The Birth of Sodom

Everyone knows that you never forget your first time.

Akindayo knew this well. The memory of it never left him. At times, it was quiet like the bushes of Ibadan at midnight, and sometimes it was loud like a drunkard walking through the streets of Lagos on a Friday night, but it never left. The most it did was sleep.

On his 18th birthday, as Pastor Tobi prayed over him in the same tongues Akin has been hearing ever since he was born, he looked over to see her staring at him with a strange look. It was not a new one. He saw it at odd moments for the past few years and it was a reminder that he did not carry this burden alone. She too had been blessed with this curse.

He had known Toyosi ever since he was 7. She was 9, had just come back from Nigeria, and had what he used to call a “very weird way of speaking”. She spoke a lot, and Akin quickly realised when speaking with her that she was satisfied if he just nodded from time to time. She looked just like her father Pastor Tobi, but had the complexion and beauty of her mother, Aunty Joke. However her personality was all hers. She would tell stories of how lizards and wall geckos were lords over the walls and you could go nowhere without seeing them. She would mimic the way the lizards nod in a way that had them falling down laughing and holding their bellies each time, and he soon subconsciously started nodding…