I saw Pepper!

Over the weekend, I was pounding pepper in my small mortar, and with my eyes shut, I went back in time to the ugly experience I had with pepper.

It was early January in Enugu shortly after the festive season and it was my late handsome Onyechi's birthday. Onyechi was Vic's younger brother and he celebrated his birthday in early January. That year, he was going to celebrate his birthday and preparations were in full gear. 

I had hoped to attend the party with Vic but he suddenly had to go back to his hustle in Lagos. 

Vic's brother was quite popular and his party was the talk of the town. Everyone was going to be there. In those days in Enugu, people knew everyone in their circle; they rated events and knew which would make the most sense and in January of that year, Onyechi's party was the place to be. 

I wonder if young girls care these days what impressions they leave on people especially prospective in-laws. In our days, we were courteous to the families we hoped to be a part of in marriage. 

One may call it eye service but it only becomes eye service if the good character portrayed changes after marriage. In recent times, young girls do not even have the time to impress any family member, in fact in my interactions with young people, they are more interested in being pro in bedmatics. They believe that if you get it right in the bedroom, every other thing falls in place; that way you don't need to prove to his family that you are wife material, just do your work well behind closed doors and let the man fight the fight. 

When I see a young man fight his family unreasonably over a girl, I know that he is no longer thinking with the head but with the joy stick and when it gets to that, it's a lost cause. 

Just before the D-day I saw Onyechi and he asked me emphatically to be there and on time, boy...that made me feel special. That kind of feeling that makes you know that you are the "official girlfriend".

On that day, I dressed in a simple dress and got to the venue way before the guests began to show up as instructed by Onyechi. I was glad to be of help, it felt nice to feel at home with Vic’s family even in his absence. I remember the first guy that showed interest in me and how Onyechi saw him talking to me, walked up to us, and told the guy to keep off, “bros o nwa Eku” (that's Eku’s baby literally). Eku was Vic’s nickname or guy name as they said in those days.

It felt so good to be introduced as “nwa Eku” to almost any guy that as much looked my way; I immediately began to feel like a wife and applied more energy and zeal to my duties that night. I was dishing food and serving people and I was also getting drinks for people. I was given full access to everything as an insider.

Whenever any of Vic’s brothers called me to do help get something for a guest, I felt closer to the family and that made me feel accepted. I can say that it was at that party that it became obvious to me that we had something serious going on. The night went beautifully, and the party lasted till the early hours of the morning. It was after the guest all left that the test of my true character began, one look at the amount of cleaning and washing to be done I almost denounced my new “almost wife” status.

However, I psyched myself to keep at it regardless of how exhausted I was and I immediately got to work. I joined in the sweeping and mopping and when almost all the work was done and I headed out through the back door to go home, I noticed a pile of dirty plates and coolers and knew I could not leave them there. Vic’s brothers genuinely asked me to leave the dirty dishes, but I would not leave seeing that there was still some work to be done. I genuinely felt I should do something and immediately got to work.

Some other people joined me and in no time, the job became less, it was when I was washing the coolers, that Lucifer escaped from hell into the earth, the particular cooler I was washing was used to pack the pepper stewed chicken; I put water in it and added detergent and as soon as I started to scrub it with a sponge, a big lump of peppered stew mixed with detergent went up from the cooler straight into my right eye (that eye just twitched from PTSD). I went to hell and back, that was the most painful thing ever. In my mind, I had gone blind and so I began to rehearse my speech to Ferdinand and Beatrice explaining to them how I lost one eye. It became an emergency as I was visibly shaking in pain and so everyone went into panic mode scampering for water to wash my face with. After I washed my face and eye in particular, it took about thirty minutes or more for the pain to stop. The eye remained shut and when I was finally able to open it, I made my way home.

That eye was red for a few days, and I kept wondering how the story would have been told. “she got blind in one eye outta love”. On that day, "I saw pepper" for real. The things we do for love!