Chapter 44

Sue said, "Peggy, I have decided. The Defreitas family are nice folks, so I don't want to do anything that will put me in their bad books, but I still feel you owe me. This may or may not be true, but that is how I feel you have treated me, so I want your help.

I want you to help find me a man; a man that I can love; a man that knows how to love and will love me; a man that will be to me what Trevor is to you. That's what I want, Peggy."

Peggy was aghast. This was one scenario that she had not thought of, in her worrying. "But Sue, how am I going to do that?"

"I don't know, but you are more experienced with men, or at least one man, than I am, so you are better placed to judge men. And I mean MEN, not schoolboys, Peggy. You will understand that."

"I'll try, Sue, I will. You know that, but I can't promise I'll succeed; and you'll need to give me time – a lot of time."

"I am willing to do that, Peggy. Perhaps your foster family know people; that sort of things is open to you. Just try, Peggy. I am depending on you."

That left Peggy with a nagging background worry all day. It annoyed her, to the point that a couple of days later, as she was about to leave school, one of the younger girls approached her and she snapped. "What?". The other girl recoiled and stammered, "I just wanted to ask if you could have a look at that black woman outside."

"Black woman? Where?"

The younger girl, aged about thirteen, that Peggy occasionally helped with her maths, asked her to come to the front door, and pointed. Sure enough, there was a black lady, probably someone's mother, hanging around the school gates. Peggy asked the girl, "What has she been doing that upsets you, Timmy?"

"Nothing specific, Peggy. I get the impression she is looking for someone, but at the moment, you know that we don't have any black students here, so who is she looking for? It is weird."

Peggy accepted the challenge. "Right, Timmy. Leave it with me. I will speak to her and find out if it is worth bothering a teacher about it. Thanks. Sorry I snapped at you. I had another problem on my mind."

Peggy wandered out and as she approached the black woman, probably mid-thirties, she thought, their eyes met, and the battle was joined. Peggy charged in with, "Madam, can I help you? Are you looking for someone?"

The woman, now that Peggy saw her close up, seemed more innocuous, responded, "Yes, I am, but I don't know who I am looking for."

Peggy thought, Boy, is that weird or what?, but simply said, "Perhaps I can help, if you can be a bit more specific. Are you looking for your son or daughter?"

The woman looked annoyed, "Do I look like I have any white children, girl?"

"No, madam, but you might have adopted one."

"Hmm. Yes. A clever answer. What is your name, young lady?"

"Peggy ... Peggy Defreitas. And yours?"

"Quite so, yes. My name is Tokunbo Okoya. Can you get your tongue round that? It is Nigerian."

Peggy had listed attentively, and repeated what she had heard. The other nodded. "Pretty good. Do you have a boyfriend at present?"

"That is a bit of a non-sequitur, isn't it? Actually I don't have a BOY friend, I have a MAN friend, which is much superior."

Tokunbo saw the pride in the girl's eyes, and nodded. "Yes, you are the sort of girl I am looking for, but you already have the man you need, I gather. No black girls here at all?"

"Not at the moment. There used to be, but they left with their families for New Eden. Why do you ask?"

"You seem a sensible girl, so I shall tell you. I am looking for a potential wife for my ... friend. He has his work to get on with – he is twenty – so I am doing the search on his behalf. He trust my judgment."

"Doesn't he want to find a girl and fall in love with her first?"

"That is Western cultural patterning, girl. Many girls get married and THEN fall in love with their husband, if he acts towards them correctly. That was the pattern with European royalty through the ages. The marriage was for dynastic reasons, and the love, if it occurred, came later."

"You know, you are a fascinating woman, Mrs Okoya. Is he your son?"

"No. He is my man, my lover. I am a widow. He needs a younger wife, I have decided, so I am doing my best to find him one."

"Interesting. I have a friend who is looking for a man to show her what a good lover can do for a girl, but she is still a virgin. I might introduce her to you."

"How old is this girl, Peggy?"

"Coming up sixteen, but she was a slow starter, physically. She is only now filling out with womanly curves. Does your young man have the sort of knowledge that she might appreciate? And, more importantly, is he a NICE guy?"

"Oh, I assure you, he is a VERY nice lad. His name is Olu. He was a virgin until recently. I took him in hand for that, and he has been fully trained to be a good lover over the last few weeks. I think he is fertile, too, for I have missed a period."

"Golly! You are having his child, but you are looking for a wife for him?"

"That is so. He wants me to marry him, but my thoughts are that he also needs a wife his own age, so that as I get old, he will still have a young wife to keep him company. If all works out well, he will marry us both, so I want a girl who I will get along with also."

"You have a very altruistic outlook on life, Tokunbo."

"I have had my problems, as well as a loving husband, my dear. My only child, a girl your age, recently got married. It was an arranged marriage, but I think love is already starting to bloom."

"I am afraid that Sue left earlier, but if you could be here tomorrow at the same time, I could introduce you. Oh, I suppose I should ask: Is your guy a black man?"

"He is. Does that bother you?"

"No. I just wanted to be able to identify him. No-one is concerned by what you look like here. We even have some young aliens living here, in the city, and going to nursery school, and there are other aliens living in another city on this planet."

"God grief! I never knew that. Real live aliens, living here?"

"Yes. Living peacefully. The Towatans are the survivors of an attack on their home planet, and the Malans were resurrected by cloning from deceased frozen adults. So in that context, human variations in colour of culture are nothing in comparison. If anything, the colonists view the authorities on Earth as different from us, for they seem to think they should be telling us how to live."

"This is indeed a wondrous place to live. I think my baby will be happy here. I shall come again tomorrow. I am very glad to have met you, Peggy De ... De what?"

"Defreitas. They are my new family. My real parents threw me out: a long story. See you tomorrow, madam."

"Olu, would you be comfortable being with a white girl, teaching her what good lovemaking was like?"

"A white girl? I am not used to being around whites, my darling, only delicious sexy black ladies – or at least one, anyway." Olu seemed unsure what she was intending.

"I have an appointment with a white teenager tomorrow. She is looking for an experienced man to teach her lovemaking, but that man has to be kind and gentle, considerate and completely reliable about confidentiality. Do you think you could be that man, if she was agreeable? I have yet to speak to her. She has been suggested by a good friend of hers."

"Tokunbo, my darling, is this you trying to find me a wife?"

"It might lead to that, Olu my love, but that is a long way away. This is but a preliminary skirmish, to establish whether you and she could get along together."

"I can accept that. Do you want me to go and meet her?"

"Not tomorrow. This is for me to meet her and make my own assessment of her. I shall report back to you afterwards and we can discuss her as a possible future partner."

"Tokunbo, I have a question I need you to answer, about our future."

"You have? What question, my love?"

"You have accepted marrying me, while we are both in financial straits. Would you still be wiling to marry me if you got all your money back? That would make you a rich woman marrying a penniless man! That is a big difference."

"A hypothetical question, Olu. It does not arise, and I am a happy woman to be with you as my man."

"I am serious, woman! Please consider it. Could you, as a woman with money, still take a poor young man as a husband?"

"Very well. In Nigerian society, it would be frowned upon for social reasons, but I might not be deterred, unless I thought it would be bad for YOU, my boy. Here, where there is a true egalitarian society, my having money or not is not important. It is a mere fact of life, like whether I have arms and legs. So your answer, my querulous one, is that I would still marry you, for the sake of my baby if nothing else; but I have come to love you and that is more important than money."

"Baby? You have been confirmed pregnant?"

"Why do you think I was in Metropolis today? It was not just to go round by the high school. I had a doctor's appointment for my pregnancy check. They can now have a result in minutes, and mine was positive. You are going to be a father, my Olu."

"My love! I am so happy! I hope you have a son. I hope WE have a son. You deserve a son, after all this time."

"Perhaps. In this colony, a son is not so important, so I shall be happy bearing you a son or a daughter. I already have a good daughter. I regard Simisola as a very valuable person in her own right, and as a conduit of mercy. She has brought me not only a lovely son-in-law, but also a wonderful future husband for me."

At school, Peggy sought out Susan Lubbock during the morning break, to give her some news.

"Sue, I have found you a possible man to teach you lovemaking, but he is a black man from Nigeria. Does that bother you?"

"Peggy, I don't care what colour he is as long as he knows what he is doing!"

"Well, my informant, a black lady in her thirties, says that he is a nice man, kind and gentle, and the father of the baby that she is expecting."

"What? She is expecting his baby, yet she is pimping him out?"