Rain

It's raining in Benin when I get in, it's always raining in Benin. I find that I shouldn't have rushed down, I'm actually two days early. I drop my things in the place I'll be staying and decide to go and get food in Mat-ice, I've been fantasising about their fish and ice cream for sixteen months.  

As I walk through the corridors of UBTH- on my way to Mat-ice, I'm assauged by an avalanche of memories. It's raining steadily, no one carries an umbrella, the rain never gather muscle as they'd say in Benin. I suddenly realise how much of my memories have been shaped by rain. Me at eighteen, with a crush on the cutest guy in fellowship, luckily I didn't know it was a crush, even luckier that he didn't take advantage of me and my feelings. The long walks after fellowship when we'd talk about everything under the sun, his voice washing over me, his brilliance and humour kept me magnetised. He left that year, I didn't mourn him too much though, I had already falling in crush with someone else. 

 At nineteen I got my first real kisses, fumbling wet kisses. Enthusiasm in bounds making up for whatever we lacked in skills and finesse. Deciding to go all the way and see what the fuss was about was pretty easy, going the distance wasn't. Then my first break up, he'd found someone else, someone for whom intimacy wasn't the big nightmare it was with me but by that time I'd fallen out of love with him. However his coldness flagellated my heart like koboko soaked in methylated spirit

Then walks in the love of my life, we met at night,  me crying on phone and talking to my boyfriend's elder brother, I needed to pour out my pain to someone. I'd noticed him earlier, at midnight. He came into class with his friend,  he was so carefree and happy and I was so flipping miserable. I couldn't stop looking at him and envying his happiness, he was laughing and disturbing his friends, I was sitting in front of my books, I was so darn sad.

At 00:30 I went to make a call, I'd decided I couldn't take it anymore, I called Kieran's brother. Though he comforted me as we talked, I realise I have to break up with his brother. As I drop the call I find him beside me, the man I'd envied his happiness. He asks my name and stays with me through the night. We went on a long walk that night, his jacket on my shoulders dwarfing me. Strangely I wasn't afraid, walking down the lonely roads of Uniben at 1am with two men I had met less than an hour before,  yes we went with his friend. I don't see him again for nearly two months, there was a long holiday and he was schooling as well as working in Escravos. 

Though we're no longer together, I always remember him when it rains. The days we'd make love with the sound of rain as soundtrack, the long walks in drizzles without an umbrella, him warming me up after those walks. The long arguments we used to have about anything, enjoying the sounds of each other's voices and glad that we're with someone smart enough for us. The meals I made him which he'd eat with relish no matter how badly it tasted or how poorly presented. The wrestling matches that always ended in bed, the times he'd sit with my head on his laps and we'd just talk, anything, everything. As I leave the corridors and step into the drizzling rain, I realise how much I've missed walking in the rain. The best times of my life were decorated by rain

PS: I've met three very fantastic people through blogging and I just want to tell that I appreciate the support. Duru Adolphus, Tibs and Obisco1. Your support spurs me on and your encouragement always makes me smile and thank God for blessing me with y'all.