After All This Time: What She Wished Read online

  This time Charlie looked lost in thought. He grunted an answer, Tina knew he meant it didn’t matter what they wore. He was looking at the stadium seats, it was filling really fast now. Most of the front seats had been taken already.

  After about forty minutes during which words were sparse between Charlie and Tina, both of them lost in their thoughts, Top-Tree’s soccer team came. They looked bigger than Evergrant’s team but only bigger, not better. Tina wasn’t sure how she knew they didn’t look better, she just knew.

  One knows some things like that.

  Preliminaries to the game had started with both teams forming a straight line on the pitch and standing right for the national anthems. The whole school joined in the rendition. Tina kept her gaze focused on the mouth of the singing players; she was looking for someone who didn’t know the anthem. She didn’t find one. She saw Matthew jog for a short time, a fast-paced brisk kind of jog. She didn’t know much about tactics, but she saw Matthew far in front of everyone when the game started, that was what Charlie must have meant by being a “top striker”.

  Tina didn’t understand what she was watching, but she did make sure she was excited when Charlie was. His curls scattered around his head bouncing in no particular direction when Charlie jumped up to blame, praise or curse at any unlucky player. Then there was commotion on the pitch, one of Evergrant’s defenders had in an attempt to clear the ball kicked an opponent player on the shin. The player was still down and the referee, who was Mr. Stones their Mathematics teacher, had blown his whistle for something. She didn’t know what he blew for but she saw all Evergrant players fly into a rage and start arguing with the referee. Charlie also flew into a cursing tirade, jumping to blame the player and the referee but ending up blaming all the players on the pitch. Tina knew he wanted to just blame that player because, after the demonstration, he sat down and talked only about how the “foolish player missed a ball coming to him at snail pace to hit his opponent on the shin. The worst thing is he was in his box 18”. Tina was sure being in the box 18 was the crime there but now was not the time to ask Charlie any question.

  When the injured player stood up, he was led out for further treatment. One Top-Trees player stepped forward to place the ball on the spot close to the post. Tina knew that move, that was a penalty. All the players gathered behind him, eager to run towards the ball if the keeper saved it. The penalty taker stood a few feet away from the ball. His jersey was green, Top-Tree green but Tina could see the green dye of ground grass on his jersey. His hair was cut low almost to his scalp. Tina didn’t think he would miss, she would have liked to see his face to confirm but the set of his back told her enough. He ran towards the ball like a cat on a mouse and struck it with force. The keeper went the wrong way as the ball sailed into the post. Only the cheerleaders celebrated the Top-Tree goal, the rest of the school was quiet.

  “Dejavu” Charlie said, putting his head between his hands. Tina could see his fingers stick out his hair as he kept looking down.

  About five minutes, the referee blew his whistle again, three powerful blows with the final one stretching beyond a second. All the players stopped playing and walked towards their coach at the touchline. Tina was confused, was the game over?

  “What is happening Charlie? Is the game over?” she asked him.

  Charlie wasn’t in the mood, he looked like he could kill some of those players. Tina didn’t ask again, deciding instead to bide time for him to answer her well.

  “It’s just halftime. They will restart in a few minutes and change positions.” he answered, his voice tight and curt.

  Tina smiled, her smile was very soft. She didn’t want Charlie to find she was smiling when Evergrant was losing.

  Mr. Stones got back on the pitch, wearing an “Evergrant High” face cap. Tina wondered if he would remove that or he decided he could still see well with the cap on. He blew his whistle again, signaling both teams to return back to the pitch.

  After about fifteen minutes of playing, Matthew pulled up. He was injured and couldn’t continue. He was substituted and someone else was brought in. Tina’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the person replacing him, it was the new boy. He went to tell one of his players something, the player bending his neck to listen to what he saw saying. She saw the player nod and reply, then the boy nodded too and jogged away. Tina couldn’t keep her eyes off the new boy, even when the ball went to a part of the pitch where the new boy wasn’t she kept her eyes on him. She looked at Charlie to see if he recognized the boy but he didn’t give any sign to that effect.

  About twenty minutes later, something happened that had the whole school talking for weeks to come. The new boy received the ball around the midway line then started a slaloming run around the Top-Tree players. He dribbled past about six players before getting to the keeper to slot it beyond the reach of the keeper’s sprawling form. He had scored and made the game even. The whole school jumped into celebration with the boy running to celebrate with his team. Tina saw Charlie jump and scream, he was as ecstatic as the rest. It was then Charlie looked at her and Tina realized he recognized the boy.

  “His name is David.” he said, reading the question her mind had asked.

  The game became very charged. It was obvious Evergrant were in the ascendancy but they kept missing chances. David spurned a particular one, the chance was so good it sent Charlie into a shouting frenzy. Tina nudged Charlie, she was sure the match would end soon.

  “How many minutes do we have more Curls?” she asked, using Pedro’s name for him. He smiled and looked at his blue, flag designed watch.

  “About five minutes more with change.”

  Tina nodded her head and looked back to the game just in time. Evergrant had a free kick close to Top-Tree’s post and David and another player stood behind to play it. When the referee blew, David ran up to play it. His run was calm, he took three measured steps as if he was fitting his feet into particular spots in the grass. He kicked the ball which flew over the human wall then took a slight dip, lodging itself into the post of the helpless keeper. The stadium flew into celebratory pandemonium. Charlie screamed and lifted Tina up, twirling her around till her head started to feel unsettled. Tina looked at Top-Tree players.

  Pure dejection.

  At that moment Tina wasn’t sure she liked sports. The happiness it gave the winning side seemed to draw from the sadness the other side felt. Tina preferred life without such disparities. Everyone should just be normal as, before the game, she didn’t like the joy that brought dejection. She did like David though, as the whole school did. A few minutes later, the referee blew his whistle and Evergrant’s noisy celebration went up a notch.

  “David, David, David.” the whole school chanted. His teammates carried him on their necks as they hoisted him around the entire pitch.

  When they dropped him, he went to talk to the coach. As he was speaking he looked up, his eyes staring straight at Tina. Tina shifted back a bit, the intensity of his gaze was startling. She moved back a bit more.

  How did he see me among the hundreds of people here? Is he even looking at me?

  David winked. He then smiled and looked back at his coach. Tina looked around for who had the same reaction as she did but no one did. They didn’t even notice.

  “Charlie, did you see that?” she asked, dragging Charlie’s arm down as she shouted.

  Charlie looked at her, there was no comprehension in those brown eyes Tina noted.

  “See what?” he asked.

  “Didn’t you see David look here? He looked here and winked.” she answered, her voice showing her excitement.

  “He looks everywhere. If you saw him wink then that’s your eyes playing tricks on you.”

  Tina shook her head. She was sure, she saw him look at her. He looked and winked, she saw him.

  CHAPTER 3

  THREE FRIENDS

  D

  avid did wink at her. He came to sit with her and Charlie the next day during lunch. Charlie
was surprised that the new most popular boy in their school was interested in sharing his lunch time with them. Tina wanted to know if he really winked yesterday.

  “After the game, yesterday, did you look up at us and wink?” she asked him.

  David smiled his slow easy smile. She saw his teeth had a gap in front which made him look better. He had a brown caramel color like someone from the Caribbean, his skin was smooth. He looked like he had never had a pimple in his life, no spots, no swell, no difference in skin color anywhere. Tina spotted an earring hole in his left earlobe; she imagined a stud in it. The stud would have a brilliant gleam; it would catch the light and blind anyone who looked too close. She wanted to tell him she liked his skin but she thought again about it.

  That would be a weird comment to give a new friend.

  “Yes, I did. I saw you guys since the warm-up. You didn’t notice me because I was under the shade since I started on the bench.” he answered, embellishing his words with a smile at the end. Tina felt like she would melt under his gaze.

  Charlie must have noticed her reaction to David because he was looking at her funny.

  “Were you on the school team in your former school too?” Charlie asked him before squeezing a thick wad of vegetable burger between his wide opened lips. Tina always didn’t believe the burger could go through his mouth, it always did. Now she understood what she had learnt in Nature classes.

  Snakes can swallow things three times as big as their heads.

  Tina looked at Charlie and agreed with her teacher. If Charlie could, why not a snake?

  “Yeah, I was. I was the top striker but that’s not my position, I don’t really like playing there. Most coaches just put me there because I score a lot of goals.” David answered.

  Was that surprise in his eyes?

  Tina felt she saw his eyes widen a bit at Charlie’s preternatural ability to widen his mouth.

  Charlie must have been trying to say something because a humming sound was coming from his full mouth and bits of food were flying out but his words couldn’t be heard. He noticed this and focused on eating. David looked away from Charlie to Tina. She looked away, preferring to keep her gaze on her still unopened lunch. She hated it when she couldn’t face people sometimes. Sometimes she was very bold, speaking the truth without fearing the other party. At other times, she just couldn’t look at the other person’s eyes.

  “Aren’t you eating your lunch?” David asked her, already opening the sealed lunch pack.

  “Yes, I am going to eat. I just wasn’t feeling hungry at first.” she answered, lifting her gaze to meet his.

  David nodded and stood up. He winked at Tina again and tapped Charlie on his shoulder before turning to leave.

  “I’ll see you guys around now.” he said without turning back.

  Charlie who had gotten his food wolfed down, answered.

  “Of course, we are always around.”

  Tina looked at her opened lunch and took out the drink. She needed it for her throat. It was feeling parched all of a sudden.

  *******

  Three of them became very close over the following three years. David lived far away from school so he didn’t follow them to school or back home. He did visit them at home on weekends or holidays. Tina learnt to deal with her buoyed reaction with David. They became very close, not as close as she and Charlie though because Charlie was with her for almost every minute of every day.

  She did have her special relationship with David. She didn’t talk to David the way she spoke to Charlie. They said different things, her mind was on different things when she was with David.

  David and Tina had made a jest of Charlie when he admitted his crush on Ronda. They had jeered him every day until he worked up the confidence to ask her on a date. Of course, Ronda’s reply, as it always is with guys who acted like Charlie, was a blatant no. It was David who helped Charlie get her attention and get Ronda to listen to him.

  Ronda, who was a beautiful black girl, didn’t want her first boyfriend to be a white. She admitted this to Charlie much later. Ronda was known for her beautiful African braids, her aunt was a Nigerian who ran a popular saloon where African hairstyles were made. David made Charlie learn all the hairstyles Ronda could make. At a point Charlie decided to stop disturbing her, she wasn’t showing any signs of starting to like him. The next day Charlie didn’t talk to her as he usually did every morning but by lunch, Ronda came to sit with them at their table. Charlie was so happy he forgot his ritual of munching head-sized burgers.

  Tina was sure David had something to do with Ronda’s appearance at their table that day. Charlie told her later that Ronda admitted David talked to her that morning outside the class. He said Charlie liked Ronda too much and she should just spend lunchtime with them. Ronda placed a condition of David going out with her and her friends during the weekend, they were going to the park and some of her friends really liked David. David agreed. Tina wished he didn’t because Maxine was among them, David and Maxine started out from that Saturday in the park.

  CHAPTER 4

  HER FRIENDS MAKE FRIENDS

  T

  ina came out of class the next Monday arguing with Charlie. Charlie now had this absurd notion that Superman would defeat all other superheroes. She wasn’t arguing about any other superhero but Superman would never defeat the Incredible Hulk. She didn’t care what Charlie had read.

  “I don’t understand you Charlie, you now think Superman will defeat the Hulk just because of one comic you read. You think you can change the entire narrative of the Avenger series based on one edition of one comic book?” Tina looked as bewildered as her words implied.

  She wasn’t a comic book-Superhero fan before but Charlie had hundreds of comics. He had hundreds of Avenger comics alone. She had developed a penchant for reading them anytime she went to his house and she was now as big a fan as he was. He used to agree with her on The Incredible Hulk being the strongest Avenger, now she was confused. Charlie was changing the narrative which to Tina was as big a crime as rewriting the Bible. It just wasn’t done.

  “You have to read last week’s edition Tina.” Charlie said. “Superman and the Hulk had a face-off.”

  “Has the fight ended?” Tina asked, refusing to wait for him to finish what he was saying.

  Charlie’s brows were raised, he pushed away a few straying strands from getting into his eyes. Tina understood her question had confused him, she decided to expatiate.

  “Did the face-off end in that edition? Or it will still continue in this week’s release” she added.

  “No, it didn’t end.” he answered, now understanding her question and also sensing where she was driving at.

  “But that doesn’t matter. The fight is over; Superman was just about to laser Hulk’s heart when the comic ended.” Charlie replied.

  Tina was about giving a reply when she saw David standing at the end of the parking lot. He looked cool. He wore a face cap today, red with black edges, and was resting on a black convertible Chevrolet. No one had the guts to rest on Blaise’s car, well no one except David. Blaise was the richest student in their school; his father was a member of the board of directors in one news T.V agencies. Blaise was popular too and mean, like the rest of the popular kids. David seemed to be friends with all of them. Tina wondered again how he was still a friend of theirs.

  She walked up to him, Charlie couldn’t keep up. His laces had gone untied and he had bent down to tie them.

  “Who would win David? Who would win a fight between Superman and Incredible Hulk?” she asked him.

  David looked surprised. When the surprise faded off, she saw he was confused and reluctant to answer. Charlie had joined them and David had seen this was an argument between her and Charlie. Whoever David picked had the upper hand. He leaned off the car and turned his face cap to the back. Tina didn’t think he had an answer yet.

  “I don’t read comic books like you guys. This question is not fair to me.” David replied.
>
  “Just choose anyone.” Tina answered. “With the little you know, who is stronger?”

  “Well …… I think I would pick Superman.” David responded.

  Charlie jumped up in jubilation.

  “I told you. I cannot believe even you who is an avid comic book reader doesn’t know something a casual knows.” Charlie said, screaming it into her face.

  “His opinion doesn’t really ……..” Tina was saying when she heard someone call David’s name.

  They had all heard it, and they turned back to see the person. It was Maxine. Her bob weave was black, matching the black shoes she wore. She had a white flannel shirt on and a short white skirt. Tina wondered how she kept the white so clean throughout the school hours. She looked breathtaking even to Tina, but Tina still disliked her.

  “Hi.” David shouted back, a broad smile fanning out on his face.

  I thought that smile was only for me. The grin is for every other person.

  Tina saw him move like he wanted to go, then he changed his mind and jumped on the boot of the blue Chevrolet. Maxine was walking towards them.

  Tina didn’t know how she was feeling. It wasn’t a single emotion. She was angry at David for bringing an imposter to break up their midst. She felt elated that Maxine was coming to meet them. Then she felt angry again.

  He was giving another girl attention.

  Maxine seemed to spend minutes to walk the distance that she and Charlie had walked in seconds, to reach them. When she got close enough Tina saw that the top and skirt were cream, a very light cream, not white. She looked as beautiful as always, the major difference this time is the smile on her face. Tina had never seen Maxine smile except when she was with her girlfriends.

  “Hi Charlie, Tina …..” Maxine said, sparing them two short looks.

  “David, I didn’t see you in class.” she said, smiling wider.