10

BROTHERLY LOVE

Okay, Sunny. I’ll tell you . . . but only you. You . . . you have a lot of secrets, but you know how to keep them, too.

I understand why Daddy wanted me to live in the government hostel, instead of the privately owned one. I’m not a fool. If you don’t live life, you will be nothing. And to live life, you have to live with people. Real people. Yeah, I wanted to live with the high and mighty, the wealthy, the comfortable. Who wouldn’t? Have you seen the satellite hostels, Sunny? They’re self-contained. They’ve got laundry, a restaurant where they will make whatever you ask for, new furniture, you get your own room . . . or something like that. Of course, I wanted to live there. But it’s expensive. It’s a waste of money.

When Daddy said I had to live in the government hostel, I said fine. Whatever. It’s all good. I knew he was trying to teach me a lesson. He thought I was soft after all those early years in America. I was just happy to get the hell out of the house and be on my own. My hostel room’s hot and ugly. The beds are hard. You share the room with five guys, some are second and third year. They’ll bring girls in there at night. I’m not even going to give you the details of that. You’re too young.

Anyway, you know how I like to work out. There was a place in the basement of one of the off-campus hostels. They’ve got all sorts of free weights in there and a lot of the heavier weights where they’d use cement blocks and sand bags. Really serious stuff.

Adebayo and I started going there in the evenings after class, maybe three or four times a week. We both liked to pull heavyweight, so we had the same routine. You know Adebayo, right? We’ve been in the same class since we were little, and we played a lot of soccer together. Remember when I left for university? He was the one who went with me. Yes, him.

He and I, whenever there were parties we’d be the man show, you know, bodyguards, because we are so big and people are so afraid of us. And I was the head of the soccer team, so no one wanted to mess with me anyway. Adebayo and I, we were brothers from another mother. We thrived in that gym, like weeds. It was so hot in there, even though it was underground. It was just a bunch of guys, pulling weight like gorillas. Raw power. There were no women, so sometimes we’d be pulling in our underpants while these big fans would be blowing on us. It stank of sweat and the walls were real grimy. Sunny, you’d hate that place. But I loved it. My classes were tough; I’d go there to relax my head. Life was good . . . at first.