The First Time

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

  Kelvin relishes the periods in which the cashew trees were in season as it was a great boost to them the students. It was an advantage to the students, especially in the lodge. It came to serve as a lunch alternative to most of them who could not afford three square meals a day. Even those who could boast of three square meals could not resist the urge to join the bush hunt for the cashew nut juicy fruits. It helped to save most of their lunch money back into their always-lean pulse.     

    On a personal note, Kelvin was among those who benefited more than anyone else. He did not find it funny. He loved fruits. It was among his delicacy. He had to be meticulous when it comes to money and has always been.     

     He knew too well that for the months in which these trees were in their season he made the best of it as he substituted it for his lunch most times. He wasn’t the only one on the same page because most students were not shy to go for cashew fruit-bush-hunt. You will be surprised at the cache of fruits on each hunting expedition. When you see a tree shaking with its branches, do not presume it was the winds, birds, or monkeys. They are evidence of students dangling on the branches. Students climb the trees in the public view of fellow students.     

     It was a thing of pleasure to spend most afternoon periods after lectures on top of a cashew tree with ripe fruits dangling all around you.     

     Before long a club was born. A club for boys called the Cashew boys’ club― it was a free admission club. You can only be a member if you’re a lover of cashew fruits. Your regular presence is welcomed on the trees with your books. Your books must accompany you as a mandatory requirement. Voluntary efforts were encouraged by each member to introduce new members to the club.     

     One favorite place of voluntary meeting was in front of the library. These are peculiar for Kelvin. He spends most of his time too in the library. Between his reading sessions, he would stroll out of the building to hang out on the trees with his colleagues. When the library had closed for the day, some lecture hall blocks had dozens of such trees. These were decorated with the endless yellowish and greenish color of the ripe and unripe fruits in their bunches.     

     The club lasted as long as the fruits and their season lasted. A spirit of comradeship soon developed among the members. It would not be a surprise if a member makes inquiries during the lectures period asking whether the others would make it to the meeting as usual. The need to make plans ahead cannot be over-emphasized. Thus, the importance of passing information to the regular members was a necessity. At the meetings, the welfare of other members who were absent at the previous meetings was also made known to those who care to find out. At a point, the meeting point soon became a rallying ground for discussing important issues. The topic ranges from the fruits to polities, sports, education and whatever the latest in the news was. Trending news points in the dailies are always hot issues to deliberate upon. The library was always stocked with current news daily-making around the country.     

     The beautiful cool shades provided by the trees were another reason why the club attracted many members. All around these trees were wooden seats brought from the lecture classrooms to accommodate the teeming members of the club. The timing for the club meeting was set and coincided with yet another activity that each member enjoys as well. When the sun might have gone down, everybody knows what time it is―time to have some fun. Time to play the master-of-all-sports―the football game.     

     Before the time comes by, most of the members would go home to their respective place of domicile to change into their appropriate dress of shorts. In so many cases, in other not to miss the first game selection, some who wore their boxers would immediately shed their clothes for the game. If you are not a lover of football games don’t find this ridiculous. You never knew what it means to those who love it. For a football game on the spot, one should always be ready.     

     The heartwarming part of the activity of the club was the unending drama and jokes they made about each other. It is a humorous line for members to always question each member on why he was always found reading his books under the cashew nut trees.     

     “These boys, I wonder what your parents would be thinking of. They would think you are married to your books here. Unknown to them you’re only married to the cashew tree,” Emeka would mock his fellow members.     

     “I don’t blame you. Imagine someone who calls himself a serious student. You're pretending to read your books. Your eyes are always up the trees for a yellow fruit,” Daniel replied.     

     “Hey, look at that fat one over there. I beg someone should help me with a stick to pluck it,” Samuel called out.   

      “Let me pluck it for you, dear,” Samson suggested as his eyes roved over the uppermost sections of the tree.   

     “Sorry dear, I don’t need to trust a Monkey with a bunch of bananas,” replied Samuel as he made his way up the tree.     

    “I wouldn’t like to observe you committing suicide just because of that fruit at the fringe of the tree. Simple, let it be someone else to save you the pain of crashing to the ground,” Samson chipped in with humor.   

   “Longer throat, don’t forget that you should by now be having your lunch but you’re up there in the tree,” Samuel fired back.     

     When a member is absent for some time for any reason, seeing him again will elicit some interrogative questioning. It was a normal routine to pick on him.     

     “Hey Onwa, what do you think you are coming here to do, enhh?” Ifeanyi cried out on sighting the object of his attack, Onwa.     

     “Does that mean your parents had forgotten that you are in school to have sent you back empty-handed?” Nnamdi re-echoed it.     

     “Don’t mind the guy. I saw him coming back yesterday with enough Ghana-must-go bags filled up with foodstuffs. When he brought out his wallet to pay the Okada man... he was a smelling-mint-of-hard-currency,” Uchenna insinuated.     

     “You cashew boys, I’ am aware that the number of the ripe fruits had remained the same since I left them. Let me warn every one of you that I've been counting all the ripe fruits from my hometown,” Onwa replied. “I took count of them all,”     

     “Yes! Hurry boy, you never land from your travel, and your eyes don dey hot for trees, abi?” Peter quarried him hotly in pidgin English.     

      “Everything he thinks about these days is cashew fruit all through. He will soon change his name to cashew fruit and not Onwa―the moon,” that was Ikechukwu’s voice as everyone laughed.     

      “Una no-go go eat better food for the house. Every morning cashew. Every afternoon cashew. Every night cashew, haba!” Onwa replied as he climbed the tree. “You," pointing at Marcus who crutched in corner of the tree reading his books with a bunch of ripe fruits dangling in front of him, "the way you dey carry book climb up the tree. Are you sure it’s the book or cashew fruit you’re after?”     

     “Never mind him, he pretends to be reading whereas he is documenting the number of ripe cashew nut fruit on the tree,” Okonma added.     

     “Onwa, how far now? Wetin you carry come back for the boys?” Charles asked. The newcomer Onwa deliberately avoided the question.     

     “I beg you to let me be. Make I taste this ripe fruit first before I answer you,” replied Onwa as he launched at a ripe fruit.       

     “Onwa don’t tell us you didn’t come back with anything. Or are you saying that your girlfriend had w**d zapped everything,” Samson added.     

     “You think I am the likes of Samuel. Who always account to his girlfriend every dime he receives from his guardians?” Onwa objected.     

     “You better fix up that your mouth. Where did you sleep last night?” replied Samuel.     

     “Myself?” Onwa asked a rhetorical question. 

     “Yes, was it not in your girls’ apartment?”

     “You must be joking,”

     “Well, good a thing you talk what you know best. Let me tell you, you slept in your girls’ lodge last night and your girls’ room No. is D12. She answers Nkechi Akwarandu. Do you think no one saw you when you sneaked out early in the morning?”     

     It was obvious that the cashew fruit trees were a rallying point. Yet, it was a thing of surprise that not all members knew exactly where the other members are coming from. Most of the members rarely knew much about each other except on some occasions when something so sensitive happens. Or something that has to do with their respective place of domicile came into the front-line of discussion.     

     “Boy, e bi like say you are too close to my tails,” Onwa replied saving face.     

     “So Onwa, you meant to say that you’d given everything you came back with to your girlfriend for keeps?” Samson pushed further not relenting.     

     “See that little girl hawking boiled groundnut. We wouldn’t mind doing with that.” Charles pointed out. He wasted no time calling the girl over.     

     “How much are you selling the groundnut?” Onwa immediately asked the young girl as she approaches. He made for his wallet and brought out wades of Naira notes. He finally ended up buying some boiled groundnut for the members present.  The action received loud applauds. He was hailed by all. They all have a way of making each other feel high and willing to go a little further with his or her ego already inflated with pride.

     “Onwa na you biko-kwa o,” echoed Uchenna as he received his own package of the boiled groundnut in a small nylon bag.     

    “You are the aka ekpuchi-onwa,” (Meaning the moon that can never be obscured with palms) cried Ifeanyi.     It was not long; the club started receiving some female members. These girls got attracted to the club for the same reasons as were their male members. Some of them it turned out were the girlfriends of the male members. Since some of these girls are shy and could not climb, except for the few among them that dared the climbing phobia. It became the obligation of the male members to feed the female members by plucking the fruits for them.