PERFECTING LOVE

Hi.

If I told you what this was about, you would laugh at me. So, let me add some suspense. I have a story I am itching to tell; a story you are itching to hear. Well, it is a story I have told before. However, I need to tell it again, to tell as much as I can remember, without consulting the earlier narrative.

My first ever novel was written in a weekend sometime in January 1999. That means that I was 18years old. I started writing and couldn’t stop writing. As soon as I finished that story, I realized that I didn’t like how it ended. So, I had to write a sequel from pure imagination. I kept writing and finished a second story. Unfortunately, I realized that the main actors were not born again in the sequel, so I had to write a third story in which both of them would be converted. The title of the trilogy was Winds of Change. The three parts were individually titled – Genesis, Nemesis and The Thesis. Yes, I have always loved rhymes. Omotola Okunlola, my editor, is why you have not seen them on bookstands. Please deal with her for me, okay?

So, why did I start writing? I started writing after a break up conversation. I wanted to preserve the moments of a relationship that meant so much. I needed to record it in writing, so I would never forget. Naturally, there were some spiritual moments in that relationship. They are not fit for a novel and so they were never written. However, I would write as much as I can in this narrative about it. Humans with the Holy Spirit might have a slight understanding of the things I “suffered”. I have not had any other experience like it, either before or after, in relation to any single person. We know in part and we prophesy in part. I know that in a face to face discussion with Jesus, I would understand, when I know as fully as I am known now.

Three paragraphs without any gist. Only Jumoke can do this. LOL! I got into UI to study Dentistry in May, 1997 at the age of 16. Resumption was 19th May, 1997. I didn’t get accommodation and so I stayed in Queens Hall, squatting with a family friend, Kike Dada. Classes were held at FLT. We were over 1000 students and we were from both the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences. There were never enough seats. I could see well, so I was a back-bencher. I sat where all the fine boys were; natural gravitational tendencies. Most times, someone gave me a seat, usually a guy. I however made friends with a short playful girl called Theresa (not real name, of course). We were best friends for several years.

In 100 level, when I was not wearing t-shirt and jeans, which I only wore like once a week, I was wearing a body hug and a silk wrap skirt (the wrap skirts existed in both long and short, no midi). The only other alternative to my body hugs were pink A-line dresses. They were short sleeved, button down, and they did not get to my knees. What this meant was that if it was a windy day… Well, story for the gods.

A few times, I saw Theresa talking to a skinny, very tall, light-skinned boy. Apparently, they went to the same “fellowship”, Believers’ Love World (BLW). I didn’t even know what fellowships were, since I came from a lineage of jaye jaye boys. She mentioned that his name was Arnold (not real name either). He was in the top 10 look-gooding guys in our huge class. But then, yellow boys sha. As we look at such, we un-look them. It took me almost a full semester to realize that any day I wore my pink dresses, he always sang the same song when I was passing. The sound track of Pretty Woman. It was when I realized what song it was that I also realized that Julia Roberts wore a dress like mine in that movie. His singing made sense but guess what? He never looked at me while singing, which was why I never caught on to the gimmick.

It was not love at first sight but he had very interesting piercing eyes. It could not even be love at first sight. DE, AO’s friend from my Akure days, was in love with me and I was struggling to help him understand that he should have asked me out in computer school when I was emotionally available. Instead, he gave his best friend, SI, permission to chase me. Since he missed his timing, I had moved on. I was fighting peer and family pressure of all the people who found our “relationship” cute and who were treating me like their in-law – sending me stuff from the UK, taking me out etc. Some people’s life issues started early. Lol. Maybe I will tell his own story some other weekend.

Anyway, I should have suspected that we would have attention issues in the future. This is because the very first time he looked at me, Theresa was talking to him at the back of FLT and I wanted to talk to her. That was how we made eye contact and he stopped hearing what Theresa was saying. Later on in life, we had difficulty hearing people when talking, especially when making eye contact. Locking eyes with him always created an inexplicable cocoon around us. I saw a picture of us talking late last year and I noted the body language in it… Some things change while some remain the same. I apologize for digressing…

Our first proper conversation was on my 17th birthday on the 3rd of September, 1997. Maybe that is why I think whatever it was was special, abi? Lol. Well, it was a very short conversation. That conversation changed my life. Arnold was talking to Rose (another fictitious name), who was interested in him at the time. (Na fine boy. Na girls dey rush am). Theresa and I were leaving FLT. She stopped to greet them and chat. When she realized she was wasting my time, she told them she had to go because it was my birthday. Arnold turned to me;

“Wow! Happy Birthday. It’s a special day indeed. I want to ask you a question though. I hope you don’t mind”.

“No, I don’t”. I half expected him to ask if I would be busy in the evening.

“Are you born again?”

Never before and never after has that question had that much meaning. In that moment, I looked at him to understand who was asking. I was convinced that the boy was a club boy before that question. Wearing a pair of form fitting Valentino jeans. A coral coloured long sleeved Polo shirt and lovely shoes, maybe Timberlands – as in, designer head to toe. On top of everything, he was drop dead gorgeous- if men can be described in such a manner.

Somehow, life had taught me that only the low lives got born again. People who didn’t have money, or who couldn’t get girls or who were social misfits. I couldn’t believe my ears. I opened and closed my mouth several times like a fish out of water. Now, I can’t even remember what my response was. I however know that he led me aside from those girls before asking and I don’t think we said a sinner’s prayer. This means that I must have said yes, although I wasn’t born again at the time.