Purple Bougainvillea

Sixteen

This was a new day, Jumoke had spent the whole of yesterday sleeping. The whole beach trip had been tiring, sitting in that car for hours on the road, she was drained even before she reached home.
It was evening, Aunt Jumoke was cooking dinner in the kitchen and Jumoke was up in her room listening to music with her head stuck in between a book as usual. A knocked was heard from the door and Aunt Joke went to check who was there.
"Good evening ma" Kelly greeted and Aunt Joke pulled him into a hug
"How are you doing? I haven't seen you in a while, where have you been?" she questioned
"I'm good, I've just been a bit busy" he said, scratching his head shyly. There was a time he used to spend everyday in this house, now he barely came around. She asked him to come in and he stepped in looking around. Much hadn't changed around here, the pictures of Vera's dad still hung on the brightly colored walls. The couches were still the same position they had been the last time he came here.
"Jumoke's up in her room" Aunt Joke said and he nodded. He walked up the stairs and the first room by his right was hers. He pulled the handle and pushed it in, opening the door. Jumoke was busy writing something on a book, a headset on her ears, she didn't even notice he was there. She slowly raised her head up and that's when she saw him. She freaked out and threw a pillow at him making him burst out in laughter throwing his head back.
"It's not funny, geez" she shouted at him but he wouldn't stop laughing
"See how you were scared, you like to fear"
"It's night, why won't I be scared?"
"It's evening ode" he said, he was still laughing "you've stayed inside for too long, you don't even know what time of the day it is"
She glared at him and he still didn't stop laughing.
"What if I was dressing, geez" she said and he smirked at her
"If you were dressing i'd probably just mutter an Eeyah and close the door back, doesn't mean I'd unsee whatever I saw" he said winking at her while she stoned him another pillow. He dodged it and threw the other one back at her. Soon they were both fighting with pillows, laughing at their excuse of a pillow fight. When they were both tired from the fight, Jumoke stepped out to get him water. Kelly jumped on her bed, searching through her books. One of them was orange in colour, with white applied in some places. On the front of the cover was written "A man of the people", it was written by Chinua Achebe. He stood up and walked towards the right side of the room. A shelf stood in that part of the room, it was covered in books of different colors. One of the things on his list was to read all of Jumoke's books, thinking about this now he didn't think it was possible. How was he going to read all of these? He shook his head and muttered "it's not me and you" before walking back to the soft bed. He was spending the night there, it was one of the things on his list. Staying in his house was starting to bore the hell out of him, Jumoke's house was his only form of escape since he didn't have any other friends. Remembering that hurt a lot, the only thing that was comforting was the fact that Jumoke didn't leave.
He had only a few weeks left to be mobile, before the sickness would hit him down and land him in a hospital till his last breath. He had only a few weeks before his hair would start to fall, he was already seeing a few spots that were getting bald. Would she still want to stay with him when he doesn't look attractive anymore? When all his hair was gone? When his eyes would be pale yellow? When his smile wouldn't be beautiful anymore? When he would be stuck in a hospital? When he wouldn't even have the strength to talk or laugh? All these bothered him every moment of the day but he never showed it. Like Jumoke would say, his life was too short for him to be sad or gloomy. He would spend all the time he had with her, so that when she eventually leaves, he'll have no regrets.
"Earth to!" Jumoke shouted at him and he snapped out of his thoughts "I go out for one minute and you're already over thinking, what would you do without me?" she said and he smiled a small smile. She was right, he couldn't think of a life without her.
"You're quiet, what's up?" she asked and he waved it off.
"I'm okay, just wondering how I'd be able to finish those books there before I die. Take a look at them, some are even bigger than dictionaries" he said and Jumoke chuckled at his exaggeration.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way" she replied "What if I read them out to you?" she suggested and Kelly smiled, he loved the idea.
"But you'll have to pay, darhh" she said and he glared at her
"What?" she asked and he hissed
"You should be happy you're not paying for the books too, you're welcome"
"You like money too much" Kelly accused, faking a pout.
"Your pout doesn't work on me, it's #100 per page. Thank you" she said crossing her legs like she was at a business proposal. Kelly rolled his eyes and asked her to start, promising to pay later.
She started with a novel that looked really old, it had "Survive the peace" written boldly on it's cover. She read from the first page, allowing him to ask questions as they travelled through each page. She was laying on the bed, her head resting on his right arm as she read fast. Her eyes were stuck on the book while his were stuck on her face, watching as her lips pronounced every word, watching her expressions as she read every line. That's all he wanted, to be there, beside her, all day, till he breathed his last.
"He died" Jumoke said finally, she was done with the book. Her voice was sad.
"He survived the war, but he didn't survive the peace" he said and she nodded. Time had rolled past very fast, the story had been a bit long, but it was nothing compared to the next one she picked up.
"The concubine" was written boldly on the cover. It had different abstract drawings on the cover too. He had heard about the story before, it was a tragic story. It seemed like all the novels in that shelf were tragic stories. But he didn't mind, he didn't mind at all.
....
"You're sleeping!" she exclaimed pulling him out of his doze. He has just closed his eyes and he had been pulled into a very deep sleep. He missed a huge part of the story.
"I can't believe I've been reading to the air" she accused and he tried to explain himself.
"I just slept when Ekwueme was on that tree asking for Ihuoma, it hadn't been that long nau"
"I'm done with the novel already" she said, her face straight
"I'm not reading to you again, bye" she said trying to stand up and leave, but he held her back. With the force with which he dragged her back, she fell down on the bed beside him and he held her down.
"Just read one more for me, I promise I won't sleep off" he pleaded and she rolled her eyes before agreeing to read him one more. She walked over to the shelf and picked her copy of "things fall apart" to read to him. She laid back down on his arm and started reading this one.
Somewhere in the middle of the book, they heard knocks on the door of the room. It was Aunt Joke, she had brought them dinner. The aroma of the Jollof rice floated around the room as soon as she stepped in. There was a plate of rice and a cooler filled with meat, a pack of juice was beside it too. They thanked her and collected it from her. As soon as he left, they both pounced on the food like hungry lions, struggling between themselves who would eat more and who would take the largest meat. It didn't take much time for them to be done with the food so Kelly carried the plates downstairs to the kitchen.
He walked into the kitchen to see Vera sneaking in through the door that was there. She froze when she saw him and he just looked away. He dropped the plates and grabbed two bottles of water before running back upstairs.
When he got there, Jumoke was already asleep. Hey eyes were closed and her mouth was opened slightly. Her hair was all over the place, she had added attachments to it. It made it a lot more beautiful than normal. He pushed her to our side of the bed and lay down on the other side till he fell asleep.