“That’s a mouthful!” Lilly Loveless couldn’t help interjecting. “But I understand, so my pidgin must be getting better by the day.”
“As for his father,” Britney ignored the interjection, “he told him the plans he had made for him had to change because he now had to use the money to prepare for his newborn. Unable to feel free in their home, Lionel disappeared for a year. While he was away, news reached him that Comfort had given birth to a baby girl and that they were both doing fine. Presently the child is with Lionel’s parents and in primary 3. Lionel has lost contact with Comfort, who unfortunately never made her GCE. He, on the other hand, is a student right here at UM.”
Britney tipped the bottle in her hand up to drink the last of the juice and asked “Have you ever had an abortion?”
Lilly Loveless was caught a bit off guard, shook her head slowly from side to side and said, “Nope, I haven’t.” And to change the subject, asked Britney if she wanted more juice or a bottle of water.
“Nope,” she said, “let’s get on with our work.”
Lilly Loveless nodded.
***
With that green light Britney proceeded: “Rebecca is about 21 years of age and attending school at Standard Comprehensive College, Form Five. Her father is late and her mother is carrying on with petty-businesses, such as frying puff puff and beans for sale. Rebecca is the fourth child to her mother. She is already blessed with a fair complexion, Rebecca, which she herself has added to by polishing with bleaching creams. Though she finds herself being maltreated by the O Levels, she is determined to pursue schooling.”
“What do you mean blessed with a fair complexion?” asked Lilly Loveless.
“Here in Mimboland, lighter skin women are valued higher than darker skin ones.”
“Whom by?”
“Men and women alike. In marriage for example, the bride price for those who are fair in complexion is usually higher, as these women tend to be more visible than some of us,” Britney explained. “Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the electricity supply is very low and unstable, and when the lights are off as is often the case, lighter skin women are more visible than the dark skin women.”
“So they are worth more for their capacity to attract attention in the dark?”
“Something like that,” said Britney.
“How fascinating,” said Lilly Loveless, nodding at the same time to say Britney could continue with her story.
“Rebecca’s past experience in life has been full of ups and downs as concerns relationships with boys. She had her very first boyfriend when she was quite young. Before him, she was being approached by so many boys and she raised her shoulders high because she thought she was very beautiful. The fact of overplaying her beauty meant that boys were not comfortable once they finally had something to do with her. She discovered she had had four boyfriends within two years.”
“Four boyfriends in two years?” asked Lilly Loveless.
“Luckily for her,” Britney continued, “she was being advised by her elder sister to stop messing around and spoiling the family name all over the place.
“Rebecca then decided to settle and to have one boyfriend. Richie was in Form Five but in a different school. His parents were rich: his father is a customs officer and his mother a civil servant, and he was hungry to make his circles see him as part of this wealth. Rebecca fell in love with Richie during one vacation. He invited her to their house under the pretext of giving her the address of one of her former boyfriends who was dismissed from school and had moved to Sawang. Richie welcomed her with cake biscuits and drinks. She was not all that used to him but they discussed each other superficially and the name of her former boyfriend only featured once. Rebecca promised to come back again after two days, to give Richie a letter to take to Sawang.
“Before the day she was to visit again, Richie went to the shop and bought a good pair of shoes for her.”
“Girls sure seem to like shoes,” noted Lilly Loveless. “Tell me though, a high school boy with money to buy a girl an expensive pair of shoes? It is difficult to imagine, especially given the images of Africa that are fed us, those of a continent crippled by poverty and by desire without affordability.”
“Haven’t you heard the saying that every crisis has its opportunists?” replied Britney. “Believe it or not, in major schools around major cities in the country, children are basically awash with more money than sense. They are wayward at school because of their economic might. Oh, they have nifty little cell phones, leading to some schools banning any kind of communication device which is not on the school list. This includes laptops, MP3s, CDs, VCDs, DVDs, flash sticks, etc. Calls are made at the school office or from other phones outside the school when children are allowed out if they are boarders. Some have cars either because parents have given them to compensate for their absence, or the cars are stolen from parents or guardians. The cars allow them to maintain girlfriends who are school children or even school leavers of the same age or older. Those who live alone have parties to die for on weekends, with booze, music, videos including porn and sex on the side. Maids paid for by parents to ease domestic chores may also be reigned in as girlfriends or sex partners. The kids are consumed by a fascination and fixation with designer clothes and shoes, original music and videos of trendy world class singers. The girls all want to look like Barbie doll, and believe that nothing larger than size zero is fashionable, but junk food and an easy life are making the realization of this dream size impossible for most of them. Too much lunch money for school or general discretionary spending means that they just can’t eat their cake and have it. Failure to slim down in reality is compensated for by a taste for luxury through trendy outfits, boutique shoes, jewellery and perfumes imported from Muzunguland, and not from China whose products they consider too cheap and too inferior to be of interest.”
Lilly Loveless was spellbound, and her notebook said so.
“Believe it or not,” added Britney. “And it was a real surprise when Rebecca was presented with the shoes. Instead of the words ‘I don’t take presents from boys I hardly know’, she thanked Richie for being more than kind. Little did she know he was building an intention of having her. This he made known to his friends, but to Rebecca he gave the impression his gift was obligation free.
“Rebecca was a strong chick who had given ‘tête’ to many boys trying to associate with her. Through repeated visits paid by Rebecca to Richie’s house, things finally changed into a love relationship. Jeff, her former boyfriend who had moved to Sawang, soon became forgotten. Now she thought of the fact that she had seen in Richie a new guy who could buy her ‘boutique shoes’ which at the time were not common. She gave the impression of not being aware that Richie could quite simply want to take advantage of her nose for material things.
“Their kind of relationship was that which was known all over the place. Richie was a student and had peers who liked to show off, such that when they went to the nightclub they bought beer, whisky, and chicken so that their table showed that they had money. He bought Rebecca expensive track suits, shoes, dresses…, and more of the same, again and again.”
“I smell trouble like burnt cooking,” Lilly Loveless insisted.
“Be patient,” Britney rebuked, gently. “They went out together for lunch, picnics, shopping and nightclubbing. Not once did she stop to ask where Richie, a simple student without a job, got the money to lavish on
