She came one misty morning when I least expected. She was glowing exceedingly in her new dress. I invited her in and made her felt wanted for the first time in many years. After a long chat about the past she asked if she could relax on my bed. I had no problem with that I said. She got up from the chair where she sat since she arrived and went to the corner of the room. Slowly she took off her clothing leaving her underwear. She walked towards the bed and sat at the edge. Her skimpy dress retracted to her hips as she sat; a chunk portion of her flesh above her knees was bare.

What a stunner I garbled. It was the only time I had seen her real charm. Her skins around her thighs were breathtaking. Several precise hair pores lay diagonally across both thighs like a piece of art work. Two lustrous knobs stood out on her bosom; pushing her underwear upwards at the front. An appealing ridge burrowed through her cleavage. My eyes were almost popping out. I was getting disrupted; and asked her to cover herself with the sheet. She pulled the sheets over; I could tell she wasn’t happy.

As I watched her coiled her cuteness under the quilt; I reflect over an incident in the distant past. She had come to school looking extra appealing that day. She walked to my desk; looked directly into my eyes and grinned. Her well carved dimples fashioned neatly in her face radiating her loveliness. ‘You disliked me why?’ I was bewildered. I wished I could explain to her there was a terrifying beast with fangs lurking about and I was in flight. I looked at her and saw love in her eyes. I saw innocence surrounding her attractiveness and purity enveloping her. She was a green shoot bursting out of its shell ready to explore; craving to mislay its purity to incessant insects. I was not going to be the voracious bee; pinching her spotlessness and losing mine.

Mercy had offered her innocence since I was a kid. Here she was once more with the offer in my adult life. She offered it without any inducement. I did not send her on exotic weekends in afar resorts; paid from dubious per diems or dodgy Ex-Gratia awards. She offered it; naturally. The truth was before Mercy got hooked to Amon I was the one she treasured. I had got her into mess many times. Yet she displayed her fondness overtly to the detriment of her petite self. It matters not if she was punished for disturbing the peace of the class. She only had one thing in mind; to be at my desk. It was the hormones; someone tried to explain. They kept her in an explosive state. I wanted to be closed to nature. She wanted to experiment; I was a reluctant specimen.

She did all within her grips to get me interested but I was not. My focus was on the escape routes. The politicians; human vampires in power had blocked all the routes; except those for their thievery family members and political cronies; the stooges. Mercy was certainly a route to damnation. I dread to tell miss about her lecherous behaviour; it will get her into more troubles. The little imp persisted. She brought glossily magazines to class as baits but I was an astute cod. I had never felt so pestered in my life; forcing love down my unformed gullet. I was so suffocated; not with smoke inhalation but love from a girl-adult. The conduit to destruction was ominous. I had a respite when her parent moved her to a new school.

Boys’ school was a different terrain. It was like a bard land. Lads suffering similar emotional anguish were in glut. The obvious option was to escape to the greenwoods on the Ogua hills; to meet sodden girls with similar fates. It was not one of my flight routes. Mercy was not about to hurl her love at me willy-nilly. Sweet memories of her kept coming back. I was in the dormitory alone. All the guys were out to the green grooves. I knew I had lost her to Amon for good. I was not ready when she offered her love; Amon was. I was the one she cherished without inducement. Amon induced her with love stories from the dream world. I was her option but I disliked her for the simple reason. I was escaping. I turned away pure love that flowed like a fountain. It came from the bowels of the earth without the aid of robotic arms.

Before I left for school in Cape Coast I had ran into her one sunny afternoon in town. That was years after she had left me alone; she was with a friend. She ran directly into my arms on seeing me and nearly knocked me to the floor. Very ecstatic and screaming her voice out. I got sturdy and held her slim silky frame to my side. Her friend who watched events at distant; walked unhurried towards us. She gaped at me with admiration and said softly; ‘so you are the one’. I looked at her dazzling face very confused. ‘Mercy spoke so fondly of you since she arrived here’ she said with some excitements. I was so touched hearing those words not from her but her friend.

Mercy fixed her seductive eyes on me as her friend recounted the story. She was still close to my side and my hand was in hers. I looked at her waiting for a reaction but she was busy fondling my fingers. Her actions sent ripples down my little frame. I wish she will stop what she was doing. She had grown so beautiful, sparkling and attractive. As a matter of fact Mercy was an adorable girl; a trinket with a high value. I didn’t know why I regarded her as a pest. I gazed at her and she smiled revealing her two well engraved dimples.

She was almost melting into me; coiling her fleeciness around me. She kept fondling my fingers; I pulled her closer. I had come of age and had urges but not geared up for her warmth. I had a pledge to keep. Responding to Mercy’s affections could send me off tangent. When the beast after you is hard on your heels there is no respite; even if your feet are weary. I urgently needed to escape. It was so difficult to free my fingers from her caressing grips but I had a bus to catch; I bade her good bye and left.

I went out of the room as she slept to run an errand; she was already up when I returned. Her eyes were full of tears; ‘you still don’t love me’ she uttered through her sobs when she saw me; a troubled soul I thought. The truth is I adored the loved one so much. I caught the tail end of Kojo Antwi’s hit song ‘Bra’ she was playing on the CD player: ‘Just as Ananse weaves his web, just as Bonwire blokes weave their kente yarns, come dear one; come and let’s knit our love’. I asked her to dress up so I could see her off. It became clear to her I was not too eager to weave a basket. She went away and I never saw her again. Amon had visited the greenwoods much too often; basking in the nectar and the moistness and found himself in the wrong side of life. That was why Mercy came running into my arms. She had out grown the fantasies of love stories. Life was beyond the make-believe worlds of Mills & Boons. She needed something and I had that on offer but I need to escape first. The beast call desolation was prowling.

Francis Kwaku Egu

kwakuhull@yahoo.com