Chapter 5 THE BRITISH LODGE

Peter

Peter was naughty and lacks respect. Kelvin learned he and his father weren't on good terms. They don't see eye-to-eye. That must be the reason why his father had taken him all the way from the Northern part of the country precisely Kaduna down to the East. This action was to make sure he wasn't within his eye-sight, at least Mekus hinted on that in his presence.

Kelvin discovered Peter was suffering from a poor sense of self-worth. He wants to do what his mates were good at doing. But he finds himself totally weak to proceed on anything he had embarked upon. Peter will approach him with tails of how he so much admired a girl and how he could not succeed in whoring her just like any other boy. As in most cases, Kelvin would decline any assistance each time he comes looking for his advice and tips. He was a daydreamer of some sort. Though he has so many great ideas on what he wants to accomplish but with little effort towards seeing them come true. He was that type of human who builds skyscrapers in the skies. Become wealthier than Bill Gates and utterly rules the world in their world of fantasy.

Those characters and behaviors were escape routes out of his distressing feelings. Instead of working at being realistic at solving his problems he relishes the pleasure of daydreaming about having them all solved. Kelvin saw how his unhappy estranged relationship with his father was always affecting his life.

He rarely exercises patients and is long-suffering at things. In spite of all these, he was quite a funny kind of person in his own way on the benefit of the doubt though.

He sees music as a carrier. He dreams a lot of making a debut someday. He was indispensable with his radio sets from which he blasts songs of his favorite music artists. He was friendly approachable and a community person too.

What drew him close to Kelvin was Kelvin's poetic writings and song compositions prowess. Kelvin too was a music lover. He had that raw talent of scripting song lyrics and composing them. It had thrilled Peter to discover that Kelvin shares his dream and as such Kelvin soon won his respect and admiration. Kelvin, however, never enjoyed his company and did his best to restrict it as much as cordiality would allow. He managed to tolerate him and his unpredictable behaviors.

He had the brains and that was a plus to him. But for his lifestyle, as was with the others he was not inclined to settle down on his studies and utilize his gifts.

Kelvin knew Peter was disappointed in him for not striking a rapport with him. It puzzled him too why Kelvin would not want to associate himself with the activities prevalent in the environment.

Peter was full of self-pride, which Kelvin deduced was a kind of a last resort to hold his head high in spite of all odds. It became his greatest undoing as he found himself less agreeable with most people. It was this vain ego that probably hindered his much-needed improvement in his relationship with people. He found it a hard thing to humble himself and to stop living in the world of fantasy.

He spurns at any attempt to chastise him. He would be so disrespectful and decor without any slightest atom of reverence. His unruly behavior countered negatively on his self-respect. Self-discipline was the last word in his dictionary.

In time, he made himself the black sheep in the boys' quarter. He soon found solace in the hand of a diminutive girl named Gladys.

Gladys was living in the second boys' quarter some few meters opposite their main boy's quarter. Kelvin lived with the majority of the boys. It was on the right side of the main building.

Gladys turned out to be the last girl he had unsuccessfully attempted to whore after Chinelo and two other girls before her.

Kelvin never knew when the relationship blossomed even though he was aware that the two were on good terms. More so, he rarely goes beyond his own side of the boys' quarter. It was on three occasions he was invited over by one of the boys living in the other mentioned boy's quarter. He had gone over to have a drink of a local drink; palm wine.

It was not long before the lid over the relationship was blown open. The sad unfortunate incident left a sour taste in their mouth. It was Kristor who communicated the incident to him. Kelvin had asked him why and what Peter had done again that everyone seemed to be making fun of him.

"So, you never heard what'd been going on?" Kristor asked him one night while they were having dinner together.

"Not a wind of anything. What was the matter?"

"He-ha-ha-ha-he," he laughed uncontrollably until Kelvin felt silly for poking into someone else discomfort.

"Hey, Kelvin, come off it...stop this ghost-living-style here. Get involved with things here no matter how bad you feel about it all. It puzzles me. How could some things be happening in this lodge and you seemed less concerned?"

He asked still trying to control his laughter.

"A lot of things do happen here, some silly, some too obscene to talk about. So sometimes, I try to ignore whatever it is that was in the air,"

"Anyway, don't mind my laughter. It's just that I just don't know how to begin narrating what I heard," He began looking funny. "You know that short girl, emm Gladys?"

"Yes?"

"This silly boy, I mean the mad dog himself had for some time been going over to her place of recent at night. I heard the story through Mekus. Peter just came back from her place one night. We were all already dead alone in sleep. He first tried to wake me up but I was far long asleep so he decided to wake Mekus up. Mekus told me he saw an excited, scared, and equally confused Peter clutching his manhood. He asked him what the problem was," Kristor was doing his best to keep another fit of laughter from exploding. "It peeled! It peeled!" Peter had told Mekus that night," Kristor was clutching his balls to demonstrate what he was talking about.

He didn't need to continue the story. Kelvin discerned what probably had happened. Peter had gone to satisfy his libido; however, she declined due to a natural hindrance, her menstrual period. He had to agree to a hand job―masturbation. It was unfortunate that Peter had narrated his silly experience to Mekus who rarely keeps secrets. Mekus did not waste time to let out the Cat of the bag the next morning. Before it was dark, the ugly incident was already making rounds in the lodge especially in their own side of boys' quarter.

The embarrassing situation it created set up a big misunderstanding. It drew the ire of criticism from some of the female students and some boys on the persons of Mekus. His loud mouth was unbearable. Iyke who

incidentally exaggerated the whole thing by making it a matter of flippant discussion came under fire too.

It was while this chaos was going on that Kelvin decided to inquire about what actually happened out of curiosity. The fall-out of the incident was not a welcomed development. Peter brooded over it for some time. He recounted other seething and unresolved differences between him and Mekus. They never see each other eye-to-eye. Iyke became Peter's target for constant criticism.

Gladys the girl in the middle of the saga became withdrawn for a while. She as well never met eye-to-eye with Mekus and probably Iyke.

As things were going on, it was like an experimental falling in and out of relationships. Kelvin had felt uncomfortable when he first packed into the lodge. He was alarmed at the number of students in the lodge. On average, it was two students per each of the over twenty-roomed apartments. He has never lived in a large gathering before. He opted to relocate to another quieter lodge. He was forced to jettison the idea. However, it soon occurred to him that there was no better place free from the scenes and lifestyles prevalent in the lodge. In some places, where he had earlier tried to relocate, he saw what he would term the worse episode of events.