The First Time

Chapter 14

  Chapter 14

  “Aricoco, listen to me, there’s something the likes of you always think whenever it has to do with the boy-girl issue. You’ve got a poor mindset that everything about it has to do with s*x. No! And I’d never seen where such an innocent visit is regarded as questionable conduct except if you already had a wrong intent. I see no reason why your sarcastic comments could in any way make me feel otherwise,” Kelvin added.

     “For God's sake, why is Kelvin explaining things to this randy father. It’s Aricoco who is the biggest pretender,” Alaska was annoyed with Aricoco. “He is the spiritual Daddy in his church. Does everyone not know what it means to be a Daddy in a church...Girls Daddy eh?”

     “Don’t mind him, foolish boy. He pretends he’s religious while he deceives the girls. Tell me what you do with Chinwe every night she comes into your apartment. Would you say you hadn’t been touching her? You wolf in a sheepskin!” Eme was more revealing.

     “Do you think it is an easy task to be appointed as a Daddy in the church?” Aricoco tried to defend himself. He was shocked at the way everyone came hard on him. “If you talk about Chinwe, was Bukas not always around whenever she comes,”

     “See your life. Ha-ha-ha. Do you think nobody knows what the game the two of you play with her? Any time she comes in, Bukas would deliberately move out of the room to give you room to do what’s on your dirty mind. I wonder if the Pastor or Father who gave you that title was not doing the same more than you do,” It was Eme’s voice this time.

     “So even you Eme. You’d equally joined Kelvin’s crew of supporters,” Aricoco was beginning to lose his voice.

     “Yes. Tell anybody who cares that I said so. Though we’re in the same church as Catholics, you’re a totally immoral character. A true clandestine hypocrite,” replied Eme was fiery in his outburst.

     Kelvin pondered, there’s nothing wrong with the visit, was there? They were two in number. They had gone to see the girls and not a girl. Kristor went to collect textbooks from her. He was able to collect some assignments from the girl in the presence of the girls’ roommate. The girl requested him, as her friend to assist her in solving some of the assignments.

     Aricoco got more than he had bargained for. He soon became gravely quiet.

Kelvin was surprised at how everyone rallied behind him. But what he could not really discern was the real motive why they individually did so. Were they just capitalizing on the open opportunity to expose the deceptive and immoral lifestyles of Aricoco? Were they saying in effect that he really was innocent of whatever Aricoco had meant by his insidious comments? That was an assignment for his self-examination.

     He tried to find out what could have possibly prompted that early morning attack. Could it be that Kristor had a wrong motive for paying such a visit? Could it be that Kristor narrated about the visits in a rather compromising way that the role he played seemed to have become that one of a compromise? Kelvin was fraught with deep searching thoughts. He made the decision never to accompany any of them to any girls’ apartment no matter what. Never-ever! Yes, if that would save him the embarrassment by some misconstruing an innocent visit to a girl-apartment for something he had not in mind. Yes, he can bear to live with that.

     The incident brought him to the fore that he was been watched for a slip. And he must have to stand tall, with his shoulders high if he wants to avoid slipping.

Yet his decision didn’t go well with all.

     “Kelvin, it’s not impressive of you not to visit people in their apartments. Does your Congregation people forbid that?” a girl had once asked him.

     Had he taken his position unnecessarily beyond the limit? Was he being overly conservative and unknowingly hurting some people’s feelings? He pondered seriously with himself.                                                                                     “Kelvin, you don’t ask after me at all. You don’t seem to care,” still came another girl within a space of one week.

     “Unless we remind you by paying you a visit, you wouldn’t be touched to call on us,” Kinson and Dave said in unanimous. They had come to check on him one Sunday evening. These were his two special friends.

     This is really serious. It’s no longer coming from the girls, this time from his fellow male colleagues. What could be wrong? Had he gone beyond the limits just because he was slowly making himself inaccessible!

                                                                               KRISTOR

     Kristor first came to the lodge one midday with his two luggage. Kelvin was outside doing his cooking when he arrived. Kelvin noticed he’d been standing unnecessarily in front of the room apartment occupied by the dual of Mekus and Peter. He offered him a seat which he appreciated. He strikes up a conversation with him. Kelvin soon realized that he knew his mission well―a new member of the lodge had arrived.

     It turned out that he would be living with the dual; Mekus and Peter as roommates, making them three in a room. Moments later, Peter emerged from the room to acknowledge him. Before long Mekus who had gone out came back. Kristor was formally ushered into their one-room apartment as a bonafide member and of course the lodge. Mekus had paid the full amount of the room. He now had the right to usher in anyone he wants. They paid him the full amount he demanded from each person.

     At first, Peter was angry at the fact that Mekus could bring in someone else into their room to live with them without his formal knowledge. He felt slighted by such an arbitrary action on the part of Mekus. For a period of time, he found it hard to communicate with Kristor not even to trust him. His relationship with his kinsman Mekus was even made worse. With the passage of time, he soon got over it though reluctantly. It was only when he discovered Kristor actually was not an odd fellow as he had earlier thought.

     The change of mind was prompted by the fact that Kristor soon became the bridge between him and Mekus. Kristor and Kelvin became pals too. Peter had no other option than to forget about his entire antagonist attitude towards the new boy. All things been equal, they were simply boys.

     Kristor was drawn to Kelvin because he found him quite different and more enlightened than the rest of the boys around. To him, Kelvin has a knack for discipline and decorum. He was academically stable. It was something every right-thinking student always looks out for a friend as a path to success.

    They became friends having almost everything in common from food to finance. Though they lived in separate rooms, they would have been better off had the two been staying together in a single-room apartment. They budget whatever they want to do together from food to books. Kristor was the kind of person Kelvin admires in spite of all odds. Kristor had his own failings, desires, and interest which don’t blend with Kelvins’. Still, he was respectful of his views and stance even admiring his faith which he was already well informed with from the place he came from. He spends a deal of time-consuming quite a great deal of the religious books which had served as Kelvin’s hallmark in the lodge.

      Not everyone was happy. There was the feeling that Kristor should be under their tutelage. Kristor was a man of his own. He chooses to pitch his camp with Kelvin even though the likes of Mekus, Iyke had preferred he would be better off friends with them than with Kelvin. It was a surprising thing that Kristor had the interest in joining Kelvin’s side of the borderline.

     Kristor was an easygoing kind of person that finds himself warmly receptive to people. He must have been told a lot about Kelvin’s kind of aloofness to most of the things they do in the lodge which to Kelvin are not worth being called fun. But Kristor soon found out that Kelvin was all the same right in sticking to his views. It dawned on him that most of the boys had not had any real social life exposure. A crop of them had come from their respective rural communities. They were gradually coming to terms with the social ethics that has to do with a sense of responsibility and maturity. This was not meant to berate them anyway but the n***d truth.

     Kristor was happy when he noted Kelvin’s songwriting talents, his artistic prowls, and his knack for being creative with ideas which he shares. Kristor needed no divination to tell him he had met the right pen pal. Kelvin too was thrilled to know that Kristor was a creative kind of person too.

     Even though Kristor was his senior by age, they blended together like mates and share common secrets. They soon found themselves much inseparable from each other. They would leave home for school together, even though they were not in the same faculty, they would get back together.

     Kristor caught the attention of the girls in the lodge who found him a distraction from unresponsive Kelvin. Kelvin would not bulge to their quest or show any sign of interest in intimate relationships.

    The competition for him became a rat race to watch.

First, it was Oge, a slender-average-fair-complexion-looking girl. The girl was in serious search of a boyfriend and became interested in Kristor for a relationship. She made it a point of duty to be seeing him though shyly. Their meeting point came to be at Kolia’s room. It happened to be the only room of the main building close to their part of the boys’ quarter.

     The whole scene had started as usual; you know. There was this orientation prevalent among the girls. A good number of them had this notion that the boys are more academically stable compared to the girls. And as such many of them resort to the mad rush for a boyfriend who comes in handy during the examination period as an assist. There was that lack of self-confidence on the part of the girls. They lacked the will to be able to pull through the rigorous pressure of their academics come the examination proper. There was this unfounded fear that they would fail academically. Working hard to face their fears was rarely ever an option to be considered. A boyfriend who would assist them in scaling through successfully in exchange for pleasure was adopted.