THE LUSTY MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE BOY

Truly I had been reading this particular book for about three days now, it was so voluminous and didn’t seem to have any end in sight. I sat on my bed with all my attention fixed on the novel, as if it were a necessary textbook recommended for one of my forthcoming examination. This was the third time I was preparing for my West African Senior Secondary School Examination, the other two times, I had failed with relative ease, my result was so shocking that  even my parents were ashamed of presenting it to my uncle who worked at Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) for admission there, and infarct when they got over their shock and shame, and finally presented it to him, he swore with both God and man that if I had scored at least an ‘E’ grade in maths, he would have easily eased me into the system; my parents shook their heads in dismay, they all knew my uncle; he was a master at manufacturing excuses.

Following my string of failures, my results and indeed myself had started to become a family disgrace of sorts, women in the neighbourhood had started pointing at me while expressing their disgust in low tones, Fathers began to ban their Children from moving with me.

No doubt, I was intelligent, but whatever demon which made me fail my exams despite my intelligence was surely something not to be desired or so they all thought.  My parents too had begun to suspect some spiritual under tones to my growing custom of failure, to this effect, they banished me to my room, to the confines of my bed and my books with my only visitors being my two lovely sisters whom despite my academic shortcomings adored me, mainly because of the interesting Facebook dating stories I told them, this of course was against my parent’s wishes.

Today therefore was one of such days when I take a break from the academic books for a quick spell with this romance novel, which had the erotic picture of a muscled young man and a blonde lady kissing themselves as its front cover. Today after three days of feebly resisting the endearing entreaties of the kissing couple, curiosity won over my better sense of judgement and I shoved all my maths books, jotters and notes to one side, just to read the preface of this book. Gradually I flipped it from page to page, telling myself that I was only glancing through, until I was ruptured in the fleecing romance of its pages and thereby lost track of time and appetite for food altogether. Suddenly as if prompted by an unseen voice, I reflexively glanced towards the window with raised curtains. I froze in place, and in a split second, reality hit me in the head, in those few seconds of my life, I saw someone who hypnotised my attention and made my heart stop.

She was tall, very light-skinned, she was the bridge between light-skinned and albino, with a beautiful apple-shaped face, her long hair was parted in the middle and left to cascade down her shoulders, in less than five seconds, her straight legs and steady gait had featured her out of my sight, leaving a sudden emptiness were once I felt no void. My heart gradually regained its rhythm and my tongue instinctively wet my dry lips. I proceeded with my novel, this time positioning myself to face the window with no obstructions in my line of vision, ten minutes later, I flipped the last page of the fourth chapter and decided to keep a vigil for her, this time, without being distracted by the characters of a fictitious romance novel.

Unfortunately however, three hours passed, my anxiety tripled, my fantasies grew bigger and the hopes of her ever passing this way again grew thinner. Surely I’m in a grave dilemma now, a desperation fuelled with curiosity and love. For a fleeting moment, I thought of her as the one I have been saving my virginity for, but quickly discarded the thought before it could fester in my mind. After all, children of God were not allowed to entertain evil concupiscence in their hearts. I resolved to search for her or for her apparition at least. Surely someone would have seen her too and luckily for me, do not also conceive her as his soul mate because I already was hers'; in my head.