Emeka, The Writer and The SSO

Chapter Eleven

It didn't take long for the news to go round and soon everyone knew about it; Emeka, Esua and Effizzy were going to fight for the highest spot in the Local SSO branch. This was, like most things, a blessing and a curse. On one hand it gave me popularity I didn't need, people 'mistakenly' bumped into me while I was walking, they sat next to me when I was in the Back Gardens, rudely interrupting my research. On the other hand many officials refused to give me quotas to complete, in fact I was dismissed from most disciplines and allowed to head to the libraries for further research.

Of course Esua was eating up all the attention. He spent more time pushing the fact that he was fighting for the position of Local Head in other people's faces than doing any actual research. He sat at the table opposite me every time I was in the Back Gardens entertaining large amounts of people, telling them about how he planned to use the 'Chinzu' maneuver, a feat popularized by Chinedu Zimuzor, who was, for the most part, an unimportant speck in the sand of people at the SSO Central Zonal Region — at least until such a competition took place. Chinzu, as he was commonly called, did a full 360, coming out on top with an insurmountable gap of 1,250 points between him and the second place. His work was so good that not only was he elected National Head of the SSO, passing Central Zone Regional Head, his project  was also made the standard for all projects after him.

Effizzy wasn't even concerned about the project for the competition, but unlike Esua, Effizzy could afford to do so. He was literally so well off that he could afford to pay people to do his work for him and not feel a pinch. He spent most of his days hovering around Esua and me, taunting Esua and casting wary glances at me.

I didn't pay much attention to them. I focused solely on my project and three weeks before the date of the competition I completed my project and decided to use the few days remaining to rest. And I was resting quite alright until the day Esua came to my house.

It was 24th January and the cold harmattan had set in after a hot and boring day that I had spent mostly reading a book. I picked up my briefcase, which contained my project and the materials I needed for it, took it from my work room and placed it on the center table in my parlour so I wouldn't forget it as I was leaving for the SSO tomorrow.

I was just finished double checking the things in my briefcase and ensuring that the materials were in it for the third time when I heard a knock on the door. I was startled. It was weird for someone to be knocking on my door. Not because I was someone who didn't like company but rather because my house was so out of the way that the amount of people willing to travel to come and see me were so low it was practically non existent.

At first I thought it was a mistake, that my mind was just playing tricks on me, but when the knocking came again and didn't stop, I was forced to do something about it. Sighing, I looked down at the contents of my briefcase, went through it once more before I shut it and locked it, then I went to open the door.

Esua stood in front of my door, wearing extremely light clothing exposing himself to the harmattan cold. His eyes darted suspiciously around like he was expecting someone to burst out from the bushes that surrounded my house. For a while I stared at him with my mouth wide open, watching him shiver in the cold. A cold wind slipped Esua and wrapped it icy grip around me, bringing me back to reality.

"Esua," I said coming out of my surprise, "What are you doing here at..." I checked the clock to my right,"Almost ten o'clock in the night? Don't you know that it is late?" He didn't answer and stood still at my doorstep shivering. "Esua!" I shouted. "Why are you here?"

The loudness of my voice stopped his train of thought and he suddenly realised where he was. "Oh, I arrived here?" He asked himself almost absent mindedly. Then to me he said, "I guess I just ended up here somehow."

That singular statement put me on guard. No one just 'somehow' ends up at my doorstep. No one just takes a two hour drive from the city to come to the area of the village where I was, and unless you carefully directed the driver to where I lived it was almost impossible to get to where I lived.

We had a short conversation at my door, where he changed his reason for being there at least three times while also pressuring me to let him in. I considered it a while, deciding that his reason for being at my house was enough to let him in. As soon as the words  left my mouth he pushed past me and ran into the parlour, upon entering he promptly collapsed on my couch.

He sighed and put his hand over his eyes. I sat down opposite Esua Nd stared intently at him. He sighed again.

"Ehen," I asked him,"Wetin happen?"

"Chai," he lamented,"If you only knew what happened to me, you would be in the same state as I am." He paused, probably for me to ask him what happened. I didn't. He peeked at me from under his arm, upon seeing that I wasn't going to reply he continued.

"Guy it was mad oh. Last week Effizzy went around inviting everyone to a party at his house. There were flyers and posters he even went as far as to rent a billboard just to advertise the party. He wanted to invite you, but after I told him the direction to your house, he didn't do it again.

"The party started the day before yesterday, in the evening. Or at least that was what they told me. I got there yesterday evening. The party was still going strong almost 36 hours later. I was chilling on a chair, enjoying the music and sipping a drink when  Effizzy came and sat next to me.

"It was wired because I had never seen Effi drunk before. The air was full of alcohol and he began to shift closer and closer to me. We got talking as before I knew it his face was next to mine. I could feel his hot breath on my face as we talked." He shivered then continued. "And then he kissed me. And it wasn't even like it was on my cheek or any thing like that. It was right on the lips." He used his hand to clean his mouth and his face looked traumatized. "I don't know, maybe he was just drunk."

We sat in silence for a while and the story floated around in my head for a while. Part of me was on the fence as to whether or not he was lying. But back then I had thought he had nothing to gain from it. Then a question surfaced in my mind, one that I had to ask. And so I did.

"How sure are you that he was drunk?"

Esua opened his mouth to answer, then it closed, then opened, then closed. Then his eyes widened at the realisation.

I got up from my chair and a cool breeze blew past. "It quite cold," I told him," Maybe you would like some hot tea?" I offered. He nodded.

With one last backwards glance at my briefcase I entered into the kitchen to make some tea. When I came back Esua was gone and so was my brief case.

A/N: Quite a long one, I didn't want to draw out the flash back any more. But don't forget to VOTE, COMMENT, and SHARE.