African Tales: The Witch Tree

I slipped my feet into the slippers beside the bed and wrapped my nightie firmly around myself. Eddy’s soft snores filled the room. The clock said 11pm, 2hours since we had dinner. I pressed lightly on my belly, cringing when I felt its soft plushness.

“Where are you going?” Eddy called sleepily from the bed.

“The bathroom, babe” I replied.

“K” he mumbled. I waited until I could hear his even breathing, then I walked soundlessly into the bathroom. I pulled the toothbrush out of its case and looked in the mirror. My kinky hair was standing on end and my chin was soft, so soft. I felt around the fleshy curves of my neck and pinched.

Then I opened my mouth wide and dipped the toothbrush far down my throat. The pizza I ate for dinner came back up in one glorious rush and I collapsed on the sink. My eyes were red and tears poured freely.

There was a wild smile on my face, a victorious smile. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I had read of all the dangers on the internet but I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was fighting a battle with food and I so did not want to lose this war.

“Hey babe” Eddy called from the room. I quickly flushed the remains of my meal and put my brush away, when he came into the bathroom, I was toweling my face dry. He put his hand around my belly and suckled my neck.

“My chubby little teddy bear!” He whispered hoarsely. “What you doing awake Hun?”

“Just wanted to feel some moisture on my face,” I said. He looked in the mirror.

“Yeah, your eyes are a bit red. Have you been crying?” He asked. He held my chin in his hands.

“No no. I..” I stuttered.

“Great! I always told you. If you ever feel the need to cry, hit the gym! Ha ha!” He kissed me on my cheek. I chuckled along with him. He squeezed my ass and walked back to the room.

“I’ll be right there” I called after him. My face blurred in the mirror as my eyes filled with tears.

***

“Why are you wearing that?” Eddy asked me. He was standing by the mirror and putting on his blazer.

We were supposed to be going for his friend’s birthday party which was actually a formal dinner because the guy was some sort of big shot.

I walked towards him and stared at myself in the mirror. I was wearing a blue and red flowery dress that hugged my curves nicely and I thought I looked nice. I wasn’t so sure about my hair though.

“My hair?” I asked, trying to curl the edges.

“No! The dress!” He said emphatically.

“What’s wrong with the dress?” I asked.

“It makes you look fat baby. Can’t you see?”

I looked at myself again and realized my belly did show a little bit. My eyes moved unconsciously to the picture of the white model Eddy hung over his bed. Her flat belly, slim waist and legs. I dropped my head and walked out of the room. I came back wearing a black dress that stopped just short of my knees. It was basically shapeless and hid all of my fat body.

“Better, Lets go” Eddy said.

When we got there, Eddy introduced me to all of his friends and we all got along well enough. The dinner was nice and I had a good time. Then the boys requested for an after party at their friends Fabian’s house. The guy in question was a dark brooding young man with dreadlocks. If you ask me, he didn’t look like someone who would allow anyone to have a party in his house but what do I know?

“I don’t know! I’ve never met a woman who didn’t like the way I dealt with her in bed” one of Eddy’s friends bellowed as a reply to another silly question from the guys. They were all very drunk and foolish, all except Fabian who sat there in front of the electric fireplace and just watched.

I wanted to tell him he was blocking the light then I realized he was staring at me. I held his gaze for a moment before I broke it and nestled farther into Eddy’s arms.

“What about you Eddy? What’s the pet name you call your honey here” another friend called Simon asked, leering disgustingly at me. I almost heaved. Eddy laughed and squeezed my shoulder.

“I call her my chubby little teddy bear!” He roared. The whole house was quiet for a moment, then there was pandemonium. All the guys scattered away from their chairs with the force of their laughter. Some were rolling on the floor like Eddy. I picked my way through the chaos and walked out.

“You shouldn’t be too bothered, you know.” Someone said behind me. I turned and saw the dark dreadlocked man standing behind me. The balcony was small so he was standing almost inside the house, as though he realized I needed space.

“I know” I replied, turning around and facing the road. Couples were walking down the road holding hands or just standing close together and talking. The street lights were reflected on the cars packed along the street.

“I’m Fabian” he said. I turned and shook his outstretched hand. His face was dark and smooth unlike the light skinned Eddy. He looked like the handsome moody type but there was a strength to the hand I was holding that made me think I could trust this guy, that he was dependable.

“I’m Megan,” I said.

“Hello Meg” he replied. And the beautiful boy smiled.

***

“There is a stream behind my house” I said as I turned into the small lane by our right.

“Uhmm” Fabian replied. He made such a picture I couldn’t help staring as his Adam Apple bobbed and his head lost a few dreadlocks to the wind. We hit a pothole and he opened his eyes lazily to look at me. I felt them sweep over my face in a slow burn making me unconsciously tighten my hands on the steering wheel.

“Sorry” I said quickly. He turned away and chuckled but his chuckle only made me feel worse because I was all too sure of what it meant. “You could be quite silly sometimes”

“Aren’t we ever going to get there?” He asked me.

“We’re here”.

My house was a medium sized one, quite similar to almost all the houses in this side of the city. A small lawn, a tiny balcony out front overlooking the road. All those little red, pink, and yellow flowers brightening up the place. I used to love them when I was a little girl. Used to squat beside them with the watering can between my chubby legs and have entire conversations with the flowers until my mother dragged me in to have breakfast.

Now I just walked past them, noticing that some of them were withering from lack of care. My mother was so busy at the restaurant she couldn’t breathe. Imagine a woman who spends all her waking hours tending to strangers and her sick old husband.

“Are you back Meg?” A booming voice called from the window at the right. The white curtains fluttered as though someone had been spying. Not too old to spy, huh.

“Yes daddy, I’m home!” I said gaily. The front door gave way under my gentle push and I stepped out of the way to let Fabian in.

“Hello” he said. I was arranging the curtains so I wouldn’t have to close the door against fresh air. When I turned around, I saw that he was speaking to my dad who was smiling at him in a welcoming manner.

“How are you my boy?” my dad asked.

“I’m fine, Sir” Fabian said, taking my father’s outstretched hand. “How are you doing?

“Same old, Same old” my father replied, and they both laughed. I stood there staring at them, feeling a warmness in my belly. It was the first time I was bringing a man home to my parents and that was because Fabian was special in his own weird way. Other men had refused to come with me.

***

“What do you think dad?” I asked my father.

“About him?” My dad said, motioning towards Fabian who still sat at the dining table with my mom. They were discussing about food, customer satisfaction and other boring stuff.

“Yeah”

“He’s handsome, I must admit. But what’s with all those hair!?” My dad whispered conspiratorially.

“Shhhhhh!!!” I said, laughing into his shoulder. My dad’s voice was way too loud for a human.

“What do you plan to do with him though?” He asked. I raised my head and stared past the white curtains on the window. The moon shined brightly enough to illuminate the ground. I saw a squirrel skitter past the small divide between our front yard and our backyard.

“I don’t know, dad. This is serious but i don’t want to jinx it by talking too much” I said. My father nodded, his beard tickling my cheeks. Then he squeezed my shoulder.

***

“Can you hear singing?” I asked Fabian. He grunted at me and stretched farther into the wide couch on the balcony out back. The wind was combing through the leaves above us and the movement produced little plaintive cries that were both soft and spooky.

A part of me was scared enough to want to say “Hold me Fabian, I need you to hold me right now!” The other more realistic part of my mind told me in Fabian’s voice to shut up and not be a nagging woman.

“Can I tell you a story?” I asked Fabain’s inert form. He grabbed my arm and used the leverage to pull himself up. His arm wrapped around me in the process and for a moment the world did a backflip before my eyes.

“Tell me” he whispered throatily into my ear. I cleared my throat. Fabian placed one of my hands on his lap and began to rub its surface between his thumb and his forefinger. I was being massively turned on and I knew Fabian knew what he was doing, what I wasn’t sure of was if he knew I considered having sex under my parents roof as a totally absurd thing to do.

“You see this tree?” I asked unnecessarily. He nodded, a lock of his hair fell and tickled my neck. “My father once told me that his father told him a tale about trees like this.

“What did he say?” Fabian asked, instantly perking up to hear another weird story. I combed my mind for information and came out with something.

“This tree is an ancestral tree, because of its age and its origin. It is a tropical tree from Africa. See how it intertwines on itself? In Africa, where we both come from,” I look at him for reassurance and when he doesn’t refuse I continue “this kind tree is said to house spirits of dead family members and demons without any stable home. People make sacrifices and pray to it! They sometimes dress it up!”

“What!? That’s absurd!” Fabian said, shocked. Then he smiled at me. His teeth white against the silvery light of the moon.

“I love you” I told him. He kissed me. My mother closed the kitchen curtain with a smile and a large part of me sighed in relief.

***

“Yo bitch!” Someone barked harshly into my ear. I woke up from the shock, raised my head and cleaned the drool from my chin.

“Ugh! Such a dirty female” Liz said loudly, grinning at me. I glared at her, resisting the urge to throw the office phone at her dumb blond head.

“What do you want?” I asked her.

“Just you doing your job” she sneered. I briefly marveled at how quickly she could drop a fake smile.

“Oh don’t worry your pretty head. I’ll still do it better than you anyway” I said, smiled sweetly at her and faced the computer in my cubicle. From the corner of my eye I saw her look me over with disdain before she turned around and left. When she was at a safe distance, I collapsed on my keyboard. Little wonder I felt like what the cat dragged in.

I had barely slept last night, after telling Fabian two more fantastic stories we had both gone into the house and had hot but quiet sex.

Monday morning and the office felt like it was closing in on me in every side. My cubicle felt like a rats cage and my head was banging like those African drums my father talked about in his stories. I pulled out the mirror in my drawer and examined my face for signs of sleep. I patted the swollen bags under my eyes with a finger wet with spittle, smacked my lips and closed the drawer.

The office phone jumped and began to ring. In my hurry to pick it up, it landed on the floor and I had to stretch over the arm of my chair to pick it up.

“Hello, this is JX holdings, how may I help you!?” I asked breathlessly.

“Meet me in my office. Now.” My boss’s voice sounded coolly from the phone. The call ended, I sat there with the phone against my ear, wondering at my fate.

***

I drove gently back home, there was so much on my mind that I couldn’t have driven at normal speed if I tried. After work I had visited my therapist, Dr Anne, a middle aged woman who liked eating candy and talking about weirdly trivial stuff for a therapist. She made me wonder sometimes if she was my doctor or a friend of mine.

“How’s Fabian?” She asked soon as we finished exchanging pleasantries.

“He’s fine” I said smiling.

“Great. So what’s up?” She asked. Already dipping her hand into the candy bowl.

“I got a query at work. My boss was very angry at me, and that’s a first”

“Woah. What did you do?” She asked. I rubbed my aching forehead.

“I was dozing off at work and my colleague ratted me out.” I replied.

“What happened last night?” She asked, eyeing the hand on my forehead.

“Oh no no. I didn’t drink or anything” I laughed at the thought. “It was the sex last night” I said. Anne sighed and shook her head.

“He made you have sex with him again. Didn’t he?” She asked. I looked away.

“It wasn’t rape.” I protested. Anne leaned towards me.

“It doesn’t have to be rape before it is wrong” she said.

“I know” I replied. She just looked at me.

The question she asked me before I left the office kept ringing in my head. “Whenever have you told him no?” I wanted to reply “I have never wanted to “ but I knew I would sound lame and needy.

I slammed on the brakes. Fabian was lying on the grass in the middle of the driveway.

“What the hell?!” I shouted. Getting out and slamming my car door. He stood up and stared at me as I approached. When I was a few steps to where he was standing, he reached out and dragged me to himself so I fell on his chest like an angry rag doll. Then he brought out the flowers. They were red, pink and yellow just like I told him I loved them. I deflated like a balloon.

“What are you doing here?” I asked when he stopped peppering my chin with kisses.

“Came to spend time with Dad” he replied.

“Dad?” I stared at him in amazement. He took my hand and led me into the house. I felt so light and free that my feet were barely touching the ground.

***

“How was work today?” Fabian asked me. He was leaning against the tree and his hair fanned around his face like a halo.

“Fine” I said quickly.

“Okay” he said. Then he brought out a cigarette and was about to light it. My hand came up to stop him and fell down. I didn’t know how to tell him smoke affected me so much that I didn’t like being near it. I know he smoked only when he thought the conversation was over and I didn’t want to distract him.

I sat there on the couch and stared up at the stars. The tree sang to me and at that moment I believed that somehow my ancestors truly lived in it. My eyes were already drooping when I felt his hand crawl up my thighs. I opened my eyes and saw his face shining like a bright moon bulb, he was visibly excited.

My hands came up to his chest and he interpreted it as an invitation to continue. He kissed my chin, my earlobes, my neck. All the parts of me that Eddy would bite or chew.

“No” I said. His mouth closed over one ear. I sucked in a breathe. His hands dropped to his belt and I realized he wasn’t planning to go inside for this.

“No!” I said loudly. He stopped, then he slowly raised himself from on top of me as though he was hoping I would change my mind before he got too far. He stared in my face, his locks tickled my face and I was breathing hard.

“No” I said, gentler this time. He searched my face and got off me. I closed my eyes, but I could hear him when he belted his pants and all his footsteps were clear as he walked away from me.

I opened my eyes after he left, the tree had started singing again. I said a little thank you for the boldness to say No. A smile escaped me at the thought that Fabian had wanted me to have sex with him in front of all my ancestors, all the dead people in the long line of my family. The Chiefs and their docile concubines, and all the bold and powerful witches. What a shame.

I wrapped my arms around myself, and fell asleep to the sweet music of my ancestral tree.