BURNT OUT V

 

He rounded one last bend before he got to his house and the street lighting there was non-existent so the place was pitch black. It was through the silence and blackness that he heard a sound, much like the whimpering of a hurt child. He headed in the direction of the sound and when he neared it, he found it was a lady. An almost naked lady with only panties and a bra for cover…………………

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It took him just seconds of indecisiveness before he flew into a flurry of activities. He took off the short sleeved shirt he had on, leaving him with a white undershirt beneath. He approached the lady but as he drew closer, the lady cringed away further into the shadows. “Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you. See, I’m just covering you with my shirt, okay.” With that, he draped the shirt around her shoulders. He took of the pants he was wearing next, grateful to whatever had made him put on boxer shorts instead of briefs that evening. It was also lucky that the girl was petite. He acknowledged that it was far preferable that she be too small for his clothes instead of the other way around, which would have proved a real challenge.

“Do you think you can get up and put these on? They are my pants.” She nodded and yet she wouldn’t even raise her head to look at him. He figured she was embarrassed so he gently placed the pants in question by her side and turned around to give her some semblance of privacy. After a while, guessing she would probably be done by then, he turned around to find her head still bowed, albeit she had the pants on now and his shirt all buttoned up.

“I live just a few blocks from here, do you mind if I take you home for the night?” It was the first time she ever looked up at him then and what he saw in her eyes wasn’t fear; it was terror. It gave him a moment’s pause as to what had really happened to her. He thought he had an idea of what it was but refrained from making any speculations. He must be a real monster to confirm those fears she probably had. Since he was no monster, he tried to allay her fears. “Look, you’ll be perfectly safe, I promise. My name is George, you can call me Kwame. What’s yours?” he had no idea why he added the Kwame bit but he didn’t have the luxury of time to find out before she answered his question. “Laura.”

“Laura, that’s a nice name. So Laura, is it okay if I take you home now?” she nodded her acquiescence. “Okay, it’s this way. Follow me.” He led the way, not making any attempt to touch her this time. Before she followed him however, she bent down and picked something from the ground, but he did not ask her what it was.

His house, turned out to be a rented single room apartment amidst others of same. By now, it was midnight and they didn’t see anyone around as they made their way to his door. His room had the furnishings of the struggling graduate he was. He had no bed so the queen-sized mattress was on the carpet-less but tiled floor.  The only appliances he had in the room were his laptop, a tabletop fridge, two speakers which looked like they’d been separated from their ‘home theatre system’ family and an iron. For kitchen appliances, he had a single hot plate burner, a kettle, a blender, two saucepans, two buckets, half a dozen plates and a few bowls, all packed up in a box along with some spoons and knives. Apart from these items, the only other things taking up his room space were a reading table and chair, two suitcases with clothes, and a couple of footwears.

 He told Laura she could go ahead and use his bathroom if she wished and she jumped at the idea. He left the room alone for her but not before he had placed some few necessities he assumed she would need; like a fresh towel, some shorts and T-shirt which looked like they would be more comfortable than what she was wearing, a comb and a tube of Vaseline, on the bed for her. He figured twenty minutes was plenty of time to give her so he stepped out and planned on coming back to the room twenty minutes later. He however, left his phone which he could have used to assess the time in the room and he couldn’t go back inside once he had stepped out so he just resigned himself to waiting the whole situation out. It was while he waited that he remembered he still hadn’t called Esther. He shook his head and knew there was going to be hell to pay in the morning when he finally calls her.

After an estimated thirty minutes, just to be safe, he left his balcony and re-entered his room but just to be extra safe, he knocked first. “Yes, come in.” he heard a timid voice call from within. When he entered, he found that she indeed looked more comfortable in the shorts and T-shirt as he had thought she would. She was sitting on the only chair in the room and she had his pants and shirt which she had worn previously folded neatly on his reading table alongside the comb and Vaseline tube. Now that there seemed to be no other pending activity for any of them to do, the room was filled with a new kind of tension, for before, George had been filled with decisions to make but now that he had executed the plans he had, he was at a loss as to what to do next.

He got up and made for his suitcase to take out two extra sheets. Replacing the folded sheet on his bed with a fresh one, he took the old one and spread it on the floor where he planned to sleep and took one of the pillows on the bed down. While he was doing this, he casually asked Laura whether she lived around and she said no, and that she lived at Kasoa. “Kasoa?” he asked.

 Her story; she was on her way to Tema and since she’d never been there before, she was told by whom ever she was visiting to come to Community 1, BBC. She had chartered a taxi which was to take her all the way from Kaneshie to the place. She had no idea which route led to the place so she just sat in the cab and the next thing she realized, she was being robbed at gunpoint. She was robbed of everything, even the clothes on her back. She said the only thing the robber left her was a single sanitary pad which he took from the whole pack she was carrying, while he left with the rest. A polite robber, he thought to himself angrily.

 They settled in for the night; he sleeping on the sheet on the floor while she used his bed. In the morning, he promised himself; we’ll see what to do. Before he went to sleep, he visited the bathroom to relieve himself. It was after he turned to leave the bathroom that he found the wrapper of what he could only assume to be that of the single sanitary pad Laura had been left with, in the bin. The girl may not know it but her time of the month was probably what just saved her from being raped. At least that is one less thing for her to worry about. He thought to himself.

In the morning, when he called Esther, she was justifiably mad but he managed to smooth things over. Then he asked her to come to his place with a couple of her clothes and some feminine products. She grew incensed and said she had no intentions of spending the night with him. That made him angry. “Contrary to what you might think, not everything is about you or sex, Nana.” He said to her. She would have just gotten angrier had he not had the common sense to tell her a bit of the problem he was faced with. She suddenly grew understanding and helpful when George told her what the problem was.                   

      

 Till next time!

                                 ***************HAPPY NEW YEAR*************   

BURNT OUT IV

                                                             

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The inside of the bus could easily be likened to the mouth of a teething infant. The bus was empty except for the front seats that had two men occupying them, plus the driver. The mate occupied the back alone. As George made to board, the mate asked in Pidgin, “Massa, but why? Ibi here wey e come chop love?” one could not really determine whether the mate said this out of jealousy or something else. In about five minutes, the bus pulled up at Coastal and George made his way on the dirt road towards his home. His home was a bit of a distance yet from the junction and he welcomed the walk. In fact, he needed the walk. His thoughts deliberately wandered on a variety of things, while he made a conscious effort to keep his unholy thoughts about Esther at bay. That last bit about him spending the night at her place had just been by the way. He knew she would never go for it and it had gone exactly as he’d expected. Still, a guy could dream, couldn’t he?

Esther and he had taken a course, actually, two courses, Statistics 1&2, together in their freshman year at the University. He had spent a whole year, well, two semesters admiring her from afar and never gathered up the courage to talk to her. She has such a striking resemblance to one famous TV star; Nana Aba Anamoah of TV3 fame.

The first time they had a conversation was five years ago. They had finished with their last Stats. 2 lecture and were walking out of the lecture hall when her phone fell. The phone disintegrated into three parts; the phone, its battery and its cover. She reassembled everything and switched it back on. On doing so, she had to reset the date and time. As fate would have it, he was the nearest to her at that moment and she asked him of the time. That moment still features as a memorable one in his life.

“Hi, I’m George. George Oppong.” He said, all the while trying to be cool. She smiled and said,

“And I am Esther Amponsah.” “I know.” He said and almost kicked himself for revealing that bit of info. “We took Stats. 1 last Sem. too.” He continued.

“I know. I remember you. You are the guy who almost gave the lecturer an apoplexy every time you opened your mouth to talk.” She said amidst laughter. “Didn’t that attitude cost you a good grade? With the lecturer, I mean.”

“Naah, Dr. Osei is pretty cool. I like him.” By now, they had been walking comfortably towards the business centre of campus.

“You know, you have such a striking resemblance to Nana Aba Anamoah of TV3?”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” But she didn’t sound flattered with the compliment, instead, she sounded bored. Sometime later after they’d become friends and he had nicknamed her, Nana Aba, she had gotten angry and said she didn’t like the name. She didn’t like the idea of walking in the shadow of a celebrity her whole life and that she wanted people to know and like her for her and not because she looks like some TV star. So he had settled for simply calling her Nana ever since.

That first time they talked, he had forgotten to ask for her number and it was a dumb move he paid for dearly with the incessant teasing he received from his friends. That was the last time he shared anything with his friends, ever, about Nana. Not like the other girls though. Yes, there were other girls in his life but Nana is the only one he liked or loved that much. She was the only one he wouldn’t share.

The next time he saw her after that was a month later when they were writing the Stats. 2 exam. After the paper, he had hung around furtively searching the female faces to catch a glimpse of her. He did finally see her and after the awkward first moments of a second meeting, he had asked for her number. Since they were both without their cell phones then, she had taken out her pen and written her number on his palm, just like many a Hollywood movie had portrayed. George still refused to think about what that single act did to his body physically. It was a real Hollywood moment. Esther, about a year later when they’d started dating; for they had stayed friends for months before he asked that they be more, had confessed she always dreamed of writing her number on the palm of a guy she liked. Anyway, he in turn had written his on hers.

They have been star-crossed lovers ever since. The only thing un-star-crossed about them was this whole chastity thing Esther had going on, but he had learned to live with it, or at least she thinks he has.

He rounded one last bend before he got to his house and the street lighting there was non-existent so the place was pitch black. It was through the silence and blackness that he heard a sound, much like the whimpering of a hurt child. He headed in the direction of the sound and when he neared it, he found it was a lady. An almost naked lady with only panties and a bra for cover…………………..  

      

                            Hope you love reading them as much as I love writing them.

                                 ***************HAPPY NEW YEAR*************