Hmmmm, we got to the bathroom oo, and what happened there is better left unsaid. The summary of the whole matter is that I was bathed by those two witches who used hard brushes to scrub my body as though I was infected with the deadliest skin disease they didn’t want me to transfer to Mr. Chang. I felt so bad because I couldn’t even give one of them a slap. They were just so good at dodging them. All I could do was frown and get angry with everyone, especially Cynthia for allowing me to go through that. Must I meet Mr. Chang?
After 30 minutes I was out of there looking as shy as a bush man who just encountered humans for the first time. Cynthia came to my room to take me to Mr. Chang. I couldn’t look her in the eye due to what just happened, and she made fun of it.
‘It must have felt pretty cool being bathed by ladies’ Cynthia said. I didn’t say anything in response. ‘Hey, are you angry with me? You know it wasn’t intentional. It’s just a norm here. Come on, snap out of that mood. We need to go see Chang. How I wish I can have that done to me by some cute Chinese guys’.
‘You can if you want’ I retorted. ‘There are couple of them who’ll be more than willing to help you out’.
‘I prefer you to them’ she said carelessly. ‘I’ll be back in a little bit. Get dressed.’ She said and left the room. A short while later she came back and we left to see Chang.
Chang welcomed me like I was a distant relation who just got back after so many years away and I wondered why. I wasn’t even introduced to him anymore. It seemed like he already knew all there was to know about me. Even Cynthia was surprised at that. Chang dismissed Cynthia and those who were with him, leaving just both of us.
‘How are you doing young man’ Change asked.
‘I’m doing great’ I replied.
‘Enjoying the party?’ he asked again.
‘Pretty much’, I replied.
‘You have an edifice here. I almost mistook it for a hotel’. Chang laughed and we kept exchanging pleasantries for some minutes before he started letting me in on his success story. It was almost like mine, but not exactly. He fell in love with a girl from the same background as his, back then. The girl took advantage of the free education scheme that popped up then and performed excellently. She was later awarded a scholarship due to her excellent performance.
Chang said he was struggling to keep his family going as he was the breadwinner of the family. He hoped that things will turn around soon enough so that he could pursue his dreams of owning a martial arts academy as he was a master of martial arts. But things changed when the girl he fell in love with came back and told him she was pregnant. He was happy about the news, but the girl wasn’t. She suggested an abortion but Chang objected. Problems began and they later agreed to give birth to the child and let Chang have her while she went ahead to marry a Chinese billionaire who promised her heaven and earth.
According to Chang, the man she ended up marrying took excellent care of her to a point where he, Chang began to wonder if he would have taken that much care of her.
Lin was the product of their union, and Chang had not remarried after then because he lost fate in women and resorted to what Nigerians refer to as flexing. The truth remained that he didn’t want his daughter to have any of such experiences, so he called on me to help him out.
How was I supposed to help him? I thought to myself. The man didn’t even know me. What even made him think I could help him? So many questions popped in my head and I got really confused. Chang said to me;
‘I’ve known you before now’. I asked how, and he told me Cynthia is a really good friend to Lin. He said they had been discussing about me on phone and Cynthia mentioned that I was a respectable man.
‘She told Lin you weren’t like a lot of the other guys she had come across’ Chang said. She also said you’re not forward and can barely express yourself before women. She said you’re not a flirt, and all that. She even said that judging from your actions around her, she dared to believe you’re a virgin’. Chai!! Cynthia don finish me!
After saying all these things he laughed. I was already feeling embarrassed because of those things he said Cynthia told Lin. I couldn’t wait to leave that place to see Cynthia and unleash hell upon her. I controlled myself and pretended like I wasn’t bothered by any of those details. But then I asked him why he laughed, and he said;
‘I heard your name is Jesusboy’
‘That’s correct Mr. Chang. Does it sound funny?’
‘Not exactly. Just the boy part of the name. It goes a long way to confirm all Cynthia told Lin about you. Never mind, I’m okay with that. I love boys. I just wish every man would add boy to their names if that would make them be of good behavior’.
I couldn’t take it anymore being seen as an innocent naïve boy, so I spoke out.
‘You see, Mr. Chang, Cynthia doesn’t know me that much. All she told your daughter are just what she thinks I am. I’m not saying I’m a bad person, but I’m not exactly all she said I was. Especially the part she said I can’t express myself before women. Those are just speculations not facts. So please make no judgments based on her insinuations.’ If you think of me as the best of councilor due to those things you heard, you might be mistaken. Nevertheless I’ll help you in the best way I can’
‘Definitely you will’ he replied confidently.
‘What do you want me to do for you, Mr. Chang?’
‘With much hard work I have acquired a lot of wealth which I will have to leave behind for my daughter when I’m gone. I don’t trust these guys that keep hanging around her. They’re all gold diggers. I don’t want my daughter to end up with any of them. Boy, I want you to marry my daughter. That way I’ll die knowing my daughter and wealth are in safe hands’
‘What?’ I replied almost screaming.
‘Come on boy, quit the drama. You might be a nice guy, but you need money and a good girl for a wife. All these I offer you today and it will be my pleasure if you take them’
I was short of words, and my entire mind was greatly troubled. I didn’t know what to say to him. I kept rolling my eyes round and round until Chang’s priest came in and told him it was time to make prayers to Buddha. He told me he was going to converse with me again soon. I said okay and thanked him, and he left. Obviously, I had a lot to meditate on.
I went out and joined the party. The two girls I was with before Cynthia came to take me away rushed to me the very moment they saw me back at the party scene. But I dismissed them because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to engage them in the conversation they required. I sat at a dark corner viewing all that was going on. Cynthia was dancing with virtually everyone who was on the dance floor. She really loved dancing, as much as she knew how to.
All the while I sat there analyzing Lin over and over again to see if she matched my kind of girl. Even if I agreed to marry Lin, I would be assassinated before long. There were lineup of guys plotting their way to that girl’s fortune, and I would just come in from Africa and shut them out? No nah, they definitely wouldn’t take it lightly with me. But that was sure not to happen, or was it?
It got pretty late and I started feeling sleepy. Cynthia obviously wasn’t going to retire anytime soon, so I didn’t bother saying a word to her before I went to my room to sleep. My soul had almost transported itself to another realm when Cynthia called it back as she burst into my room with an orange transparent night gown which was designed to reveal whatever hid beneath it. She shut the door behind her, leaned on it and stood there staring at me with a dangerous grin. And then she started moving towards me in the same way and manner the Indian ladies do when trying to impress their husbands on their wedding night.
It was clear to me that all was not well because she wasn’t an Indian girl, and that definitely wasn’t a wedding night, let alone being ours. Unlike me, I was unable to figure out what to do to avert the situation before it got out of hand. I just lay on my bed watching Cynthia perform to no music. Her moves were so captivating that I lost the power and will to do anything more than lay still and take what was coming. She drew nearer and nearer stylishly until she got to the edge of the bed I lay on, knelt on it, and then GBAM!
To be continued.
