Musing; Tomgirl Don Fall In Love 2

That first meeting was the beginning of 'the feminization of Bode'. Hadi, the really calm and tranquil one, was from the Fulani extraction of the Northern part of Nigeria. He looked like one of the ‘Bororo’ her mother had always talked about. He obtained a transfer to the state Bode was posted to, making his registration process quite delayed. The day they met, he was hurrying to the principal’s office to complete his acceptance process in the Government Secondary School. Being who she was, she would normally have said something snide or hilariously cruel but a gaze on the face of the one who had almost knocked her over, and her mouth went completely dry.


She felt like a complete idiot, when after Hadi apologized, her tongue could not form the words to respond to him.  He smiled knowingly, gave a curt bow and asked if she knew where the principal’s office was. Still, her power of speech had decided to go roaming, something that hardly ever happened to her. She could only point. He thanked her, gestured a bow and headed in the direction she had pointed.

The next week, she saw her ‘Bororo corper’ again. This time, he was leaving a class after his lesson just as she was entering the same class for hers. By now, she had gotten over the initial dumbstruck attraction, so it was easy for her to reply to his greeting of “good morning and thanks for the other day”. They made brief introductions, realizing the students were almost making them the morning feature show, they took leave of each other.

THE DAY came again. This time, Bode had no ‘comrades’ to plan any mischief with and thankfully no victim to make life difficult for. She watched with interest as the students of G.S.S went about the celebration in their own way. Her mind flashed back to those horrid times she had helped happen for others and as a smile played on the corner of her lips, she felt some sincere remorse. Being a Friday added to the fun of the day. School usually closed at 12.30pm on Fridays. That meant so much time to fool around. For majority of the students at least.

Closing time came and Bode waited for some of the corpers heading her way. They were locking the door to the staff room when a student came up to Bode and handed her a peach rose-covered bag. Her jaw almost hit the ground. The other ladies around her burst out laughing and urged her to open it. The pictures of her days in the secondary school came flooding her mind and something in her said this was payback time. That slight feeling of nemesis deterred her from immediately granting their request till one of the ladies grabbed the bag from Bode and made to open it. She collected it back and gave in to them. “No nemesis could have followed me here” she thought. Inside the bag was the flurriest teddy bear she had ever seen. it was rich chocolate in color. Accompanying it were a box of assorted chocolates, a can of cookies, a single peach rose and a simple card that read ‘happy valentine’ on both the inside and outside. Addressed to her, it was signed ‘Bororo Corper’. The ladies almost sank in the earth from embarrassment. They had no idea Hadi knew about the nickname they called him. They shared a moment of childlike excitement and were soon on their way.

As they approached their lodge, Bode’s phone rang. Being a tomgirl, she wore capri pants to work on Fridays so it was not difficult for her to reach the phone. The caller identified himself as Bororo Corper and asked if he could come take her out that evening. Without thinking, she said yes and skipped into her room to start getting ready. At exactly 6:47pm, Hadi knocked on Bode’s door and they were on their way five minutes later.

She was back in her room by 11pm, with a mother-of-pearl ring on her finger and she thought she must have gone crazy. She looked at her left hand again and wondered if she was the same person, or had somehow been impersonated. She could not believe it. After their meal at one of the highly rated restaurants available in their vicinity, Hadi had expressed his fondness of her since the first day they had bumped into each other. He went on and on but she wasn't listening. She was drinking in his entire appearance, that when she finally took leave of him, she could draw his portrait with the slightest details in place. And when he had, somewhere from the blues, asked her to make his life complete and add sunshine to his life, her mouth had replied yes. And here she was staring at the ring on her finger. "Who does this?" she asked herself.

 Bode lay in bed expecting Hadi's call. She was still drinking in the way a dimple formed at the corner of his mouth with every word he said. She slept off in this state.  When she woke up on Saturday, she was in a reset state, completely forgotten the events of the previous day. Then she stretched her arms and saw the ring again. He foggy head cleared immediately. She rinsed her face and got into real thought. Whatever was she getting herself into? Sent to serve and returning with a husband! Just then, her phone rang and it was him. By the end of the call, she knew beyond a shadow of doubt that she was in love with Hadi. She smiled as she sent a text to her close friends. It was a simple one liner – “Bororo Corper captures Tomgirl!”

Image credit: Google images