High 2
Part 2 of the High Story
HIGH
Mayowa Ojo
6/10/20264 min read
Everything changed the day my sister started walking and she sauntered toward me on two very unstable feet. I fell in love on the spot and caught onto a new high – playing with her as though she were mine. I figured it was either father and mother saw how genuine my love was or they were just tired of being so protective.
Immediately after graduation, I started working. I’d never been on a plane and so my excitement was fever pitch when I landed a job as a flight attendant. Most of my colleagues talked about how nervous they were on their first few flights and it shocked me. I figured that they would equally be shocked when they found I was bored within the first few flights. Flying was boring. Up and down and then up again and then down. Only when there was some measure of turbulence did I seem to come alive. Yes, flying was fun at first but the whole essence of fun sometimes is in how unpredictable it is.
I once got a call from a hospital. The doctor told me father slipped from the top of the stairs and broke a bone. When I finally got around to asking him how he felt he told me he was fine. I asked again but then he snapped so I let it go. I watched him a little longer, my eyes searching his; seeking a connection. Something. Anything! He soon yelled his need to get some rest and so I turned around and left. Did he feel the adrenaline rush as he fell? I wondered. If he did, did he enjoy it?
I left the job within six months and pitched my tent with a travel and tourism company. I paid my dues at the back office while elbowing my way up the ranks to the outdoors. It was only a matter of time before I developed a keen interest in mountain climbing, bungee jumping and camping out in the wild. It was on one of those trips that I met my first girlfriend, Emerald. She was the perfect one for me. She understood me absolutely and I was sure that some celestial being in charge of my life was pleased with me.
With Emerald, I was even more fearless. We went scuba diving; snorkelling in the Indian ocean and jet skiing too. Oh the joy I felt on my first jet ski ride. We rode out for about thirty minutes into the ocean till we saw dolphins. Emerald asked that we go swimming together and that’s when I told her I could not swim. Rather than get mad or scared she kissed me long and hard and told me I was the craziest man she'd ever met!
I returned from the trip, looking forward to every vacation we could have. We planned our leave days around the same time and agreed on what country to meet and what activities we wanted to engage in. We did not talk every day once I returned home but we spoke often enough to keep things going. She found the Macau Tower online and persuaded me to go with her. If I’d never fallen in love with her before, I did then.
We didn’t argue a lot but one thing we never agreed on was which thrill was better – the 767 feet bungee jump off the tower (highest bungee jump in the world) or the skywalk at the same tower. I prefer the skywalk on a rim that is only 1.8 meters wide… without handrails. I did it so many times on the first day that I was banned for the rest of my stay. The staff feared I would get dizzy and indeed fall. If only they knew.
Emerald told me she hated abuse of any kind. She said an uncle molested her several times as a child but was sure he would never do it again. She told me about how she went visiting, cooked him a meal laced with Valium. He woke up tied to his bed where she tortured him especially around his genitals till he almost passed out. I looked at her closely and saw the glint in her eyes as she recounted the story. For a few seconds I shared her exhilaration. Of course she spent some time in juvie but she was well behaved and got out early.
We hugged and I told her I would never abuse her. I meant it.
I hated disloyalty and told her as much. When she asked, I told her some flimsy story that only ended in emotional hurt. I did not tell her about my dog. I didn’t think it was necessary to tell her about Reign – my dog. It threatened to be an anti-climax compared to her story. Reign betrayed me when I was fifteen. Don’t ask. I took him out for a walk just as it was about to rain, tied him to a pole thirty minutes’ walk away from home and watched the rain beat the hell out of him. When his legs bucked beneath, I carried him home, towel-dried him in a room, put warm clothes over him and fed him a hot meal and warm milk. He stayed faithful till he passed.
I took some time off work for a three-month course just so I could be in the same town as Emerald. We lived together and it was heaven. The activities we got up to on the weekends were out of this world.
It saddened me to come home and find my parents living their boring non-existential lives. My baby sister was about the only spec of colour in the grayscale that was their lives.
It’s been four years since I moved out of their house; three years and seven months since mother passed. I’m fascinated by my baby sister though. I almost feel like a father just watching her grow; teaching her a few things and listening to the things she has going on in her head. I’d like to be able to show her some fun things; take her on her first crazy ride at the amusement park; take her to a snake sanctuary where guests are only allowed to visit when the reptiles are being fed! I think it’s totally cool because there really isn’t much else to see with snakes anyway. All of that would be nice… if only I could get out of this wheel chair soon enough.