Adriel, would you believe what happened yesterday? I was offered a job as female lifeguard at the pool house! I know it’s the answer to our prayers – since the university is still closed two months after we are supposed to have resumed, a job to while away the time seems rather appropriate, but I had not thought to even check in those quarters.
I didn’t even have such faith in my swimming – I mean, if I hadn’t saved those boys, the standard answer to the question, “Can you swim?” would still be no. right now it’s still “Not really”. Now you can imagine my surprise when the only life guard at the pool, my very good friend, George (who I call Georgie most times), approached me and told me about the open position. In answer to my protests, he said the job was stress free, and in shifts, and of course since I was a lady, I was entitled to lighter shorter shifts, and would handle children most of the time. And the pay was good for whiling away time. Before I could think up a reason to refuse gracefully, Don came over and insisted that I was qualified for the job already since I always seemed to have my eye on the kids’ end of the pool watching out for any danger. Besides, he argued, I would have no excuse not to come more often to the club house, and I got to do something I loved to do – and be paid for it. I could not argue with them. I merely reminded them both that I did not have any first aid training to do the job. Georgie brushed that aside with one wave of his hand, insisting that my instincts had already taught me most of what I need to know.
I finally told them that I would think about it. They let the issue go for the time being.
They don’t really know the dilemma they just presented to me: Mum is due back in the country next week, my brother keeps telling me his new girlfriend really wanted to go swimming and if I knew any pool place that was not too expensive for him to take her to. And I didn’t want to be discovered. I didn’t want Mum to find out that I had not only been swimming, I had become so good at it that I was a life guard at the school pool house.
Adriel I had this fantasy of inviting my brother and his chick over to the pool house, and my brother giving in to the girl’s pleas to join her in the pool, only to go too far too quickly and I dive into the water to save him, and after he’s alright, Mum shows up crying in relief that she had not lost both her children in one day, and thanking God that I had learnt how to swim.
But that is a fantasy. You and I know that can never happen.
But the chances of being discovered, especially now that the school is still on strike is very low. Mum’s office is a very long distance from the club, and she never really goes there – I use her membership card to pay a reduced price to swim, otherwise, the card would have been uselessly lying somewhere in the house.
Hmm… we have to think about it…seriously think about it….the pay is very good, and it would help me in getting some new clothes you know, and it is a honest job after all. I’ll just have to remember to let them know that the second we resume, I would be facing my books solidly.
If I take the job.
Friday, May 30, 2008
SCHOOL BREAK, LESSONS LEARNT
Well, I know you should be used to my lapses now, Adriel, but as a figment of my imagination, I am sure that you have resigned yourself to your fate…lol…ok. I shall try to treat you better this upcoming semester. Anyway, guess what happened after the exams? I met this bloke at the pool, supposedly from the States. He’s nice and young and a very good swimmer. He’s also a very patient teacher – believe me, he’s very patient cos he seems to derive some kind of joy in helping people learn how to be swimmers. I once told him that he’d missed his calling – he was supposed to be the trainer for those Navy Seals people that had to know how to swim first before going about their secret missions.
Wait…I’m rambling. Anyway, exams are over, and I had to redo only one of those courses’ exams. So the damage to my grade point average is quite minimal. Mum is out of the country to some conference for shrinks around the world, and it’s a relief because she is not studying me with those knowing eyes around the house. Towards the day she was traveling, several times I had the urge to scream, “Yes! You are right! I have been hiding something important from you!” It was quite an effort to actually fight my mouth – it just wanted to blurt it out. My younger brother is so busy trying to maintain his first class grade point average and still create a social life for him self at the same time. It is not an easy task, he tells me all the time, or as we say it in Nigeria, “Ko easy!”
He’s so busy that he doesn’t realize that Mum is trying to make me confess something
with her silence-works-wonders method. If he could tell he would join forces with her as usual and frustrate me out of the house – which is not an option because school is on break.
I’m rambling again.
I was talking about Douglas, or donald or what’s his name – the American. Ok, I know it will not amount to anything but I have to tell you Adriel, the guy is cute! And he is well built. Ok, I hear your preaching in my head – “Thou shalt not lust after a man”. But surely I can do it with only you knowing, can’t I? No one else would know. Honestly the guy is so cute, but I am beginning to think he might be gay – can you imagine he keeps turning down offers by babes, and I do mean babes – fine, hourglass – shaped beautiful ladies, not girls like me, with my chubby cheeks and irrepressible grin. Just last week, this fine babe that I have only seen in campus magazine came to the poolside to “relax”, and before I could say Jack Robinson, they were having a conversation.
Adriel, between you and me, her phoneh (phonetics) was forced jare. I mean, you could hear the false ‘h’s that she was putting before every vowel. Don had been sitting by me – he’d come over the second I emerged from the changing room, and started attacking me for coming an hour late, when she had called back to the pool for help. Apparently he had been helping her perfect her backstroke or something. I simply pushed him towards her, and told him to give me time to settle down. My guess was that the helping hand he was giving her would turn to lunch and then to a dinner invitation. A fine girl like that could not possibly pass up such a tasty morsel (yes I know he’s not edible, but Adriel, the guy is good enough to eat). If you had been there I would have bet my remaining allowance on it, but do you know, Don disappointed me o – and the chick of course. He kept coming back to me to talk, and even in the pool, he would swim towards me for a few minutes.
Come to think of it, my conclusion has been revised. Its either he’s gay, or he’s trying to portray to the world that we have something going on. Now you know that After Fred, I simply cannot even cultivate any kind of feelings for another guy again. I mean, would I not be stupid, knowing that all they want is sex, and I do not come with that option (or even the urge). Plus I know now that Fred must have had what one of my crazy friends calls “an arrangement of mutual agreement” friend (AMA), since he did not pressure me for it in the first few months. If Don is gay, it will be a shame because he deserves some TLC from a loving and giving woman. But that is his choice.
Everyone has finally forgotten “the swimmer girl”. I am so glad that is over. Its been so long now – about four months right? I am sorry that I have not been very constant with my letters, but you will understand that I had exams and then I had to settle that missing result issue and …and… a lot of other things. Sorry. Anyway, the story is dead, I clipped the articles in the newspaper though, so I can keep them and show my grandchildren in case they decide to be heroic, to show them that they can help out, but for the right reasons…lol. Don’t mind me, it’s not as if I don’t daydream sometimes about where I would be right now if I had accepted that prize. I know that I would have changed a lot of things for my family, and even friends. But I crash land again back to reality, and like today, decide to work hard at making money.
Lessons learnt….hmmm…let me see, for one, I still have to live with those …er…babes in that room for another semester, so I must never let my guard down. Ever since that showdown in the room, the three evil babes have been watching me with malice in their eyes. Even my cheerful greetings does not get through to their thick brains. My own upbringing frowns at keeping malice, so I see them as children still sulking over flimsy issues. As I do not really spend time in the room, it is not an issue for me. ijeoma on the other hand, is even more friendly. She got my number from one of my classmates that came to look for me (I was careful not to give her personally), in the name of having credit to use to call me so I could be located, and since then she calls me just to greet me almost every two days. Its disconcerting, because I have a feeling she thinks because I defended her to those hypocrites, I did not disapprove of what she did. I am still trying not to offend her sensibilities (remember she’s a tall, lithe, and strong babe, with every – present manicured talons), but if I reach my limit I hope I do not do anything drastic for my health.
Then another lesson I learnt this semester is that I must check my results with the lecturers in charge, even before the general list is pasted. This is necessary so that I can take the necessary precautions, like searching for a result if it’s missing. That is about it.
Oh, and another lesson is to always seek to help, but not for recognition. I still feel good about not coming forward, and I enjoy the really good feeling a lot, particularly when I have another bout of depression about being good for nothing and stuff like that. It did wonders for my soul when I was depressed after breaking up with my ex. I felt worthless and absolutely ….er… not worthy of another man’s love, but then I remembered that even if I didn’t deserve another man’s love again, at least I was not worthless – while about fifty people stood by watching I had saved two precious lives. If that didn’t mean God still counted me useful then my thinking faculties needed retuning.
I think overall, I have decided to find ways to help others.
Wait…I’m rambling. Anyway, exams are over, and I had to redo only one of those courses’ exams. So the damage to my grade point average is quite minimal. Mum is out of the country to some conference for shrinks around the world, and it’s a relief because she is not studying me with those knowing eyes around the house. Towards the day she was traveling, several times I had the urge to scream, “Yes! You are right! I have been hiding something important from you!” It was quite an effort to actually fight my mouth – it just wanted to blurt it out. My younger brother is so busy trying to maintain his first class grade point average and still create a social life for him self at the same time. It is not an easy task, he tells me all the time, or as we say it in Nigeria, “Ko easy!”
He’s so busy that he doesn’t realize that Mum is trying to make me confess something
with her silence-works-wonders method. If he could tell he would join forces with her as usual and frustrate me out of the house – which is not an option because school is on break.
I’m rambling again.
I was talking about Douglas, or donald or what’s his name – the American. Ok, I know it will not amount to anything but I have to tell you Adriel, the guy is cute! And he is well built. Ok, I hear your preaching in my head – “Thou shalt not lust after a man”. But surely I can do it with only you knowing, can’t I? No one else would know. Honestly the guy is so cute, but I am beginning to think he might be gay – can you imagine he keeps turning down offers by babes, and I do mean babes – fine, hourglass – shaped beautiful ladies, not girls like me, with my chubby cheeks and irrepressible grin. Just last week, this fine babe that I have only seen in campus magazine came to the poolside to “relax”, and before I could say Jack Robinson, they were having a conversation.
Adriel, between you and me, her phoneh (phonetics) was forced jare. I mean, you could hear the false ‘h’s that she was putting before every vowel. Don had been sitting by me – he’d come over the second I emerged from the changing room, and started attacking me for coming an hour late, when she had called back to the pool for help. Apparently he had been helping her perfect her backstroke or something. I simply pushed him towards her, and told him to give me time to settle down. My guess was that the helping hand he was giving her would turn to lunch and then to a dinner invitation. A fine girl like that could not possibly pass up such a tasty morsel (yes I know he’s not edible, but Adriel, the guy is good enough to eat). If you had been there I would have bet my remaining allowance on it, but do you know, Don disappointed me o – and the chick of course. He kept coming back to me to talk, and even in the pool, he would swim towards me for a few minutes.
Come to think of it, my conclusion has been revised. Its either he’s gay, or he’s trying to portray to the world that we have something going on. Now you know that After Fred, I simply cannot even cultivate any kind of feelings for another guy again. I mean, would I not be stupid, knowing that all they want is sex, and I do not come with that option (or even the urge). Plus I know now that Fred must have had what one of my crazy friends calls “an arrangement of mutual agreement” friend (AMA), since he did not pressure me for it in the first few months. If Don is gay, it will be a shame because he deserves some TLC from a loving and giving woman. But that is his choice.
Everyone has finally forgotten “the swimmer girl”. I am so glad that is over. Its been so long now – about four months right? I am sorry that I have not been very constant with my letters, but you will understand that I had exams and then I had to settle that missing result issue and …and… a lot of other things. Sorry. Anyway, the story is dead, I clipped the articles in the newspaper though, so I can keep them and show my grandchildren in case they decide to be heroic, to show them that they can help out, but for the right reasons…lol. Don’t mind me, it’s not as if I don’t daydream sometimes about where I would be right now if I had accepted that prize. I know that I would have changed a lot of things for my family, and even friends. But I crash land again back to reality, and like today, decide to work hard at making money.
Lessons learnt….hmmm…let me see, for one, I still have to live with those …er…babes in that room for another semester, so I must never let my guard down. Ever since that showdown in the room, the three evil babes have been watching me with malice in their eyes. Even my cheerful greetings does not get through to their thick brains. My own upbringing frowns at keeping malice, so I see them as children still sulking over flimsy issues. As I do not really spend time in the room, it is not an issue for me. ijeoma on the other hand, is even more friendly. She got my number from one of my classmates that came to look for me (I was careful not to give her personally), in the name of having credit to use to call me so I could be located, and since then she calls me just to greet me almost every two days. Its disconcerting, because I have a feeling she thinks because I defended her to those hypocrites, I did not disapprove of what she did. I am still trying not to offend her sensibilities (remember she’s a tall, lithe, and strong babe, with every – present manicured talons), but if I reach my limit I hope I do not do anything drastic for my health.
Then another lesson I learnt this semester is that I must check my results with the lecturers in charge, even before the general list is pasted. This is necessary so that I can take the necessary precautions, like searching for a result if it’s missing. That is about it.
Oh, and another lesson is to always seek to help, but not for recognition. I still feel good about not coming forward, and I enjoy the really good feeling a lot, particularly when I have another bout of depression about being good for nothing and stuff like that. It did wonders for my soul when I was depressed after breaking up with my ex. I felt worthless and absolutely ….er… not worthy of another man’s love, but then I remembered that even if I didn’t deserve another man’s love again, at least I was not worthless – while about fifty people stood by watching I had saved two precious lives. If that didn’t mean God still counted me useful then my thinking faculties needed retuning.
I think overall, I have decided to find ways to help others.
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