Then I turned again towards Ogechi for the last time and said; I LOVE YOU TOO, but I have to go. I hurried back into the
plane.
The doors were closed and the flight took
off. I could see her weeping through the
window. The girls she flew in with tried to
calm her down but she was still weeping till
the flight was far in the sky and she was
out of sight. I sat back in the plane
thinking of the many other things I could
have done. I wasn’t sure if I had made the
right choice yet. Onye was so surprise at
me that he couldn’t say anything. After a
while he tapped me and asked;
‘Guy, what was that all about? What kind of
drama did you just act with that singer out
there? Do you know her or something?
‘Mehn, that girl out there is my girl.
(Amazed) ‘What? Oge, your girl? You’ve got
to be kidding me. How can she be your girl
when she has been abroad all the while?
And you never even mentioned it to me?
Mehn, say something else.
I started narrating to Onye how I met
Ogechi and everything that went on between
us until she traveled for abroad. I hadn’t
said a word about Ogechi to Onye before
now. It was quite a touching story to him. I
asked what he would have done if he were
in my position. He told me not to ask him
such questions since he wasn’t the one in
my position. Hours later we landed at the
United States airport. Onye’s cousin was
already there waiting to receive us. She
identified us and led us to her black land
cruiser jeep with alloy wheels. We hopped
in and she drove us straight home. Her
house was like the WHITE HOUSE I had
seen in Hollywood movies. She showed us
round the house and introduced us to her
cooks and cleaners. I was so happy to have
finally travelled to the United States. My
room was like heaven. Everything in it was
white, and I feared I wasn’t going to
maintain it that way while I stayed. And
that could cause some sort of problems
between I and Onye’s cousin. Then I
remembered she had cleaners there. I was
relieved. I jumped on the broad bed with my
shoes on and lay there thanking God for the
turnout of things. Shortly after, Ogechi
crossed my mind. I called her, but she
didn’t pick up my calls. That continued for
days, and at a point I was upset with her. I
never did that to her, even when she left
for the US. I simply understood it was
something she had to do. Why wouldn’t she
also understand that I needed to do what I
did? I even promised to visit more often
because of her, yet she refused to pick up
my calls. After a while of contacting her
without response, I stopped.
Onye’s cousin, whose name was Cynthia,
was overly nice to me. I wanted to begin
my Masters’ Degree program at once so
that I could be through soon enough and
return to Ogechi full time before one smart
guy made away with her heart. But instead
of helping speed up the process, Cynthia
became reluctant about the whole thing.
She didn’t see the need to do it in a hurry.
Whenever I insisted on getting started with
the program, she would ask if I wasn’t
comfortable in her house. In order to make
me discard the idea of beginning my
program immediately, she made everything
available for me. Before I knew it, she
bought me a car and provided me with the
kind of life I had dreamed of living right
from my days in school. She started taking
me to various wonderful places around the
United States as though I had gone there to
stay permanently. She did a lot of things
that baffled me and I was somehow scared
because of the reasons I suspected could
be responsible for her kindness. I just
hoped I was wrong. I spent nearly two
months in the Cynthia’s house without
beginning the process of the purpose I went
to America for. I almost let go of the idea
of furthering my second degree program
there due to the kind of life I was living.
Cynthia had introduced me to a couple of
big shots who eventually fell in love with
my poetry. One connection led to another,
and I got to meet with a music producer
who agreed to make me a part of his
recording label with time. They say ‘delay
is dangerous’ but in my cases, delay was
nothing to be feared because whatever I
wanted done was done whenever I wanted it
done. Thanks to Cynthia’s powers and
connections. I wondered how she gained
that much ground there. Even some
citizens of the United States couldn’t call
the kind of shots Cynthia was calling. She
had a lot white people who were loyal to
her. I wondered again, why is she not
married till now? She was in her early
thirties and didn’t seem desperate for a
husband. Well, I didn’t bother myself with
all that since I was having a really good
time there. I must confess I almost forgot
that I promised to visit Ogechi often. But
then I used her refusal to pick up my calls
to strengthen my unwillingness to go back
to Nigeria anytime soon or even contact
her. I was simply overwhelmed by the
treatment I was getting abroad that I didn’t
want to put an end to it yet for any reason.
One morning I woke up to meet Cynthia and
Onye in the parlor discussing. Onye was
telling her that he’ll be heading back to
Nigeria to start the car selling business he
had planned to start beforehand. Onye’s
reason for wanting to leave was that unlike
me, he wasn’t fitting into the opportunities
Cynthia had made available for us, as he
wasn’t much of an arts person. He was
business oriented, just like the last Igbo
business man friend I had. IGBO KWENU!
So he resorted to going back home to sell
cars sent to him by Cynthia. They
understood their terms and agreement. That
didn’t bother me. What bothered me was
how I was going to live with Cynthia without
the person who linked us together. I tried to
convince Onye to stay but he wouldn’t
yield. Cynthia, on the other hand was doing
everything possible to send Onye home
before he had a change of mind. She
promised to send him five cars to start
with, demanding for just 30% of the money
discovered from the sales. It was obvious
she wasn’t doing it for the profit therein. I
had my fears if I chose to stay back with
Cynthia, but I wasn’t going to let such fears
drive me away from heaven on earth, so I
stayed back.
We continued our normal outings till it
began to seem as though I was the man in
Cynthia’s life, and that called to the
attention of quite a number of American
girls. This Cynthia of a girl may have been
in her early thirties, but she glowed as
though she was ten years younger. So I was
proud to go out with her, just that there was
nothing going between us. ‘So I thought’.
Sometime after Onye left, one of Cynthia’s
Asian girlfriends by name Lin, celebrated
her birthday at far away China. Cynthia was
invited and I went with her. Of course
Cynthia wouldn’t go anywhere without me.
There were a couple of things about me
which Cynthia normally boasted of to her
pals whenever we were out together. I on
the other hand was using her to form
James Bond for Oyibo based on say I from
Naija come dey control babe wey dem dey
loyal for. No be small thing oo. I thought we
were going to lodge in a hotel when we
arrived at China, but we didn’t. Instead we
stayed and Lin’s place which was more like
a hotel. The house belonged to her father
Chang. But she was Chang’s only daughter
and next of kin. Chang was advanced in age
and likely to die anytime soon. I thought
those things only happened in Nigeria but
na lie oo. Can you imagine that some
Chinese guy-men like that started forming
hot mad love for Lin? There was no end to
their verbal expressions of love towards
Lin. Lin became very confused and
indecisive. Her girlfriends were her solace,
as they were the only ones she could trust
not to want to take advantage of her.
Well, the celebration went very well.
Cynthia never failed to introduce me to any
big shot whenever there was one around,
and Lin’s father was one of them. As I was
sitting in the middle of two amazing
Chinese girls who were telling me about
China and the happenings there, Cynthia
showed up with two other Chinese girls who
didn’t look like the others I had seen.
‘I believe you’re having a good time’ she
said.
‘You can’t imagine how much’ I replied.
‘There’ll be time enough for that. For now
you have to meet Mr. Chang’
‘ooOOhh ladies, I’m sorry I have to go. We’ll
meet again’ I said to the girls I was with.
‘Alright then, let’s roll’ I said to Cynthia.
‘Not just yet’ she replied quickly. ‘You have
to go with these two ladies and get cleaned
up’
‘What do you mean by GET CLEANED UP?’
‘You need to take a shower, and these
ladies will make sure that is done’
‘Cynthia, what kind of embarrassment is
this? Are you implying that I can’t give
myself a good bath?’
‘Not at all. You see, it’s like a tradition
here. Before any stranger meets Mr. Chang,
he or she must get cleaned up, and by two
Chinese maidens who have been specifically
trained to do so. Let’s not waste any more
time. Go with them’
Before I could utter another word, the two
Chinese girls grabbed me at once and off
they took me. I got really pissed and tried
to shake them off me to stop them from
taking me to the bathroom but to no avail. I
tried to overpower them and what happened
marveled me. These girls were just doing
those things Jackie Chan does in Chinese
movies. They would bend and rise before I
even got to know that they bent. They did a
lot of those martial arts stuff but didn’t
hurt me in anyway. All they did was to
defend themselves and make sure they took
me to that bathroom to give me a bath. And
I wondered; ‘if they use this kind of martial
arts to get me to a bathroom, what kind will
they use to take my clothes off me when
the time for that comes because I wasn’t
going to let that happen. Over my dead
body!’ The time for that quickly came.
Omor! No be small Kung Fu oo!
To be continued.
