A GIRL'S MIND[CHAPTER TWO]

Eddy rolled on the mattress,wondering if he had slept at all or was still having Titi on his mind as he heard the screams and ranting of the cult boys.He smiled to himself as he remembered their various names - all sounding funny:The Black Rats,The Vermin and The Bonkers.But there wasn't anything absolutely  funny about the activities of these boys in the entire college and its environs.They were bent on self-destruction and Eddy wondered if the new initiates knew of this.And rumours were filtering out that a bunch of girls were forming theirs - The Red Bras!1

Since the coming into power of the civilian regime,the federal government had clamped down on cultism in all the higher institutions of learning and the state governments were following suit.But Eddy wondered if there would be any remarkable achievement of all the governments' efforts in this direction.College cult membership cut across the entire echelon of the society:the students,lecturers and heads of institutions;and of which he was a witness,the last election of which the present chairman of that Local Government won was hijacked by The Vermin to install their own member - the Honourable Chairman himself!The government clamping down on cultism,Eddy feared,certainly had its policies tailored by cult members!2

Eddy rolled again on the mattress to look at the direction his room-mate,Vincent,shared a mattress with his cousin,UB.The teenage boy had literally run away from his room.A first year National Certificate of Education[NCE] student,he had joined The Black Rats in his preliminary.They had promised him good grades in his examination and also influence:he could always have the girl of his choice!Then they had painted a rosy future for him after college - the ultimate power of their connections!He would have the option of selecting jobs and lo!,he would never know lack of money.But the youngster relating it with great humour to his cousin in Eddy's presence - which Eddy laughed till he was pained in the sides - said the two sacks of rice and garri which he couldn't finish with his two room-mates in the first semester of his preliminary,never lasted for a week in the second semester and also in the first semester of his Year One.And as he returned this second semester,he deliberately had no steady place of abode.All his valuables were kept with Vincent and he only sneaked in here occasionally to lay down his head for the night.He was desperately thinking of how he could run away from the cult.Because of this,he took the last Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board[JAMB] examination and hoped he would make it so he could leave just as the Interim Joint Matriculation Board[IJMB] students,which Eddy and Vincent were part of,were leaving.3

To the new initiate,the truth about these cult groups as UB painted is that the senior members turn to parasites as you become their host:they feed on your food;you spend your pocket-money in buying them drinks and cigarettes after and they would have their quickies on your mattress with their women as you would lastly wash the spread.They enjoy themselves at your pains and expense.And this is putting it mildly.4

Eddy remembered the college,for Titi and him,was only a transitional point and in less than five months they would leave.They both studied Literature In English,Economics and Christian Religious Knowledge[CRK] with the intention,if they made the requisite points in the programme,to read Law in the university.Or in the alternative,Mass Communication for Eddy.Titi had said nothing for her but Law.Only she didn't make a credit pass in her Physics - she was absolutely in love with Medicine.But she had put in again for the JAMB examination[which she had just taken] and the forthcoming Senior Secondary Certificate Examination[SSCE].She was hopefully awaiting all the outcomes.5

Eddy realized he had to put in great effort to get Titi's love fully - that waiting game wouldn't work for him.He jocularly thought:the bones these days were so lean and patient dogs hardly see any to eat.No doubt,he was a very patient young man but as concerned Titi;patience for him would be a big crime.It wasn't about sex or her body - no!It was about love:her heart and soul - making her keep them where her treasure belonged!Eddy planned to get her love concretely hooked on him,just to be sure.6

He slapped in the dark,on target or not,at a buzzing mosquito.Then rolled again on the mattress,drawing the cover cloth over him,and into sleep.With his last bit of mind at consciousness,he heard distantly the screams and ranting and a gunshot.Eddy hoped someone didn't kill someone again in the name of cult rivalry.7

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The village big cathedral bell chimed and subconsciously limbs in every home stirred.9

Cocks crowed.Goats bleated as they were led from the custody of stalls into their open pens and chickens clucked as they were freed to roam.10

Brooms scratched on cemented floors and stony grounds as they swept.And voices were heard in greetings as feet pattered short distances to and from the streams.11

It was Friday.Eddy and Titi had a two-hour stretch of lectures,in CRK and Literature,running from seven to nine.After this,they were free for the entire weekend.But the only little pain they always experienced was in getting up early and preparing for this.12

Eddy got up and crawled to the foot of the big mattress and groped for the matchbox and lantern on top of the cane locker beside it.Then he lit the lantern.As the light hit their faces;Vincent and UB stirred,rolled and faced the wall - sleeping off.They both had three to four hours before getting up.13

Eddy put on the portable Compact Disc player behind the lantern,leaving it on the state FM station to save the motorcycle battery used.Then he rolled up his cover cloth and dumped it on the pillow,jumping onto the middle bare floor to start his wake-up ritual.After series of warm-up exercises,he started the intensive ones:curl-ups,stretches and press-ups.He exercised until he felt warm.Then he put the toothpaste on his brush and water in a glass and went outside to wash his mouth.After that,he bathed.14

A sucker for fruits,he devoured three big oranges - pulp and juice.On the suspended wardrobe he took the clothes he pressed yesterday with the vintage charcoal iron.A sky-blue double-pocket short-sleeved shirt tucked into a navy-blue trousers with pockets cut vertically and wearing brown boots,he was ready for school.He put off the radio playing a swinging R and B tune;picked his folder and left the room,drawing the door close.He followed the corridor and linked the veranda,where Titi was preening her salon-styled short dreadlocks.She was cutely clad in a mauve floral Lycra dress knotted at the neck.She clicked on her averagely high elegant black shoes into the room with the mirror and re-emerged with her folder.15

'What's the time now?'Eddy asked.16

Glancing at her shiny black leather watch,Titi answered:'Fifteen to Seven.'Then she looked up at him and said:'When would you buy yours?'17

'When the muse dictates,'he answered.'We're late.We better fly.'18

'I know your problem.You're waiting for the watch that landed in the moon,'Titi teased.19

'I presume you're a mind-reader and a good one at that,'Eddy replied.20

'You know one thing more,sweetheart?'Titi smiled mischievously.21

'What's that?'Eddy asked expectantly.22

She walked up close.'You are a penniless lizard scheming for a mansion.'23

Eddy burst out laughing.'You know what?'24

'No,I don't.Tell me what?'Titi said,gazing at Eddy suspiciously.25

'I don't just use anything.When I go to the market to buy things,I buy durability not glitter,'he said in self-defence.26

'I hear you,mister!And by the time you buy this durability of a watch - one or two lecturers would've yanked us off their classes because of lateness.If you own a watch,even the rubber type,you would've known when to wake up,'Titi teased.27

'And you who own one,what happened?'28

'Two heads,they say,are better than one.Where I mistakenly subtract you can always add back.Please,mister,buy a watch!'Titi said and strutted onto the courtyard.29

They left the compound and hit the highway and headed towards the college gates some metres away.Produce lorries and granite trailers zoomed past them as they ducked at the edges of the road from debris and dirt lifted and flung by the vehicle-induced wind.Then finally they crossed into the college premises.Following rough stony paths and crossing fields,they arrived the IJMB hall.Other course-mates hung around in groups and singly as they awaited the Literature II lecturer.Eddy and Titi moved into the hall,chose a desk at the front and sat,chatting.A couple of others occupied other desks,reading or chatting.30

'I thought you were going to fall any time from those shoes the way you were jerking,'Eddy said,smiling.'Tok!Tok!Tok!Oh my God!I said to myself any moment from now this girl would drop!'31

'I knew all along the fight hadn't left you yet.But I bet I know what you were looking at,'Titi said with a face that was dead-pan.'Anytime we go together you'd always be at the front!'32

'I bet you're wrong.The high heels you girls precariously perch on are what bother me.Why kill your legs and cause yourself pains just to look cute!'33

'First,you call these high heels?'Titi said,pointing at her shoes.'Then you haven't seen high heels since you were born.Second,what must women do to escape the lecherous eyes of men?'Titi faked the tone of an exasperated woman.'Oh God!Must we wear sacks to escape?'34

'Wear anything you like.I'm only pitying your legs.You don't know how many times I've stretched forth to hold you thinking you were about to fall.'35

'If you had dared touch me with those lecherous hands,'Titi said,shaking her head and whipping the air dramatically with her fingers,'the police would've got a fantastic customer today.'36

Eddy laughed.'You said customer as if the police are traders.'37

'They're worst!'she laughed and leaned close,whispering into his ears:'Ask all the cult boys the police arrested after the clampdown.'She looked sideways,then continued:'For those caught with guns,ten thousand naira upwards.For confirmed cultists without weapons,five.For innocent students taken along,three.All in the name of "released on bail".'She drew back.'For you,if you'd committed the crime of "touchery",solitary confinement for a month and tens of thousands of naira after to breath fresh air once again.'38

'I bet you've been there once the way you mention fresh air - I hear the cells stink!'39

'You could've touched me to go smell them!'40

'No,ma.Please!'Eddy said,grimacing - shaking his head.'Prisons and cells are our nation's pigsties!'41

The students poured into the hall,frantically taking their seats.And then the burly man with glasses walked to the front,picked the chalk and wrote on the board:LITT IN ENG II.Underlining that,he wrote underneath it: POETIC DEVICES.For one hour,between explaining the intricacies called imagery employed in the poetry masterpieces chosen for these young men and women to study;spiking the mini-skirted blockheads;and locking the lecture hall against a couple of latecomers - the lecturer went on expounding 'Poetic Devices' with his baritone voice.42

'Choose between sweet sleep and tedious book,'he said to a dozing male student and stuck a piece of chalk between his lips.Then he gave an assignment that drew the Literature Two class to a close.43

As the bespectacled burly man left,a homely reverend gentleman in his white frock sauntered in with an influx of students.Whereas the Literature class took a one-quarter portion of the hall,the CRK session spilled over half.And the Reverend Father talked about Eli's greedy servant and the eventual outcome of his greed.44

'Like our departed very dear head of states - for all his greed what got he?'45

The entire hall roared,acquainted with the answer already:'An apple sampled six feet down!'Then the place rocked with laughter.46

'Go and repent ye all of your greediness,'the Reverend Father admonished his student.47

At nine,the English class began.The English,Mathematics and Economics classes were the opportune time to assess the deterioration in the educational system.The hall was jam-packed,with students hanging on the louvre-less windows.Notes were taken with papers and pens held in the air.48

Eddy and Titi leisurely walked back through the fields and paths towards home.Not far from the college gates,they branched into the cathedral and burst at the rear linking Old Road.Old Road with its kiosks and palm-wine bars ,empty now,took them past the village small daily market.They branched just after the market,followed an alley,linked an adjacent compound and got home.49

The compound was virtually empty.Reaching the veranda,Eddy called:'Titi.'50

'Yes,'she answered looking straight into his eyes.51

'Can I see you now.'52

'Yes?'53

'I mean in my room.'54

She stared at him.'You look strange.Your eyes frighten me.'She shook her head.'See me here.I can't come to your room.'55

'So I wouldn't eat you up?'Eddy gave,unconsciously,a pained expression.56

'It could be worst.The entire place is empty,'she said with a smile playing round her face.57

'You're calling me a rapist?'58

'Ah,I didn't say nothing - I didn't read your mind.You say it!'59

'I give up!'Eddy in exasperation said.'I thought I could intelligently discuss one or two things with you.But you're bent on getting me wrong.'60

'Okay,we'd talk,'Titi said.'But I've got a whole lot of chores to take care of.When I'm less busy,we'd talk.'61

'Okay,I almost forgot,'Eddy said.62

And he almost did!Everyone knew Titi as Miss Tidy.The entire premises,especially the veranda and the portion of the courtyard around here always looked well-kept once she was around.Her room was a study in orderliness and her physique an epitome of cleanliness.No dirty child in the neighbourhood neared her,everyone knew that,as the neat ones were her best friends.She had often - if she found any of her small friends out of order - bathed them.And her little friends in appreciation had kept her in constant supply of water.And as they returned from schools Aunty Titi's room was their playground.But nobody dared mess up the place.63

                                                   End>>>CHAPTER TWO.64

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