She plans to kill me

Foes to friends

“ You know I am a Monotheist, and Monotheism means peace.” She did not touch the right hand like she did when they were kids, she just pointed.

They laughed.

“ Look at you, you have grown big, har da gemu(you have grown beards) .” She said and chuckled. He did not miss the brightness of her eyes, the hallow white teeth, the long black silky hair, and the dimple that formed as she smiled.

“ You haven’t lost your mouth.” I giggled, “ I love you and will marry you.”

“ If I start crying here enhh.”

They laughed recalling what happened then.

“ This is Safina and that is Jamila, …..and this is Danny.I will gist you guys about him when  we get back. He used to bully me.”

“ Is that the choose a fist thing you guys just did?” Safina asked.

Fateemah told them what happened that day, including how she moved far ,insulted him and ran away. They all laughed. When she said he was a bully, he remembered what just happened to him. It was like her childhood prayers that was answered. He got real bullied today. Snatched all his valuables then asked a boy to slap him six times. Phew!

“ Are you here?” she asked.

“ Yeah. Second year ,chemical eng.”

“ Interesting. I just got admitted into hundred level, Pharmacy. Jamila is studying Law and Safina, Accounting.”

“ You girls are  welcome to UJ.”

“ Thank you. How is Denny, the cool one,Hajiya, the sweet mom who compensated me with that historic slap and dad?”

“ That slap cost you a lot though,”He chuckled, “ Denny is here, Mechanical. Hajiya is good but we lost dad, three years ago.”

“ Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un. May God forgive him and grant him aljannah firdaus.”

“ Ameen.” Danny and her friends answered.

“ What happened, you guys just disappeared?”

“ Yeah, you know dad was working with SSS and he got transferred so we had to move out. We moved to Ibadan but we are now based in Abuja.”

“ Wao! I wondered for long….oh, talk about the devil……”

Denny appeared and Fateemah’s friends were astonished. When She asked after Denny, they never knew he was his twin. Damn! They were so identical.

After salutations, Danny asked Denny, “do you recognise this girl?”Denny had looked at her again then his face split into a grin, “ SubahanGod! Fateemah,your best friend.

“ You got it,bro.”

“ It’s been a while. How are you?” Denny  asked.

They had a chit-chat for a while and as usual, the new intakes complaint of the hectic registration process, accommodation and the old students were like, they know how it was but something can be done. They could assist and who was more willing than Danny who just found a lost-but-found girl?

The girls visited Danny the next day after he described their residence. They did not live in the Student’s village around Ring Road but rented a one-room apartment in Ungwan Rogo, behind Bauchi Park.

The room was large with a short corridor and toilet. There was not kitchenette. They had a big mattress which was laid on the floor. The floor was covered with thick blue carpet.

There was a bookshelf leaning on the wall, a cloth-closet, then a big wooden wardrobe like structure. A reading table and chair by another corner. On the wall was pictures of ODB, R-Kelly, Lil Kim and Jay-Z.

On a gadget stand was a 14-inch Sharp TV ,a SONY VCD player which was connected to a CD audio player.

There was no sofa in the room so the girls sat on the carpet.

“ You are welcome to our palace.” Danny said, putting up his best gentlemanly act. Denny was sitting on the edge of the mattress.

“ Thank you. This place is nice.” Safina said.

“ Thank you.” Danny replied.

“ Who is the elder among you?” Jamila asked.

“ I am.” The twins said in unison.

“ What?” Safina wondered.

“ Bakada kunya, Denny(you are disrespectful) . Mom made sure we had good upbringing but you seems to derail.” Danny said, “what were we taught about respect for elders?”

“ It’s not your fault Danny," said Denny, “ I chose to condescend and play with you but it seems that gesture has become a causative factor for disrespect. When did we become age mates?”

Danny  turned at the girls, “don’t mind him. I am the elder brother. I was born before him. Minutes fa, wasa ne?”

“ Can you see why there is an Hausa aphorism that says what an old man sees lying down, a child would not see it even when at the peak of a tree.  You think you are older because you came to the world a few minutes before me. We were in the womb, where we did not need to hustle to eat and drink, we had all the peace we wanted, enclosed but not claustrophobic, and suddenly we are told to move into the world. Being the elder and the wisest, I sent you, my younger brother to check, what was the world like. I  should have gone myself if I knew it was going to turn out like this.”

They watched movies  while they drank soft drinks before food was served. A well cooked rice, sauce stashed with beef. The food was so delicious Safina was forced to ask, “  did you cook this?”

“ Cook? “ Danny replied quickly, “ I don’t have time for cooking though. You know, the stress, time and all that.”

“ How do you feed?’ Jamila asked.

“ Contract. We sealed a deal with a restaurant so they provide food twice a day, lunch and dinner. We handle breakfast.”

“ Don’t you think cooking is more economical?” Fateemah said.

“ It is but you know…it’s just the stress.”

“It is because you got the money though.”

They were watching a movie when a small boy knocked and said, “ Brother, my mama say make collect her big pot?”

“ Dapo, wait for me outside.” Danny reposted quickly.

“ My mama say make you give me her pot she wan cook. The pot wey you borrow say you get visitors so your small pot no go do.”

“ Dapo….’

“ Brother you too dey forget. The time wey you send me go grind tomato for your customer place…..’

“ Okay, just wait.” Danny said. Denny fought the urge to burst into laughter. Ramin qarya……..

Danny got up, went to the big cupboard and opened it where their cooking paraphernalia was stashed. Plates, pots, food stuff, stove, hot-plate, etcetera was there. He simply removed the pot and gave it to the boy.

See yawwa!

“ Yes, I know I said we don’t cook,” he said in a face saving attempt, “ I was just trying to be humble. If I had confessed to cooking the food, you girls might have started crushing on me and may  be fight over me. Which girl does not like a good cook for a husband?”

The girls chuckled.

“ Wash.” Fateemah said and chuckled. “ but you sure do know how to cook.”

“ I got my diploma from mum, then went for advanced studies with grand ma where you learn to cook with local seasoning, daddawa, and natural preservatives.”He lied. He did not know how to cook. It was Denny who knew how to cook.

The girls left in the evening and Danny went to the hostel to check on Fateemah in the evening.

There was plans to look for a two room self-contained apartment for them so they could have their accommodation. Meanwhile, they squatted in hostels.

The next day, Danny assisted her through her registration processes, making a lot easier and faster for her. They had lunch together and in the evening, he went to see her.

A chemistry was synthesising. And they could feel it. They had not said anything about it, but it was the first time Danny was having this kind of feeling.

As they strolled slowly along Ring Road in the evening, Danny felt so sure he was in need of this girl.

“ Did you know that after you guys left, I spent months passing through your house just to see if I would see you?”

“ Hmm..hmm.”

“ I used to deceive myself that I wanted to fight you but….I kept hoping I would see you again.”

“ Awwwnn. Irony.” She giggled. “ I never forgot you myself. I have a cousin called Danny. I always remembered you and sometimes I would wonder what you looked like, where you were and just things in my head.”

“ I always knew you were beautiful and was going to grow into a beautiful woman.”

“ Even when you glared at me?”“I did not know love then but I knew you were cool.”

“ And what if your girlfriend starts getting suspicious? We kind of spend a lot of time together and …..”

“ And who told you that I have not been subconsciously waiting for you?”

“You don’t have a girlfriend?”

“ I hope I am about to have now if she would accept me .I had a thing with one or two girls but it's just ….do I say not a serious relationship ? Trying to see your guys see you with a girl and all that child stuff but talking about the real deal, like thinking of having her as a wife in just two hundred level, no.”

“ Did you just say marry?”

“ Why else would I have a girlfriend? “

“ I hope this girl you are talking about is not me.”

“ What if it happens to be you?”

“You are flirting with me.”

“ I am in love with you.”

That was heavy.

“ Danny.”

“ I am sure Teetee. I just need you in my life right now, later and forever.”

“ Has it crossed your mind that I have a boyfriend?”

“It has and it comes with pain and fear but I am willing to fight for you. I lost you once, I would not like to lose you again. Take my heart, Teetee, it is in your care, do whatever you wish with it.”

“ You know I won’t hurt you. But I don’t know if I can keep your heart safe.”

“ Just the few days we have been together has given my life a new dimension. Your effect on me has that je ne sais quoi that distinguishes  pure love from infatuation. From a scalar quantity to vector quantity, now I got specific direction.

You accentuate my fecundity potentials. Like a filter to the air I breath, you make me pure. You are that dream that I want to realise, you are that prize that is priceless and I want to win. I don’t deserve you but I beg for privilege.

But if I don’t ignite that sputtering love sparks in you, if you don’t find me attached to your ruminative mood, or feel abhorrent when my image display, then pray for me because only divine help can make me stop loving you, Teetee.”

“ I am helpless and scared. I hope you will not leave me in the middle of the ocean, where all water is salt and no land is seen. I hope you will have this fragile poor girl close to your heart .”

“ I will not have you close to my heart…I will have you deep inside my heart.”

“ I will tell mom about you. She needs to know that I have found love.”

“I want to tell the whole world about you and hand a placard over my neck: not available.”

She chuckled.

“ I am happy .”

He clenched his hands.

“ Peace or fight?”

“ You know I am a Monotheist. Monotheism means peace.”

She pointed at the right fist.

In a black Mercedes Benz 190 sat a lady under the wheel. She chewed bubble gum ,making blasting sound as she inflated and burst the gum. She raised her Siemens phone and dialled a number.

“ He  has a twin brother.” She said ,” and he is getting more intimate with the girl. Yahanas is cast and the mould fits in. It a green. It is a go.”

“ Hmmm…” A thick voice said from the other end. “ He will do it, you think?”

“ With the plans on ground, he will have no choice. Trust your babe, it’s Jezebel.”

“ I trust you. I want results.”

“ You will have results.”

The call ended, she lit a cigarette and blew smoke inside the car   while she stared at Danny and his new found young love. They looked so happy. She loved it that way. Destroying it at happy time. It is called schadenfreude.

She put on the car engine and set the car on the road, driving past them while they were completely oblivious of the devil in the car.