Love in trial

MORNING 2

Lunle:: Sidi, a man must prepare to fight alone, but it helps if he has a woman

to stand by him, a woman who... can understand... like you

Sidi:: I do?

Lunle:: Sidi, my love will open your mind

like the chaste leaf in the morning, when the sun first touches it

Sidi:: lf you start that l will run away

l had enough of that nonsense yesterday.

Lunle:: Nonsense? nonsense? do you hear? does anybody listen? can the stone bear to listen to this? do you call it nonsense that l poured the waters of my soul to wash your feet?

Sidi:: you did what!!

Lunle:: Wasted! wasted! Sidi, my heart

Bursts into flowers with my love

but you, you and the dead of the village

Trample it with feet of ignorance

Sidi:: ( shakes her head in bafflement)

if the snail finds splinters in his shell

he changes house

why do you stay?

Lunle:: Faith, Because l have faith

oh Sidi, vow to me your own undying love

and l will scorn the jibes of these bush minds who know no better. swear, sidi

swear you will be my wife and l will stand against earth, heaven, and the nine hells...

Sidi:: Now there you go again

one little thing

and you must chirrupl like a cockatoo

you talk and talk and deafen me

with words which always sounds the same and make no meaning

I've told you, and l say it again

l shall marry you today, next week or any day you name

but my bride priceust first be paid

aha, now you turn away,

but l tell you, lakunle, l must have the full bride price, will you make me a laughing stock? well, do as you please

but sidi will not make herself a cheap bowl for a village spit.

Lunle:: on my head let fall their scorn

Sidi:: they will say l was not a virgin

that l was forced to sell my shame

and marry you without a price

Lunle:: A savage custom, barbaric, out dated, rejected, denounced, accursed, Excommunicated, unspeakable, redundant

Sidi:: is the bag empty? why did you stop?

Lunle:: l own only the storter companion

Dictionary, but l have ordered the longer one you wait!

Sidi:: just pay the price.

Lunle:: ( with a sudden shout)

sn ignoble custom, infamous, ignominious our heritage before the world

Sidi l do not seek a wife

to fetch and carry, to cook and scrub

To bring forth children by the gross...

Sidi:: Heaven forgive you! do you now scorn child bearing in a wife?

Lunle:: of course l do not. l only mean..

oh Sidi, l want to wed, because l love,

l seek a life companion...

( Pulpit declamatory)

and the man shall take the woman

and the two shall be together as one flesh.

Sidi, l seek a friend In need

an equal partner in my race of life.

Sidi:: ( attention no more. deeply engrossed in counting the beads on her neck)

Then pay the price

Lunle:: ignorant girl, can you not understand?

to pay the price would be

to buy a heifer off the market stall

you'd be my chattel, my mere property

no, sidi ( very tenderly)

when we are wed, you shall not walk or sit tethered, as if we're, to my dirtied heels. together we shall sit at table

not on the floor and eat, not with fingers, but with knives and forks and breakable plates

like civilized beings

l will not have you wait on me, till l have dinner my fill.

no wife of mine , no lawful wedded wife shall eat the leavings off my plate

that is for the children.

l want to walk beside you in the street,

side by side and arm in arm

just like the Lagos couple l have seen

high heeled shoe for the lady, red paint on her lips, and for her hair is stretched like a magazine photo. l will teach you the ways and we will both learn the foxtrot and we'll spend the weekend in night clubs at lbadan

oh l must show you the grandeur of the towns we'll live there if you like or merely pay visits.

so choose. be a modern wife, look me in the eye and give me a little kiss.... like this

( kisses her)

Sidi:: ( back away )

no, don't l tell you l dislike

This strange unhealthy mouthing you perform. everytime, your action deceives me

making me think that you are merely wish to whisper something in my ear

Then come this licking of my lips with yours

it's so unclean. and then,

the sound you make '

out'

are you being rude to me?

Lunle:: ( wearily) it's never any use

bush girl you are, bush girl you'll always be

civilized and primitive bush girl

l kissed you as all education men and Christmas kiss their wives

it is the way of civilized romance

Sidi:: ( lightly) a way you mean, to avoid payment of lawful bride price

a cheating way, mean and miserly

Lunle:: ( violently) it is not

( sidi bursts out laughing, Lunle changes his tone to a soulfuy one, both eyes dreamily shut)

Romance is the sweetening of the soul

with fragrance offered by the stricken heart.

Sidi:: ( looks at him in wonder for a while)

away with you. the village says you're mad, and l begin to understand

l wonder that they let you run the school, you and your talk. you'll ruin your pupils too

and then they'll madness just like you ( noise off stage)

there are people coming

Give me the bucket or they'll jeer

( enter a crowd of youths and drummers, the girls being in various stages of excitement)

First girl:: Sidi, he has returned. he came back just as he said he would

Sidi:: who has?

First girl:: the stranger. the man from the outside world

the clown who fell in the river for you

( they all burst out laughing)

Sidi:: the one who rode on the devil's own horse?

Second girl:: yes, the same. the stranger with the one eyed box.

( she demonstrate the action of a camera amidst admiring titter )

Third girl:: and he brought his new horse right into the village square this time. one has only two feet, you should have seen him B_r_r_r

( runs around the platform driving an imaginary motor bike)

Sidi:: And has he brought...?

First girl:: the image? he brought them all . there was hardly any part of the village which does not show in the book

( click the imaginary shutter)

Sidi:: the book? did you see the book?

that would bestow upon me

beauty beyond the dreams of a goddess?

for so he said

the book which would announced

this beauty to the world...

have you seen it

Third girl:: yes, yes, he did, but the Bale is still feasting his eyes on the images of, sidi, he was right. you are beautiful. on the cover of the book is an image of you from here ( touches the top of her head) to here ( her stomach) and in the middle leaves, from the beginning of the one leaf right across to the end of another, is one of you from head to toe, Do you remember it? lt was the one for which he made you stretch your arms towards the sun. ( repturosly) oh, Sidi, you looked as if, at that moment, the sun himself had been your lover. ( they all gasp with pretended shock at this blasphemy and one slaps her playfully on the buttocks)

First girl:: the Bale is jealous, but he pretends to be proud of you. and when this man tells him how famous you are in the capital, he pretends to be pleased, saying how much honour and the fame you have brought to the village