Suitable

Some refer to that state here as seeing blues, some call it seeing double. But IK can swear that for two months now, he had been seeing nothing but red and quatro. What frightens him the most isn't the rejection that might be his portion but the competition. Many are from far-off communities and there is no kidding himself after spying on them that some aren't up there higher than him in class, yet the iota of hope he still cling to is surprisingly coming from Ebele that has this way of making you hang on there not knowing which divide your chances are leaning on the most, your status not withstanding.

Spinning a girl in Umueke community has become a nightmare to young males in the community. Conditions that were a kind of rooted tradition that males swim in as their right have somehow swung like a pendulum under a year to the female side. He shivered on that fate and the sigh that escaped from him discomforted him more than fate and made him more annoyed with that man known as Mr. Johnson. "He's the cause of all this stress," he muttered. "Nowadays, you can't even dress as you like when strolling without running the risk of meeting one of those Mr.Johnson's ladies from his endowment center that might turn you in their center into subject of gossip" he murmured to himself. "Now,it's living up to their standard instead of the other way around as it used to be" more sighs escaped from him as he got up to spread the cloth he's washed twice in five days just to measure up to Ebele's taste.

It's not up to ten months since that center came into operation and the rate things, talks, appearance, movements, and attire have changed those women were frightening. Not only to him and other young men but to the elders whom seem to be the most sour of the male lot in the community over those changes Total overhauling is how he and his generation is describing it. They are even seeing their male counterparts as inferior creatures in all departments these days. Creatures that need up dating, pitying or something like that. The manners they talk to you, relate to you, rate what drops from you makes one feel inferior, jittery while talking to them. More still, many young men have become soliloquizing animals in the comfort of their houses replaying and replaying their encounters with those girls in their minds each night.

"I can't believe that Chinyere my daughter is now telling me when she will talk family matters and when she will take business matters with me" one elder was complaining in the kindred meeting the other day. IK perfectly understood the man's dumbfoundedness and shock he's into. Ebele and all the girls of that endowment center is like that. "she said it's the night talk not morning talk" the elder was lamenting. "you don't get it" was what she said to me the other time when I tried to enforce my authority over her. "That isn't how to go about the issue" she said "Nothing good will come out of working oneself up overnothing" was how she put it "see youuu…" she said to me as she turned heading towards that center while I was still talking. IK was having hard time controlling himself while the elder man was fuming in his confusion over the sudden loss of control over his daughter under ten months. He knew what the man was passing through, knew he was boiling inside in a big way.

IK father was the one more dumbfounded on what his son had turned into. The changes he is witnessing on his otherwise stubborn son was intriguing to him. He's turned within two months into a lamb from a lion he knows him to be with that occasional sighs that drops from him and that far away look he acquired from nowhere. Something for sure is stressing him he bottled up. On two occasions he has tried to find out what it might be, all he got is that all is fine. Yet, his dressing, washing and showering have no doubt increased in their numbers these days, something is certainly amiss. He didn't have such experience in his youth to know it's something to do with the opposite sex.

Mr. Johnson's strategy of capturing females seems to be working , paying immediate dividends in the manner he never anticipated from evidence on the ground. The trickle effect on their male counterparts, the elders of Umueke community is near miraculous in his estimation. He heard a laughter, moved to his office window to peep. Outside were about fifteen to twenty parents with their wards numbering about thirty or more being directed by the security personnel to the hall for their registration. The number that comes for registration are in their high these days and he silently thanked his luck for anticipating such while drawing the building plans. He hurried on the draft he's working on, then headed upstairs to supervise their registration and pep-talk meant mainly for their parents rather than their wards. Those always fall into proper places within weeks observing others and regulations.

"These forms and regulations, you must ask your wards to observe well or they won't last here. We have zero tolerance for rule-breaking here" he said to the parents gazing at him and the hall decoration like things from another planet. He will bet some were seeing such decorations and TV for the first time in their lives. Judging from how some were moping at the mute images in the TV behind him. "We have wonderful success story rate here on those here for their good. I am yet to witness any failure and we hope it won't start from your set. Your kids within a year will be something else" some were beaming in hope, some he can see were there only in body, they were somewhere in the foreign land as their concentration on the moving images behind him.

Some elders of Umueke that had been fighting the project out of their ignorance, fear that their hold on the town and source of their income might be effected seem to be seeing another source of income that endures in their daughters that some swallowed their pride, fear or shame whatever it's they are suffering from after seeing others daughter turned into something else within a year. Earning little incomes, supporting families in their little ways, class changed, and despite the high dowry the community pays as a marriage requirement, those endowment girls still remain hotcakes among male youths.

"Yes Nazi Mba, I sent my daughters to learn Mr.Johnson's magic. They have not become inferior to their agemates, no sound soul is asking if they are for sale or for free anymore" one elder answering questions others in the camp against the project summoned him for. "I overheard a talk my daughter and Nazi Uba's daughter were having the other week, not only that she was talking to her like inanimate creatures, the wisdom from their utterances when I dissected what was dropping from them assured me that my daughters are now a left-behind to their once intimate friends" he said. "My obligation to them has changed priority. Food isn't the number one headache to me for them now but exposure. I am worrying about their future now" Nazi Mba's attempt to counter attack his stand was sounding off-color even to his own ears. The man eyed others and asked them to own up to their responsibility to their wards. "Now they are accepting males too, my sons were enrolled alongside my daughters and if they start to enroll parents tomorrow, me and my missus will be first in the lineup there" he seems to be sounding annoyed with himself and those around him for not being among the first that saw what he is just seeing. That talk his daughter had with Nazi Uba's daughter was an eye opener to him. He even believed himself lacking in the head department.

"How did I not see what even Nazi Uba saw a year ago" he mutters some profanities to himself and those querying him as he got up and left.

The families of the girls that enrolled seem to be jogging ahead of other families in the community, their parents seem to have a kind of new lease of life injected into them courtesy of new ideas, food and daily activities their daughters brought home from that center. Their mindset, talks and ideas they contribute in the village meeting is attestation of that three steps ahead of others. Their parents seems to have rested their fate in the hands of their daughters some even sent as sacrifice for they don't rate females that high in their community. Same food,same quantity, same source of it, and yet the manner it's now prepared is only change some witnessed as far as food goes, advise they contribute in family gathering told their parents that their daughters are now ahead of all in the family in brain department. Even the attire and hygiene they came back with, pep talks they introduced to the family told them that they don't need to question anything from that center any more.

The parents simply handed over decision making of the family to their daughters. The conditions for seeking suitable suitors even for their sons rested on the girls that are yet to get it wrong. What was considered abomination in Umueke a year earlier is now a norm in most families. Parents and their daughters seem not to be in a hurry these days in the issue of marriage. Suitors no longer materialize from nowhere talking about immediate marriages. It's three months on the girls awaiting-list, three months of overhauling the mentality of all males interested, without anyone promising anything to anyone before checkup at the endowment clinic if chosen by the girl. All the girls know their blood types and its' importance, what most males from the community don't even consider important before becoming new knowledge in the Umueke community.

IK wasn't mesmerized by Ebele's beauty, every girl in that center seems to have that in differing ways, some that entered rumpled turned into something else within months. The word of advice that drops from them, wisdom in them, and that their: i-am- not-a-hurry body language they ooz in is the most intimidating aspect of those girls. Nothing fazed them and IK found that intimidating. They have near perfect answer to any problem you approach them with. Nowadays, IK doesn't laugh, talk, or swagger anyhow as he does before that education from Ebele and how she releases what she saw faulty in one's character and reasoning, how it supposed to be, and in a manner she delivers them you will not know what she was doing let alone finding fault in any pointed out and her directive on how to put them into practice has nothing insultive in it. Pure magic he rates them during his sololiquizing time.

Male youths are all feeling it in Umueke community for sure and the elders don't miss the changes dropping in their midst. The drivers in the driving seat have for sure changed in Umueke community all, in under a year courtesy of that Mr. Johnson and his stubbornness.