Either he was good at being serious about joking or at joking about being serious.
“Colleagues and students had all seized the opportunity to escape the burden I was about to impose on them in the form of a lecture, was the nagging feeling I had then.”
“You mustn’t blame yourself. How can you call your scholarship a burden? What are universities for?”
“It would appear, at least judging from experiences here, they stand for everything but scholarship. Sometimes I feel students and academic staff are in the way of administration, and research in the way of what everyone seems to prioritize.”
“That’s cynical.”
“But well-founded, won’t you say?”
“No comment.”
“The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe that the problem might perhaps be one of theme.”
“What do you mean?”
“A cursed theme, I mean. Perhaps I am, and I suppose you as well are, interested in a theme which people prefer to act out in private while keeping up appearances in public. So don’t think I joke when I say there is an aura of misfortune around this paper.”
Lilly Loveless felt for him.
“Of course, I’m desperate to be proven wrong,” he smiled longingly, “which is why I was quite excited about your coming, when Professor Dustbin mentioned you, and especially after I read your first email,” he went on.
The waiter returned with another set of drinks, a Baobab for Dr Wiseman Lovemore, which he preferred hot, and a well-chilled Mimbo-Wanda for Lilly Loveless.
They both filled their glasses and formally toasted welcome and good collaboration.
Dr Wiseman Lovemore felt lighter having unburdened himself, at least temporarily, of the curse of his paper. He made clear what he intended to gain from sharing his paper and ideas: “I would like us to co-author something together in this area,” he told her.
She stopped pretending to read, took a sip from her glass, and turned to him, a curious expression on her face.
I am just a beginner, she thought, half flattered, half mystified. Yet here is a whole Dr with many years of university lectureship to his credit already hoping to publish with me, virtually pleading to be considered, even before he has known what I can or cannot offer. She felt pity.
He was serious. “Publishing in Mimboland is extremely difficult,” he proclaimed. “And the only way one can hope to change grades is through seizing opportunities such as this offered by your coming. That is, when one is not a stooge of the party in power.” The pressure to publish or perish was printed on his forehead in bold letters. He emptied his glass as if to say, “You have no choice in this matter.”
Lilly Loveless conceded without thinking things through. She could see she had little choice in the matter, not only because his request reminded her of ethical dilemmas on which she had been grilled by her committee, but especially because he was going to be her host and guide for the next six months in the field.
He thanked her profusely and said she could do with the paper as she liked, as long as their names appeared on the final version together. He didn’t mind being the second author: “Lovemore and Loveless or Loveless and Lovemore, I don’t care, so long as I am published. I simply can’t afford to perish in a den like this.”
That was what she remembered from last evening, at Mountain Valley.
***
Dr Wiseman Lovemore arrived soon after Lilly Loveless finished her breakfast. She noted that he wore the same short-sleeved dark blue button up shirt he had worn the day before. They exchanged greetings. He sat down, adjusted the goggles that covered a third of his face, fitted the new SIM card into her phone and loaded it with airtime. Lilly Loveless thanked him, refunded what he had spent, and asked for receipts and his signature for accounting purposes back home. She had brought along a huge receipt booklet which she intended to fill with signatures to satisfy those funding her fieldwork in Mimboland. Transparent accounting entailed that money should be seen to be well spent, which meant obtaining signatures and receipts even from those who could not read and write. Her phone loaded, Lilly Loveless excused herself and sought privacy at the other end of the pool to call her mom.
She didn’t want to embarrass Dr Wiseman Lovemore with her mom’s silly questions and worries: “What are the people like? … How much freedom does the weather allow you? …Any health problems yet? … Keep your first aid kit handy …. Always carry with you some … Have you been robbed? … Good, thank him for me … Do be careful – you know what I mean, don’t you?”
She tried to reassure her mother, who was more than pleased to hear her daughter’s voice defy the challenges of being in Africa.
“My mom sends greetings,” she told him, following her call. “She says I should thank you for her, for taking care of me.”
Dr Wiseman Lovemore nodded.
“I can relax now that she knows how to reach me,” she said, more to herself. “My mom is very nervous about my being out here. She makes me feel like a two-year-old.”
“It’s understandable. She doesn’t want to lose her daughter to the wild unknown.”
“She has all these strange ideas about Africa.”
“You can’t blame her. Everyone has strange ideas about the unfamiliar.” He wanted to add that even Africans had strange ideas about Africa, but thought that would need some explaining, so he didn’t.
“I see you’d get along very well with my mom. My plan is to persuade her to come and visit, as soon as I am settled.”
“It would be my pleasure to make her feel at home away from home.” Dr Wiseman Lovemore liked the sound of the phrase he had just made.
It struck a cord with Lilly Loveless as well, for she smiled her appreciation.
“Your dad, did you speak to him as well?”
“My dad doesn’t live with my mom. They are divorced. He lives in the same city, with another woman,” Lilly Loveless replied generously.
“Still you should call him to say you arrived safely,” Dr Wiseman Lovemore insisted.
“He doesn’t worry about me the same way mom does, but we are very fond of each other. I’ll call him when I’m settled,” Lilly Loveless would not be drawn.
“So what would you like to do today? Whom do you want to see? Where would you want to be taken? I’m at your disposal.” He was admiring her curly blonde hair as he spoke, but not wanting to give that impression.
Lilly Loveless was far smarter than he imagined. She noticed his eyes behind the goggles hover over her like butterflies in spring.
“First, I’d like to call Desire, your colleague, to make a new appointment to see the studio she is renting out. I missed our appointment this morning. Then, perhaps we could go to the Archives, and to the university. Later in the day, I’d just want us to sit somewhere so I can take down the names of possible people to meet, interview,
