Oh! My home… 😍
This is a completely fictional series. However, it is inspired by actual events occurring daily in my country, Nigeria. The goal is to tell the everyday Nigerian story, and in doing so, inspire more and more of us to thank God for, pray for and work hard to build an excellent Nation.
This is the second entry.
I’m in love with girls who like to party,
drink Bacardi straight and talk about star signs…
3rd January, 2019.
My very good friend, Ebuka, got married a few days ago: on 30th December. The wedding ceremony took place at his hometown, so we all decided to stay back for a few days and have some “village fun”. I’m also from Anambra state but this was my first time in Ezinifite so I was looking forward to what it had to offer.
New year’s day was pretty chilled. His mum insisted we all “crossover” with the new couple in church. As she put it, “as a newly wedded couple, if you enter into a new year with God, he will never leave that home”. As the clock struck 12, after the pastor shared the grace and kids started playing with fire crackers, we headed for a bar where we washed down the very spicy bush meat with jugs of palm wine while gyrating to the live band till morning. It was fun.
However, everyone said the real fun would be today, the 3rd. It is the day of the Ezenifite Masquerade festival, slated to take place at Elugwu-Awor village. Around noon, my Gees and I drove down to Elugwu-Awor for the festival. We parked a safe distance away and walked down to the the square where the colorful displays by the masquerades were to take place. As we walked down, masquerades, with long whips, were chasing little kids and pretty ladies, who giggled with seeming excitement as they ran to avoid being whipped. From time to time, someone was whipped, hard! and immediately, all excitement fled from their face.
To avoid all that drama, we tipped the masquerade handlers to keep the masquerades’ whips away from us. I was still pondering how these kids and ladies found fun in all the drama when a group of giggling girls ran towards us. As soon as they got close to us, the masquerade handler gestured towards his masquerade who immediately turned away from them/us with his whip. Immediately, my attention was drawn towards one of the girls in the group. She’s really pretty but was the only one of them not wearing make up and was sporting her hair natural, styled in a big bun atop her head. She also seemed as new to all this as I was because she didn’t giggle as much and kept looking around, over her shoulders and at her friends, as if she expected a long whip to come cracking down at any moment.
“I think you’ll be fine if you walk with us” I whispered to her
Startled, she turned to me, I could swear she was blushing, but her dark skin meant there was no pink “That’s what they said” she replied, motioning towards her friends.
“Seems you’re just as new to this as I am?” I asked, smiling
“Perhaps, newer” she replied, returning my smile.
‘Pretty and witty. I stan!’ I thought to myself
“My name is Chike” I said, offering my right hand for a shake
“Oh, I have a close friend named Chike, my name is Joy” she accepted my handshake, smiling.
“Oh, cool! Does he like parties as well”
She ignored me. “What do you have in your flask?” she asked, smirking a little
“Bacardi, straight…” I replied. I’m sure I had a smug look on my face “… do you care for some?” I continued
“No, thanks. I don’t mind Bacardi, but I definitely mind sharing your flask” she replied.
‘I like her. I love her confidence and candour’ I thought to myself. But I still had some untested hypotheses.
I’m in love with girls who like to party, drink Bacardi straight and talk about star signs…
“So you can drink Bacardi straight?” I continued
“I prefer it with coke, but yea, I can take it straight”
1 down, 2 to go.
While we were talking, I didn’t even notice we had reached the square for the masquerade show. It was a beautiful performance, very colorful. There were all kinds of masquerades: the unusually tall, unusually tiny, one that could jump as high as a storey building, the unusually huge (rumored to be housing about 10 men), the extremely bright colored, the very dull looking, there were so many of them. It was a beautiful experience.
After the show, as we waved our goodbyes, I abruptly turned to Joy and asked: “when were you born?”
“Huh?” she seemed confused
“I mean when is your birthday?”
“I know what you mean but I don’t understand why that matters”
“Oh, I just want to know your star sign is all. I’m big on astrology”
“Oh! Alright, I’m Aries. How about you?”
“I’m Gemini. One of the fun, witty ones” I replied smiling.
“emotionless, risk takers you mean?”
“Wow! You know your star signs”
“I know lots of things…” she replied, teasingly, as she walked away with her friends.
After sashaying for a short distance, she turned back, smiled at me and swung back around to continue chatting with her friends. That was when I noticed that I had been staring.
My friends were chatting happily about the masquerade show we just saw and trying to decide where we should spend the rest of the night but all I could think of was when she said “I know lots of things”, the way she said it…
I’m in love with girls who like to party, drink Bacardi straight and talk about star signs…
Oops! I never really confirmed if she indeed liked to party. ‘I can always find that out later…’ I was beginning to think to myself when it dawned on me that I never collected her number. I looked in the direction they went but all I could see was the way she smiled at me when she turned back and the swing of her waist as she walked away with her friends, all in my mind’s eye. However, my actual eyes only saw people walking about in different directions, talking and laughing, but no Joy.
‘You’re an idiot! Chike’ I chided myself as I joined my friends who were heading to a bar for isi-ewu (goat head pepper soup) and beer. The whole time, I couldn’t get Joy out of my mind.
When we got home, while my friends were still chatting and laughing, I went into the room, plugged in my earphones and put “Star signs” by Odunsi (The Engine) ft. Runtown on repeat until I slept off.
I guess she’s the one that got away.
I’m in love with girls who like to party, drink Bacardi straight and talk about star signs…
