Bimpe's Boyfriend ...3

Dr Akinjide had had a quiet sort-of day: he had helped Naomi settle into Iyaniwura House, a rather out-of-sight private Catholic hostel on campus and paid, then left her in the company of Nonso, her superglued accomplice and returned to a light schedule of medical appointments. He had found their hugs and giggles ad infinitum disgusting. This was puppy love and he hated it.

It brought him to the first months of 1984, under the baobab tree facing Mama Fatou’s restaurant, where he and Bimpe would sit for hours; discussing campus activities, the schedule for plays showing in Yamoussoukro’s theatres and finally, solving physics assignments.

Jide, only included his physics assignments in their rendezvous because Bimpe hated not having Physics in her life. It was her lifelong preoccupation. When they had started dating in 1987, it was a ménage à trois: Jide-Physics-Bimpe.

He didn’t mind the route though, so long as it brought him close to Bimpe; and marriage in 1992 after she completed her PhD at Imperial College London was a dream come true. He would however come home, in November 2011 to a sleeping Ayomide, with a handwritten note from Bimpe.

She was off to Mauritius with Souley, short for Souleymane Bako: a tall, lanky, Nigerien thermal geophysicist, her on-and-off boyfriend before she began dating Akinjide. He was a nerd and a sports car lover who according to rumours that Jide desperately dismissed, had rekindled his romance with Bimpe while she was at ICL.

Jide had tried to make sense of his new situation: what to do with a nine-month-old Ayomide: vivacious and full of energy, constantly knocking things over but with no real trouble, and a nagging question: Why did Bimpe leave me?

Bimpe or Adebimpe Adetunji was an adopted child of two Baptist missionaries who had settled in Yamoussoukro and became very rich cement and textile merchants. She was adopted into money, incredibly brilliant and although steeped in Christianity and its doctrines, irreverent and a freethinker. She had no real loyalties. She was only in love with two things: Physics and Theatre Arts.

They had discussed children while dating and Bimpe had said “I hate children, they’re tiny little creatures that women have and disfigure their physique but more importantly in their dependence, they take away careers, lives and sexual activities of their parents. I never want children”, to a look of horror and alarm on Akinjide’s face.

She was however jubilant when she discovered she was pregnant with Ayomide and painstakingly followed all the doctor’s instructions including reducing her daily exertions: she ran 3km every day and never really sat in a place for more than an hour.

Akinjide reminded himself that in one of their discussions while dating she had said:

“Marriage is a trap. Women give away their freedoms, personalities and authority and subjugate themselves to a man, a common human like them. A relationship should have equal authority and equal responsibilities. I never want to be married!”

This recollection had Akinjide’s face deeply furrowed, he wondered to himself “If she didn’t want marriage and children, why in God’s green earth did this crazy Cameroonian cat get herself hitched and heavy?”.

With a bit of a grimace on his crinkled brows, he let out a deep sigh only to find a pair of green eyes looking at him like an Englishman would a sickly cat he loved.

« Est-ce que tout va bien ? Pouvons-nous avoir cette minute maintenant? »

« Oui, oui. Bien sûr. Ici dans mon bureau ou à la cantine du personnel ? »

« Non, non. Pas de ceux-là. Trop ouvert. Prenons un repas à la boulangerie française à Bodija, à quinze minutes d’ici. Discret et j’ai une table réservée pour 13h30. »

Momentarily confused, hesitant and then struggling for composure, Dr Akinjide looked at Madame Konnolly as she disappeared, in her neat white gown with “gators”, showing off her pert derriere and he swallowed and wondered “She speaks French? Ou là là !!! What’s this minute about anyway?”

He realized looking sharply at his watch, that it was 1:15 pm, time to get through the afternoon traffic and hopefully make it back in time for his three o’clock appointment.

****************************

Naomi was a precocious child, at 15 years of age, she had already known so much about rocks: their mineral content, core structure, likely weaknesses and structural defects. She was also fascinated by volcanos: those “eruptions from the bowels of the earth that portend the fury of the gods” as she fondly described them.

She wasn’t much of a romantic, which essentially frustrated Nonso: flush with puerile love. He wanted to take her to fortnightly plays at the Arts Theatre and pull her to him while they watched students at various levels in the Theatre Arts department perform, trying to wow the audience but also impress their professors. Since what was entertaining to the audience was basically to these students: coursework.

Naomi knew he loved her but she wasn’t ready for such distractions. She only needed a companion and Nonso, eager to please her, was a ready listener. She would talk to him about her concerns and “unburden” herself of emotions threatening to overflow her deep within. Lately, she had gotten really worried about Amina Lawal, her roommate. She was smart and very “erudite”, tall and long-limbed with a tiny bust and a rather oversized rear. She wasn’t really invested in her academics preferring to attend parties at the Cacao Dome at Dugbe every other night, read novels, cook and sleep. Her other activity involved using her purple vibrator to masturbate severally every night amidst loud moans from the toilet in the en-suite apartment they both shared. They slept in separate rooms but as freshers within the same apartment, Naomi was worried.

Masturbation was not an offence per se according to the university rules but in the hostel or “dorm” as she liked to refer to it, it was a big no-no. Although it was common knowledge that a lot of girls were doing it. Well, the dorm was the “sexual hypocrisy republic” to her, with many girls battling to understand the hormones running within them and the resultant sensations and cravings they felt. Some bold ones asked questions, and others hoped they will so that they could glean answers. Of course, after they had expressed mock surprise and abashment.

Naomi’s worry was however at its peak when she walked into her apartment one cold Thursday morning: after being drenched by the torrential rains which suddenly appeared on her way coming from her Physical Chemistry lectures; to meet Amina’s door ajar and peering in finding her totally naked, ears covered with her big blue Sony headphones watching porn on her Acer netbook and moaning ever so loudly as she bucked in rhythm to the performers on her screen. There was this white creamy thick substance around the three fingers she dipped really deep into her vagina in an inward and outward motion. Naomi’s instinct was to close the door and leave her to her “thing” but as she turned her back to ease her way out, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Amina’s eyes enlarge really wide, then she tensed up, let out a loud scream as more of the thick creamy substance flowed out of her. Then her shoulders sagged and she sank to the bed, motionless, almost paralyzed, eyes tightly shut and then slowly she started to come to and began to look at her surroundings. She met Naomi’s confused and worried look and knew immediately that she had witnessed it all. She was beginning to mouth some explanation and apology, when Naomi put her keys in her door, entered the room and turned on her speakers to let Blu Cantrell bring her back to sanity.

She was angry, hurt, bemused, frustrated, worried and perplexed all at the same time. She queried herself as to the reason for her jumbled emotions. First, it wasn’t unknown to her that Amina masturbated. Amina had even invited her to try “Anna’s sweet massage in your fanny” as a cure for her stuck-up behaviour, an invitation she declined. Secondly, she wasn’t home when Amina must have started her session, hence the door is left ajar. The rest of her jerky, uncontrollable motion which Naomi would later learn to be “ejaculating” or cumming as some preferred to call it, was up to nature. So, why was she even angry?

She would be loath to admit publicly that she wanted to try Anna and experience the likely sensations, although she secretly thought of and imagined it. She was a virgin and her parents were strict Pentecostals. Sex was a forbidden topic for singles, just a marital delicacy for the palates of the initiated.

She was only angry because Amina’s “I-no-send” attitude, was creating a wild impression in the dorm for her room, and with exams looming in a week’s time, she was wondering how Amina, who only had one visitor a week, (the same hoary haired man, called Razak; who she seemed always happy to see and one day admitted to her, was her father) was going to pass; having not gone for most of her lectures more than six times throughout the semester.

Why was she doing this? Thankfully there was no alcohol or drugs in the mix yet.

She discussed with Nonso all these using aliases and creating scenarios. She was ever protective of her roomie and Nonso was a mug; his overzealous desire for her wouldn’t let him think of it as something real happening. He was too doe-eyed for her, for him to think of anything else and Naomi knew it.

For a 15-year-old, Naomi was far advanced emotionally and was already beginning to think of ways to get Amina’s sanity back, then maybe she could show her how to use Anna without it affecting one’s grades: since the foolish girl seemed to ace all her tests and do better than the serious students, the “eficos”.

She would talk to Dr Akinjide in the morning. She had gleaned that Amina’s mother, Mrs Aisha Lawal worked in the University Health Services, although she had never come to see Amina in the hostel.