Opposites - A short Story

[Abtigiis]

Principled, trustworthy and straightforward are not words those who know me would use to describe me. But I know I was principled on one occasion, trustworthy on two occasions, and straightforward on three occasions in my life. I was principled when I confronted my Ethiopian English teacher in Grade nine. For one full day, he gave me stick on my tender butt for saying ‘Mouse is not the opposite of Cat”, something he was teaching the class. I said Cat and Mouse are enemies, but not opposites. Pain of the battered buttocks finally made me concede the point, but in the final exam, the same issue came up and I stuck to my point, but lost two marks for it.

 

Nitsu was a noisy girl, but a nice one. She personified compassion. No encounter with male schoolmates of mine, even as we grew old and grey-haired, ended without nostalgically recalling the role Nitsu played in cultivating within us selflessness and the internalization of pity as the driving factor behind our actions, intentions and decisions when dealing with needy human beings. Few realize that sexual permissiveness is a carnal correlative to an altruistic position. It is a vivid metaphor for humanitarian give-ness. It is a way of overthrowing our values by challenging the mores around a foundational reproductive assignment. Tell me: is it very difficult for a girl who disagrees to relieve a man dying with the pain of passion, in an era HIV and Aids were not a risk, to also disagree to give water to thirsty voyagers in a desert?

 

And all the names she got, some that permanently disfigured her-like the ‘river of the schoolboys’, she took with surprising doggedness. She gave pleasure to all of us when serious dates refused to oblige and the desired ones failed to show up. No complaint, no criticism of why she was overlooked first. She gave what we wanted with only one quaint request: Don’t tell to Solomon, or Murad, or Assefa or the Harari Ihsan who was the most handsome boy with the prettiest girlfriend –Mawardi. And I respected her words, kept for myself till today the 22nd of December 2010. In truth, it was Murad who told me to go to her, telling me there is no way I will fail. He told me she told him Ihsan sees her in secret, and when she asked him why he of all boys –with Mawardi by his side, would come to her, Ihsan complained that Mawardi won’t give him anything before they finish school and formally marry. He said the pimples and warts on his face are exhibits of unfinished passion, always constrained to lipsing kisses and warm embraces.

 

Only once did Nitsu protest. And it is hard to dispel that sight from my mind. At break, she walked into the cafeteria where students were drinking tea; the angry Nitsu, all clothes in one hand, the other one broadcasting hot and menacing curses, herself stark nude to show our stunned faces her naked anger in erect fullness, undisguised by any sartorial pretensions. She delivered a hot message no one cannot duck: You can talk about me, but I am confident, I am clean, fearless, and immune to insults and ridicule. She was clean; her name in the vernacular. Insults, she does not deserve for merely undressing and bending to gratify the passion of outsiders she doesn’t know, but she cannot turn down becuse she embraced self-demeaning to advance human pleasure.

 

They –the school community made her an enemy, an opposite of all the other girls in their fondness of opposites. They made her the Satan in Paradise Lost, themselves the God he challenged. As a fallen archangel, John Milton’s Satan comes through as a shrewd, calculating character of unparalleled brilliance. As humans who share in his foibles, we tend to gravitate towards him, indeed to identify with him. God, on the other hand, emerges as a flat voice of holy edicts, seemingly hostile to fallen man’s enterprise. He can’t fit in the narrative, or else he ceases to be God. So he is no match for the restless and striking Satan. We identified with Nitsu, not with the Godly girls, who saved a non-deplete-able resource for a man they are yet to meet, a man they don’t know, a man they can’t know; and failed to respond to the immediate needs of a classmate in passion crisis. I never told what she told me to anyone because telling it would have meant giving clues about the source of my bizzare walk in the week that followed my meeting with her. They would have said it is Syphills which was rampant in the campus.

 

The other time I was trustworthy is not that thrilling. It was when I rented a room for two hours, only to find that someone else actually rented the room for the whole night. It was mid afternoon, and I saw his wallets and some money on the cupboard, but I took nothing. The girl actually wanted to take a nice shampoo the obviously rich owner of the room left on the shower, but I discouraged her because I knew the reception guys would search us – students, before we leave. They had problems with students who come for short stay in their rooms. The Hotel owners complained that although they were making money from these hourly rens, they were having problems with the guests who rented the rooms because things were stolen from them regularly.

 

The three times I was straightforward were when I told my mother-in-law, my wedding day, that the way she was dressed, I could have mistaken her for my wife and could have run into problem. The other time was in the interview I had for a job, when I told the interviewer who kept on asking me if I correctly understood his questions that I understood them better than he did. The third was when I told a friend of mine from Asia that he is abusing his wife.

 

God is not the opposite of Satan, Mouse is not the opposite of Cat, and Nitsu is not the opposite of ethical grils. She is only different. And that difference appeals her to some of us, the senisible ones; makes her an enemy of the selfish ones who hide behind false morality to hide their shame and inconsiderate nature!

[NGONGE]

Hail Nitsu the teenagers' refuge.

On a serious note, nicely done story despite the intentional lewdness.

[Abtigiis]

:D :D @ teenager's refuge. You should have sent me before I wrote the thing. Waan ku dari lahaa! It is better than 'the river of schoolboys'! Nitsu was much more than that in truth. Macalimiinta, maamulka iskuulka, Shaqaalaha she never discriminated against, with that tiny but tireless body of hers! Tolow xagay joogtaa hadda?

[NGONGE]

^^

If she kept up the rate of her hospitable welcoming to all needy gentlemen (and school kids) she is, probably, dead by now. I can't relate to your story because I, unlike you, went to an all boy school. We had no Nitsu in those Arab schools but Egyptian Fatxi did (according to all the deviants) make a tolerable substitute.

(You realise that this has suddenly become a "strictly for boys" thread).

[Malika]

After reading that, I cant help but feel sorry for Nitsu - poor her, she was being used. Can I ask did she enjoy these 'encounters' ? ...

 

ps.Nicely captured the world of teenage boys - a coming off age dilemas.

 

pss.I am blessed to work with teenagers, they are fascinating creatures, an Nitsu and an overly excited Afghani teenager is a classic observation..loool

[Abtigiis]

looooooooooooooooool@Malika's question. :D All we can say at this stage is that enjoyment is a luxury in the world of teenage boys and one would be laying if he claims he knows what her mood was in such encounters. In hit-and-run gurrilla ambush's , the assailants can never assess the damage they caused with precision, but that doesn't mean there are no dead bodies who died, faces surly and writhing.

 

War Ngonge, she was a daughter of an Army General; I am sure she survived well into the 90s. I saw her married I think. But the main issue is that she was lliving in a Pre-AIDS world.

 

She was previledged and had many imported good books no one has. Story was that one of he boys invited her lunch in the student lounge and outside the school for almost one month before he asked her to go out with him. Nitsu, they said caught the boy by the collars: "All this time, all these days, all the invitations and all the talk was for you to ask for this -pointing at herself. I am disappointed with you. I thought you wanted something important like my Physics. You should have asked for what uou wanted the first day. I hate procrastinators." They say she offered to compensate him for the costs of tea and dinners he spent.

[NGONGE]

Malika, it sounds like Nitsu was a nymphomaniac.

 

Here is a picture of A&T and her..

 

[Malika]

^:D

 

A&T my bad - that was a naive question, completely forgot the mindset of erm - teenage boys.

[Gheelle.T]

Maybe she had a big appetite for all things men. Good read none the less!

[Malika]

^Nah, if we were to psycho analyse her, am sure dispite all she seemed to have - she was a lonely young woman, craving for love and attention. Seeking it in the wrong form, perhaps the only form she assumed guranteed her some attention..hmmm.

 

A&T, even if it was pre-Aids, other form of STD was there - dangerous game that was.:eek:

[Gheelle.T]

^ Did you read the part where the young boy emptied his pocket buying her food for a month just to a get laid- ooh boy did he disappoint her!

Nitsu was no attention seeker, Nitsu was a rocker;)

[Abtigiis]

Malika,

Indeed. You didn't see the strange walk I alluded to in the story? Syphillis was there, but so was Tertracyclline sold without prescriptions.

 

Anyway, Fitsum was from rich family and had so many, many girls around her. She was the group leader. But Malika could be right; there could be problems at home! Or I may just have picked on her, in an era where what she was doing was more of the norm, at least in that school. There are many Nitsu's we can discuss but she was different, as she was transparent and never seemed to worry about negative publicity. By the way, later on she become a big point of clash among boys; how many lost teeth angrily punching one another because one is teased that 'he doesn't spare anything feminine, human or animal, even Nitsu.' It become a matter of honour for everyone to fight those who rate them so lowly. But, beside the fights, Nitsu never lacked secret visitors. She was very attractive and charming by the way. But later on, some of her colour faded and too many creases started to develop all over her overutilised thighs and backs. Some used to joke "Ye Oromo iji now yegadhalaat" (which means rough Oromo/farmer/ hands killed the girl".

[Abtigiis]

NG,

 

Sawirka hagaaji. I can assure you I looked better than that sanweyn guy and also I never used glasses.

[Gheelle.T]

AT&T, rumor has it that you wear glasses as big as those of Spike Lee!!

[Nugul]

Interesting thoughts. What is it for? do you want feed back?