The Externals Reloaded - Chapter Twenty-Seven

 

"Lily, you're going out for your performance in sixty seconds. Are you ready", Mr. Segun said to Lily on cultural day.

"Yesss, sir", Lily stuttered while she thought, " I don't know how big of my offence is that you can't find another way to punish me, wicked man".

"It's time!" Mr. Segun watched Lily count her footsteps as she walked to the stage.

"I'm so sure this is going to be the most embarrassing day of my life", Lily sighed when she got on stage and saw the huge crowd before her.

In the subsequent years, students, teaching staff and even non-teaching staff of both Johnson College and Grace Model College kept talking about this particular cultural event because it was one of a kind. People had surplus cultural foods, like amala, banga soup with fofo, tuwo shinkafa to eat and fresh palm wine to quench their thirst. The most interesting part was that students were supervised to cook these meals, regardless of the amount. Each cultural group chose their representatives to handle the cooking aspect and the tribe whose food people enjoyed the most won great prices.

Even though the students did their best to keep the audience entertained, the responsibility was not on them alone them. Mr. Kunbi personally invited local dancers and musicians from his village to grace the occasion with their melodious voices and vigorous dance steps. It was evident in that he had great intentions towards Johnson's College. However, the main reason he did these things was to ensure his son's first experience cultural day experience was something worth remembering and did achieve his aim because Quinn really enjoyed himself.

The drama involving Oba and Adesuwa wasn't perfect but most people saw it felt it was worth viewing. Mr. Kunbi was happy to see his son being the true African son that he was meant to be. Quinn himself enjoyed the feeling of importance that came with being in a royal regalia that it took him a while to take it off. Lily also derived joy playing the role of his wife even though it was short-lived. Getting to know more about his culture and portraying it with him by her side was also something she enjoyed doing. Everything was going smoothly...

No. It wasn't rain that spoilt the mood. The event organizers and the audience had no reason to worry about rain because they had a roof over their heads. They dance and sang like never before. They seemed to be so engrossed in having fun one moment but in the next, their bodies became agitated as their eyes a caught glimpse of Quinn who was previously just dancing with Lily kissing her.

Some assumed he was tipsy but the young man has been so anxious about the play so he couldn't eat or drink anything. It was glaring enough yet people refused to admit the fact that Quinn wasn't controlled by lust. He was just a guy whose whole world was consumed by a girl. He was just a guy who wanted his whole world to revolve round a girl. He was just a guy who wanted his relations with a girl to stand the test of time. Quinn felt he was just a guy in love with a girl but they felt he was just another American guy trying to take advantage of a black Nigerian girl.

"What were you thinking! How could you let him take advantage of you?" Mrs. Daramola vented her anger over the situation when they got home.

"I didn't know how it happened..it was so sudden...", Lily couldn't find the right words to describe the situation but that didn't matter because no one was going to believe her anyway.

"Shut your stupid mouth! You're so despicable. Only God knows the amount of times you've done it secretly...that was gave him the effontry to..." Mrs. Daramola said with disgust.

"Ho...." Lily tried defending herself but all her mouth did was wail.

"Please get out of this place with your stupid cry, oniranu", Mrs. Daramola ordered Lily out of her room.

After what happened, Quinn felt extremely sad and ashamed of himself. He needed someone to talk to but since the only people around him were woman who couldn't see things from his point of view, and poor network couldn't allow him get access to his best friend, he decided to find an alternative. His alternative was spending the night at Dare's place and he did go there with a cab since he couldn't drive in that kind of situation. He could only get lost in thought as the wheels of the car that drove him to his destination struggled to get past bad roads without getting hurt.

Dare seemed reasonable when Quinn got to his place. The poor guy had envisaged having a funfilled guys' night with him as he welcomed him warmly and showed concern over what happened. He was expecting a more intense counselling session inside but when he entered the living room, the first thing he saw was a bunch of half-naked girls shaking their butts. Then again, he felt Dare would excuse himself to talk with him. Unfortunately, nothing of such happened. To Dare, what he needed was having one of those girls as his sidechick since they could even give him more than Lily could offer.

Quinn's interest didn't lie in dare's afterparty so he only stayed with him for a short while. Though he went out of Dare's place confidently, he wasn't sure of what to do next. Surprisingly, his dad was already waiting for him outside.

"Clearly, I see why your ministry is in a sorry state. Instead of looking ways to develop it, you go about stalking people", was Quinn's response to his sudden appearance.

"Caring is the right word, Tokunbo. I care about you, son", Mr. Kubi opened the door of his SUV for Quinn to take cover as it started drizzling but he refused.

"Well, I don't need you to do that. Your wives and female children need you more so leave me the hell alone", Quinn deeped his hand in the pocket of his jeans and resumed walking to the nearest bus stop. The reason he did that was to stop seeing his dad's face. He could also order a auber there and wait for it.

"I felt the same way about your mom", Mr. Kunbi said because he wanted his son to know he understood how he was feeling. He didn't stop following him.

"Don't you dare blame my mom for your unfaithfulness! You caused everything! I wish you guys never met! I wish you never gave birth to me! Arrrrghhhh!" Quinn screamed but few seconds later, he started crying.

"It's fine. You can put the blame on me. I'm sorry for everything son", Mr. Kunbi embraced his son, who reluctantly agreed to follow him wherever he was going.

Quinn and his dad didn't spend the night in either of their homes. They went to the latter's private hotel suite where they ate part of the cultural event meals he reserved for his son after noticing didn't eat throughout the event. After dinner, they sat on the couch in their suite to watch Ramsey Noah's Living In Bondage. Along the way, Quinn fell asleep and his father left the couch for him so he could seep comfortably. Halfway through the night, Quinn woke up and started thinking about everything that has been going on in his life for the past few years. By doing that, he was able to see where his faults lie and decided to correct it.

"Good morning, Dad" Quinn said to his dad the following morning when he woke up. Part of his decision was to change his attitude towards him, seeing how much he cared about him.

"Morning, son. How was your night?" Mr Kunbi was delighted about his change of attitude and ready to build a strong relationship with him again.

"Quite embarrassing", He replied, remembering how he cried the previous night.

"Oh, comeon. I'm your dad. You don't have to feel embarrassed about anything", Mr Kunbi soon figured out what was bothering him.

"Promise you won't tell the women about it", They both chuckled, each imagining how such news will make the female species in their life react.

"You also have to promise me you'll stop being a bad boy", Mr. Kunbi teased his son but changed his statement when Quinn's countenance changed. "It's fine. I was only joking".

"Don't worry, dad. You won't have to put up with my bad attitude anymore since I'm returning to America", Quinn later spoke.

"Tell me you're joking, Tokunbo. You can't be serious", Mr. Kunbi got a mood swing over his son's news.

"I am, dad. It appears life here doesn't suit me at all. It's better to just forget you ever had a son because I'm not coming back. I think that's the best thing for all of us", He smiled and went to get their breakfast order from one of the hotel attendant who was already at their doorstep.

Lily also had an equal share of Quinn's restlessness because she couldn't stop think about what happened the previous. While in a part of her butterflies were having a field day within her, the other criticized her brutally for not being able to do nothing and could have been easily been led to a more compromising situation in the same manner. Even when she fell asleep, all she did was dream about the scenairo. The magical feeling she had for being that close to the only white boy she had ever known was intoxicating. Moreover, Quinn has just finish taking his favourite butter mint sweet before the mouthcontacting situation happened, so the hardest thing to do was get rid of the taste.

Mrs. Daramola woke Lily an hour before church service so she'd have a counseling section with her church teacher, which took over. Even though she liked the super classy woman, she didn't appreciate being repeated a bible verse five times over a kiss that wasn't even her fault. Thankfully, her time didn't go to waste because Mrs. John could fix the situation with her sister. However, there was no hope Lily would stop being at the spotlight because of Quinn's popularity. Someone even created a website to give people updates about what will happen between them later on.

Of course, Lily got stared at by many of her church members. Some of which secretly wished were in her position and others who thought her act of fornication was going to lead her to hell. When it was offering time, Lily went to the toilet and a bunch of girls who has been monitoring her movements followed suit. They weren't with any harmful weapon though. All they wanted to do was have Lily tell them how the kiss felt like but she refused to give any comment, being quite aware that her life wasn't private anymore.

From church, Mrs. Daramola took Lily to the closest KFC store around them for a treat. After receiving an apology from her most cherished sister over what happened, she assured Lily of her undying love and expressed how disappointed she would be if her life gets messed up. Lily promised her nothing of such was going to happen and got more determined than ever to finish her final secondary school year with dignity. Her plan was to let Quinn know how annoying what he did was and make him promise never to do that again. As much as her heart wanted Quinn, that was the best thing for both due their cultures. Most importantly, her sister's sanity was in the line here and that wasn't something she could take for granted.