THAT CONVERSATION…AGAIN
Remember how Vhar had that conversation with his mother we all wish we’d have with our parents? Well, they’re conversing again. And this one is to die for! (Vhar! Let’s switch moms, pretty please!)
Check on it below.
*
“Oya, come closer,” I said as I brought out my phone.
“Why?” my mother asked.
“Sellvie with my rose modeh na,” I said in my Jenifa accent.
“Duro! Duro! Let me comb my hair well. These curls must show.”
“Gawd! Woman, thou art vain. Who is looking at you sef?!” I said with a scowl.
“Ema gbami ke. So because I’m not on instagram…yet” – she stressed the word – “I shouldn’t look good for a camera moment with my son, abi?” She was patting the low curls on her head.
It was a Sunday morning and I was home for the weekend. I hadn’t seen her in months. My little cousin was already out of the car, walking down the church walkway with her friend. My mother and I were still in the car. I was on the passenger seat while she was seated behind the wheel.
“Shior.” I shook my head.
“You too, shior!”
After several clicks and flashes, I settled for three pictures. She looked really beautiful in them, and me, bleh!
“How come you look better than me? You’re supposed to be old and wrinkled,” I complained.
“I will look better, because for a young man, I don’t know what you’re still doing being single.”
Chineke mee! What had my “singlehoodedness” got to do with me looking bleh in this pictures?!
I turned to her.
She returned my look with hers. “Kinni? You think I won’t touch the subject again? You thought wrong, bobo.”
I made to get out of the car. I wasn’t going to have this conversation with her. Not now, not anytime soon.
As if she intuited my thoughts, she said, “If you like, do like you didn’t hear me. I will say my own.”
I went over to her side of the car and looked down at her. “Shey you know that there has to be a man in the picture for my single status to change.”
“I know. Which is why I’m worried that you’re still single.”
I sighed. We’d been over this and I was already tired. Every opportunity she got, she asked about my dating life.
“Don’t worry,” I said slowly, “man wee come. I sha cannot drag the next available man next to me. These things take time.”
“You’ll have to take one by force ni o.” She held up her wrist and shook it, a gesture of one being held captive that had me laughing.
This woman is hilarious!
“When last did you have sex sef?” she asked as she got out of the car and pressed the remote to lock the doors.
My jaw had never opened any wider. My eyes almost popped out from their sockets.
When she turned to look at me, she said, “What? Fly will soon enter now.” Her tone was serious.
“But…”
“But what?”
“But today is Sunday –”
“Ehen? So?”
“And we are on church grounds.”
“Pele o, assistant church keeper.”
“How can you say such a thing here, mom?”
“You mean sex? If God didn’t want humans having sex, he wouldn’t have created it.”
“Well, true. But gay sex? It’s just –”
She didn’t let me finish. “What happened to gay sex? Oh, you’re suddenly feeling sinful?”
“No! I’m just surprised you’re not, you know, feeling a bit –”
“Abeg, we’re all sinners. I stole 1k from your wallet yesterday.” She said this without remorse.
That explained the missing money from my wallet that I thought I’d misspent it. I stared at this woman. This woman who had forced me to read the bible at some point. Forced me to attend church meetings. Caned the life out of me when I was rebellious. This woman that isn’t repulsed that her son is gay as fuck.
I sighed. “Did you always know?”
“Always know what?”
“Did you always know or suspect that I might be gay?”
She paused for a moment. “I don’t think so. I mean, I thought about it once when I saw it on the news and you came to mind. But I dismissed it. Just because you were effeminate growing up didn’t mean you’re gay. Turns out I was wrong about you though.” She chuckled.
Wow. I didn’t know what to say. My mind was being taken on a journey.
“You didn’t answer my question though.”
“What question?”
“About the last time you had sex na.”
I felt heat rise to my face. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Ode! I wasn’t asking you to name names. Just when you had sex last.”
“I won’t dignify that question with an answer.”
“I’ll take that as a no. You’re such an old maid.”
“Oh, no you didn’t!”
“Oh, yes I did,” she said with a smirk.
“I can never win with you, ever!”
“I’m your mother.” The duh wasn’t said, but I totally got it.
Sigh.
“So how will I get the pictures?” she asked.
“Turn on your Bluetooth.”
“You don’t have Xender? Who still uses Blackberry sef? So you cannot buy a good android phone?”
“Buy for me na. Shebi you’ve stolen my money? I was waiting for Monday to come so I’d go put it in the bank for my phone, but, Alas.”
“Shurrup dia. Ounje omo ni mo n je.” (I’m eating the fruit of my labour.)
“Ounje that you stole? O ga o.”
“Will you send the pictures? Nonsense and condiments!”
I brought out my phone and went to the picture folder.
“No o, lemme select the ones I like.” She made to grab my phone.
“But I’m only sending three pictures to you.”
“I want your personal pictures too. So let me select the ones I want.” She didn’t even wait for me to answer, she snatched my phone and started going through my pictures as we walked slowly towards the church building.
“Who is this man you’re standing next to?” she inquired.
Uh oh!
“Uhm…he’s a friend.”
“A friend? Where was this taken?”
I told her.
“You travelled all the way down to see this man? This your friend?” She wiggled her brows at me.
I made to grab my phone but she was faster. She recoiled from me.
“Well…?” she prompted.
“Well, nothing,” I said with a straight face.
“Young man, better talk!”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yet you travelled down to see him and you didn’t come to see me. Your mother o! You travelled down to see man. Man that is in the same town as your mother and you say there’s nothing to talk about. Better don’t try me.” She wagged her finger at me.
Oh, God!
“Service will soon start and –”
“Service isn’t until 9am. Sunday school that is still ongoing, and I want the gist NOW!”
She grabbed my wrist and shepherded me back to the car where I promptly began divulging the gist I had been secretly dying to tell her.
Written by Vhar
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34 Comments
prince
September 17, 08:36Such a lucky son you are.God bless her for you.
Simba
September 17, 08:45Ask ur mum, could she adopt more gay sons? She could be National PFLAG president. Tell her, if she won’t mind ur friends would like to meet her and introduce her to their parents.
shuga chocolata
September 17, 09:02hahahahh Simba ooooo, you’re funnyí ½í¸í ½í¸í ½í¸í ½í¸í ½í¸í ½í¸
vhar, what you have is an angel in disguise as your Mum.
kisses her for usí ½í¸.
Pink Panther
September 17, 09:05Lmao. On point, Simba.
Absalom
September 17, 09:34Simba, you plagiarised my comment straight from my head. ?
IBK
September 17, 09:31I tried to reach you on bbm.. Could u call me?
Vhar.
September 17, 12:18?
Kenny
September 17, 08:48Vhar, you are lucky, and blessed. And your mum is cool ?
Mandy
September 17, 08:53My God!!! She’s not only cool. But amazingly open minded. Not only knows about your sexuality but seeks to be a part of it. Goodness me! Your mother is a gem!
Francis
September 17, 09:02????
The mummy we all wished we had.
pete
September 17, 09:29Imagining me & my mum having this conversation *shudders & snaps out of it*
Vhar, your mum is an angel.
Absalom
September 17, 09:3630 million hearty claps for the mum. ???????…
Kenny
September 17, 09:51Hi Vhar!
I’m curious about your mum. Was she born and bred here in Nigeria? Or did she study abroad? Or she frequents ‘the western world’ often? I’m just trying to understand her. Cos my mum is educated and all but she still can’t come to terms with the fact that I’m gay.
Pink Panther
September 17, 11:13You’re out to her, your mum?
Kenny
September 17, 12:20I’m out to my parents and siblings.
Pink Panther
September 17, 15:17And we haven’t had that story on KD because…? 😀
Kenny
September 17, 15:37I’ll send it in….. eventually
Pink Panther
September 17, 17:30Chop chop, mister. There is no ‘eventually’ in my dictionary, only ‘at once’. 😀
Vhar.
September 17, 12:15Hello, Kenny
Yes, she was born and bred here. I don’t think she anything western influenced her coming to terms with my sexuality. She did say one time, that she read up on LGBT articles after I came out to her.
miztadiol
September 17, 12:02Your mum is bae
Delle
September 17, 12:54I think I’d like both our mums to be friends. My mum has a delicate thinking to things. With the right friends, I just may be having such conversations with her in no time.
Oh and I’m SERIOUS about that. It helps that my mum speaks yoruba fluently. Vhar biko o!
Fresh
September 17, 14:07Vhar your mum is bae and should be a role model to our undegestive mum????
Khaleesi
September 17, 14:40O my gosh!!! Who needs a bae when you have such a Mum?? Vhar, you are lucky!! You need to set up a religious cult with its deity being your Mum! I mean who wouldn’t worship the toilet that such a Mum poops in?
Vhar.
September 17, 14:54Ew. ?
Kunle.
September 17, 14:49Mom goals!!!.
z
September 17, 18:09my God!!! This almost made me cry
ambivalentone
September 17, 19:24I am kinda jealous.
dickson clement
September 18, 00:32Can someone remind me the spelling of fiction… This is just too good to be true
Regal Sweetheart
September 18, 03:46My eyes literally popped open, mid-sleep! Vhar, please tell me there are fictional elements to this story…
•*•sugarrrr*•*
September 18, 06:30Oh blood of God! Uh, blood of Jessus! This woman is a blessing to my soul. And you sef, you don’t have to drag issues with that mama o… Just make the best of frens cos she’s gon save your ass from a lot… I envy you with this blessings
JArch
September 18, 06:48Vhar’s mum is bae 100%, see how she is like cool and chill AF
But i know its still a struggle for her (no matter how cool and chill they appear from the outside) but she is willing to work with it and hope for the best in the end.
Kinda reminds me of what happened yesterday, see my elder brother and I gisting on whatsapp about our love life, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Of course he has known for a long long long time, but there are times when I just stop and wonder how did I ever get so lucky .
peaches
September 18, 10:34Could she adopt me? she even bothers about her curls!!. I wish I could be like this with myMum.
Queen Blue Fox
September 18, 11:59*sigh* I wish, if I had such from any of my family. Chai!
Lekan
August 14, 17:02Somehow like my mom except she doesn’t know I’m queer and asks about the girls