A girl's mind [chapter ten]

It was the last Saturday of the month and the sanitation exercise was on.In every compound the residents poured out weeding,cutting grass,trimming fruit trees and flowers,clearing water channels and sweeping and packing the rubbish away.As the people worked so did they chat too.Stories were told,arguments were made and jokes were cracked.Now and then,you could hear roars of laughter.1

Eddy,Titi and other college students - males and females - living here in the fourteen-room bungalow weeded and swept the surroundings of their house as well as the long passage between garden plots to the highway.At the highway they trimmed the hysora hedge [punctuated with guava trees] between the gardens and the strip of grass by the gutter.Then they cut the grass and cleared the gutter.2

Finishing the job at the highway,they returned into the compound - taking their seats and chatting on the veranda.At the edge of the right garden and the front yard was a tall coconut palm with dry,hanging fronds and bunches of mature coconuts.3

Lanky Vincent who sat on the low wall of the veranda and looking up at the palm,said:'The dry coconut fronds need pruning.'4

Fair and plump Atima,Titi's room-mate,quickly came in:'Do it,Vince,and get us some coconuts too.'5

'Women!'Vincent said.'The hard tasks are pushed to the men while they settled for the easy and enjoyable ones.Then the next thing you hear is equality!'6

'In the entire compound,I think you are the most selfish!I pity the woman who would marry you!'Atima spat.7

'Why?'Vincent asked,looking backwards over his shoulder at Atima sitting on the bench.8

'Why?Just like what you've said now!'Atima said,her palms up and her fingers pointing at Vincent - her face a sneer.'You would want her to climb a tall coconut to prove she's not cheating you!'9

Laughter ruled the veranda.10

'I'll tell her to climb if she boasts like the other women that anything a man does she would do better,'Vincent explained.11

'So that's what is paining you?'Atima asked.12

'But truthfully,anything a man does a woman too would do it,'Titi,standing in her doorway,said.13

'And even better o!'Atima screamed.14

'Then the challenge is before us.Girls,you are all here and that's the coco-palm - do it!'The dark and burly Odeng,a third-year NCE student,living in the first of the two rooms to the right of Titi's and hanging on his door frame,said.'The fight is on,babes,get your gloves!'15

'And you,Odeng!'Atima cried.16

'No,you say you can do it.So what's more?We say do it and do it better than the men and now!'Odeng added mischievously.17

'Who says the women can't climb this coconut palm?'Arit,the second-year NCE and Physical Education student bounced from her room by the corridor to the outside.The double collapsible door [of what was once a shop but now converted to be lived in] of her room opened directly into the yard.Solidly built and of average height,she was clad in jeans shorts and a tee-shirt.She bounced into the veranda,followed the corridor and burst at the rear.The others could hear out here as she asked of the landlord's climbing paraphernalia from Ekem - the old man and his wife obviously missing as they had left very early in the morning for their farms.Arit not long re-emerged with a sheathed machete belted around her waist and holding the 'ikpo',the local apparatus for climbing palms,and marched straight to the base of the coco-palm.Excitement crept around the entire compound.18

Expertly she wove the rope round the palm and herself,sticking her leg into the dangling loop.Then with baffling ease she pulled her climbing gear up the palm.Reaching the top,she brought the machete and pruned the dry fronds which came flying down.Then she snapped at the stalks of the mature coconuts which came thudding around the base.Expertly again,Arit brought herself down.The over-excited girls rushed her,hugging and cheering - the uproar attracting people in the neighbourhood.19

Amidst the celebration,the beaming heroine strode back to the men who were still on their spots and posed,legs firmly planted and with arms akimbo,and then asked:'What do you think now of women?'20

'They remain where they belong - second to the men!'Odeng said,showing he had long been preparing for this moment.'You'll  still be down and a man would be up!'21

'How?'Arit asked,perplexed at the man still not able to acknowledge her feat.22

'Like this.In ten women here only one is able to climb a coconut palm and the women think they've accomplished a thing.But for every ten men I can assure you more than half that number would.So who does it better?'23

'The problem of some men is that they are still very much a long way back in time.Every broad-minded man knows that there is a variety of choices for women these days to choose from and they have been blissfully doing so!'Arit said ambiguously and the girls were giggling.'In the realm of greatness,the women still lead!Every woman potentially can give birth but in the entire kingdom of men,none can dare try it!Now,who does it better?'24

'The women!'the girls were screaming and applauding.25

'Then you could've gone to the moon to do it without the men.Then I would know you're the best!'Odeng said.26

'We're sending the men to Mars to live without the women.Then we would know they're the best!'Atima replied.27

The arguments went back and forth - everyone trying to win points for his or her gender.Then Eddy came in.'Do we believe any sex is far better than the other?'he asked,leaning on the door frame of the corridor.28

'If the little boys here say the men are - I say the women are simply the best of humanity!'Atima spoke forcefully,thinking Eddy was about to weaken the women's strong points.29

'Well,for me,we complement each other.No woman no man and no man no woman,'Eddy said.30

Arit looked demurely at Eddy and then at the girls and asked:'What do you think,girls?'31

'I think he's right there,'Titi said.32

'Of course we know you would think so!'Koko,Titi's voluptuous second room-mate,said and everyone laughed.33

'Well,he's right,'Vincent said,adding jokingly:'but women generally should go softly,softly with their tongues.'34

'When a man is deserving,we caress him with it,'Arit quipped.'Or what do you think girls?'35

'Yes o!'the girls replied,giggling and applauding.36

'Hear her!'Odeng said.'Caress a man with her tongue!Can we really count the number of men women have driven with their tongues over the precipice?Look,women have a stubborn streak whether we like it or not - some the more you pet the more stubborn and confrontational they get.Man must get tough with this set!'37

'You don't want this topic to be changed,'Koko said.38

'No!'Odeng replied.'Say the truth and shame the devil!'39

Everyone burst out laughing again.40

'Well,the truth is,'Titi said,after suppressing her laughter,'stubborn streak runs in some people - man or woman.We all have diverse characters.But the real truth as you tried vainly to show is most good women are ill-treated by their hardhearted and physically stronger men.And I'm saying this should stop!Good women deserve good loving.It's also my opinion that any bad woman - where there is communication and understanding by her man - would readily turn a new leaf.Her badness could've stemmed from her immediate past.Did her father abuse her mother?That could have planted the idea in her mind that men generally are bad and should not be trusted and that one needs to be on guard always.But where the new environment shows her there are many sides to a room,she'd be forced to change gradually unless the individual is hopelessly godless.Genuine love well communicated can't stop to draw out love though it may take some time.So boys, don't be wimps!Go all out and love your women right!'41

'How about three good cheers for my lady?'Arit said with smiles.42

'Gbosa!Gbosa!Gbosa!'the girls shouted.43

'Make some noise, girls!'Arit again ordered.44

There was a loud and prolonged ovation and then one by one in all directions the girl's dispersed.45

THE END>>>Chapter Ten.46