The story of Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi continued

A good owambe party requires a decent band, a vivacious crowd, and large quantities of food and drink, all in an effort to declare ‘surplus’ for all. The Adetayo compound in Bodija estates of Ibadan had all this, and more.  The older guests were restrained, yet their age proved no barrier to the afforded enjoyment.

        It was a clear night, and in the sky above the full moon lit up the night skies and shone down enveloping the compound in a surreal shimmer.  In the center clearing the dancing was in full swing, and the crowd obediently gyrated rhythmically to the beatings of the drum, and just as a waves rising to their peaks and then crashing to the shore in bubbling surf, the dancers would rise and alternately bow down towards the ground in a graceful sweeping motion.  The dance floor was full, but not to the point of being a crush.  For some reason one could not help but feel that some of the dancers were present for that express purpose, and for the ‘spraying’ of naira bills on their foreheads that this opportuned.

For the most part, Jide and his small entourage of friends kept to a table by themselves.  Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi sat silent in no mood to dance.  He was content to continue in the role of an observer, except this time  at closer quarters. As he watched the younger dancers with interest, he noted the beauty of the fairer sex and was affected by their charms.  However, he could not escape the thought that beside the beautiful Bola no one there could hold up a candle to her beauty, not even his lover Yetunde.

As a matter of course, all good times must come to an end, and so must the bad times and mediocre ones.  In spite of Tokunbo's attempts to the contrary, the weekend had continued under the dark cloud of loss occasioned by the absence of Bola.  By the time Yetunde had been safely returned to her campus, it had become obvious that her lover had undergone a change of heart.  Of course, he was in no hurry to announce his disillusionment to her; such words, that can occasion much pain, and cannot easily be retracted- so foolish he was not.  And, as such, he said nothing to his lover either way.  On the one hand, he made no further efforts to encourage her in love and in all its associated banalities, and allusions, to their ‘future life together’; on the other hand, he was careful to not discourage her love, for fear that he might lose a love so pure and so hard gained.  On their return to Ife he had dismissed her with a peremptory kiss on her cheek, and  he had declined to escort her upstairs to her room, on the grounds of being in a hurry to make it to Lagos before dark.  Her eyes had eagerly searched his looking for an explanation but all she had met was a blank face, as clean as an unused slate, not betraying even a hint of the emotions that raged in his soul.

Finally, alone, and at peace, he took stock of his situation in the relative tranquility of his car.  By the time he pulled into the backyard of his flat in Ikeja he had made a decision, and this was the only honorable thing he could do: he would continue with his suit to Yetunde, fully aware of the increasing desire he nursed in his soul, as an unquenchable thirst, for the beautiful Bola.  

Mrs Toyin Ajayi senior satisfies her curiosity:

Later on in the week on the Tuesday following the return from Ife Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi presented himself at his mother’s house in his customary manner.

The place for him was set, and his mother had cooked a vegetable soup which was served with garri.  They were seated opposite each other on the dining table; and when the son was not paying attention the mother would  lovingly look over at her son.  The more she looked, she was convinced that she could see the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes, and she sensed a heightened degree of nervousness in him.

“Ah, you came from Ife just now, give me news about the beautiful Yetunde.”

He did not answer directly, then after a pause, he said, “Why mother, she does well, we were in Ibadan over the weekend for Chief Adetayo’s birthday, it was a nice weekend.”

“Yes, Chief Adetayo, as flamboyant as ever, I am quite sure.  Now, Jide I have not seen in a long time.”

“Jide does well, mother.  Now you ask me about Yetunde, and to tell you the truth I think I do not deserve her..”

His mother looked up from her glass of water, and knew this was the source of the trouble.

“Nonsense, of all the excuses I ever heard for why a relationship is passé, the excuse of she is too good for me seems to be the most lame.”

“Mother, I assure you, I most certainly do not deserve her, this girl is young and inexperienced.  I think I would do better with someone with some maturity and experience.”

“I think I quite do not follow you, I would have thought that you would be extolling her virtue of innocence, instead I find you holding it against her as some form of vice or shortcoming.  How strange the world is be- coming, I cannot pretend to follow your train of thought.”

He shrugged his shoulders and decided that his mother would not understand, indeed could not understand, and that she never would.

“Never mind mother, it is a passing thought; we are still together, a happily assembled unit all thanks to you and auntie.  Of course we are happy, but with time, the intensity of the emotion must fade slightly, I think that is the natural course of events.  No longer do I imagine her to be perfect, nor does she imagine me, having seen to bear my short temper this weekend.”

“You have had your first quarrel?”

“Hardly a quarrel, more a misunderstanding. It was that I had invited her and her room mate to Ibadan for the party, only to find out when I had arrived that the room mate had gone to London for the weekend, and I felt quite illused as she had promised to accompany us to Ibadan.” He continued, “And of course, I was quite upset, and she saw that I am quite inflexible, but in a good way.”

His mother smiled as she could imagine her son’s reaction to the affront, “Yes, I can see you reacting to that.”

From his mothers house he drove to visit Mr. Olumide, his older friend, and after they had settled down to a glass of cognac, and whilst puffing on a Cuban cigar he decided to come down upon the subject which was the real reason for his visit.

“I have a friend who is in trouble and I wanted to ask you your opinion.  Now you see this friend of mine was introduced to a very nice and young lady earlier in the year, and from what I saw he fell deeply in love with the girl and asked for her hand in marriage; not from her parents, mind you, this was a secret engagement.  In any case, as time goes by he meets a friend of the girl, and to his utter dismay he finds that not only is she more beautiful than the first, but she is also more charming, and he finds himself thinking of the new girl all the time, yet he never tells his fiancée about it.  Now the question I pose to you is what should I tell my friend to do?”

Mr. Olumide thought hard and long, and then he answered, “I would think your friend quite a cad of a man, surely he must have more imagination than to be falling in love with his fiancées best friend?”

“Is that not an oversimplification? Is it possible to love two women equally at the same time?”

“What a question you pose to me! Love two women at the same time? Can a man be slave of two masters?  Either he will love the one more or the other.  Yet in our culture, theoretically speaking a man loves all his wives equally; whereas we all know that in fact he does not, he will always prefer the one over the other, because her personality agrees with him, or one is more beautiful etc.  So the answer I will give to you is no, a man can not love two women equally any more than he can be a slave of God and mammon.”

“ It is so interesting that you say that, for that is exactly what I told him myself, however, he said that that still did not help him to decide and he insists that he is in love with both.”

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