There was already someone waiting at the station when he got there. The man asked him about the routes, he explained politely, in detail, as though it were quite an interest of his. Well, he didn’t know this man and no he wasn’t charmed by the man’s grey eyes and unnecessary smile. He nodded, smiled back and fell into a vague pensiveness, hands in pocket as he strode into the empty street. He himself was uncertain what the final outcome of the day might be, what really he might have to do, but the piece of iron in his pocket was there, cold and ready.
He crossed the intersection at 11th and went south. There was a dangerous quality to him, square-jawed, handsome, offering some unspecified challenge. He could have been an off duty soldier, nervily alone, counting on build, raw reckless strength and his close-cropped head.
When he first met Bell 2 weeks ago, she asked him “are you in the navy?” he said “no” with a guarded smile that irritated her. When she squinted and looked away he felt a tug in his heart. A certain something he had never felt before. He agreed with himself that this was Love beginning.
It was his first time at a Naming Ceremony. A colleague at the CD shop he worked in had begged him to come along. He had been feeling out of place until Bell came with her ‘Navy’ question and later introduced herself. Bell’s cousin Toyosi, who was father of the new born, sort of pranced about, forcing more drinks and food on the guests. Carl admired the fact that it was custom for them to throw a party for their 8-day-old babies. The fact that the baby is welcomed to the world with a bang and is named at a public party.
Carl had lived through 3 foster homes where home was really mere shelter, meagre meals and- for 2 of the homes- a hand that came to grope at night. He had learnt to fight it off by going to bed with a fork in hand.
Soaked in Campari and Vodka, He and Bell made out that night by the shade. He fingered her. That was what he did. He fingered her and she moaned and moaned till spit got caught in her throat and she began coughing. He chuckled mostly while she gave him a hand job. It was ticklish but besides that it didn’t do much for him, being a veteran wanker himself.
Now, however, he walked past the street that had the church in it. The church itself was tiny but the street was wide and clean and lined with trees that stood away from each other and waved with the indifference of rich neighbours. He had a recall of Father Michael saying, in a sermon, that God made the world Ex-nihilo (out of nothing). Something in him agreed that this was true, but the thought itself, at that moment, came unbidden and was of no relevance to him. The phone call too from Toyosi, two days after the ceremony, was unexpected.
“... to say thank you for ... Bell gave us your number before she left this morning....... yea, back to Lagos” the man was confident and sailed smoothly.
“So what do you say? You could come watch the game at my house..... Very glad to have you”
When Toyosi called again the next day Carl felt that something rotten was going on. Toyosi’s boldness startled him and later made him worry. People didn’t call to say things like that on a whim. Carl’s silence must have suggested consent, because the man went on: He had recently fallen into a little misfortune with his car, but it would be perfectly fine as Family would be going away at such and such a weekend. He could accommodate.
At 17, Carl had often been told he looked older, had been asked if he was in the military? One chick who wrote poems in school once called him a quiet animal. No one had ever called him gay. But here he was being propositioned, with careless certainty, by a man he barely knew. His ego, still young and unformed, wanted to know why. Zephyrs of thoughts and questions murmured in the background of his mind like thankless relatives.
He crossed the street and rang the bell at Toyosi’s door. It was a quiet afternoon even on Serenity Avenue. A police van crawled along toward the bar. Toyosi opened the door .
“Do I look gay.... do you think am gay?” Carl began to ask. It couldn’t have been obvious at all that he had come all the way just to ask this. Toyosi was enjoying the game already “no no... Not at all... I just have exceptional gaydar”
“You know I’ve often wondered, I mean, if the point of it is to fuck or love a man, whichever way you like to look at it, then why fuck one that looks and sounds like a woman. There s a pointlessness to it then don’t you think?” He asked. Then he noticed Carl was still standing, “....please sit down... yea..queens disgust me. Modern day abominations”
Carl on the couch thought it was ironic, this brand of bigotry. He picked the Ebony magazine on the coffee table and didn’t know what to make of Whitney Houston and Ray J as a couple. He wondered if there was a chance for a world where everyone thought alike and shared the same moral values and had the same tastes.
Toyosi may have been blinded by his own vanity. He admonished Carl to ‘loosen up’. As a joke, he told him he was celebrating his 30th and was marking it by doing several remarkable things. Then he winked at Carl “try anything once”. So "it isnt like I fancy blokes or anything ridiculous like that." Now he sat down beside Carl and said " But I do fancy you."
He asked Carl what he did, and Carl said he would start Uni in a month. He gave a little shout when Carl said he was 17 and he told Carl he looked like somebody who was really talented in something “ maybe a sniper... a genius sniper” then he got excited and said “there was this quote I read somewhere that, Homosexuality is God’s way of ensuring that the truly gifted aren’t burdened with children”. He paused to look at Carl’s face and began to laugh again “People write all kinds of shit. I swear.” Carl winced a bit, swallowed and bit his lips hard. He was aware he had begun to bleed but there was nothing he could do about it.
When he wacked Toyosi with the piece of iron from his pocket, although the first blow cracked his cranium, he didn’t stop there. He wacked him again and again and saw that it wasn’t, in itself, a very hard thing to do. Carl kept muttering “isn’t that what you want?.. Isn’t this what you want?” as he shoved a carved stick, the size of a man’s hand, into Toyosi’s asshole. He sodomized him with the stick again and again. Toyosi lay there, with half his brain splattered all over the place, twitching at intervals.
Siren from a police car blared on the street. It was not for him. His hands trembled, his heart stood away from him. In a twisted sort of way he yearned for the tranquillity, the quiet confidence.... the serenity of many years ago. When in school, he memorized psalms and sang cherry hymns. But in the light of the moment, even the idea of a prayer seemed ridiculous.
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so both Davina and Toyosi are transexuals now?!
I might be having a blond moment or the accounting exam im studying for might be doing my head in, so Ill have to come back and read this later...
I just hope im reading this wrong. I hope you didnt make Toyosi a transexual and then kill her.
dont know what to say....
speechless....
paitently waiting ....
Names used here are fiction. Not in any way related to real life. That said, where's 'Carl'? lol
Hmmmmm...Jaja did deliver. Welldone!
hmm,not bad!!!
JD
now i wonder who's going to develop the angle with the babe toy jilted!
i'm a bit confsed too, who's dis carl sef? *scratches head*
NIce twist 2 d story...was it wrong 4 me to laugh when he killed Toyosi?? good riddance!!
cant wait for the next episode..good job jaja
Talk about some scary ish!
hmmmmm...lets see how this gets woven in..
Nice one.
2. I owe you dinner. This was marv!!!!
...beautifully done jaja...i knew karma could be a bitch...who knew it could also be a sodomizer and murderer?!...
I am thinking and imagining that carl's been abused before, he's prolly had enough. Either that or he is just downright cheesed off that Toy could have propositioned him.
Thank you Mr Jaja
That kind of killing must be from the heart...nasty stuff...
I will take it upon myself and assume that the scorned babe in the beginning had something to do with this rendezvous. I can most def see how it all ties in together.
Great work, Sir Jaja! I think we were all beginning to forget about the very first tale.
*I love the way you put in the naming ceremony scene. It was interesting to see it from carl's perspective-especially since he had been in foster care. That was brilliant.
*Whitney Houston and Ray J as a couple. Shared tastes and moral values.Genious!
*Clearly, 6am was to early for me to b reading this because I dont know where I got the transvetite thing from
*I cant say I am happy with what you made of Toyosi's character. I think it's a bit much/unfocused/'desperate housewivesish' for one character to be an immigrant paper seeking-heart breaking- homosexual-molester-idiot.
*On its own though, i like this post. The narration flowed seamlessly.
the way u write is clear, straight to the point, i read it to the end in one sitting and connected us back to the beginning BUT... u lost me!
u made no mention of 14th street or Serenity, and all this killing off the xters gradually is a bit much, or is it just me?
i prided myself in being one of the few who understood the whole pattern so far. *not happy now*
i guess i'll just have to be patient and keep reading.
Awesome writing
That's a very interesting one... I don't know if I recognized Jaja's style per se. But the poise of the tone is very him...
I am wondering what gave the impresssion to Carl that Toyosi was trying to get with him?
anyways, i could not figure who carl was, but i believe that in the bigger picture, when the construction of this intersection (14th & Serenity) becomes complete, i might see things clearer. For now, i will just go and put an ice-pack to my forehead to releive me from the headache i got from this post. lmao!!
I really liked this...Something about the sparse use of words...and I liked how I thought I knew where the story was going but yet was uncertain, teetering on the fence wondering which side I would fall on. Is he gay? Perhaps. I love how there are both homophobic but yet...homosexual?
I think its interesting how the protagonist speaks of love beginning but shows no passion when they connect physically, he shows passion when he attacks Toyosi...Hmmm.
And BTW I so totally buy Toy as a heartbreaking/immigrant seeker/closet homosexual...all around a-hole.
I really enjoyed this.
and can i mention that im going, HA! the mofo got what he deserved....:P
Thanks for the good read
i knew Jaja was not gonna let me down...i needed to see some serious blood...
poor Toy, so much for loosening up
lol