Life With Tutu

Mickey walked into the banking hall and as our eyes met, I knew I was lost, forever. I had been in a relationship before and I had thought I had been in love, but with Mickey, I learnt a new dimension of love, a deeper angle to it He came to literally wipe away my tears and fears, away. He was a very selfless person with a generous heart. The first time I took him home, my father and siblings instantly took a liking to him. He was unfazed by our living quarters, the tattered chairs, curtains riddled with holes, and the floor, absent covering. He sat and talked with my family as if he had known them, all his life. Our relationship was like a dream come true. I was deliriously happy. I met with his parents who also took a liking to me. Firstly he started taking care of my family. My father’s hospital bill, our general upkeep. I started really shinning. He took me shopping and changed my wardrobe. I was living large. Eventually he ensured we moved from the one room apartment we had be...

I got admitted into the university to read Accountancy. I had always loved figures and so I looked forward to being a Guru at it. Tearfully I had left Father and my two younger siblings. I was Father’s confidant and I knew he would miss me so terribly. My savings from the Supermarket job plus the little father could give me financed my education. During the semester break I would go work for Dame Anachebe. The money made would see me through the next semester. I was often hungry. As part of my income would be dropped with my younger brother, Wole towards the house upkeep. Father's health was still bad and a lot of money went into buying his medication. I remember there were times I couldn’t afford to buy Sanitary pads. I would go from bunk to bunk begging for tissue paper to use. Sometimes, friends would take pity in me and give me part of their own food items. I developed an inferiority complex because I didn’t have good clothes to wear. I was often  ashamed of my tardy appea...

I was in Senior Secondary School when Father started having serious health issues. His blood pressure was on the rise. He couldn’t work two shifts anymore. I thought of how I could make extra income for the family. Finally an opportunity presented itself. A woman who attended the same Catholic parish owned a big supermarket. She was very popular and one day after Mass, I struck up the courage to go greet her. And then, I told her I needed an after school job. She was pleasant and went ahead to say she knew Father. She told me to come see her the next day at the supermarket. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep a wink, that night. After school, I rushed home to change and quickly drank my garri. I left my portion of the groundnuts for my siblings to share, which made them quite happy. I got to the supermarket at exactly three pm. It was a large supermarket with different compartments for food, clothing etc. I met with Mrs. Anachebe, better yet, Dame Anachebe. She was so very gracious a...

I remember vividly washing the dishes we had used the night before by the well. We lived in a face me I face you apartment where there was no plumbing. The well was the source of water for all. I stooped, washing gently but determinedly, trying to ensure the used  dishes and cutlery were free of oil and food remnants. I was ten, the first girl and first born My mother was standing over me. I looked up at her and she gave me a cruel smirk ‘ You , your father and your siblings will suffer so much. The wretched will call you wretched!’ I looked at her uncomprehendingly. Why would a mother I love so much say something so cruel to me. I understood what she meant years down the line. Did we suffer! Barely two weeks afterwards, my parents had a quarrel. They had always quarreled but this time, it was different. My beautiful mother, packed her things and left the room we inhabited. I thought she would soon return, for days, for weeks, for months I would sit by the road side, leading t...

Taiwo kept crying even after getting home. Her brother heard her whimpering in the dead of the night and came into her room. ' What happened sister mi!' Lekan asked 'You've been whimpering ever since you came back' Taiwo tried to hastily wipe the tears off her cheeks 'Nothing is the matter. You go back to sleep' ' I cannot stand to see you cry. I will not leave until you tell me why' Taiwo looked at her brother helplessly. He sat down on the edge of her bed and looked at her with determination edged on his face. Taiwo didn't know when the words tumbled out of her mouth. The whole gory detail poured out from her core, amid choking sobs. Lekan looked at her and tears filled his eyes. He held her in his arms and slowly wiped her tears away. ' Sister mi, this must never happen again. No matter what. You cannot mortgage your future for our collective good. You are not the Saviour for Christ sakes!' They pulled apart after a while and ...

Taiwo kept making mistakes through out the day, she was nervous and unsettled. Her palms clammy and wet. At a stage,  Malcolm came into her office and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder ' Taiwo, it's obvious you're nervous, calm down. It's not going to be painful I assure you. You'll soon get the hang of it' Taiwo nodded as she couldn't trust herself to speak. There was a knot in her throat, a knot that stayed there all through the day. Eating or drinking? Out of the question! She kept telling herself' I'm doing this for Maami and my brothers. We must be free completely from the shackles of lack. Maami needs the best medical treatment for her to be whole again. We cannot, must not go back to that hell hole of a shanty' The thought did little to calm her nerves. But she kept chanting it and crying at intervals. In the evening when everyone had gone home. Malcolm excused himself to get 'it'. She waited in her office, staring absentl...

Taiwo tossed and turned on her bed all through the night. Sleep was elusive. Fear, worry and trepidation were her companions. Her boss's request was unheard of. Who ever does that? Certainly not a normal human being! And yet, she knew she had no choice. She was now the mainstay of her family. If she said no, Malcolm had made it clear that she and her family would go back to square one. There was no one to help. He had told her he would give her a week, max to think about it and the consequences of saying no. In no uncertain terms he had also told her that if her answer came out as negative, asides her job loss, she and her family should be prepared to move back to the shanty they had left barely two months ago. She thought of her sick, pain ridden, bedridden mother, who had to be fitted with adult pampers. She thought of her brothers who she had started making admission arrangements for,  at tertiary institutions. She thought of the last born who she was trying to relocate to a...

For the first time in Taiwo's life, she was deliriously happy. Within a week, her life started changing. Her boss, Malcolm, true to his word, relocated the family to a fully furnished apartment that was simply, heavenly. A three bedroom abode with a lovely garden overlooking the well planned neighbourhood street. He gave her a wardrobe allowance ' We can't have you coming to work in rags, you know' he had said matter of factly. Taiwo took no offence as the few clothes she had actually belonged to the trash can. She resumed to work in a smart skirt suit, with a matching classy handbag plus designer shoes to match. The PA had resigned without notice and she had to be put through the ropes by her boss, himself. She was a fast learner and caught on quickly. Within a month she was already on top of her job. One evening, Malcolm called her to her office 'Taiwo or should I call you, Miss Olatunji?' He asked Taiwo smiled and replied 'Taiwo is just fine sir...

Taiwo finished from secondary school even in the midst of the extreme poverty and lack that continually plagued her family. She wanted to go to the university but with the situation on ground, it looked like an impossible dream. She started house cleaning and cloth washing for people in a better neighborhood than theirs, to support her mom and to save for the university. Unfortunately, her savings because of the prevailing situation at home, went mainly on the family's upkeep as her mother had developed an ailment that defied all cure. She became bedridden and the care of the family fell squarely on Taiwo's thin shoulders. She eventually settled for a long distance programme which would enable her to keep working, taking care of her mother and four brothers, Her father had upped and virtually disappeared out of their lives, when she was a kid and so there was no one she could look up. In her third year at the Distance Learning programme she got a job offer from one of cust...

Taiwo had always felt that poverty had a stench. An unmistakable one. It was an identity. A stench that precedes the poor individual. Her family was a typical example. They reeked poverty. They reeked lack. They reeked the absence of the basic necessities of life. She was the first child and was determined to see that her family was lifted out of the quagmire of poverty. She would watch with round eyes, as a child when her mother’s employer and their family were at table, eating( her mom was the cleaner). They ate all manner of foods that would make her mouth water. All manner of foods beyond the reach of her family. Patiently, her mother, who did the dishes alongside house cleaning,  would scrape off the left overs, left overs which were never really much, and transfer them into a black polythene bag. That would serve as the family’s dinner. Ofcourse, by the time they got home, due to the action of the saliva on the food, it would have turned sour, but it would be eaten, noneth...

I continued with my relationship with Biola. It was a symbiotic relationship and so I had every reason to continue. Gone was the frustration, and sleepless nights. The guilt I felt, I pushed away rationalizing that if I hadn’t sought sexual healing from Biola, I might have gone bananas. I arranged my schedule such that I was supposed to travel every weekend on a ‘ business trip'. I was doing my own business now and so I felt I could get away with it. For years this was the lie I told Ife, the reasons why the weekends saw me away from her. She never argued. I would come back into her loving arms every Monday evening, after work. Some years down the line, Biola announced she was pregnant. I was happy but sad at the same time. I would have wished the baby had come from Ife. But I was happy that at last I would be a father after close to ten years of marriage. But, what if, just if, Ife gets to hear, it would make her feel so betrayed. The thought haunted me daily, took away my joy...

Over drinks, Afolabi suggested I try having a side chic. ‘ This is the way I see it, a side chic will be more economical than having or marrying a second wife. Think of your church, your reputation. Side chics operate on a code of silence. She’ll be in the shadows. Satisfy you sexually and give you children. But that your wife sha, with that volumptously provocating  figure, no action, what a waste!’ I eye him pensively. My thoughts are far away. What if Ife  gets to find out. Truth is ,I still love her and I wouldn’t want to hurt her. At the same time, I was dying slowly but surely. As if reading my thoughts, he continued' Don’t worry, she won’t find out'. Afolabi introduced me to a friend of his, a much younger lady. I liked her and we got talking. She was quiet, very reserved but surprisingly fun loving and very adventurous. I told her expressively what I wanted, needed from a woman. She wasn’t just fantastic  at love making, I discovered, she genuinely liked me...

Five years down the line in my marriage. I am the complete opposite of the man that got married five years earlier because I am a frustrated being. Yeah, you heard me. There’s only so much I can take, not with my drive. My wife for want of a better word is frigid. As cold as a fish, in bed. Our first night, I attributed  her coldness to the stress of the wedding preparation. Other nights, were no different. She would be asking me if I had paid the PHCN bill right in the middle of love making! There was a day she was telling me how she planned to spend the house allowance I had given her, during bedmatics! Caresses, touches, as tenderly and as lingeringly as they were applied, had zero effect, no form of sexual stimulation( and believe me, I had done lots of research in erotica) could make my wife aroused. All my attempts: sweet words, text messages, gifts, tenderness, the works met with, zero success. She would ‘ endure' the act and just fall asleep afterwards! The day I knew...

I’m crazy in love with Ife. Her name means love, I tell you, she typifies it. Daily I wake up with a smile on my face, her name on my lips. My friends think jazz is at work, I tell them, no, it is Ife, killing me with love, her love, her peculiar brand of magic! Her voice soothes away my aches and pains, is like water that revives my parched heart. Her touch makes me ,almost inhumanly strong. Her reasoning, simply mind blowing. I saw  her once at a mall, and I was hooked. It wasn’t just her looks, it was an animal magnetism she effortlessly carried. It was her sweet and gentle spirit that got me mesmerised. I had walked up to her and as I looked into the brown pool of her eyes, I told myself ‘Ugo, this is where you die. This is your final bus stop!’ And that was how our sweet romance started. After work, I would find my way at great inconvenience to her house, which was like world's end. At times getting a bus would prove difficult, but I would gladly trek miles before getting ...

I wish I were privy to what went down betwist Ibrahim and his old man. All I can say is, his father summoned me to the house a week later(I had given him my number at my first visit) and to my surprise, I met Ibrahim seated, looking downcast. After a quick glance at him, I fixed my gaze ,firmly on the old man as he was the one I really had business with. I was wearing the same outfit  I wore the first time I visited. I expected some reaction from Ibrahim who was used to seeing  me in my  usual ultra mini skirts and  my revealing blouses. However, he kept his head bowed, in sorrowful indifference. ‘ So I have told him, he must marry you. You are pregnant and that’s all that matters. If you were good enough to sleep with, then, you are good enough to marry!’ He spared Ibrahim a sour look and continued ‘ We must plan the wedding immediately. Your mother in law is not around as she has travelled to Mecca, as soon as she’s back, we’ll put the finishing touches. You...