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The moment she entered the room and locked the door behind her, a foul smell covered everywhere. It was the first time she came that close to me, making me discover that there were more flaws on her body than the big boobies and round shape ass. English language and Amina were like two parallel lines, walking side by side, but can never meet. This made her communicate in pidgin and Hausa language most of the time, on rare occasions she made a four or five word sentences with heavy blunders.
"You don ready already sef. Shey you get protection?"
"I do. Take off your clothes." I spoke authoritatively.
"You go spend only ten minutes on top me, I get another customer I want to go meet."
This statement was the least thing I expected to hear from her, and the very last thing she was supposed to say, if at all she's supposed to mention it at all.
"Wait a minute please, you sleep with every guy who buys your herbal drink?"
"Ah! No be all sha, na only the ones wey no get who to use am on.
The ambiance changed and I noticed my body temperature was dying down gradually, the sexual urge reduced and I finally removed the pillow I used in covering my little brother. I saw strings of multiple waist beads wrapped around her waist when she pulled off her polo, the sight of them made my little brother became flaccid at instant. I can't say how and when it happened or started, but I suddenly developed a phobia for girls who wear beads around their waists.
"Hold on! What are those stuff you're wearing?" My voice sounded both scared and angry.
"The beads?"
"What else are you wearing?"
"I use them to check my body size; if I dey fat or slim."
The reason sounded lame to me, because the stories I heard about girls who wear it were just too heavy for me to believe her.
"Put on your clothes, I no do again."
She suddenly looked disgusting and harmful in my eyes; the beads were locally made, and she had a similar one around her neck too. Taking a closer look at her body, I noticed that her big breasts were too unlucky to have their home in a brown brazier which was formerly white, multiple piercings on her nose and in her ears, and a love tattoo on her arm.
"Wear your clothes and leave please, I'm no longer interested!" I repeated, this time in a harsh tone.
"Haba! Na because of wetin I talk? But you no suppose vex because you no be my boyfriend, and you know say e don tey when I dey wait for you to end my single life. You even do …"
I understood where her unending love profession was heading too, and I wasn't ready to hear any more of it.
"Pick that N500 on the table and leave immediately!
"I know say na Sikirat dey make you hate me, but one day your eyes go open." She banged the door and hissed loudly as she stomped out.
I breathed a sigh of relief when she was gone, opened the windows and sprayed antiseptic all over the room. This particular experience reminded me of the last time my friend had something intimate to do with a classmate in secondary school, it was more like an eye-opening flashback. Ejike who was popular in secondary school for owning the first position right from Js1 to ss2, was finally pushed to fifteenth position after he slept with Modupe - the only beauty queen in senior secondary. He too, was confused about the whole matter, how the topics taught in class became too difficult for him to understand all of a sudden. Many conceptions were made about Ejike's backsliding, although it was truly unclear if Modupe's honey pot was the cause of it. After six long years in school, we finally graduated a year after Ejike's misfortune, and the eyes of many became open to reality. Classmates discovered that the problem was because Ejike was drowned in pride when girls flocked around him for tutorials, the excess respect and high regard they showered on him deluded and clouded his mind, making him to believe that none of his classmates would beat him in any exam. Thus, he stopped reading for tests and exams; depending solely on his brainwork. Even with this theory given, some people still defiantly refused to believe that his downfall was not caused by Modupe.
"Whew! Let me not risk myself with Amina." I shook my head to remove the thoughts running in my mind.
I needed something to keep my mind fully away from the thoughts, and the photo albums became the only option I had to choose; my phone's battery was low. I picked one of them and flipped the first page open, it was a photo of my uncle in his workplace. The second page was a photo of the woman he was to marry, but the wedding was called off two weeks to the D-Day when he caught her pants down with his colleague. The next page carried photos of the people my uncle said were my parents, who by force, were asked to kill me hours after I was born. The many circumstances surrounding my birth made them believed I was an evil child from the spirits - the midwife who attended to my mother during my birth died of a strange illness two days later, her assistant also suffered the same fate and died a week later. Their deaths raised brows in the village and my parents were asked to bury me alive. My mother, who believed that her baby son was pure and innocent of the charges, couldn't think of doing such. On the day I was to be buried, a tuber of yam was wrapped in a wrapper and buried instead of me. Uncle Godwin - her brother, fled with me to Kaduna where my life began fully. How a two weeks old baby boy survived the harmattan breeze and cold still remains a mystery to everyone.
"You're a lucky child." My uncle would say to me every morning.
When I was seventeen, I talked to my uncle about my intention to visit my village, the fright and alarm in his eyes were enough to mute me at instant.
"Holy Moses! Do you know the implications of what you just said? You want to visit a village where everyone already counted you as dead? Do you know what that means? Your aged parents would be buried alive, same with me. Incase you do not know, it's just your parents and I who know that you're still alive. You'll have to wait until this generation passes, only then will you be free to go. But for now, over my dead body will I let you go there." He threw his left hand around his head three times and snapped his fingers.
Ever since that very day, I never mentioned anything to him about my village and family. I later stared at my matriculation photos, and they reminded me of the good old days when I was nearly admitted into the university. My stomach rumbled and it brought about the end of the photo-viewing session. I dashed out of the house to get foodstuffs on credit from Iya Yemi, she was the only one trusted me to pay debts in no time. In front of her shop, I met Amina who also came to buy from her, she looked radiant than when I saw her earlier in the day.
"Good evening Amina."
The greeting was unexpected and it gladdened her heart.
"Good evening Edomo."
"My name na Ediomo, how many times I go correct you?" I replied jokingly.
"No mind me fa."
Her body looked neat and tidied as a result of the day's clash we had, maybe. Part of her boobies showed from the arm side of the singlet she wore, and it made me regretted the decision I took when she came to my room.
"She's not too bad, and we cannot be perfect even. What if I overlook her flaws and eat the main delicacies on her?" Wild thoughts danced in my head.
"You go dey around tomorrow?" I asked slowly.
"Yes." She replied sharply.
"Let's meet in my house then."
She smiled and nodded in agreement.

June 2012

At 4am, the sky was still dark and cloudy. The dew droplets made the weather cool, accompanied by squeaking noises made by the tiny insects who had their abode underneath the ground. Tenants gathered in front of the zinc bathroom, mumbling as they bath in turns. Each bathing session fixed at three minutes, some tenants who exceeded the stipulated time were sure to receive tongue-lashing from other tenants.
But then, there was this particular lady who took being troublesome as her daily meal, only on rare occasions she didn't quarrel with her neighbours on a daily basis. Veronica is her name, a nasty sadist who by her hostile nature, chased every potential suitor out of her life. Every morning she'd start her bathing by singing praises to God, and pray in harsh words to rile the people waiting outside.
"Wherever they are, oh Lord of host, kill them! Kill my enemies!! Kill them!! Fire fire! Holy ghost of the holy seraphim from the throne of the blazing fire! Kill them!"
By the time she finishes and step out of the bathroom, twenty minutes would have gone past. To make matters worse, she was not only troublesome, but aggressive and always ready for physical fights. Because of her harsh nature, most tenants were scared of incurring her wrath, and as such, they avoided her quarrel traps. She got more than she expected one morning when Jubril - a bachelor and welder, couldn't contain his anger anymore. She spent thirty minutes singing and dancing in the bathroom, when she came out Jubril confronted her in a stern manner.
"Vero! This should be the first and last time you'll spend long time inside this bathroom, you hear me? If you want to do your music rehearsals, the bathroom is not a place for that. Don't be silly."
He was still talking when Veronica landed a heavy slap on his cheek.
"Are you stupid?! Who did you call silly?" Her questions were accompanied by another slap.
Jubril's temper rose immediately and he almost lost it in a millisecond, but he held back his hands after a second thought.
"I'll forgive you for today, go and thank your stars that I am not in a bad mood." He breathed calmly and bent to lift his bucket of water.
"Come back here, you smelling idiot who baths once in day! That's why the girl you were to marry last year turned down your proposal, because of your dirtiness. You're just a ..."
She wasn't lucky to duck in time when Jubril threw his left fist and it landed on her throat, she groaned in pains and tried to retaliate. He finally lost his cool. Jubril gripped her hands firmly and she couldn't move them, she spat into his face as the only option and he sent her crashing on the ground with a solid slap. Neighbours who ran out of their rooms when they heard the shouts, retraced when they saw Veronica rolling on the floor, her naked body covered with sand. Jubril finished bathing and left for work, while Veronica sat in front of her door to nurse her wounds. To her, it was definitely a fight for another day.
This particular morning was a little different from the other days, the faces of tenants were looking gloomy and pale. This was always expected at the end of every month when Landlord Munir would knock on the doors of his tenants at 3am to demand for payment of their rents. As usual, threatening of fire and brimstone was a part of his strategies to facilitate the payments. Even at 5am he was still ranting and cursing at the top of his voice, mentioning names of people who were still owing for the previous months. I was so lucky to have been salvaged by my uncle; he paid the house rent for the whole year before travelling to Lagos for his rig work. It's been three months since he left, and he's not to return anytime soon. Leaving the whole house to me and my evil deeds.
When it was finally dawn, most of the tenants were out to hustle and bustle for their daily bread, except Amina the herbal drink seller who was perambulating around the compound, looking for an avenue for me to call her inside. I had promised her that I would buy a bottle of her 'man-power' drink the previous week, and as we agreed, I was to use it on her. The last cash I had was N500, Amina's herbal drink and my feeding money were the budgets for the money, a mere meager that could barely organize any of them two. It was a case of choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. Amina's two dangling breasts and buttocks were enough to make a man turn his neck in 360degrees freely. Every evening when I sit by my window side and watch her sway them in a seductive manner, my little brother was sure to react at instant. I was still contemplating whether to save myself from hunger and starvation, or to save little brother from dying of loneliness.
At 12noon Amina was still patrolling round the compound, looking more desperate at each passing minute. I finally made my decision - I was going to buy her herbal drink and use it on her. I dressed in my oversized kaftan I got as a present from Tunde the vulcanizer, this was in a bid to hide my younger brother who refused to be at ease. I met Amina in front of the compound, selling her products to an elderly man. I picked a bottle and turned to leave.
"Come in two hours time." I spoke in my lowest voice.
"No wahala." She replied and wrapped the drink for the man.
On my back to my room I met Sikirat - the last daughter of Alhaji Ismalia, and most beautiful of them all.
"Tomorrow is Friday and my dad will leave for Jumu'ah, I'll come to your place as usual."
I nodded and left immediately, avoiding the eyes of the talkative neighbours.
Inside my room, I laid in bed waiting for Amina, my younger brother powerfully erected and vertically pointed. I groaned in pains when it felt like it was going to tear into two. After some time that seemed like forever, there was finally a knock on my door.
"Who's there?"
"Amina. Please open."