Chief Okonji moved closer. “I can’t keep you out of my mind,” he said, and a mist of alcohol settled on her face.
“I am not interested, Chief.”
“I just can’t keep you out of my mind,” Chief Okonji said again. “Look, you don’t have to work at the ministry. I can appoint you to a board, any board you want, and I will furnish a flat for you wherever you want.” He pulled her to him, and for a while Olanna did nothing, her body limp against his. She was used to this, being grabbed by men who walked around in a cloud of cologne-drenched entitlement, with the presumption that, because they were powerful and found her beautiful, they belonged together. She pushed him back, finally, and felt vaguely sickened at how her hands sank into his soft chest. “Stop it, Chief.”
His eyes were closed. “I love you, believe me. I really love you.”
She slipped out of his embrace and went indoors. Her parents’ voices were faint from the living room. She stopped to sniff the wilting flowers in a vase on the side table near the staircase, even though she knew their scent would be gone, before walking upstairs. Her room felt alien, the warm wood tones, the tan furniture, the wall-to-wall burgundy carpeting that cushioned her feet, the reams of space that made Kainene call their rooms flats. The copy of Lagos Life was still on her bed; she picked it up, and looked at the photo of her and her mother, on page five, their faces contented and complacent, at a cocktail party hosted by the British high commissioner. Her mother had pulled her close as a photographer approached; later, after the flashbulb went off, Olanna had called the photographer over and asked him please not to publish the photo. He had looked at her oddly. Now, she realized how silly it had been to ask him; of course he would never understand the discomfort that came with being a part of the gloss that was her parents’ life.
She was in bed reading when her mother knocked and came in.
“Oh, you’re reading,” her mother said. She was holding rolls of fabric in her hand. “Chief just left. He said I should greet you.”
Olanna wanted to ask if they had promised him an affair with her, and yet she knew she never would. “What are those materials?”
“Chief just sent his driver to the car for them before he left. It’s the latest lace from Europe. See? Very nice, i fukwa?”
Olanna felt the fabric between her fingers. “Yes, very nice.”
“Did you see the one he wore today? Original! Ezigbo!” Her mother sat down beside her. “And do you know, they say he never wears any outfit twice? He gives them to his houseboys once he has worn them.”
Olanna visualized his poor houseboys’ wood boxes incongruously full of lace, houseboys she was sure did not get paid much every month, owning cast-off caftans and agbadas they could never wear. She was tired. Having conversations with her mother tired her.
“Which one do you want, nne? I will make a long skirt and blouse for you and Kainene.”
“No, don’t worry, Mum. Make something for yourself. I won’t wear rich lace in Nsukka too often.”
Her mother ran a finger over the bedside cabinet. “This silly housegirl does not clean furniture properly. Does she think I pay her to play around?”
Olanna placed her book down. Her mother wanted to say something, she could tell, and the set smile, the punctilious gestures, were a beginning.
“So how is Odenigbo?” her mother asked finally.
“He’s fine.”
Her mother sighed, in the overdone way that meant she wished Olanna would see reason. “Have you thought about this Nsukka move well? Very well?”
“I have never been surer of anything.”
“But will you be comfortable there?” Her mother said comfortable with a faint shudder, and Olanna almost smiled because her mother had Odenigbo’s basic university house in mind, with its sturdy rooms and plain furniture and uncarpeted floors.
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
“You can find work here in Lagos and travel down to see him during weekends.”
“I don’t want to work in Lagos. I want to work in the university, and I want to live with him.”
Her mother looked at her for a little while longer before she stood up and said, “Good night, my daughter,” in a voice that was small and wounded.
Olanna stared at the door. She was used to her mother’s disapproval; it had colored most of her major decisions, after all: when she chose two weeks’ suspension rather than apologize to her Heathgrove form mistress for insisting that the lessons on Pax Britannica were contradictory; when she joined the Students’ Movement for Independence at Ibadan; when she refused to marry Igwe Okagbue’s son, and later, Chief Okaro’s son. Still, each time, the disapproval made her want to apologize, to make up for it in some way.
She was almost asleep when Kainene knocked. “So will you be spreading your legs for that elephant in exchange for Daddy’s contract?” Kainene asked.
Olanna sat up, surprised. She did not remember the last time that Kainene had come into her room.
“Daddy literally pulled me away from the veranda, so we could leave you alone with the good cabinet minister,” Kainene said. “Will he give Daddy the contract then?”
“He didn’t say. But it’s not as if he will get nothing. Daddy will still give him ten percent, after all.”