The only advice I can give to a wretched soul is this: Fall in love! Every single day, I notice that there are still very many things that haven’t been written about love as yet. For that case, let me add another saying: Love is water. I know that sounds silly but let me explain. Water, even if it may take ages, it can break the strongest of rocks, like how love did to the rock in my chest.
This Content Is Only For Subscribers
By 4:47pm, I was already at the gate that acted as the only legal entrance to the twelve or so rentals for the university students, in Wandegeya, a town near Makerere.
Comparing that residence to other suchlike abodes and hostels for university students, it didn’t have that tight security or strict askari who would ask for much from non-residents—for example the national ID—to legalize their entrance. Instead, an old askari was always on watch just on the inside of the gate, but didn’t ask for anything, rather stared down everyone that entered or moved out.
I bypassed him with just a salute that he never replied. He must have been fed-up of such nonsense from the youth. I didn’t take that personal, so I continued on my way to Rachael’s rental which was the first just after the gate. The door was wide open, so I entered without even alerting my host that my presence was already in the building. She wasn’t inside anyway. Perhaps she’s gone to prepare for me, I thought.
Rachael’s residence wasn’t that all catchy for a female university student’s. There wasn’t anything fancy, rather scriptures hanging on all four walls of the sitting room. My favorite—and the only verse I know by heart to this time—was Matthew 7:7 which read: Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you. The others, however, seemed so unrealistic to me, for example there’s one that talked about sinning with just our thoughts. To me, that is debatable.
My sight navigated everything else in the room. It’d been long since I last saw the decent things Rachael owned. They reminded me of her. She wasn’t like other girls who would put fancy things in their hostels that couldn’t be accounted for by their earnings. Unlike Sande, Rachael didn’t have any sofas or expensive appliances. It was only the stove, gas cylinder and other simple stuff.
I made myself comfortable on the grey carpet, resting everything I had come with down. As I was making myself ready for her, Rachael popped in singing a gospel song she loved so much. It is called ‘What a beautiful name it is’. I believe she was still in spirit because she never missed a Sunday without going to church. If it hadn’t been the fact that I’d taken long without seeing her, and that I needed to see her, I wouldn’t have chosen a Sunday, of all days, to visit her. The thought of her preaching to me made me uncomfortable.
“Jesus Christ! You scared me,” she almost shouted. I stood up and headed for her embrace which she involuntarily gave me. The room went quiet. Even before saying any greetings, Rachael and I were already beginning from where we had ended. I’m not really sure what was going on in her mind but as for me, I was watching the beam of reality fade away.
She was warm—so warm. Okay the afternoon was already hot but her kind of temperature wasn’t the one from the sun. It wasn’t burning, but renewing. If you have ever hugged a goddess then you know what I’m talking about. My phallus began to play ‘Hallelujah’ tunes. It, too, was worshipping from within. “I thought you had forgotten all about me, Sam,” she whispered. There’s no way my lips could open to say something. I was dumb. “It’s been eternity to me.”
“Rachael,” I trembled. If there were people around, they would celebrate because the ‘baby’ had uttered his first words. “I’m sorry Rachael,” I whispered as her tears wetted my neck. I passed my hands across her back. Her satin blouse made it more smoother, but that was an unsatisfactory feeling to me. I wanted to feel her quivering skin—to remember how it felt when I hugged her for the first time. That was the day we first met, after the overnight, at the wee hours of the morning before the sun had awoken.
We had walked from the praying grounds to her hostel, in the name of escorting her. The best thing she could give me to show her gratitude was a hug—besides her phone number of course. That was a long time since then, so this time felt like the first in centuries. We stood there for about ten minutes before she finally let go. I first offered my gifts to her, and she went crazy. The gifts acted as bribes for other hugs, pecks and ‘thank-you’s.
Later on, after a colourful moment, she prepared for me chips which I used as an instrument of love as we fed eachother amid smiles and laughter and blushes and kisses. She had also tuned in to Capital FM and ‘Nambi’, a song by Kenneth Mugabi started playing. I mimed it and this made her die of laughter because of my insufficient voice and exagerrated gestures. I was indeed a total ridicule but maybe such silly moments were the ones she was longing for. All the impressions I had torn down the heavens to make didn’t mean that much to her. She gave me an applause as soon as the song died.
“I also composed a poem for you,” I played my next card. Her face was still bright but she didn’t say anything at first. I used that moment to study the princess that was dancing to the tunes of a pauper wrapped in gold. For a moment, I realised how undeserving I was for the human-package of beauty, winsomeness and godliness before me. Her brown thighs peeped and teased me. She noticed my eyes popping out of their sockets, so she pulled her dress to cover the slit I was losing myself in.
Her eyes were oceans in which I was drowning, thanks to her reply that rescued me. “Hmmm, you don’t cease to amuse me,” she began. At first I thought it was a compliment, so I maintained my full smile. “Millenniums back you were silent; no calls, no visits, no nothing, and then today here you are, acting as though we’ve been together for forever. You owe me some explanation, Sam. I had even began removing you out of my system.” My smile slowly started to fade away. Silence.
On one side, I didn’t want to spoil the moment with my I’m-not-who-you-know-I-am stories yet on the other, I wanted to spill out all the secrets. “Indeed there’s much you have to know about me Rachael, but we should take one day at a time,” I whispered. “You may have many questions about me but you shouldn’t doubt the fact that I love you so much, though at times I fail to show it in the way you understand most.”
“You don’t make any sense, Sam,” she spat. She was getting mad, but maintained her low tone. “You have never introduced me to your family or friends. I don’t know you, Samuel. I don’t.” There’s nothing I could add to this. I didn’t want to lie or make promises I couldn’t keep, so I just pulled her closer to my chest. She was right about everything she was saying. Indeed I had an alien way of showing my love!
“Rachael,” I whistled. “I owe you many answers—I really do, but let us make this moment count. My words started sinking deep into her heart and melting away the ire that had been mounting a few moments back. “I know I have made your ears crowd with empty promises but please accept one more, this time a real one; I’m going to do whatever it takes to make you mine. I just ask for your patience.” She closed her eyes and meditated upon my words. My charm was working. “You know I can do anything to have you. I can even kill someone if that’s what I’m supposed to do!” I wish I hadn’t added that.
“Don’t ever say something like that again,” she began. “The power of creation and destruction lies on the tongue. Don’t you know…”
“Yes I know, Rachael,” I saved myself from the ripening sermon. “I just used it as a figure of speech. It’s not that I’ll literally kill someone.” A plastic smile escorted my lame excuse but she seemed to buy it anyway.
“Okay, my poem,” she demanded without a smile. That made me maintain mine. I loved it when she played ‘serious’. After clearing my throat, I made a deep sigh to usher in the sweet nothings I had composed for her.
“In the emptiness of my sky,
You are the sun that never sets,
So that my heart is ne’er awry
Even when, to beat, it forgets.
In the silence of solitude,
Your fairness is the melody
That rouses my mind to elude
Any constraints of malady.”
The simple rhyme must have attracted more cupids to bleed her heart with their arrows of love. She rested her head on my bony chest, as though feeding on each word that had slid into her ear.
“Did you like it?” I demanded for feedback. She didn’t say a word. At first I thought she had fallen asleep. What a joke that would be! A part of me was enjoying watching her that way, with eyes closed and mood helpless, but another wanted to hear from her. At least just to tell me that she loved the poem—or the sound of my voice for that matter. “It’s almost 7:30pm, I have to go,” I teased.
“No, don’t go,” she cried, hugging me tighter. “Stay a little longer!” That’s what I wanted to hear. “I think the floor is also getting harder.”
Sam is so cheesy.?
They make a good couple, i’d say.