A Painful Goodbye

“You know my mum used to say,don’t make friends with strangers who come visiting because one day they’ll go back home and you’d be left all alone” said bayo as he gently cradled me in his arms.Saying goodbye to d man who has been my everything in a foreign land and whom I had grown to love despite all odds was much harder than I thought.I willed myself not to cry as I continued to listen to his speech.

My mind drifted off to how it all began.It was sometime in november,I had just returned from a trip to lagos and was buying bread before returning to my lodge in the village I was posted to.A man drove up beside me and was about to order his choice of bread when I walked off barely looking at him.As I walked,I thought of the stressful trip ahead of me to the village I was posted,and then I noticed the same man buying bread when I left driving close to me.He stopped and said hi,I replied.He looked really mature,about 45 and above.He asked where I was going and when I told him offered me a ride.At first I was suspicious,but I got in because the sun was too hot and I was really tired.As he drove we talked.Told me his name and where he worked,told him I was a ‘copa’.

When we got to the lodge,the others were surprised but didn’t speak much of it.I invited him in to my room and after some more small talk we exchanged numbers and as he was about to leave he gave me three thousand naira.I was shocked to say the least.He said goodbye and drove off.And that was the the begining of a beautiful friendship.He took care of me in everyway a man can take care of a woman.I lacked absolutely nothing,I got whatever I wanted.He bought me a brand new phone from slot on valentine’s day.I was ecstatic because my old phone gave me problems to no end.

As time went on he began to want intimacy and I wasn’t ready for that yet.But four months after we met, we made love and it was on my birthday in march.He was huge down there, I barely took half of him in.But it was good.We were both shy,so the lights were off.My birthday was on a friday so we spent the whole weekend together.

He always took us for clearance and brought us back.Whenever he came to see me(at least twice a week),he’d buy bread and any other thing I needed.He was my knight in shining armour,everything I could ever hope for or want in a man.But he could never be mine even though he loved me,because he was a muslim and my parents would hear nothing of it,and secondly he was waaay older than me;he would be 50 this year just like I suspected when we 1st met.Other than these things,he was the perfect man for me.

And now my service year is coming to an unwanted end so quickly and it hurts that I’d have to leave him behind and go back home.He is still holding me as I drift back to the present.I hear his voice crack,oh my God he can’t cry please not here and now,especially when I’m trying so hard to hold back my tears.”please bayo don’t cry” I say in my head,but it doesn’t work and tears come and they come hard…….

To be continued

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