A SHORT STORY

 

Prince Obi appeared to be a very decent man at first. He was all I could ever hope for in a brother and more. He was gentle, compassionate, kind loving, a good role model to me. For someone who had no one to call a dad, brother or an uncle, he was just a dream come true.

We met each other when mama bid me to get her some drugs from the drug store. It was one of those cold mornings when her joint pains would not let be. Being an only son or child, my heart bled each time I saw mama go through pains.

Unfortunately, it had been a bad week as there was no food in the house and no one will buy my firewood and so I was kept totally devastated. When I woke up in our multi-purpose, leaky one room to hear mama groaning in pains, it troubles me a lot.

Immediately, my heart did a quick race as my mind told me to get dressed. I rushed out of the house my mouth unwashed to the chemist. Uncle Jonah at the chemical shop would not even blink an eye at me, let alone stare or even look at me. He would give me nothing because according to him, it’s high time I settle my debt or else no drug for me. 

Out of frustration, I knelt down and began crying, begging and employing him to help me. Just then I heard the screeching of a car as it stopped behind me but paid no attention to it. Out stepped Prince Obi, son of Chief Woka Obina and his ‘oyibo’ wife, Mrs. Stella Obina. He walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He asked me my problem and after narrating my story, he paid my debt and bought the drugs for me.

I was so glad I called all the saints in heaven and our ancestors to bless him for me in thanksgiving. He smiled at me and asked me to come with him as he instructed his driver to drive me home.

Before long, Prince Obi had become my very good friend. He had taken me back to school, rented an apartment for mama and I and had even opened a shop for mama. But he told me it was normal and that he would take me to Oyibo land.

And that was bow it started, my introduction into homosexuality. One day I felt sick and realized there was water at my anus. Anytime I sat, I wet the chair. Scared out of my wit I went to see a doctor.

I listened in horror as the doctor told me I had to wear diapers like a child for the rest of my life, because my rectum was damaged. I wept all the way home to tell prince Obi my predicament only to be met with appalling news of his upcoming nuptials. I run out of his house in silence, cursing the day I met him for destroying my life and leaving me to seek the happiness of a marriage. I wish I had never met that man.

EBENEZER OKINE EBENEZER.