Even in Death 2

She found herself going down memory lane. She was born the second child in a family of four, all girls: Oluwafemi Deborah Santos. People always thought she was a boy before meeting her and she liked it. ‘Twas fun seeing the look of shock/surprise on peoples faces.

The scan result had shown she was supposed to be a boy and her father had insisted on naming his supposed first male child, even whilst in the womb, Oluwafemi. He had refused to change it when she eventually landed one cold rainy night. Her mother was able to squeeze in the name Deborah upon seeing her feisty baby girl. 

She was a tomboy. Always imitating her father and hanging out with boys in school. Automatically, she was her dad's favourite. Femi would be the one to buy gas, fill the gen, change deflated tyres, climb the roof to change the position of the antennae and even go with her father for some of his….political meetings. Her father had her enrolled in martial art classes. He wanted his favourite daughter to be well equipped to cope with…anything.

She never played with dolls as a kid, she was with trains, trucks and the like. She represented her school in sports: football matches and basket ball and she did very well.

Life was good. Her father was a successful business man and the family never lacked anything.

She loved cars and even as a year one student of mechanical engineering, she was already fixing cars and making money from it. The grease, the oil stains meant nothing to her. She was happiest fixing cars. Her mother wanted her to be ladylike, was scared at the rate she was going she could be a lesbian but her father laughed at her mother's fears and told her Femi was the child he had always wanted.

It appeared her mother's prayer was answered one sunny afternoon in class when Femi stumbled in on a tutorial. The guy handling the tutorial was one she had seen a few times in class but had never paid any attention to. But that day, listening to him carefully dissecting the topic with cool and calm logic for the very first time, something in Femi stirred. Suddenly she was conscious of her grubby jeans and masculine tee shirt. Looking nice was alien to her but that day, she became suddenly conscious of her…tardiness.

She waited in till the end of the tutorial, all three hours of it. Normally she wasn’t a tutorial liking person, she was too restless to listen for long to anything. She preferred working with her hands, creating and mending things. She walked up to him shyly and expressed her admiration for the way he handled the tutorial. He smiled back at her in a friendly manner and requested her phone number. She was elated! Her voice trembled as she called out the digits.

Femi did not sleep over the night. She was too excited. The next day found her going late to class on account of rummaging through her wardrobe looking for something really nice to wear. She made a mental note to go cloth shopping as soon as possible. She must look nice!

When she called home requesting for funds to change her wardrobe, her mother was very curious.

‘ Are you okay Femi?’

‘Of course I’m okay!’ she replied a trifle impatiently

‘ What do you really want to buy?’

‘Clothes….i feel this strong need to look more feminine!’ she replied in a cheeky tone

‘Praise God!’ her mother said

‘Halleluyah!’ she had replied, laughing

Money was sent and she went on a shopping spree with two course mates who dressed most fashionably in class. She paid for lunch and drinks for them as compensation. When she got back to the hostel, she was satisfied she could win the heart of Wale her fellow mechanical engineering undergraduate.

It took Wale a week to call even though they bumped into each other sometimes in class. Eventually, he asked for a date. Femi's room mates helped with dressing her up and make up. A halter neck green top, black pants, and green strappy sandals completed her ensemble. The mirror told her she looked looked stunning as she batted her green mascara laden eyelids.

The date was lovely. She looked dreamily into his eyes whilst he talked. She wasn’t aware of what she ate…..but she was aware of every inch of the conversation. Eventually he walked her to her hostel and shyly planted a kiss on her cheek. Her cheek felt hot and cold at the same time as she felt all tingly. She could never, ever forget that night. It was the beginning of the beginning for her.

To be continued…..