Two Princes and a choice

Chapter Twenty-four

Tan was leaning against the low wall watching Hayley give directions to a Hausa man. He had approached them in his grey robe saying don Allah ka taimake ni. He had been surprised that she had understood Hausa, not much of the Yoruba citizens of Oduduwa knows and can speak the Arewan language fluently. He turned and looked at the street below. It was evening and the wind was very breezy. The sun had sunk almost completely out of sight and the sky was darkening. They had practically toured Molete, Challenge and Ring road and had had a late lunch at a diner and came back to Molete to wait for Hayley’s friend. She had called them and apologized for not coming she had to rush home to get some things for the sick boy and prepare lunch for him as well. He turned back to them.

‘Ina bukatar ganin ‘yata,’ the Hausa was saying but he couldn’t hear what Hayley told him. She was pointing in directions, her mouth moving. ‘Ina cikin sauri ne’ he nodded and Tan guessed she asked if he was in haste. She pointed in another direction, her face serious. The breeze was tossing her braids against her face. ‘Wannan shawara ce mai kyau,’ he said smiling and thanked her.

‘Barkan ka da zuwa,’ she replied smiling back.

The Hausa man turned to Tan and said ‘tana da kyau.’

He saw her face grew dark with colour, ‘na yarda da kai.’ He said he agreed.

He turned back to Hayley and said to her, ’gayen bai da hayaniya.’

Tan saw her shrug as if to say I don’t know if that’s true. She came to his side after he had left. ‘The guy is right I’m cool - and handsome.’

She shrugged again.

‘I didn’t know you could speak Hausa and so fluently, where did you learn it? There isn’t much who speaks it except for the Hausa people here.’

‘My mum is a sucker for Linguistics so I know at least two languages apart from English and Yoruba and it’s a language of one of my friends.’

‘Is that a boy as well?’ he teased.

She smiled and shook her head, he smiled as well.

‘What did you tell the man?’

‘He was asking for directions to his daughter’s house according to him she just gave birth and I gave him directions.’

‘How sure are you with your directions? You said you haven’t been here for many years.’

‘I have a great sense of recollection.’

He snorted in disbelief.

‘It’s true; I remember things a lot Waldorf call me a German machine.’

He looked at her. ‘Are you talking about the late former financial minister?’

She nodded. ‘Yeah, do you know him?’

‘He was my father’s friend. How do you know him?’

‘I worked for him.’

They relapsed into a companionable silence staring up at the darkening sky then Hayley remembered something.

‘Has any message come in yet?’ she asked him.

‘Not yet, why are you so anxious to leave? It isn’t that I’m maltreating you.’

‘I’m just worried that you are going to be a ritualist,’ she retorted.

He chuckled and she laughed along tucking flying braids behind her ears.

‘What about your phone? Is it working?’

‘I’ve tried to turn it on but it’s not doing so but I’ll give it to Darryl he would know what to do.’

‘Is Darryl a phone repairer?’

‘Something like that, he wants to be an engineer.’

He watched her; she was wearing a thoughtful look that made her look impossibly cute. ‘What are you thinking about?’

‘Nothing, just about life,’ she shrugged. She was thinking of her family, Taiwo she had been disappointed in her and more than angry. Human selfish attitude was so frustrating.

‘What about life?’ he probed.

‘Nothing,’ she looked up at him and flashed him a false smile but a pretty smile nonetheless.

Knowing he won’t get more out of her he asked. ‘How is your ankle?’ they had been walking most of the time and she had being half limping half walking. He had offered thrice to carry her but she had declined.

Hayley was grateful for the change in subject. ‘It’s not hurting as before and I can limp gracefully on it,’ she joked smiling wide.

He smiled back. ‘If it’s hurting tell me.’

‘So what you can take out the bone and use it for ritual?’ she teased.

Tan laughed, she was the first girl that made him laugh. Other girls had but he had laughed at their pettiness with sarcasm and cynicism. He had this sardonic smile that mirrored his fixed expectation of pettiness and flirtation from girls. But she hadn’t flirted with him since they had met, didn’t seem amazed by his handsomeness as if it was an everyday thing for her to see a handsome guy. Though he seemed a little disturbed that she wasn’t giving him attention that girls normally do when they saw him. But he thought it was cool to be with a girl and look at her without being cynical.

He liked that he wasn’t having an effect on her that would make her coy and flirty.

He thought of Aisha, she too was a different sort of girl. Cold, overbearing condescending haughty prim and proper Aisha who was born and trained as a queen. She was cold while Hayley was warm. His mother too was a different sort, a control freak but warm nonetheless and she wasn’t anywhere near a simpering ninny. His aunt Tabitha was much more like Hayley fun to be with, warm and kind.

‘Aren’t you going home? It’s almost sunset.’ She asked breaking through his thoughts.

‘So who would receive calls for you? Let’s enjoy the sunset do more.’ He told her and folded his arms.

‘You don’t strike me as a nature lover.’ She told him.

‘Really? Who do I strike you as?’ he asked.

‘More of a party lover,’ she smiled a tucked braids behind her ears with both hands.

‘I’m not,’ he told her.

‘Yes but you are a misogynist, a cynic, a sarcastic guy and very sardonic,’ she listed.

He laughed. ‘I don’t hate girls I like my mum and my aunt Tabitha,’ he told her.

‘Ah ha,’ she nodded slowly and clicked her tongue thoughtfully. ‘But you don’t like ladies.’

‘I find them boring and too easy to read,’ he confessed. ‘So what type of person are you?’

‘A person that is about to die from want of cake.’

He snorted in disbelieve.

‘It’s true; when I came here it was one of my wish to eat Ibadan cake.’

‘What’s special about Ibadan cake?’

‘I heard that it’s far more delicious than Lagos’.’ She made an ok sign.

‘Really? You’ve been to Ibadan before why haven’t you eaten it?’

‘Because of my mum. She told me not to eat cakes and sugar otherwise my teeth will decay and fall off.’

He looked at the teeth in question, it was white and perfect. ‘And you believed her?’

‘Why won’t i? I was five and the way she said it was scary and I don’t want any of my teeth to fall off.’

‘You should have asked for proof.’

‘I don’t need too, a classmate of mine had toothache and gumboil and she didn’t come to school for three weeks. Then some officials came to teach us about proper teeth hygiene and some of the charts they showed had people with extremely brown teeth.’ She shuddered ‘it was frightening, they said don’t eat sugar and cakes and I practically started to run away from them.’

‘So now you wanna rebel?’

She nodded. ‘I think I’m old enough to be able to take care of my teeth properly.’

‘So you want to eat Ibadan cake, why?’

‘Because they have the best caterers and we in Lagos don’t. I think we are going to see the best at the Prince’s welcome back gala on September nineteen.’

‘Are you going?’

‘If my parents are wealthy and influential then yes but they are not. Are you?’

He ignored her question. ‘I thought your friend Darryl is rich can’t you follow.’

‘Maybe but I’d rather be working. So what did you like to do?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘Because I’m curious what type of person are you?’

He sighed and thought for a while. ‘I like being alone, hate simpering girls, I like the colour blue, I love my aunt’s cooking and that’s all.’

She looked at him surprised. ‘That’s all?’ he nodded. ‘What about football? Basketball?’

‘I don’t like them.’

‘Don’t all boys love them?’

He gave her a look that says do I look like all boys.

‘You don’t like any sports.’

‘Is teasing counted as a sport?’ he asked and she gave him an incredulous look. ‘Then no. ’He took a sip of his Sprite.

‘You really are different, you don’t like anything else. You should think.’

He thought for a while, had on his chin. ‘I think I like the beach at sunset and I – ‘he bit on his bottom lip wondering if he should say it. He decided to say it. ‘I think I like you.’ When she gave him a quizzical look added. ‘You are easy to be with; I mean you are different from other girls I’ve met and I don’t have to waste time and brain power plotting how to best escape from your simpering-ness.’

She burst into laughter and he laughed along, perhaps that was how he felt and he was the one mixing it up. Face it even if he ever got to like a girl he can never date not while he’s still a prince, sometimes he wished he was poor or somewhere in the middleclass with parents who respect your wishes. Well, he was not born that way so he just had to relax and enjoy today with this delightful girl.