Little Rot

At 1:12 on Saturday morning, Kalu stumbles into his apartment from Ahmed’s party. Aima’s absence is palpable, and Kalu feels sick at the memory of leaving her at the airport. He realizes it’s been hours since he’s eaten, so he fries a plantain and pours himself a glass of vodka. He tries to immerse himself in preparing the food to avoid thinking about the incident at the party. Sitting down to eat, he texts Ijendu, asking if Aima landed safely. She texts back at once, saying that Aima is safe and he should go to sleep. He invites her over, thinking they could talk more about Aima. She tells him again to go to sleep, and Kalu flings his phone against the wall in a rage. When he closes his eyes, he imagines Ahmed’s body pressed against his and jumps up to dispel the image. He decides he cannot stay in the apartment, grabs his keys and bottle of vodka, and heads outside.

It’s 2:45 am, and Kalu sets off on foot, wanting “to disappear into the night” (104). The security guards watch him “curiously” but say nothing. Kalu heads for the train station, where he boards a train toward the lowland. He feels eyes on him but tells himself it is his imagination. After a few stops, a familiar-looking young man gets on. After a few minutes, the man speaks to Kalu and recognizes him as the bartender from Ahmed’s party. He knows Kalu was “the one who jumped the pastor” (108) and says Kalu should be afraid to walk alone after beating up “a whole Daddy O” (109). Kalu is shocked by the revelation that the man at the party was Okinosho, the city’s “most powerful religious leader” (109). Now, the bartender warns that Okinosho has put a 20-million-naira bounty on Kalu’s head.

Filled with panic, Kalu rushes off the train at the next station and shoves a handful of cash at the first available taxi driver. However, back at his apartment, he feels calmer and plans to call Ahmed, sure he can sort everything out. He retrieves his broken phone and plugs it in to charge. Then, he collapses into bed.

Kalu wakes from a frantic dream at 10:30 am. He reaches for his phone and is relieved when the screen lights up. He speed-dials Ahmed’s number; the phone rings and Kalu finally hears another man’s voice laughing at the end of the line. He immediately feels “sick with apprehension” (113) and drops the phone, wondering why the thought of Ahmed with another man has that effect on him. The night before feels unreal; he tells himself everything is fine and goes back to sleep.

At 6:26 on Saturday morning, Ruqaiyyah tells Ahmed he looks “like shit.” Years ago, they met at one of Ahmed’s parties, where they bonded over “a mutual desire to inflict pleasure” (115). She asked him for help hosting her own party, a sex party “for the queers, by the queers” (116), but Ahmed became defensive at the implication that he was queer, and the conversation ended in an argument. They made up a few months later, and Ruqaiyyah sent him monthly invitations to her parties, assuring him that she “allow[ed] some straight men there, for some of the girls” (117). Nevertheless, Ahmed hadn’t come until now. Before they go inside, he stops and tells Ruqaiyyah that he “wasn’t closeted.” Rather, he feels like “it […] wasn’t there. Or was there and faded” (118). Ruqaiyyah doesn’t question him; she just takes his hand and invites him inside.

Entering the party feels like entering “the third, maybe the fourth, world of that night” (119). The first world was the party before Kalu arrived, the next was their time in the office, and the third was his unsuccessful “attempt at a reset” in bed with Timi (119). Now, he hopes to try again to “scrub his inside skin of the things that were clinging to it” (119).

Inside, Ahmed is met by a landscape of gauzy white curtains, and Ruqaiyyah leads him through the party to introduce him to someone. She points out a young man, an actor whose name Ahmed can’t place, and tells him he is “earnest” and “eager to please” (121). When Ruqaiyyah leads him over, the young man introduces himself as Seun. They shake hands, and he squeezes while maintaining eye contact, a “power play” that Ahmed wins easily. Ruqaiyyah leaves the men alone, and Seun invites Ahmed back to one of the bedrooms. He is flirtatious, and Ahmed quickly becomes annoyed. He sees Seun as nothing but a means to an end and wants to “get to it” (123).

The younger man undresses and stands “smirking” at Ahmed, showing himself off. Ahmed sits and asks Seun why he goes to Ruqaiyyah’s parties. He replies that Ruqaiyyah is “discreet”; it is a chance for him to leave celebrity behind, and he doesn’t have to worry about damaging his career. When Seun asks Ahmed the same question, the other man is suddenly “businesslike,” instructing Seun to kneel down as he removes his clothes. Seun obeys with a “casual arrogance” that Ahmed anticipates breaking “into indecipherable pieces” (125).

At 10:33 on Saturday morning, Ahmed is woken by his phone ringing. He presses buttons until the ringing stops, and Seun laughs beside him. Ruqaiyyah knocks, and Ahmed gets out of bed, leaving Seun “pouting” because he won’t stay longer. Thursday drives Ahmed home and gives him updates from the night. He tells him he drove Machi home when she woke up, which annoys Ahmed, but Thursday tells him they have a bigger, “possibly monumental” problem. He tells him that Okinosho was the man Kalu attacked at the party. Luckily, Okinosho is not holding Ahmed responsible, but rumors say he has put a hit out on Kalu. Ahmed is speechless at this news; he hopes it isn’t true but knows deep down that “outsourcing Kalu’s killing” would be just like Okinosho (129). Thursday assures Ahmed that they are just rumors; there is nothing to worry about until they are confirmed. He tells Ahmed that he broke the bouncer’s jaw to teach him a lesson, and Ahmed expresses his gratitude. Thursday has been his “second” for eight years; the men share “a darkness,” and Ahmed trusts him completely.

Back home, Ahmed is surprised by a WhatsApp message from Souraya telling him to pick her up for lunch in an hour. He hasn’t seen her in years but instantly recognizes her profile picture and knows “he had to see her” (133). Ahmed replies to her message and takes a shower, tamping down his worry about Kalu and Okinosho. On the drive to Souraya’s hotel, he thinks about Kalu. He has always silenced the “ghosts of [the] teenage night” they spent together, but seeing Kalu sleep with women at his parties made Ahmed feel as if he “own[ed] a part of Kalu” (135). This “surge of possessiveness” always faded after the party ended (135), but Ahmed is determined to find a way to resolve the situation with Okinosho.

It’s 12:45 on Saturday afternoon, and Ola is getting ready for lunch with her client. She has a beauty that is “stark and alarming,” but she likes this and has no interest in being “something soft” (137). She has had surgeries to feminize her face and body, but for other things, she has made no effort to change. Other women are sometimes jealous because “girls like her weren’t supposed to look this way and still get to where she’d gotten to” (138). However, Ola is “truly proud” of her success and the life she has built. She thinks of Souraya, who is light-skinned and cisgender, and thinks her friend has no idea how much more dangerous life has been for Ola. Souraya is content to take time off work, something Ola cannot imagine doing unless she “had savings upon savings” (138). One day, when she has enough saved, Ola imagines that she will disappear and “reinvent herself,” falling in love and settling down “on her own terms” (138). This thought keeps her going.

The client she is seeing today is Thomas Okinosho, the pastor affectionately known across Nigeria as Daddy O and head of the Rekindled Glory Church of God, with branches in 175 countries. He is one of the few clients who pays “exorbitant prices” for the “privilege” of knowing that Ola is trans (139). Rumors say Daddy O is worth as much as $50 million and is one of Ola’s “most lucrative” clients, despite his large family and deep involvement in the church. She had received a “curt” text from him earlier in the day, changing their plans to lunch at a restaurant instead of at one of his houses.

When she enters the restaurant, Ola is surprised to see a young woman already seated at Okinosho’s table. As she approaches, he introduces her to his goddaughter, Ijendu. He tells her that Ijendu is an aspiring fashion designer and wants to meet one of Okinosho’s “mentees.” Ola is annoyed but hides it as she chats about the fashion industry with the girl. When lunch is over, Okinosho drops Ijendu off at her estate, leaving him and Ola alone together. He kisses her immediately, saying how much he missed her. When she asks what happened at the party, she notices a trace of embarrassment in Okinosho’s eyes. He tells her that a “small boy […] decided he would try [him]” but assures her that “justice” will be done (144).

By 2:15 pm, Ola and Okinosho have arrived at one of the many houses Okinosho owns in the city. The pastor hungrily tears Ola’s clothes off, and they have sex. By 3:38 pm, he is dozing off in bed, and Ola goes to shower. She is “in a strange mood” (146), craving the solitude of her hotel room rather than staying with Okinosho to cuddle and play house. She thinks about telling him she isn’t feeling well or leaving while he sleeps. She is moisturizing after her shower when Souraya calls. She tells Ola she has “a strange favor to ask” (148). Ola becomes incredulous as she listens to her friend’s request. Souraya pleads with Ola, asking her to “remember how it was” when they were young and claiming her request is a way for them to help a young girl in a similar situation (148). Ola argues “that guy” should have known to “mind [his] own fucking business” and thinks that Souraya and “her useless soft heart” can’t “handle New Lagos” (149). However, she agrees to try to help and hangs up the phone.

Returning to the bedroom, Ola looks at Okinosho and thinks of her experiences as a young woman. There was a time when the things that had been done to her made her angry, but she learned to use “the rot” to make herself rich and powerful, turning her anger “into something cold and untouched” (150). She thinks that Souraya doesn’t live in “that world” the way Ola does; she will help her friend but “the way that was real” (150). She wakes the pastor by putting his penis in her mouth, then climbs up to whisper her plan to deal with the “small boy” who insulted him. The pastor is surprised and turned on by her “wicked” plan, and Ola feels she has done what Souraya asked.