Amaka’s Story
Part 1
In the month of May 2004, Amaka celebrated her 16th birthday and was admitted to SS1 in a secondary school near her home in Abuja. Amaka lived with her parents and two elder sisters. Now in the senior year, she could be trusted to make the journey to school alone as opposed to being accompanied by an older sibling. This was quite a feat for Amaka who felt an added sense of responsibility walking alone to the bus stop to join the teeming crowds of people also making their way to work or school.
At the bus stop it was always a struggle to get on a bus ready to leave. The buses filled up quite quickly and there were no defined queues. Often times one would have to fight their way through the crowd to get on the bus. It was survival of the fittest. The buses were often packed full and all available space, standing or sitting would be completely occupied before the buses moved. Amaka always gave herself extra time to ensure that the waiting time at the bus stop did not make her late.
Even though it was early in the morning and most people would have taken their morning shower before they ventured out, with people packed like sardines in the bus, one would still be subjected to a cocktail of pungent body odours. Needless to say, the daily bus trip to and from school, was not a particularly enjoyable experience and once the novelty of her new found freedom wore off, it became a dreary daily experience again. For this reason, it was not surprising that Amaka was quick to jump at the opportunity for an alternative as soon as it presented itself.
Amaka was at that precarious age when a young girl becomes aware of her sexuality and the effect of it on the opposite sex, without knowing what to do with it. As she walked, she gently swayed her hips, her skirts sewn an inch higher than the school approved length and where possible she applied light make up, (eye pencil and lip gloss) which was not so easily detected except by the very keen eye of an overzealous teacher.
Amaka, fair skinned, beautiful and slim, was like all other young teenage girls, excitable about everything in the world around her. Sometimes she would meet her friends on the way to school and they would travel the distance together and other times she would walk alone.
On this particular morning, Amaka was walking alone when she sensed a car slowing down beside her. She quickly glanced sideways to see who it was without showing any interest. She was careful to avoid strangers because her father had warned her repeatedly about people especially young girls being kidnapped for rituals. Since the advent of democracy and with the desperation of politicians, this was becoming rampant. Several girls had gone missing after talking to men they thought had a love interest in them. It turned out the interest was something more sinister, and in many cases, they were never seen again. Only one or two managed to return alive to tell the story of their harrowing experience at the hands of ritualists. So, Amaka was always on her guard and avoided strangers as much as she could.
However, the person in the car cruising beside her was not a stranger as such. She had seen him several times as they lived on the same street. His name was Mr Isaac and he had a nice car. He lived in the block of flats at the bottom of the road but he was building his own house right next door to her father’s house. She had seen him watching her before and the other day he had even smiled. She wasn’t sure if he was actually smiling at her so she looked around but there was no one else there; he was smiling at her. Still, she didn’t smile back, she wanted to but she was shy so she looked away.
The car was crawling beside her as she walked on. The window opened and there was Mr Isaac with a wide toothy grin on his face like he had just won the lottery. She stole another quick glance and looked away again. She didn’t want to seem eager. “Can I give you a ride?” he asked. He stopped the car and she got in without saying a word. From her uniform, he could tell which school she attended. He drove past it every day.
Mr Isaac drove straight to her school talking all the way. It was a monologue, Amaka was too shy to speak. “What would she say anyway?” she wondered. “What could a small girl like her have to say that would interest a knowledgeable man like him?”. He stopped near the school gate, so she could get out of the car. She said “thank you Sir” and got out and then rewarded him with a very shy smile. That made his day.
Every morning after that, Mr Isaac would wait for her at the bottom of the road and drive her to school. And then he started rescheduling his time so that he could drop her again after school in the evening. Amaka loved the car rides. Any escape from the awful packed and smelly bus was welcome. She was still too shy to speak but she loved to listen to him. He had an opinion about everything. He would get cross if someone drove on the wrong side of the road or cut into his lane. He would shout and scold them as if the other person could hear him. Amaka never said anything, she was in awe of him.
Mr Isaac was a happy man. He had been watching Amaka for some time now but he never thought she would be interested in him or even give him the time of day. He had had several sleepless nights thinking of how to lure her into his car and he had expected her to put up more resistance like that useless girl, Bola from the next street who had rejected him repeatedly for so long, only to ask him for money and then had disappeared again when she got it.
Amaka was his type of girl. She was fresh and pure unlike most of these materialistic Abuja girls. He was sure she liked him too. She was rather quiet but that was a good thing. He didn’t like women who talked too much like his wife. That one was always talking, he had sent her away to the village so he could get a break from the talking. Actually, she had given birth to twins and since her mother could not come to the city to assist her, he had sent her to the village to stay with her mother. His plan had been to leave her there just for a few weeks but since Amaka came into his life, he had decided to make it a few months. Let her stay there in the village for now so he could have peace.
Amaka! Amaka! That was all he could think about at the moment. This was definitely love. These days he woke up earlier than usual, taking time to make himself look and smell nice for Amaka. When he wasn’t with her, he was thinking about her. He idly wondered how he could move the relationship from the daily trips to and from the school, to his house and ultimately his bedroom. Amaka was very quiet so it was difficult to know what was in her mind. He hoped an invitation to his home would not put her off but he could not leave it any longer. He really desired to be with Amaka.
One evening after he brought her back from school, Mr Isaac asked Amaka if she would like to visit him in his house. He had some snacks he would like to share with her and there was something he wanted to tell her. To his surprise, she said ‘yes’.
“When can you come?” he asked eagerly.
“I will come around 6pm” she said. “My parents will be going for their prayer meeting by that time”.
Mr Isaac could not believe his good fortune. As soon as he got home, he cleaned his house and bought some suya and drinks while he waited for Amaka. She didn’t disappoint him. At ten minutes past six, there she was, standing at his door looking very different from the school girl he picked up and dropped off every day.
Amaka was excited about her date with Mr Isaac. She knew that eventually he would ask her to visit him and she had been looking forward to it. Even though she had never had a boyfriend, she was well aware what went on between men and women. Some of her friends in school had boyfriends and talked about them and what they did. She couldn’t talk about Mr Isaac because he wasn’t really her boyfriend yet but perhaps, he would soon be.
She was already dressed and waiting before her parents left the house for their prayer meeting. She wore a skirt she took from her elder sister’s ‘box’. It was a very short tight skirt and she noticed that the boys always admired her sister when she wore it. As soon as her parents left the house, she slipped out of the back door while her two sisters washed the plates from their evening meal in the kitchen.
So here she was in Mr Isaac’s house. She had imagined this moment for so long and now she was here with him. As usual she was tongue tied and remained silent. That was okay though because Mr Isaac did the talking for both of them. He brought out the drinks and suya and they sat on the sofa eating and watching the television.
When the food and drinks were gone, Mr Isaac started talking again “You know Amaka, I have loved you for a very long time, even before that day you entered my car. I love everything about you. Will you marry me?”.
Mr Isaac himself was more surprised than Amaka by that last question. What could have possessed him to add that? It was as if he was no longer in control of his tongue. But he had said it now and could not take it back. He quickly followed the words up with action by taking her into his arms.
His words were like music to Amaka’s ears. Exactly what she wanted to hear. She loved him too but was too shy to say it. Since she could not say it, she would show him just how much she loved him. In her heart she had said yes to his proposal and in her mind, they were now engaged, so she did not stop him from doing all he wanted to do with her.
To be Continued
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