P

By Xtian

"My mother warned me about women but she never said a word about men" (Liberties taken from a quote attributed to the actress TalluLah Bankhead.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663244840

Xtian

Xtian is a historian by training with an MA in History. He has published two other books " Papi" and "The man I Love". "P" his latest book is based o his experience as a student in an English style boarding school he attended between 1972 and 1976 in Enugru Nigeria. Xtian lives and works Houston, Texas.

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Copyright © 2022 XTIAN.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-4483-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4484-0 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 08/29/2022

Contents

NB

PROLOGUE

A LOVE STORY?

WE MEET ENUGU 1971

HOUSTON 2020

WE MEET AGAIN

SECTION II

EPILOGUE

NB

Pedro is referred to here as P, a name he was known later in his life. The name is used interchangeably to refer to the same person.

PROLOGUE

The coronavirus pandemic raged. We were on a lockdown. America was at a standstill. Out of work, confined to my tiny apartment there was no escape. Occasionally, I would glance at the scattered papers on my desk next to the bed, wearily I reach for the remote control. Another Rank film, preferably before 1970 would do. YouTube was my source for entertainment. Laying in bed getting fatter I whiled away the tedious hours.

Between movies I would sleep, eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the pages on the desk untouched for 1 year. I knew I had work to do but I was not inspired. I had writer’s block. Sex, which had always been my weapon of choice was far from my mind.

Unable to sleep sometimes I would shop online with my iPad resting on the floor next to the bed. I bought stuff I had nowhere to wear. Everything was closed. The bars, restaurants and clubs shuttered against the masses.

Stuck in my bedroom, I procrastinated and waffled. I read several books at one time, none of which I bothered to read to the end.

Finally, I woke up and said to hell with it! This is the only time in my life I had been paid to stay home.

I should get busy.

I cast my mind to the last few months, now in touch with the boys from high school through the internet. A new world opened for me. It had been 45 years since I heard or seen these boys.

At first, I had debated if I should even bother reaching out to them, through a forum they had created on WhatsApp. A lot of them were now respectfully married with children. Buried were the mutual secrets of sexual escapades, now completely forgotten.

I bet when they saw my name on the alumni wall their weak hearts skipped a bit. My smiling face carefully chosen from several snaps completely edited to produce the most effect. I hope none of them had a heart attack!

Although they professed feigned joy and surprise when I finally talked to a few, I knew they were nervous as hell.

Bitches, your secrets are safe with me. You know who you are!!!

I had decided I’ll let those tired Queens make it. But any bullying directed towards me like I recall as a scared teenager, I’ll let my thug side come out. Forty years in America is not for nothing. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

A LOVE STORY?

I gazed at the old black and white picture P had given to me when we were in our second year of high school. I had kept that picture for almost half a century and occasionally would glance at it.

It was then it dawned on me that this was really my first romance, and I didn’t even know it. I felt an urge to tell the story of this affair with a boy named P, whose face graces the cover of this book. A story I never told anyone that would come as a shock to those who remember both of us.

I turned 60 in February 2020. The vivid memories of my childhood needed to be written before it’s all gone to oblivion. When it all began, I was just 12 years old, I had no idea I could be loved by a boy. The concept of such a romance was unthinkable.

An affair was embarked on before I even knew what was going on. A confused boy who had been exploited sexually for my beauty and my femininity. Bullied for being who I was. How could I be ready for Prince Charming when he came gliding in.

The time and place, Enugu Eastern Nigeria just after the Biafran War. Who could have been ready for a fling after the trauma we had suffered during the war?

But, ready or not, love came to find me. I had my body, but he never had my soul. I was battling too many demons and the aftermath of long kept secrets. I was in a no place to embark on a fearless adventure.

P wanted all of me. He saw something in me I didn’t even know I possessed. He was like a warrior, fearless and ready to do battle. I had no idea such a love existed, how