My name is Segun, so much has happened within the past few years, so fast that I’ve not had time to place things in retrospect. I’m going back a little into the past. I hated classes, maybe because I hated note-copying or any form of voluminous writing. It was in those days of stabbing classes back then at the University College that I met Affiong. I had just slipped out of Prof William’s Quantum Mechanics class immediately he began to dictate notes. I left my books with Nichy on the promise that I was returning after the class to take my books, and his. His was in order to photocopy the notes he was sure going to copy. I was still holding his notes on methods of theoretical physics. I’m sure if he remembered that, then it was going to be impossible to get Prof Williams note. In any case, I hoped he would forget. And as events turned out, my hope was unnecessary. Immediately I left the class, I strolled around the passage on the road leading to the departmental library. I had nothing to do, but I needed something other than just sitting down and copying a ten year old note! In the meantime, second year students were pouring out from the practical lab II. I just kept strolling on, while they kept coming in the opposite direction. I picked out some familiar faces among the crowd, Tunde and Samuel were shouting at the top of their voices. It is hard not to notice them. Jolly good fellows indeed. Someone else was walking in between both of them. A tall dark skinned girl whose face I could not place immediately. She wore a dark-rimmed eyeglass, and was superbly beautiful. Well, the crowd was here already, and the hilarious duo started hailing me, “Ah! Oga Shegay, your boys are loyal” they both chorused…I smiled and shook hands with them. I was about to ask who the lady was, when Tunde volunteered, holding the girl’s left hand, “This is our newest colleague, a transfer student from the Makarere Institute of Engineering, her name is Affiong” we shook hands and I completed the other part of the introduction. The two rascals walked away, leaving the girl behind when I started asking her about the MIE, but not before smiling at each other knowingly. Everything happened in a flash, and before long my priority was no longer how to get Nichy’s notes. In fact, all sense of hurry left me, and we talked at length. I don’t know about love at first sight, but this was love at first meet. When I checked my watch afterwards, it was 5:33pm, I had stabbed all other classes siting with Affiong of the dark skin, and talking about everything under God’s blue sky. I offered to walk her back to the hostel that evening, Few things could match this level of happiness, and one of them was not staying in class to copy notes. I knew Nichy would not leave my books in class so my first point of call when done would be his room, to get my books, and some tongue-lashing, and secondly and more importantly, to share the good news of great joy with him… We stood for about an hour outside the hostel lounge, discussing about our childhoods. Needless to say, I was a rascal as a boy, and it was visible that she enjoyed my gist. I told her of the first time I stole meat from my mother’s pot, and the beating that followed, she laughed and said, “You still pick meat from the pot, don’t you?” Well, now it wasn’t stealing anymore I replied, she smiled and took my left hands in hers. She grew up in London, so her childhood was more TV watching and travelling than mine, which had a very little element of TV. We stood close, and the wind came on us gently, playing with her hair. For a second, I was jealous of a natural element. Given the right place, maybe I would have kissed her, but I didn’t that night. She said bye, and waved at me till she finally disappeared among the crowd of girls that were coming out in their numbers from the hostel. It was 7:15pm when I went in search of my books and Nichy.
