Tiwatope’s Redemption – Episode 5

Tiwatope’s Redemption – Episode 5

By Kayode Odusanya

They could hear female voices giggling up ahead as they approached the fourth level of the waterfall. Tolu was in front, while Tiwatope trailed behind. The mountain had been a bit steep at some point, but it was a lot more leveled now. Even at that, they still had to climb on all fours to avoid the effect of gravity from pulling them back.

“Your concoction has stopped working. I’m starting to get tired.” She said and stretched her hand for him to pull her up. He smiled as he did so. “We are surely going back down when we get to the last waterfall.” She said out of breath as she came face to face with him. As she tried to take her next step ahead of him, she slipped and scrambled for anything as she slid down. Instinctively, he reached out, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up towards himself. His hand went around her wa-ist as he held her in place.

“No rushing. Take it one step at a time.” He said. She nodded, and then held him in a tight embrace. They were in that position for a few seconds, and he could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She pulled away after a while, took a deep breath and continued the crawl up the mountain.

……….

They were seated perched by the edge of a natural pool, watching three girls and a guy play directly under the waterfall a few meters to their left. Tiwatope wondered if there was an elevator hidden somewhere in the mountains because she couldn’t believe the girls she was looking at went through the same stress she had just gone through. They had matching pink bikinis on, and really great bodies. She caught Tolu staring at them and smiled. “You want to go and play with them?” She said with a plain look on her face and Tolu chuckled. She kept her eyes on him, looked away, and then looked his way again before saying, “Thanks for saving my life back there.” He smiled but said nothing. Their legs were in the water, with jeans rolled up, and she started moving her legs in continuous circular motions, making ripples that traveled a few feet away from them before disappearing.

After a couple of minutes, the three s€×y girls and their macho looking male friend started cleaning up and packing their stuff. They said bye to Tolu and Tiwatope before walking off to the path that led downhill. When they were out of sight, she looked at Tolu with a mischievous smile on her face and said, “I want to ski-ny-dip in this pool.”

“What!!?”

“I want to swim in the nude.” She said as she got off the rock they were sitting on and went to check the footpath if someone was approaching.

“Of course I know what ski-ny dipping means, but…are you crazy?”

“Apparently, yes.” She said as she walked back to him. “Come on! Join me.”

“First of all, I can’t swim. Secondly…”

“Come on! The depth of the pool probably won’t reach your wa-ist.” She said as she unbuttoned her shirt. He looked away and she laughed lightly. “Okay, please turn around.” She said with a chuckle. He shook his head as he turned his back to her. He closed his eyes as he heard her unzip her jeans. Even though he couldn’t see her from where he stood, he still felt uncomfortable having his eyes opened as she undressed.

“Ooh! Tolu, this water is so cold.” She said as she stepped in the pool.

“Oh! Okay.”

“Don’t turn around yet!” she said as she slowly immersed herself in the flowing pool. “I can’t let you see my tangerine b-obs after you just saw those girls with big watermelons.”

He laughed before saying, “You’re something else.”

“Ooh! It feels like I’m in a Jacuzzi. You can turn around now.” She said. He turned around slowly and saw her bobbing up and down in the rushing water with just her head out of water. Then she swam backwards slowly, her eyes sed-ctively on Tolu. She made a sign with her finger for him to join her, and he shook his head with a smile on his face. Then she frowned and went under water. He sat there, eyes on the surface of the water, waiting for her to pop back up. After about ten seconds he got really worried and stood up. And like a scene from a horror movie, her head slowly came up from under water till just her eyes were visible, and then she went under water again. He was about to get in the pool when she came up for air, coughing and laughing at the same time.

“Not funny.” He said and looked away.

“Your face towel please.” She said between laughs.

“What?”

“I want to come out now, turn around and put your face towel beside my clothes.”

“Okay.” He said and pulled out his white face towel from his jeans back pocket. It was about the size of a regular napkin when he unfolded it. He placed it on her well laid out clothes, and started walking eastward. “Shout out my name when you are dressed.”

“Wait! I said turn around, not walk away. You want to leave me alone here?”

He stopped in his tracks and sighed. “Okay. Hurry up then.”

“I love to swim, but the water is so cold. I was freezing in there.” She said as she stepped out of the pool. “It was fun though.”

“That’s cool.” He said in a tired voice.

“Hmm! Mr. Adegoke, why so unexcited?” She said as she dried herself. “You really need to tell me what’s bothering you. Tell mummy what’s wrong papi.” She said in a Spanish accent and it made him laugh. She started humming the tune to Michael Jackson’s classic, The Way You Make Me Feel as she dressed up.

“You really like that song. You were humming it in the bus earlier.”

“That was my Dad’s favorite song.” She paused for a second before adding, “He said it was the song he sang to win my mom over.”

“That’s rom-ntic.”

“I sing it a lot, unconsciously when I’m…when I’m really excited.”

“Interesting.”

“You can turn around now.” She said as she did the last couple of buttons on her shirt.

Her curly black hair was still damp from being in water, and wasn’t as puffy as usual. It laid smoothly on her head and sides of her face. He found that really attractive. She caught him staring when she looked up and smiled. He scratched his head and checked his wrist watch before saying, “I have a feeling our crew members have turned around. Maybe we should start heading back.”

“Okay papi. Anything you say.”

___

No one had noticed their absence when they later reunited with their course mates after descending the mountain. Both of them were loners anyway, so no one was checking for them. After Mr. Okereke did another roll call and was sure everyone was on board, the bus took off, heading to Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife. They had made arrangements to sleep over at the school before their journey back to Lagos the next day.

Most of the students were asleep by the time they got to the prestigious university, exhausted from the mountain climb. They grumbled when the professor’s assistance, Mr. Okereke announced that he had to do another roll call before they could disembark the bus.

………..

Tolu and Tiwatope were separated for a couple of hours as guys and girls had gone off to separate hostels. The agreement was to meet at the school’s social gathering s₱0t after freshening up.

The females had gotten to the hangout s₱0t before the boys, and when she saw him approaching in the company of about six other guys, she couldn’t hide her joy. He had changed into fresh white t shirt, and jeans. She also had a white t shirt on; a little too big for her, with the sleeves rolled up real high. It had k-ss inscribed on it in big red letters. She playfully punched him in the belly when he walked up to her by the main bar. “Ouch! What was that for?” He asked, holding to his belly. She just smiled and asked him what he wanted to drink. Music was playing at a loud volume, so they had to lean in to talk to each other whenever they needed to communicate. He said Fayrouz; she looked at him strangely before telling the barman she wanted to buy a bottle of Fayrouz with her change. He gave it to her, and she handed it to Tolu. She had a small bottle of Smirnoff Ice in her left hand, and with her right hand, she pulled him along to a corner of the open bar with fewer people.

They took seats side by side, and Tolu said hi to their female course mates that were seated opposite them. The place was a really big open bar; like a football field, with chairs and tables in strategic points. She leaned in and asked why he hadn’t ordered an alcoholic drink, and he said he was going thirty days without beer, and that he had three days to go. She smiled and said she would love to celebrate with him when it was time to break his fast. He said that would be cool, and they went back to sipping their drinks.

At about 9pm, the music playing at the bar switched to old school slow songs and people started leaving one by one. She leaned him and told him to dance with her. He shook his head, but she got up anyway and started slow dancing in front of him. He got off his seat when she started looking embarrassed. He put his hands on her waste, she put her hands around his neck, and they moved to the slow rhythm of Prince’s Purple Rain. After a while, she placed her head on his chest, closed her eyes, and continued to move slowly to the music. He looked down at her and tears rolled down his eyes.

To be continued