CHRISTMAS DATING
Episode 4
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I began to have a migraine one afternoon while at work. It was so horrible that I thought my brain would burst open. I took it to be as a result of stress and physical exertions at work. It was a Tuesday.
Before I knew what was happening my face was quickly swelling and turning red. My head pounded like a woman’s kitchen mortar, like the one I used in my kitchen, like a carpenter driving a long nail into a piece of furniture.
I called Jojo but his numbers were not reachable. I needed to go to the hospital immediately. I kept trying his numbers but they wouldn’t go through. Soon I began to throw up. The pain was weakening. I felt my heart almost in my mouth. And then I collapsed.
I woke up in a hospital. It was three days already being unconscious. I couldn’t feel my face. My legs hurt. My back was peppery and my tongue didn’t seem like it belonged to me. I didn’t know if my body was still mine or I was skeletonized out of it. I felt pain all over.
Jojo was sitting beside me each time I opened my eyes faintly. I was so weak I couldn’t cast a long gaze on him. My mouth felt heavy. I had words in my throat to say, but they won’t come out. I’d slip back into my subconscious again and again.
This went on for three weeks. Jojo contacted my cousin sister to come from Benin in Edo state, Nigeria, to help him take care of me while he was away at work. I was surprised to see her smiling at me when I eventually regained full consciousness. She was happy to see me awake.
The last time I saw her was eleven months before I met Jojo. We had had a misunderstanding because of Kofi, my Ghanian ex-boyfriend. He was the guy that ran away with the money I loaned him, and the reason I remained single for seven long months.
She was worried about my relationship with the guy and kept pushing me to breakup with him. I was defiant. So she washed her hands off my case after we had a quarrel about it.
Now she was sitting next to me, smiling. She seemed to be sorry for leaving me all by myself for such a long time. And I totally understand her feeling. I was sorry, too, for not heeding her advice.
“Hey!” She said, caressing my hand softly as if to not wake me up.
“Sonia. . . I. . . I’m really sorry for everything. I’m so sorry.” I was sobbing, faintly, with a week body.
“You don’t have to be. Just don’t mention it,” she was smiling. “Stop it already.” She wiped a tear off my face.
We had a long moment of absolute silence in the room if not for the distant cry of a baby many wards away from mine.
“Where’s Jojo?” I asked expressively.
“That guy is so in love with you errhn!” she teased. I smiled lazily, as if smiling would swell my face again.
“Where is he?” I snapped back.
“He left a while ago. He’s gone to freshen up. He said he’ll be back shortly.”
“So how long have you been here? And I know you’ve been touching my chest to make sure I was breathing.” We both laughed.
She had a throaty laughter that made one laugh the more when she laughed. And I missed her so much for it. But my stomach still hurt, as if I had just delivered a baby through CS.
“I came yesterday,” she said while still caressing my hand softly. “Your boyfriend called and begged me to come stay with you.”
“Sweet Jojo. . .hmmm.” I whispered softly. Sonia heard it, though. I don’t know how she always did it. But she heard the most sparing whisper and the faintest of words.
“Jojo? Is that his name?”
“Joseph. . . I just call him Jojo because he’s too sweet.” I smiled.
“Yeah. It is written all over you. He seems to like you a lot.” She said that as though she was surprised.
“Like? Jojo loves me so much.” I objected.
“Of course. So did Jimmy, Philip, Somto and that black like charcoal Kofi.” She looked pissed.
“Jojo is different. Trust me.”
“I just want you to be careful. You know what you’ve been through with men. Please be very careful. By the way, have you two been smooching?” she laughed hysterically.
“Sonia! Stop!” I grimaced.
“And having fun?”
“Stop it! Of course we’re having fun. He’s a sweet guy.” I was wondering where I got so much strength from to talk now.
That was the kind of energy Sonia gave. She was my only cousin who got sharp vibes. Ebenezer, my Aunt’s eldest son did not even come close when compared with Sonia. Ebenezer was hot with jokes. But Sonia? She was the queen of vibes.
“Jojo, he was crying when I walked in yesterday. He truly loves you.” She said with an attitude of sincerity.
“He was?,” I asked feeling so excited to hear that. I knew Jojo was that sweet a person, but I wished I witnessed it.
“I called Ebenezer.”
“You did? What did he say?” I was anxious to know.
“He’s at Dubai. Business meeting, he said. He’s worried about you. But I asked him not to, that you’d be fine.”
“Oh, Eben. I miss him so much.”
I was so happy that three people in my life were beside me through my weak times.
Jojo came later that evening. He had stopped by a restaurant to buy Sonia and me some food. Sonia called to tell him that I was awake. I told her to warn him to desist from making me food by himself. I didn’t want him to trigger his asthma.
He was so happy when he walked into my ward. His face lit with joy. I could tell that he had missed me so much. A bead of tears train down his face. It was heartwarming to watch him go all teary because of me.
“My sugar!” He said passionately, tears in his eyes.
He walked over after standing at the door as if he was glued to the floor around it, handed the food packs to Sonia and hugged me for the longest of times. He then sat on the edge of my bed and the first place his hand went was my hair.
My hair was his weakness.
I felt shy. Maybe because Sonia was watching us. Or because I hadn’t seen his fine face for a long time. He was caressing my hair and saying nothing. He just locked his eyes with mine, his fingers drawing lines on my scalp. And I was blushing like an infant. Sonia pretended to want to use the restroom just to give us space.
Jojo planted a soft kiss on my lips. And then on my forehead. Then he went back to my lips and stayed for such a long time it had seemed to me forever. I had missed locking my lips with his succulent baby lips. Those chocolate-coloured lips of his that looked edible.
He wanted to yield off but I didn’t let him. I made him kiss me for a longer while, as if it was his job to do so, as if it was part of my medication, as if we both own the whole world to each other.
Sonia walked in when I had sat up straight with my back resting on the huge pillows. Jojo was feeding me, and saying sweet things, and telling me how he missed me and how he thought he’d loss me.
I just admired the man sitting in front of me. He was my King. My hero. My Shakespeare. I wished he was edible like the fried rice he spooned into my mouth, I’d eat ‘im without leaving any grain behind.
I was so happy to be in my Sweet Jojo’s arms again after being discharged later that week.
— Michael Ituma
