Guest Post: November Diary. Episode Two

The town was lively with people; some were in the bars drinking away their lives, while others were doing what they could do best at night, many stands were up; people were selling and others buying.

I was in no hurry to complete my mission, so I decided to kill time buy strolling around the little market opposite the school fence were peppered boiled frog, boiled eggs, roasted chicken and all the likes of it were sold.

Half way into the market, someone hailed me to come over, when I looked around I saw that it was a senior of mine who had become a dropout because his father had died and there was no money to pay for the school fees. When I went over to him, he called another man, maybe one of his friends who easily recognized me as a student and he suggested that I should have worn a sport shorts; like the one he was wearing, he said “and pulled at his shorts” by that way I would be hardly caught. I took the hint, I had to be careful, but I wasn’t ready to quit my adventure, so I followed the route out of the market.

My bunkmates house was just around the corner, I turned around the corner and followed the path leading to his house, his father might be around and ill surely get a “bite” [food]. As I approached the compound, I heard the sound of loud music coming from the corner of the street, from where I was standing; I could easily see what was going on there: I saw men in large crowd mingling around, even teenagers were going up the road and coming back at intervals and after some time, women drifted in, in different categories: teenage girls, adults, matured women; for sometime the men seemed to be negotiating with the women and teenagers to teenagers alike and after awhile the two parties places their hands on each other’s waist or fondle themselves on their way to the rooms that were just opposite the frontage for the mean time I couldn’t figure out what was going on till a teenage girl ran out of one of the rooms naked and a grown up man in his underwear follows her, grabs her and begins to slap, punch and beat up the teenage girl, when people noticed what was going on, they came together and pulled the frustrated man off his prey: it now dawned on me that it was a “pleasure house” a brothel , my heart was beating hard. 

I had come face—face with temptation, more women and teenagers were coming out very beautiful ones: a voice from within, very loud said “why don’t you go and take your share, its nature GOD made it come on; enjoy, they even use contraceptives” and the voice died out, but yet  another voice, so small and toneless warned “don’t move a step, the jaws of death and sin has snapped open and if you walk in you’ll be crushed” my heart beat louder, my knees began to knock together I was shaking, erection had already started, I tapped my pocket and felt the crisp of the 500 naira in my pocket, I pulled myself together and took a step[ towards the pleasure house] my heart missed a beat, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and recollected my thoughts, suddenly; like a tornado, the words of my preacher came rushing into my thought, I could still picture him standing by the pulpit proclaiming the word of GOD from a particular book of the bible, I couldn’t remember the chapter or verse but the words struck me now very hard I could still remember the words “anyone who commits sexual immorality, fornication, adultery is joined one body and soul with the prostitute. I started sweating, the picture of my mom came next, I could recall when she warned me and my siblings on the danger of premarital sex, the repercussions; she said was very severe and well go to hell straight if we commit sexual immorality, she made mention of the viruses, and hiv came first on the list. I was just rooted to the spot, unable to move or make a choice.

I shook my head, no! I wouldn’t want to die early, I would like to complete schooling, have a family and settle down to write my stories; now I had to choose between my future and premarital sex.

I closed my eyes and try to picture myself in the hospital dying of aids, excreting in bed and even the endless illness. The word Jesus came out loud from my mouth, I clenched my fists, turned and started running, running, and running. I was fleeing youthful lust. I stopped at the corner of the street to breathe in; I was heading back to the fence for a nice spot to scale over, back to school. Just some meters from the fence, I saw two policemen interrogating some boys, who they suspected could commit crimes in the slightest opportunity, but I didn’t mind them. I moved farther away and found another spot to scale, nice and easy.

I put my right foot in a crack on the fence and was about to leap; GOD help me! I heard the siren, a police siren, “the sound rings in my ear till today” and a hilux van drove by, a police patrol car, the light on the car directed to me on the fence. My heart somersaulted twice with fear of the unknown, I was contemplating whether to jump fast and quick when the cars door yawned open and a police came out and hailed me to come over, I came down and quickly dropped my shirt on the grass to cover evidence and a policeman saw me, he skittered towards me and knocked me down.

Try as much as possible and abstain from sexual immorality no matter the situation, and you’ve just added a year to your life.

The town was lively with people; some were in the bars drinking away their lives, while others were doing what they could do best at night, many stands were up; people were selling and others buying.

I was in no hurry to complete my mission, so I decided to kill time buy strolling around the little market opposite the school fence were peppered boiled frog, boiled eggs, roasted chicken and all the likes of it were sold.

Half way into the market, someone hailed me to come over, when I looked around I saw that it was a senior of mine who had become a dropout because his father had died and there was no money to pay for the school fees. When I went over to him, he called another man, maybe one of his friends who easily recognized me as a student and he suggested that I should have worn a sport shorts; like the one he was wearing, he said “and pulled at his shorts” by that way I would be hardly caught. I took the hint, I had to be careful, but I wasn’t ready to quit my adventure, so I followed the route out of the market.

My bunkmates house was just around the corner, I turned around the corner and followed the path leading to his house, his father might be around and ill surely get a “bite” [food]. As I approached the compound, I heard the sound of loud music coming from the corner of the street, from where I was standing; I could easily see what was going on there: I saw men in large crowd mingling around, even teenagers were going up the road and coming back at intervals and after some time, women drifted in, in different categories: teenage girls, adults, matured women; for sometime the men seemed to be negotiating with the women and teenagers to teenagers alike and after awhile the two parties places their hands on each other’s waist or fondle themselves on their way to the rooms that were just opposite the frontage for the mean time I couldn’t figure out what was going on till a teenage girl ran out of one of the rooms naked and a grown up man in his underwear follows her, grabs her and begins to slap, punch and beat up the teenage girl, when people noticed what was going on, they came together and pulled the frustrated man off his prey: it now dawned on me that it was a “pleasure house” a brothel , my heart was beating hard. 

I had come face—face with temptation, more women and teenagers were coming out very beautiful ones: a voice from within, very loud said “why don’t you go and take your share, its nature GOD made it come on; enjoy, they even use contraceptives” and the voice died out, but yet  another voice, so small and toneless warned “don’t move a step, the jaws of death and sin has snapped open and if you walk in you’ll be crushed” my heart beat louder, my knees began to knock together I was shaking, erection had already started, I tapped my pocket and felt the crisp of the 500 naira in my pocket, I pulled myself together and took a step[ towards the pleasure house] my heart missed a beat, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and recollected my thoughts, suddenly; like a tornado, the words of my preacher came rushing into my thought, I could still picture him standing by the pulpit proclaiming the word of GOD from a particular book of the bible, I couldn’t remember the chapter or verse but the words struck me now very hard I could still remember the words “anyone who commits sexual immorality, fornication, adultery is joined one body and soul with the prostitute. 

I started sweating, the picture of my mom came next, I could recall when she warned me and my siblings on the danger of premarital sex, the repercussions; she said was very severe and well go to hell straight if we commit sexual immorality, she made mention of the viruses, and hiv came first on the list. I was just rooted to the spot, unable to move or make a choice.

I shook my head, no! I wouldn’t want to die early, I would like to complete schooling, have a family and settle down to write my stories; now I had to choose between my future and premarital sex.

I closed my eyes and try to picture myself in the hospital dying of aids, excreting in bed and even the endless illness. The word Jesus came out loud from my mouth, I clenched my fists, turned and started running, running, and running. I was fleeing youthful lust. I stopped at the corner of the street to breathe in; I was heading back to the fence for a nice spot to scale over, back to school. Just some meters from the fence, I saw two policemen interrogating some boys, who they suspected could commit crimes in the slightest opportunity, but I didn’t mind them. I moved farther away and found another spot to scale, nice and easy.

I put my right foot in a crack on the fence and was about to leap; GOD help me! I heard the siren, a police siren, “the sound rings in my ear till today” and a hilux van drove by, a police patrol car, the light on the car directed to me on the fence. My heart somersaulted twice with fear of the unknown, I was contemplating whether to jump fast and quick when the cars door yawned open and a police came out and hailed me to come over, I came down and quickly dropped my shirt on the grass to cover evidence and a policeman saw me, he skittered towards me and knocked me down.

Try as much as possible and abstain from sexual immorality no matter the situation, and you’ve just added a year to your life. 

To be continued...