Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri

Author:Ben Okri
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448138531
Publisher: Random House

WHEN THE LIGHTS RETURN

EDE HAD BEEN singing at a poorly attended concert when the power failed. The hotel didn’t have any electric generators. The audience shouted for their money to be returned, then they left in disgust. In the darkness Ede saw the luminous white dress of his girlfriend floating up to him. He heard her sad voice say:

‘The third time in one night.’

‘I don’t think they liked my song, Maria.’

She laughed gently.

After a while she said she didn’t feel well.

‘It’s the black-out,’ he said absent-mindedly. ‘It makes you feel weird at first.’

With the microphone in his hand he stared into the haze of darkness. Her eyes glowed like that of a cat. He put the microphone back on the stand and paid her no further attention. While he joined the musicians in clearing up the instruments she sat in a corner of the stage, feverish in the dark. He didn’t notice her again till the hotel manager went around with a lamp and saw her asleep on the floor. Ede woke her up, lifted her into a taxi, and took her home. He was irritated with her that night, and because he was irritated with her he didn’t notice that she had begun to change.

He avoided her for a while. He began to think of her as being too soft, too frail, a bit of a spoil-sport. He managed to blame her for the failure of his last concert. He even began to contemplate finding another woman. But when she came to see him, after a week’s lack of contact, and after the lights had returned, she looked so beautiful and her eyes were so sad that he forgot all about his petty irritations. Without asking how she was, or whether she was feeling better, he locked the door and began to kiss her. She pushed him away. He held her hands and stared at her. She trembled slightly. Her hands were soft and her palms were damp; beads of sweat glistened under her nose. He made her lie down on the bed. Then he took off her shoes and made her face him.

‘I want to watch television,’ she said.

‘Watch my eyes.’

She smiled. Stealthily, as if he didn’t want to disturb her acquiescence, he moved his fingers up her legs. He began to play with her when she sneezed.

‘Have you got a cold?’

‘I just sneezed.’

‘Maybe someone is calling your name.’

‘Who?’

‘I don’t know.’

He went on playing with her warm thighs. She stiffened. He had encountered her wetness. It always came as a surprise.

‘You’re tickling me.’

He tickled her some more. Then he took off her silk blouse and her skirt and threw them on the armchair. His breathing became laboured. He waited for her protestations.

‘What about your mother?’ she asked, in a new voice.

Ede lived with his mother in the two small rooms.

‘I knew you would bring up something.’

‘Well?’

‘She’s gone to our town people’s meeting.’

‘So?’

‘She’ll be gone a long time.’

Maria paused, then asked:

‘What if someone comes to visit her?’

‘It’s okay.’

‘What about the door?’

‘It’s fine.

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