Chapter 13: Chapter 13
CHAPTER 10
He was feeling much lighter, and quite energetic. He decided to jog all the way to the field, instead of driving, though he basically considered driving to the field as a waste of fuel, especially when the fuel subsidy issue was smiling on no man. To get his petrol tank filled, sometimes he had to queue under the roasting sun and in what seemed to be an infinite thread of queue which mostly ran from the filling station to the main road. Sometimes, he would punch and chastise himself for not using his fuel like a man who had a sense of frugality or foresight, as if being barbecued by the sun was not a punishment enough.
He plugged his ears with earphones. He loved to listen to Hip-Hop whenever he needed to level up his sporting spirit. So he added up M.I, Vector and a little bit of Ice Prince in his playlist. He also had Eminem, Jay Z, Wiz Khalifa and Tu Pac complementing the wholeness of his playlist collection. Putting the songs on shuffle and repeat, he increased the volume to the highest echelon after ignoring the popped up warning that says listening at high volume for long periods may damage your hearing from his phone. He jogged all the way to the football field in the mild morning sun which caressed his tanned skin, and hauled out some sweat from his glands.
The field was quite a good one, but just like all other things in the country, it smelled of neglect in terms of proper maintenance. The harmattan season was fast approaching, and the grass on the field was waning in colour from anomalous photosynthesis. The field was not fully covered with short grass; there were fairly large bald spots on the field with red sand. The goalposts were rather made of iron bars which were rusty and were without nets. But it was impressive. Most football fields would rather have rickety goalposts made of bamboo sticks- one ball hitting the woodwork sends the whole goalpost tumbling down, starting with the crossbar.
Surrounding the field in a sort of arc were almond and mango trees with large branches and plenty of multicoloured leaves; scattered underneath these trees were large and small rubber tyres, large tree logs and a myriad of dead leaves. It appeared he was late, though not too late. His colleagues who mostly were football-field acquaintances were already done jogging around the field three times as it was customarily done. The friendly match started almost immediately.
Teju played his usual position on the field- a secondary striker. He did pretty much well, at least more than he had ever done since his secondary school days when becoming an Okocha were his wildest fantasies. He slotted in a goal and provided an assist for his team as they crushed the opposing team with three goals to one. Sam was part of the opposing team. He was one of the central defenders, and he witnessed Teju’s brutal exploit against his team. The members of the team would later pitch some blame on him because Teju dribbled him a couple of times and somehow he was miserably lethargic in sweeping some loose balls in dangerous positions, and they had conceded two goals in the process. Although the goalkeeper would take many of the blame because he proved totally unhandy as he sieved each of the goals to the back of the post.
After the match, everyone started dispersing in clusters, and Teju was gulping a bottle of potable water into his throat when Sam came to him. He was in his Chelsea football kit, shrouded with a lemon-coloured apron. He was wiping off the surfeit of sweat on his face with a brown face towel.
“How are you doing, buddy?” Sam asked as he took hold of another bottle of potable water on the ground
“Well, you mean after scoring a goal, providing an assist and helping my team trash your team? I feel great or what do you expect?” Teju replied, smiled and poured water from the bottle on his head.
“Well, you look very amazing on the ball today than usual, have you been training or something?” Sam said after laughing to Teju’s response,
Teju laughed and said “Why would I start training, that’s absurd, I’m not going to be Cristiano Ronaldo, not anymore. I’m too old for that, probably if I have a second life I would”
“But your game improved too much for me to believe that. Just look at how you dazzled and dribbled with the ball today, like electricity, something definitely must have been happening,” Sam said and belched. He was breathing heavily after taking a long gulp of water. He would later pour the remaining over his head and wipe his face with it. The sun was fully out already, and they started to move off the field.
“I went on a date last night,” Teju confessed
Sam raised his eyebrow, “With whom?”
“What do you mean with whom?” Teju countered
“Chill out buddy, I just wanted to know whom you went out on a date with.”
“Don’t be a funny boy, who else will I go on a date with, your wife?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you went on a date with your wife, what is so exciting about that anyway?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Of course not, people go out on a date with their spouses only during courtship my friend, not after marriage,” Sam said with a serious tone that threw Teju off balance for a moment
“And what do they do after marriage?” Teju asked
“Well, the stupid ones among them babysit one another at home and manufacture babies, while the smart ones hang out with other people and have real sex”
“Oh my God, Sam you’re so messed up. Do you even realise it’s just two weeks before our first wedding anniversary, is that not exciting enough?”
“Good heavens! What is exciting about that, my marriage is barely six months old, and I’m already getting bored with my wife. I have some hot girls I’m hanging out with”
“Girls?” Teju asked, stressing the‘s’ in the word
“Yeah, you don’t expect me to be satisfied with just a girl, do you? I’m not a one-girl guy; you of all people should know my appetite for this thing right from our University days”
“Yeah, no wonder you now play football like a toddler” Teju sneered