Girl Power

Girl power, A short story by LJ Kundananji

Let’s take a look behind the closed door, shall we; and hear what those we admire and desire think of us.

There were five girls crowded in the little room. Four of them were seated on the two beds, two on each one. Bessie, who was not only gregarious, but garrulous as well, was standing in the centre, talking nearly on the top of her voice.

“Mary is a very dumb girl!” she squealed. She stuck out her lips and then, in a very slow and deliberate manner, said, in imitation of Mary, “I—I am… vely vely… hungaly.”

The rest of the girls burst into fits of laughter. Lindiwe and Nathalie, who were both slender and pretty, hugged each other from excitement. Elizabeth, the fat and plump one, rolled all over the bed, pulling at the sheets with her hands. Margaret, who was seated next to her, shrunk away from her with an expression of disgust on her face.

“Watch it chi Eliza!” Bessie shouted with a vicious glare. “That is my bed you are messing up. You don’t want me to throw a joke about you, do you?”

Elizabeth sat up quickly and shook her head fretfully. She looked like a scared big baby with her round head. Bessie shrugged peevishly and continued with her malicious joke cracking.

“How is she even going to manage to attract a husband with all that stupidity!” she threw back her head and laughed long and hard.

“She is so dull, so slow and so boring that the guy she’d go out with would be fast asleep before she even finishes her sentence,” Nathalie said, gasping from laughter.

“The guy who would go out with her would have to be equally stupid as well!” Lindiwe blurted out. “You know—birds of the same feather flock together!”

“There is no guy that stupid!” Margaret shouted, trying her best to be heard above the noise.

“There is one!” Bessie disagreed, her eyes shining, “Big John the Sleepy-head!”

“Oh yes…” Margaret agreed with realization. “How could I forget? He is almost as stupid as she is!”

“That is the guy who is always sleeping all the time,” Bessie continued, “he sleeps everywhere and all the time. Last time I sat next to him in the library, it was a horrible experience…. Immediately he opened his book, he started nodding as if he was agreeing to each sentence he read…” She paused, sniffed and pinched her nose. “Five minutes did not even pass, the guy was fast and sleep and snoring. The next thing I knew, the guy was farting!”

“Ewww!” the girls winced in disgust.

“After a few minutes, we all vacated the second floor of the library, leaving him all alone—because the place was really stinking!”

“Why didn’t someone wake the poor guy?” Elizabeth asked with a hint of sympathy.
“Hey, he would have fallen asleep again!” Bessie retorted.

“You also have the habit of sleeping in public! No wonder you feel for him.” Lindiwe said, narrowing her brows into a frown and pointing her thin long accusing finger at Elizabeth.

“No I don’t!” She snapped in defense.

“Yes you do!”

“NO I don’t!”

“Yes you—”

“Come on guys, stop arguing,” Bessie beseeched. “You are roommates after all!”
The two girls quieted down and glowered at each other.

“You are really right,” Margaret said, “those two can really make a good couple…they are quite alike!”

“Talk about their dressing,” Elizabeth began, trying to bring herself into the conversation. She gave Lindiwe a sideward glance. “It is so old fashioned.”

“Ha! You are right girlfriend,” Bessie agreed. “I wonder where she gets those long dresses of hers—so long that they sweep the ground as she walks. They make her look like a big butterfly!”

“It is almost as if she got them from the colonial times!” Lindiwe said, not wanting to be outwitted by her roommate.

“Her grandmother must have given them to her as an inheritance!” Nathalie added in her sharp, piercing voice.

“She is terribly lacking in taste, that girl!” Bessie said, slumping onto the chair that was placed in the centre of the room.

“That is why her and Big John Sleepy-head would make such a good couple,” Lindiwe said gesticulating profusely, as was typical of her, “look at his dressing. His clothes are so oversized that they look like they are hanging on a hang wire!”

The girls rolled into noisy laughter, except for Elizabeth, who only chuckled and gave her a cold look.

“Who can blame Mary for wearing such clothes?” Bessie said, shooting up to her feet as if the seat had suddenly become hot. “She is probably trying to hide her bad figure!”

Nathalie and Lindiwe reeled with laughter and hugged each other again. Their eyes glistened with tears. Elizabeth lay back on the bed, her belly heaving with each laugh.

“I mean, how many have got such a gorgeous body like mine?” she run both her hands down her hips and cat-walked across the room conceitedly, proudly shaking her large bottom.

“I do!” Nathalie said, standing up and shaking her slender body.

“Come on!” Bessie laughed condescendingly.

The rest of the girls did not even attempt to put up a challenge. They laughed nervously. Elizabeth sank further back. She tried to pull the sheet on the bed over herself, but quickly stopped and stared at Bessie with round eyes.

“Men are terribly weak,” Bessie continued as she cat-walked back to her chair, “They just can’t resist my enchanting beauty! I mean, when they see my gorgeous body—shaped like a coke bottle, they can do nothing but whatever I want. Don’t know what arsenals you girls got, or else you’ll end up as pathetic as Mary! ”

“I have got my smile,” Nathalie said grinning across her pretty face and blinking rapidly.

“Alright, girlfriend!” Bessie commended.

“My large breasts!” Margaret said sticking out her chest with an arrogant look on her face.

“Pendulous indeed; which guy can resist that?”

“My gorgeously long hair,” Lindiwe said, shaking out her black shiny hair which extended all the way to her shoulders.

Elizabeth looked on with goggle eyes. She suddenly felt terribly uncomfortable. She stood up.

“I have a test to study for—I have to get going,” she said in a shaky voice. She quickly picked up her shawl and wrapped it around her shoulders.

“What’s the rush, girl friend?” Bessie asked mockingly, trying hard to smoother a laugh. “You still have time!”

“No—I don’t,” her eyes were turning red. “I really have to go now.”

“Don’t worry, we understand,” Lindiwe said nonchalantly with a wave of her hand.
She quickly left the room and shut the door behind her. The four girls remained staring at each other. They were dying inside…After a few excruciating moments, Nathalie stood up and rushed to the door. She opened it and looked around outside. She closed it and rushed back to sit down. All the others looked at her expectantly.

“She is gone!” she said, bursting into laughter.

The girls rolled into uncontrollable laugher. They rolled all over the beds and pulled the sheets off in the process.

“You should have seen the look of terror on her face when she realised that it was her turn!” Margaret gasped hitting the bed with a clenched fist.

“Hi I am Lizzie and this is my gorgeous ball-shaped body!” Nathalie said standing up and walking across the room with her hands stretched out, but slightly bent at the elbow and wrist so as to appear curved.

“She is just as bad as Mary!” Lindiwe gasped, “Perhaps she is even worse!”

“You know what? I think she would even make a better match for Big John Sleepy-Head!”

“Any way, forget about her,” Bessie said, jumping onto the table in the far end of the room. The girls turned to look at her.

“I have a feeling George likes me,” she said with a grin, “He has been visiting me a lot recently, you know!”

“Wow!” the girls gasped. George was the most handsome boy around campus. Every girl was dying to have him as their boyfriend. He was tall, dark and had a broad chest.

“All I have to do is shake my bottom and he will do whatever I please. It is just as I said—men are terribly weak!”

“You are right, Bessie!” Nathalie agreed with a vigorous nod.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. They all froze.

“That must be him,” Bessie said with large round eyes. She stood up quickly and smoothed out her clothing.

“Come in!” she said as sweetly as she could.

The door flew wide open and in walked Big John Sleepy-head. The girls stared at him in horror and sheer disbelief.

“Hi girls!” he greeted merrily, “Is this where I can find Bessie?”

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