Virus (2 page)

With a deep sigh, he ducked into the
bathroom. It took him less than five minutes to bath. Dressing took
even less time. His mother ever efficient had laid out his clothes.
His uniform was starched and ironed. On the verge of rushing into
the sitting room, he quickly remembered that he had not brushed his
teeth. He briefly considered not brushing his teeth but discarded
that thought almost as soon as it came. His mouth always felt
terrible if he did not brush.

When he was done, he headed to the
sitting room. A thrill of fear stole into his heart when his eyes
settled on the tall imposing figure of his father seated at the
dinning table.

A frown quickly replaced his
troubled look. He thought his father ought to have left. He usually
left before he was up in the mornings. ‘Well he is still here as
you can see.’ A sardonic voice in his subconscious
growled.

His father’s disapproving stare was
fixed on his face. Not one word left his lips as Chike sauntered
over to the dinning table. His silence was not surprising. He never
said much. His father was someone who preferred to act rather than
speak. Oftentimes that acting usually involved a spanking. He
didn’t seem that keen on giving him a spanking now or was he merely
clutching at straws? With his father, it was usually hard to
tell.

A half second after he thought this
his father spoke. His voice came so suddenly that he jumped
startled only just realizing that he had been standing beside his
chair without attempting to sit down.

“You no go sit down?” His father
barked out in Pidgin English. He shuddered. Whenever his father
spoke in Pidgin, it usually spelt trouble. He slid onto his chair
staring at the food on his plate as if he entranced by it. The rich
delicious scent of Jollof rice and chicken wafted into his nostrils
making his mouth water. By the gods, his mother sure knew how to
cook. His father provided the means for her to exploit and explore
that talent.

His father was a big car spare parts
dealer. Maybe even the biggest in Oraromi (town where they reside).
His mother most certainly seemed to think so. He however was not so
sure, neither did he want to analyze his thoughts on the subject
too deeply.

He darted a glance at his father and
saw his hard disapproving stare still fixed on him. He took a deep
breath and began eating. Only then, did his father’s hard gaze
leave his face and return to his food. The silence that enshrouded
the table was cold and unnerving.

Alaba and Joke (Pronounced
Jor-ke)

He was still, watching her chest
rise and fall as she slept. She looked breathtakingly beautiful as
she slept. She always did. He liked watching her sleep, which was
one of the few things he did with every fiber of his being. He
spent many a night watching her, just as he was doing now. He
doubted she knew he did it. If she did, she would probably have
chastised him, saying she was robbing him of his beauty
sleep.

Secretly though, he knew she would
be pleased. A small smile lifted the corners of his lips making his
early morning stubble covered jaw seem less hard. He studied her
face. He knew every inch of its exquisite and near perfect surface.
Every line, every curve, the soft fullness of her lips was as
familiar to him as his own face. Her eyes were closed but he knew
the grayish brown pupils that lurked beneath those gorgeous
lids.

She had eyes that mesmerized. That
drew you in. Eyes of perfection, pleasantness and understanding;
eyes that made you feel you were no longer alone and even if you
were you would no longer be.

She was everything to him and more.
His gaze traveled down her sleek sensual body, covered in a pink
nightgown that reached only halfway down her thighs. His roaming
gaze came to rest on the bulge in her belly. His left arm moved,
slow, suddenly as if it moved of its own volition. His open palm
came to rest on top of the bulge. Immediately, as if on cue he felt
the baby kick.

His breath caught in his throat.
That singular thing never ceased to amaze him, no matter how many
times he felt and experienced it. The wonder of it almost, always
blew him away; the miracle that was growing every second, every
minute in his soul mate’s body.

His child! Their child!! It was
their first. As these thoughts flashed through his mind, a sense of
unworthiness and incapability filled him. He was not sure he had
what it took to be a good father and better husband.

‘You’ve managed just fine thus far
and Joke sure hadn’t been complaining.’ A soft voice in his head
reminded him. A frown roughened his brow at that. The voice in his
subconscious or was it his head always had a sardonic/sarcastic
quality about it. Almost as if, it was permanently mocking
him.

He shook his head to clear it of his
errant thoughts. As usual, sadness flooded his insides as he did
this. He could not help wishing he could do more for her. His gaze
flitted across the walls of the tiny room they were in. It’s
stained faded blue walls never ceased to infuriate him.

The apartment was what they called a
self-contained unit. It had a sitting room, a bedroom, a toilet and
a bath. The kitchen was a communal kind of thing. The six of such
apartments that were in this building used the same kitchen. He
wished more than anything on earth that he could move them to a
bigger place, especially with the baby coming.

If he could get a two-bedroom
apartment, one room for them and the other for guests, until the
baby was old enough to stay on its own. However, he could not
afford it. Being a geography teacher in a second rate secondary
school in a town as small and insignificant as Oraromi did not
offer you that many high paying job options.

He realized that he had been
extremely lucky to get the job he had. There were literally
thousands of jobless graduates roaming around on the Nigerian
streets. He did not have to look that far to find an
example.

Joke was one of the unlucky jobless
ones. With a degree in Accounting and a master’s degree in
Economics, she was no pushover. Not that he was resting on his oars
either. He had a bachelor’s degree in Geography and a Masters
degree in Educational Administration and Planning. He was also
planning to go even further and get a PHD. That was in whatever
century their finances grew stable enough. With a baby on the way,
he did not see it happening anytime soon.

Another sigh burst from his lips as
soon as he thought this, before he could dwell anymore on that Joke
stirred, her eyes fluttering open slowly. Anger surged on his
insides. There he had gone and done it. Now she was awake. Silly
dolt that he was, he had woken her.

Chapter Four

“What’s wrong?” She asked,
immediately becoming alert when she saw the serious look on his
face.

“Nothing__ just
thinking.”

“Of?” She asked sitting up with some
difficulty. At five and a half months, it was not as easy to move
about as before.

“Just things___.” He replied his
voice low and distant.

“Worrying about money again are
you?” She asked with a, you cannot fool me look on her
face.

He froze. How in the world did she
always know?

“Babe__” She began leaning forward
and running her cool hands over his heated skin. “I have told you
time and time again that you should stop worrying. We will be fine.
We always pull through.”

Her confident words did not reassure
him. He nodded simply to pacify her and managed a wobbly
smile.

“You know what you are my darling?”
She asked leaning closer still and planting her cool lips on his
cheek.

“What?” He asked with his eyes
closed as her lips touched his cheek.

“You are a WORRIER!!!
JEEZ!!!”

A wan smile crept on his face.
Warmth filled his insides and he could feel a bubble of laughter
building. She was a gem. She always knew how to make him feel
better. Joke was the true personification of the word soul
mate.

“We’ll be fine darling. We always
are. Remember what Pastor Silvester said? God will never leave us
or abandon us. He will be with us even to the end of the
earth.”

He sighed and lay back down on the
bed. Those words for some reason brought less comfort than they
usually did. Seeing this Joke sighed and patted him on the stomach.
Her soft pat brought a smile to his face and for that, she was
grateful.

“It is well dear. You best get up.
You don’t want to be late for work do you?”

He nodded and got up immediately. He
did it so quickly that Joke could not help wondering whether he had
just remembered that he had to get to work. Before she had even
finished thinking this he was already in the bathroom. A couple of
seconds later the sound of water running greeted her
ears.

She got up___slowly. It was time to
start preparing breakfast. She did not much relish the thought of
walking down the long staircase to reach the kitchen, but there was
nothing else for it.

Like Alaba, she wished more than
anything that their finances would improve so they could get a
bigger place. Unlike him however, she did not fixate and get
depressed because of it. She believed very much in the saying that
life was in phases and men were in sizes. This was just one of
their low points. She firmly believed that it could only get better
from here on out.

A smug smile lifted the corners of
her near perfect lips. Alaba called her an unrepentant optimist;
whatever that meant. The fact remained that she had been like that
for ages and she did not see that changing anytime soon. With a
weary shrug, she strode to the door of the bedroom, which led into
the tiny sitting room, opening the door of the sitting room she
stepped out into the corridor closing the door firmly behind
her.

Wole strode down a narrow path,
which had tall bushes rising up on either side. Because of the
height of the bushes, it kept most of the path shrouded in gloom.
It was not completely dark though. He could see where he was going,
and since he had walked this path over a hundred times, he knew he
could find his way even in the dark.

The path went on for another couple
of kilometers ending at the main road. This road was the major
conduit for traffic and it ran through all of Oraromi. His commute
to school would include a four-kilometer trek along the road before
turning off and going down another path.

Another five or ten minutes walking
through some thick bushes would lead him to the front gates of the
school. Some people were of the opinion that the trek was long but
to him it was not. In fact, he enjoyed the walk. It afforded him
the opportunity to think, especially in this first stage of the
journey.

Today like most days when he walked,
his thoughts fixed on his strange dream. When the dreams first
started, he felt it was a one off thing. Now it had been coming
more frequently. So much so now, that sometimes there was barely
two days interval between each dream. What did the damn dream mean?
The flying and then suddenly plummeting; was it to his death? He
had no idea.

The falling scared the hell out of
him. He kept getting closer and closer to the ground in each dream.
It would not be long before he struck the earth.

His troubled thoughts came to a
swift halt when he realized that he had almost reached the road.
Two shapes stood at the point where the path joined the road,
almost hidden from view by a thick cluster of plantain leaves. A
small smile curved his lips.

Tunrayo and Chike stepped out from
under the shroud of plantain trees. They both had broad grins on
their faces.

“You are late!!”Tunrayo said still
smiling. Her face seemed to glow in the early morning light. Her
orange pinafore and white cotton blouse fitted her perfectly. The
socks and sandals she had on sparkled polished to a bright hue. Her
long hair tied into a bun at the back of her head.

The school allowed the girls in the
senior classes to plait their hair. Tunrayo however never did. When
asked about it, she said her mother did not want plaiting her hair.
Wole did not really believe that story.

“How long have you guys been here?”
He asked smiling at the two of them.

“I got here first__obviously__.”
Tunrayo began grinning like a Cheshire cat. “__ Chike got here
about ten minutes later.”

Chike walked up to him at that
moment and smacked him on the shoulder. Wole jumped
startled.

“You better lets get going__ you
latecomer.”

“So just because you HAPPENED to get
here before me today you are posing and making Ako* bah?”
*Bragging, strutting, pride.

“I will be here before you
tomorrow__ you wait and see.”

“Is that a challenge?” You are so
on__”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Wole asked in a sardonic voice. “I will win and you know it. I am
sure the only reason you got here this early was cos your mother
took a cane to your behind.”

“Na you sabi!!” Chike growled
striding away. Wole and Tunrayo burst into laughter and followed
suit walking towards the school.