Dangerous Love Read Online Free Page A

afraid. When I woke up I found that the trap under the bed had caught a big rat.’
    Omovo looked at her and, when she instinctively looked up at him, he turned his eyes away.
    â€˜Then I began to clean up the whole house. I swept away the cobwebs, cleaned the corners, broke down the insects’ nests on our ceiling, and drove out all the wall geckoes and lizards. He came into the house and saw me cleaning and was angry that I did not go to the shop when he came home to eat. And he beat me again. Omovo, what does it all mean? Did I do wrong?’
    Her voice rose and dropped as she spoke. When she had finished she brought her hands up to her face. The gesture reminded Omovo of how his mother used to raise her hands in defence when his father was beating her. The dream Ifeyiwa described assumed a thousand shapes in his mind, and the whole experience somehow became his. He shook his head.
    â€˜I don’t know, Ifeyiwa.’
    â€˜I’m not afraid of anything.’
    â€˜Have you told him about it?’
    â€˜Omovo, you know I can’t tell him anything.’
    â€˜Yes. I know.’ He looked at her. ‘I got your note, Ifi. It was very nice.’
    â€˜I had to buy the boy sweets before he agreed to take it to you.’
    â€˜I gave him some money.’
    Ifeyiwa smiled and swung her arms. Her mood had brightened and the shadows had lifted from her face. She was radiant in her plain white blouse. A glimmering, gold-painted chain dangled from her neck. It rested in the valley between her lightly moving breasts. He knew that she did not have on a brassiere. The thought started a stab of passion inside him.
    â€˜You know, he came in yesterday and was saying how strange your drawing was.’
    â€˜When he walked past me and suddenly said something about my head I thought he was going to pounce on me.’
    There was a light descent of silence. Something happened in the sky. The air darkened. The sky had now acquired sprinklings of yellow, ash-grey, and a wistful fading blue. Everything around was faintly touched with that darkening quality of twilight. It happened imperceptibly.
    â€˜Omovo?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜I’ve been wanting to ask you why you shaved your head.’
    He reached up and touched his head. Flesh touched flesh. It felt bare as a calabash.
    â€˜Oh, it was a barber that did it. An apprentice. I decided on impulse. Like that. I don’t know.’
    â€˜It makes you look as if you were mourning someone.’
    â€˜Aren’t there many things to mourn?’
    â€˜Do you think of your mother often?’
    â€˜Yes. Always. One way or another. She’s always there.’
    â€˜Sorry I asked.’
    â€˜There’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s good of you to have asked. It gets lonely when nobody asks you these things.’
    â€˜Yes. It does.’
    â€˜Do you think of your family too? I mean, often?’
    â€˜No. I hate them for what they did to me. And I love them. I worry about my mother, though. It is hard.’
    â€˜Yes. It is.’
    â€˜You know, when I first saw you with your head like this I could not recognise you.’
    â€˜I don’t recognise myself.’
    â€˜Why don’t you paint a new self-portrait?’
    â€˜That’s a good idea. I might.’
    â€˜What about the painting you said you would do of me washing clothes in the backyard?’
    â€˜I will do it soon.’
    â€˜Will it be as good as the Mona Lisa?’
    â€˜Do you have anything to smile enigmatically about?’
    â€˜Yes. You,’ she said.
    They passed the rusted junk of a car by the roadside. There was a patch of dust-covered bushes just after it. Palm trees stood tall in a depression. Next to the trees was an expansive clearing where a building was being erected. In the distance a tailback was forming. A sudden wind blew and Omovo’s shirt lapels flapped. Ifeyiwa’s blouse billowed. In a moment the wind was