CHAPTER IV : ANNIE & OMAR.
The following Saturday I did a spot of studying because exams were not all that far off and despite my aimlessness for the future I thought I owed it to my family to get into some college or other. In any case, I had to do that if I was to remain in London, a city I felt at home in. I went to Annie’s place thinking of asking her to join me for an Indian meal. I knocked at her door but there was no answer though I distinctly heard some movement inside her room. I knocked again and again to complete silence. I was sure she was inside with someone. Who? I went downstairs and sat on the steps leading to the street. I waited over an hour and at times I thought I was ridiculous and was about to leave. In any case I would ask her about this mystery when I saw her, but would she tell the truth? I stayed on another hour with people coming and going from the building and giving me suspicious looks. Was the mystery person one of those people who had come out? Should I go again and knock at her door? I was about to do so when to my utter surprise Omar steps out. He was a little shocked to see me sitting on the steps. What are you doing here? he asked. Waiting for you to finish so I can take Annie for lunch. Attack is the best defense. Okay she is free now, he said. Listen, Omar, once not long ago I told you that in our part of the world virginity is important if a girl is to be married and you show your loyalty and friendship by sleeping with my sister? Virginity? he cried derisively. Wake up, George, Annie is not a virgin. Well, obviously she isn’t now, I said angrily. She isn’t and wasn’t the first time I made love to her. And don’t talk to me of loyalty and friendship when I get a clear welcoming signal from her. The world is changing, George, and the western morals are fast moving eastwards. Better find a way to get rid of your own inhibitions. Moreover I will not stand to be told with whom I am or am not allowed to make love to. He was angry and I was utterly confused. I hope you used a condom, I finally mumbled. I wouldn’t know what to do if she got pregnant. He smiled. I always carry two of them in my wallet for emergencies. And was that an emergency? Hardly, he said and his smile widened. See you later, George.
He left and I went up and knocked at Annie’s door. She looked beautiful and sprightly in a pair of jeans and a blue pullover. There was an air of happiness and inner peace in her look. Someone once told me that men athletes are discouraged from lovemaking before competitions because the act drains their energy whereas women athletes are encouraged to have sex. With the sexual act their body gets ready for reproduction and the hormones that come into play invigorate it. I thought of that when I saw Annie though, to tell the truth, Omar hardly looked exhausted, just more gorgeous than ever. Was it an indication of bisexuality? I said nothing of my encounter with him to Annie. I took her round the corner to the Star of India where we had a huge dish of curry and yellow rice and two lagers. She was gay and did not stop talking about her friends at school and the work she was doing there. I asked her if she met any interesting boys at Hammersmith and she said, no. No one as interesting as Omar. The emptiness, the sense of loss I felt with Omar’s encounter, the feeling that Annie’s loss of virginity was my loss, dissipated. I began thinking, after all, why not? Why shouldn’t Annie have sex with someone she was in love with, for I was sure she was in love with Omar or at least she liked him enough to accept sharing him with his other random girls?
Life went on, happily, haphazardly, the same as ever. I saw much less of Omar than in the summer months because my other friends were around and I kept in touch with all of them. By the end of the school year I stopped attending the tutorial college almost entirely. I considered it a waste of time and started going to the Fulham public library to read, in that quiet and studious ambiance, my subjects on my own. For lunch I invariably gravitated to one or the other fish and chips shops and ate the food on a quiet street corner out of the paper wrapping with my fingers. It was a delicious meal and furthermore I read somewhere that the phosphorus in the fish enhances brain power and in that domain I needed all I could get. Well, the exams came and went with a little worry and a little agony and all I had to do was wait for the results. Annie left for Egypt and I decided to spend the second consecutive summer in London.