Ifeoma

This sun is angry today o,' Ifeoma thought as she walked down the cobbled pathway using her notebook to shelter her face from the scourge of the sun, she quickened her steps, thinking it probably would have been better to deal with the breakouts her face cap would invite than have the heat directed completely on her forehead. 

'Expect rain around 2 pm' indeed! She wondered who even did these weather forecasts. It was all that professor's fault; he had previously cancelled today's classes, for reasons he did not give and had called the class rep by ten in the morning to say 'we have class by twelve today', for reasons he did not also give. 

The man, with all his indecisiveness, had mushed up her day and her carefully laid-out agenda to sleep till eleven and not get out of bed till evening, all gone to nought.

'These lecturers need to learn a thing or two about keeping to plans ...mtchew,' she hissed, as she almost bumped into the tree by the corner of the path and looked longingly at the stone a bench sitting peacefully in the shade. Ah! What joy to be saved from this Sun, she couldn't wait to get to the hostel.

Her mind began to wander as she walked, the day was not turning out as she had

anticipated; the lecture turned out to be a ruse, the lecturer just sought an opportunity to give his unsuspecting students a quiz- one she was not exactly confident she'll pass; her clothes were still heaped in one dirty pile, waiting to be washed and boy was she hungry! 

She looked and she could see the old worn-out hostel building, she was almost there- just a few more steps.

She heard loud laughter and looked to find a bunch of boys huddled behind the hostel's

convenience store, God no! Not now, abeg. She was certainly in no mood for these less busy boys. 

She shouldn't have left without Oge, it was easier to evade the unwanted attention w one had company- not that it always worked sef, with any luck they won't notice me pass by in this rosy red hoodie, she thought as she speed-walked as fast as she could.

"Sssshh" no way in hell am I answering that. 'Nne', 'Asa', 'Ochakomaka', 'my love', 'Chi', ' my colour,' she just kept on like she didn't notice them, and they were just one of the many trees around.

"Excuse me," she turned to the guy walking beside her and said good afternoon.

"My guy dey call you", he said this pointing behind them at the bunch that was now watching her. She looked up at his towering frame, sheesh these guys are tall!

 Is this one serious, you are coming to tell me that your guy is calling me, mtcheww, messenger. Pesin go look you now

think say you get sense.

"Oh, I didn't hear my name," she raised a brow at him, 'moreover if your guy has something to

say to me, he can come and say it because I've had a long day, I'm not in the mood for

whatever this is.' She kept going.

Thump! Ifeoma froze. What just happened? The sting in her bum answered her unspoken question just as she heard the uproar, she spun around to find all the guys- all six of them, plus the messenger- behind her, snickering, barely stifling their laughter.

"What is funny?" She asked with a frown, these fools were really getting on her nerves now. Oh, God! Give me patience.

"What is funny? Why are you laughing?" She looked at each of their faces, all at least a foot taller than she was. She knew who had done it. She knew because she saw the way they were patting his shoulders and slapping his back, their faces lit up with mirth, they were having a blast at her expense; She knew because he looked especially smug; he had done it, he was proud of his feat.

"You're cheering him on," she whispered, baffled. 

"As in Dike ka obu, o kwa ya? Great achiever.

Where's the medal for this great accomplishment?' They had begun to sober up now, she was

going to give them a piece of her mind.

"So all of you just sit around waiting for someone to bully to entertain yourself, and one would

think you were in school to study".

The last statement was directed at Michael, her course mate.

She recognized two of them; one was her course mate and the other was Oge's brother, IK.

Ifeoma had always found it difficult to reconcile the relationship, how could sweet, well-behaved Oge be related to this boy, and her brother no less.

'Ikenna,' she turned to Oge's brother who was looking at her with feigned indifference, "would it have been so funny if it was Oge in my place?"

 He looked away, unable to meet her eyes. Of

course, he wouldn't have found it funny. He might be a no-good, but he loved Oge and if anyone had messed with her, there certainly would not have been any pleasantries or laughter from any party. He would have pounded his fist into their face, but of course, she wasn't Oge, so he could afford to laugh about it.

"And you", she took a step closer to the offender who was by far the tallest, craned her neck and looked him straight in the eye and asked him,

 "I'm curious," he too was curious if his expression

was anything to go by, 

" How do you feel now?" she continued. 

"Do you feel different inside? Does hitting or grabbing a girl's buttocks make you feel like a new man?"

 At least he has the decency to look embarrassed, she thought as she saw the tint in his cheeks because unlike others this one had very light skin. 

"Tell me so I can know if I have been

missing out on a wonderful life-changing experience by not grabbing any random boy's backside" she said.

They were all quiet and trying so hard to avoid her gaze. She was getting tired too, and her head seemed to have started aching twice as hard; I'm already getting emotional, she thought as she wiped the stray tear that was sliding down her cheek.

"I  just want to be respected", she took a long breath and continued.

"When I'm having a day that doesn't feel so

great, I want to be allowed to be in peace. It's not too much to ask...Really", she turned and

walked away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she ran down the balcony of the school's art gallery, Ifeoma could only imagine Oge's

reaction to her late coming. She was late and this wasn't African-time late, she was very late.

Cradling her notebook on her chest she looked down at her wristwatch, thinking: this is it. This time she's really going to kill me for sure. Oge had been planning her art exhibition since last

year and she'd have to do a lot more than ice cream to get out of this one… Bam! Ow, What the!

She was on her behind, on the floor. 

"Ouch! Look where you're going na". She said as she reached for her notebook.

"I was looking. You ran into me". The person replied calmly.

"Well, you should have moved out of..."she paused, his hand was on hers, trying to pick up the notebook, "...what's doing you?" She raised her head to find the last person she would have ever expected to bump into. 

Mheen! This guy is beautiful, see eyes bikonu. Are they green or what?

And the hair, see hair...Ifeoma, you're staring! You NEVER stare! Look away now before you make a bigger fool of yourself!

"Sorry" He whispered as he snatched his hand as if she burned.

'Whatever.' She muttered, bothered by her reaction to him, she rolled her eyes as she stood up and began dusting off her white dress that now had brown dust marks. Ahh! Now she was going to enter the gallery looking like a child that couldn't sit still.

 There was little else she could do to

salvage the situation so she just continued on her way, this time at a slower pace.

"I'm sorry" Ah ah, this guy just leave me alone na. She thought he had gone his way.

"Mm-hmm" she mumbled and kept going.

"I'm sorry"

"You said that already. Anyway, it wasn't your fault".

"That's not what I mean"

"Hmmph", she sighed, " Listen, you don't have to do this, the deed has already been done. It's water under the bridge, I have moved on. You can let it go now. Just…" she paused and looked him in the eye now, 

"Just stay away from me if you can't show me common courtesy".

 You may be hella fine, but it is of no use to me if you can't give me basic respect. I'll pass, thank you very much.

" I am really...I truly regret what I did", He was still going after her. 

Benecca’s Tales

2021

All Rights Reserved

Photo credit: Freepik .com

Author's Note

Often we are insensitive to the effects of our actions on others. In the world right now, people especially women live in fear of bullying and harassment. We have normalized it and have become complacent.

"Ifeoma" is a cry for us to look deeply into ourselves and find what makes us human. 

"If it were you in their place, would the case be different?"

To men, if she doesn't want to, she doesn't wait to. Period!

All characters are virtual and inspired by the song 'Omini Knowest' by Nigerian Singer, Waje. 

- Eze Chinenye.