Dear Diary, my name is Nana. I was born with a well polished dark complexion in fact as a child, when left to play in the dark it would pose great difficulty to find me and Mum would usually say to her friends that sometimes the only way that she could tell that I was present, was the fact that she saw my wide opened eyes. Yes, my eyes were white with a circle of honey brown at the middle. Mum's friends would laugh long and hard, they always assumed that it was a joke... Well it wasn't. Anyway that was when I was a child, a lot has changed since then, for one, I'm certainly not as dark anymore.
My favourite Musician is Rihanna. You must feel it's weird that I'm bringing this up so soon but adding this is quite important because her music defined me, literally speaking. I mean, everytime I failed to complete my chores Mum would yell... "O Nana! Anytime I missed a call from my best friend Pascal, his first response when I finally pick up is" O Nana!" in fact, that response always followed everything I ever did wrong. So I decided to make the situation light, by accompanying it with "that's my name". well it was quite different from Rihanna's version but it suited my purpose just fine.
I sat on the kitchen stool one Saturday afternoon as I waited for the rice to boil... Yes, I practically wait for the rice, Egg and even water to boil. And I dared not do the contrary if I didn't want my mother's physical corrections coming down on my back like I was a witch possessed by a demon which had to be driven out by a "celestial pastor."
Anyway as I sat down there deep in thought... A puzzling thought crossed my mind, and like a debate, I pondered. It went thus "Between the rich and the poor who was more wicked." hmm... The rich sure have their methods, for instance they are very suspicious of the poor folks like us. The other day I had gone to visit my friend Shania and her mother had welcomed me firstly by assessing my clothes like they were rags, after which my friend Shane came downstairs to meet us at the parlour and had offered me a sit... Yes, "I was standing the whole time I waited for my friend to come downstairs". Immediately I sat down her mother had immediately moved her hand bag like I was going to steal something from it. And one time Shania and I shared a long laugh, but her mother cautioned me not to laugh anyhow, so as not to touch their painted wall, or any other valuable in the process because she
knew I couldn't afford it...
Well, my cousin got thrown in prison by his rich boss for a petty theft, a crime he didn't commit by the way. He also set his bail at 1million... Well, it wasn't a case that was taken to court but the officers said they were not going to release my cousin otherwise. Well we couldn't even afford cash in thousands not to talk of millions of course the poor boy was left to suffer in detention.
But the poor on the other hand, sometimes show their own wickedness when it comes to material things... Of course the difficult economy and the rich put us up to it... I thought in our defense. And that is why when you steal from a poor man, he could get violently industrious. E. G burning the culprit alive or even worse, taking the time to cook his own ear for him to eat.
But my debate soon started moving in favour of the rich, when I met Ikenna. He was very handsome, the son of a rich man and his stares would make me feel very hot; I'm referring to actual heat here.
My attraction to him soon led to my applying white powder and using lip gloss anytime I knew he was going to show up. Yes, he usually accompanied his mother every Friday as she did foodstuff shopping in the market. "I prefer to drive her around myself, when I'm home" I heard him say once.
On one faithful Friday I had powdered my face as usual... But Ikenna came alone this time. He told me the things he needed and I went to get it. After getting everything wrapped up, I stretched out my hand to give the things to him. But he continued to stare at my face, I made to complain about the weight of the bag, when he blurted out "you are beautiful". I felt my dark complexion turn red around my cheeks, this is serious I thought. He got the bag of foodstuff from my hands and dropped it on a nearby table. Then he moved closer to me, and got rid of the lip gloss on my lips; all of it.
After the whole ordeal and my heart was still beating fast, I made to protest. But he spoke up, you didn't need it. "you are a natural beauty". And yes from thence, I fell in love with Ikenna, I fell in love with his good looks but most importantly I fell in love with his sugar coated tongue.
Indeed, I was convinced that he was the one I was going to give the responsibility of plucking my flower to. He had constantly begged for it. So on a Saturday afternoon I got dressed and with my last savings I took up the mission of going to my lover's house. I was confident that after the whole ordeal he was going to give me my fare back home, or even give me a ride.
But lo and behold on getting there right in front of his house was Ikenna, locking lips with another girl. She didn't have my beautiful dark complexion, instead she was as fair as an "ogbanje". I wanted to leave quietly but where was the transport fare? Thus I assumed that letting him know I was there, would bring about a plausible explanation. But instead, when he discovered my presence few minutes later, he wrapped his hands around the waist of his rich lover and told her that I was pinning for him. He then looked at me closely and told me that he could never be mine, because I am a poor pauper and I am obviously not in the same level with him.
That day when I trekked the long distance from Ikenna's house to my own with tears in my eyes, the debate as concerns the wickedness of the rich and the poor didn't matter anymore, even though it was now clear who I thought the winner was. But that day, I swore to myself and the ever present night stars, that I was going to be rich... And I was going to make it big in live.
I was glad that I didn't lose my flower to Ikenna. In fact I didn't plan on losing it to any man ever.
Dear diary, I wasn't bitter. I was mad as hell!....
