Tall, fair and heavily built. Pretty face adorned with a lovely smile. Lipstick colour I’ve come to know as wine. Rosy cheeks too….we call it blush now. Nice crop of hair. Quite put together. Curvy, really curvy. Never understood ‘figure 8’ until she came along. My new English language teacher. Today, we finally get the chance to have her in our class.

SS2b I believe was my class. Simple to access from the staff room. Just get up from your seat, walk through the door, turn left, and walk towards the stairs. ..A flight of about 2 or 3 steps…. Walk straight to my class, another set of 2 or 3 steps and you are in my class, facing the students and backing the blackboard. Simple. 

                                 She’s coming!!!!  She’s coming….!!!!! 

Never thought it could take anybody beyond 1 minute to make the trip from the staff room to ss2b. It was time for English language (or was it literature?) excited to finally meet our new teacher. A pretty teacher…at least, she got the verdict from practically all of us. There was this silent agreement to give her a warm welcome. After all, She was pretty!

Wait. Where is she? I look up and she is still walking down the corridor. Well….at the steps now. She’s holding the pole. Practically crawling down.  Never had I seen such a slow movement in my life. My mouth open. Boys giggling now. Thank goodness she makes it down the stairs…now come straight..(or so we expected)

Everyone is back on their seats. Good behaviours back on. Silence everywhere. Where is she?  She should be here now introducing herself…. What happened? 

Oh no! 2b not 2c… where is she going? Quick glances at the time table confirms it… s.s.2b English Language. That’s what we have now. Oh! She’s avoiding the 3 steps in front of our class! She went to turn! Who does that? And now boys are giggling again.. Where did the entire good attitude go? Everyone is laughing now, even Chidi. 

Now standing before us is a huge figure.  Pretty face. Nice smile.  Voice so soft. She looked like two different people.  Size 10 up , 20 down. Now I get why she wears only skirts and blouses. Must be hard getting two sizes in a gown! Suppressed laughter. Everyone is involved. No one is telling why. 

For some reasons, I can’t recall the topic of discussion for the day. I know I heard Chicago. I know I heard Muhammad Ali. All I did was laugh. At what exactly…..?? 

All grown up and established in different life endeavours. Francis sets up a whatsApp group chat. We are here. Nearly all of us. Nostalgia.  We recall people, events….etc. someone, no, Lawrence mentions Chicago and the chat room is filled with laughter. I feign ignorance. First time the story was told, I was too awe struck to comprehend it. I’m older now. I can take it. 

“Why you call am Chicago” 

“She nearly marry Muhammad Ali for Chicago na” 

“Really, was I in class?” 

“Yes na, all of us. We were all there” 

“She say she no gree for Ali” 

Oh the fables we were told, ‘fabu’ or ‘fabuuuuuuuuuuu’  depending on our judgement of how false or how impossible the tale sounded.