THE CHAT ROOM : PART 1 – 10
PART 3
By Temi Akintade
The silence was the only constant thing in our home as soon as the mourners left. My grandmother from the paternal side left just last week with her husband’s sisters.
They accused my mother and called her a wtch but my mother simply ignored them as though their words bore no effect on her not until the night before they left, I caught her weeping in the bathroom.
And it seemed as if after my father was buried according to the Edo traditional rites, my mother became another person entirely. It was as if her change in character gave new birth to another nature in me.
Mother seldom spoke to me and even when she did, it was to inquire about the JAMB form. It was the form I needed to fill to write an entrance exam into any university of my choice.
Not that my mother and I shared any small talk, but it became even worse such that she would always come home by 7:00 PM.
And then she would eat my watery soups and salty meals ignoring the fact that I needed correction.
Since she poured all her attention into grieving and her work, I poured all of my attention into Tayo.
We were officially two months old in dating. Tayo always keeps my mind occupied on most of my lonely days.
During one of those rainy nights in August, he showed me something. Something that seemed to change the course of my thinking for life.
“It’s raining and my mother is asleep in her room.” I sent him the text as I waited for him to send me his reply.
“I wish I was close to you so that we can cuddle.” He sent the reply and added a kssing emoji.
I paused and tried to understand what he was trying to say. “What is cuddle?” I should be ashamed but I wasn’t.
He sent a laughing emoji and said, “it means to hug while sitting or even sleeping. You will be in my arms.”
I tried to imagine how it will be in his arms. I have seen his pictures and I know that he is tall and has wide shoulders capable to make any girl my age drool over him.
And the fact that he is light-skinned made me feel like I had won a jackpot because Bose’s boyfriend was not as handsome as mine.
Bose’s boyfriend was a fashion designer who claims that he wanted to marry her even though she wasn’t interested.
“Are you picturing yourself in my arms already?”
My eyes widened as soon as I saw the message. How did he know? “How did you know?”
“I’m in your head sweetheart”
I giggled. I paused for some time to imagine him in my head until he sent something to me. It was a picture of his nked underpart.
I gasped in shock and locked my legs tightly. My heart raced fast and my mind couldn’t get rid of the picture I have just seen.
“That is a part of me. My gift to you. I love and treasure you baby that is why I’m sending this to you. You are the only one my heart beats for.”
I stared at his text and my heart turned jelly again. He had sent me a picture of his manh©©d as his symbol of love. That means he loved me even more than my mother who has never given me anything.
“I love you Tayo. Will you call me today?” I typed. As I awaited his feedback, my mother called me from the sitting room.
I rushed to the sitting room and stood in front of her. She was sewing a piece of fabric with a needle and thread. She had her round-rimmed glasses on as though she might prick her hand with the needle.
“Sit down.” Her voice was stiff and cold too.
I tried to imagine why she had intruded my chat with my boyfriend but nothing was coming to my mind except for Tayo’s private part.
“Obasanjo is retrenching workers and I can be among.” She finally looked at me.
We haven’t had a close-talk for a few months now so I didn’t know how pale her face has been. “President Obasanjo? Why? What does retrenchment mean?”
She chuckled, dumped her fabric, and clapped her hand in a mockery manner.
I should have run or at least saved myself from the sIap she gave me on the cheeks. “You are 16 and you don’t know your president? The president of the country Nigeria?
You don’t even know what retrenchment means? How will you know what it means when you are always online chatting with those $illy boys that will eventually ruin your life!”
I kept touching my cheeks where she had released a stinging sIap.
“Look, if you get pregnant don’t come back to this house ever! I don’t know why you cannot be like our neighbours daughters.
Can you not see them, Paulina? Can you not see how obedient and useful they are to their parents?
All you know is to be chatting up and down. I will soon cease that phone from you!”
Tears welled in my eyes and they freely ran down my cheeks wetting my orange coloured T-shirt. I didn’t like the fact that she was yelling at me and comparing me with the others.
I am uniquely different in my way! At least that was what Tayo had told me because I wasn’t sure if my slender frame and dark skin was a blessing or a curse?
“Just get out of my sight you irritate me! I just hope you pass your university entrance exams otherwise, I will throw you into the college of education.”
I ran to my room and locked the door. I wept for few minutes, picked my phone, and told Tayo all that my mother had said.
“Don’t worry you are beautiful and even if you go to the college of education, I will still marry you.” He sent me a kssing emoji, and somehow I slept that night thinking of Tayo’s private part.
THE CHAT ROOM : PART 1 – 10
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