Smokes and Joints

Odili never heard the tall lanky man  walk into their compound that cold December morning. It was Christmas afterall and it was normal for people to  visit  them  in the morning sometimes in twos and threes , with the chewing sticks dangling from their mouths

He had woken up and heard his father discussing with a familiar voice before he cupped his hands,peered through the opaque glass window and saw them in the verandah, a bottle of Lords dry gin and two glasses sitting gallantly on a stool between them like a trophy of war.

He didn't know much about the lanky man  except that he ran a scanty kiosk  at the junction where he always smoked hemp and everytime his mother drove him and Nwamaka around during the yuletide,  they would always see the man and  his friends at the junction drinking and smoking their joints . Whenever they passed the kiosk his mother would always say "tufiakwa", "ndi igbo!"   snapping her fingers noisily before she returned them to the steering. 

Odili would always remain silent, not knowing what exactly to reply his mother.

He sat noiselessly in his room which was adjacent to the parlour and listened to conversation between his dad and the man.

"Ifediora, you really need to stop smoking and find yourself a wife "his father had said,his face heavy with avuncular concern.

"Na small small Sah ,i can only do one or the other" came the reply.

"You're  almost 43 now, iburozikwa umuaka, or you think that these small boys that you're capable of fathering ,whom you smoke with are your mates?"

The  man looked very stoic as he gazed into space, he bent over, poured himself some gin and sipped .

"Brother, i found a girl oo but she failed my test"  he said.

Odili's father smiled softly and said " with this your unkempt dada hair, which girl will marry you?, Maybe one that smokes like you " and they roared with masculine laughter

Mana seriously,his father continued, " you really need to stop smoking weed"

"Brother", he replied immidietly," weed is natural by God ,a pure medicine God gave to us , he said it in the bible that he cannot give us what we cannot use".

His father ignored the man and continued, "you need to find a woman,and make sure that she doesn't smoke like you,make sure you love her too..

Its only a woman you love will see you rolling weed and tell you to stop and you'll stop because if its someone you don't love you might punch her if she does that....okwa eziokwu?"

"Oo eziokwu" he replied  nodding his head

"Promise me you'll stop smoking, you know its not easy to find a smoker like you in this mood" he was laughing now.

"That one is not a problem Sah, i don smoke finish he replied placing his finger on his tongue and pointing to the ceiling .

"Idikwa sure?"

"See, brother, one thing about me is that don't  know how to lie, it is very hard for me".

"Once you're ready to marry , I'll support you fully" his father said

The man was now swinging his laps back and forth frenetically, taking sips of gin. They continued to talk , laughing intermittently as they segued from one topic the other, From th ue new disease affecting plantains in the village to the deteriorating roads to arguing whether 501 was stronger than Mcdowells. 

Odili wondered if marriage was by force as he wondered the kind of husband the man would make.

His mind drifted away and he pictured the lanky man feeding his new born baby with gin , blowing smoke in his wife's face.

That night he was in his father's  Volvo and as they drove past the kiosk the lanky man was there smoking , the invisible stench filled smoke  rising high from the glowing red  joint into the starless nocturnal sky.