to his feet.

Chapter Ten

Tee-junction en-route to
school

Chike and Tunrayo were already
waiting for him. His eyes widened when he saw Chike. This was a
first. Chike here before him, two days in a row? Who would have
thought that was even possible?

Tunrayo’s soft smile and Chike’s
broad grin greeted him as he stopped two feet away from
them.

“Why the grins?” He asked, even
though he already knew what their answers would be.

“You are surprised Chike is here
before you aren’t you?” Tunrayo asked still smiling.

“How did you know?” The grin on
Wole’s face was just as broad as the one on Chike’s own.

They shared amused glances for a
total of ten seconds before bursting into laughter. They laughed
for a long while before their mirth faded away slowly.

“We best be on our way__” Wole began
still chuckling. Tunrayo nodded but did not speak. Her eyes were
dancing with her amusement. They all turned heading down the long
dusty road, which led to the school. Chike as usual brought up the
rear.

The walk to the school felt quick
for some reason. As if it took almost no time at all, the reason
for this was quite clear. Chike was entertaining them with his
jokes and tall tales. Tunrayo was not doing that bad herself. She
pitched in every now and then with her own quips.

Wole for the most part was very
silent. He gave the usual perfunctory response when needed but was
otherwise silent. If they noticed he seemed withdrawn they gave no
indication of it. Tunrayo did give him some pointed looks at some
points. That was usually when Chike came up with another joke and
instead of laughing she caught him staring into space. Each time
the looks came however, a broad smile from him disarmed her and
quickly put her at ease.

The big teak tree to their left came
into view. Eze was crouched in front of it as usual. Chike’s eyes
brightened instantly when he saw Eze. Before either Tunrayo or Wole
could stop him, he was racing towards the tree.

“CHIKE STOP IT THIS INSTANT!!!”
Tunrayo yelled in fury. Chike being his usual self paid her no
mind.

Wole was on the verge of tearing
towards Chike to give him a smack on his face, but for some strange
reason he could not get his limbs to move. There was something
about the way Eze was crouched today that did not seem quite
right.

It was as if he had a dark evil sort
of force hanging over him. Tunrayo seemed to sense it too. He could
see that from the way her eyes widened, shinning with fear and
unease, not to mention the way her nostrils flared. She also did
not attempt to move closer to either Eze or chike.

Eze gave no indication that he saw
Chike or even noticed him standing there. Emboldened chike took
another step closer.

“Mad fool! You do stink don’t you? I
am sure even your own parents will be unable to look at you
now.”

Caught in the flow of his own
diatribe, he did not notice Eze’s eyes suddenly focus.

“Yeah I am talking to you, you mad
sick freak.” Chike spat at him coming closer still.