FOR ZAINAB

In the year 2016 I decided to take tennis more seriously and what that simply meant was me playing more frequently. I moved to Lagos from Osogbo and had an air of uncertainty surrounding my resolution. Luckily for me I was in close proximity to two tennis courts, one was free to use but I had to provide every other thing barring my tennis kit, racquet and tennis balls while the other court was owned by a private tennis club operating inside UNILAG sports complex, there you have everything at your disposal including two tennis coaches, good tennis players of all ages and sizes. Without thinking twice I signed up for the sports complex court, Lesh tennis club.


Monday to Friday I’m at work looking forward to playing tennis over the weekend, first thing Saturday morning I’m at the tennis court chasing balls up and down. The most rewarding part of playing at Lesh tennis club was the quality of players you get to play with and the fact you notice an all-round improvement in your game. Talking about quality was this chocolate skinned Muslim lady in her mid-twenties, she had the body of an athlete and the smile of a model, her name was Zainab. Zainab was one of the few ladies that trained at the tennis club and she happened to be one of the best around.

Zainab over the weeks became one of my tennis partners, her house was not too far from the court so it was easy for me to call her whenever I was free to play. Playing her was always fun, we would start off terribly, play poor returns, not chase down balls, but into the game we’ll hit a rhythm and rally back and forth. She happened to be one of my favourite people to play tennis with because there is always no pressure playing with her, unlike my other partners who are slightly better and take the game a bit more serious than I do.


On her birthday she had a little get together with her friends but I was unable to attend because of work (not like I was invited sef) on the Friday of that week we went out together, had a few drinks and two plates of pepper soup, the following morning we were at the tennis court exchanging returns and feeling like pros once again.

We kept playing week in week out until I decided to take a month break from tennis, I was already looking forward to returning to the courts but on the day I wanted to play Zainab she said she wanted to do her laundry, that only meant I had to wait for like 5 to 6 more days before I get a shot at playing again. 6 days later I couldn’t play tennis because my favourite football team was playing, Man utd, and they lost the game by the way. I was tempted to call her earlier that day if she will be chanced to play tennis with me, but I somehow let that slip. Later that night our tennis coach announced that Zainab passed away after a brief illness.

The last thing Zainab said to me was “mo fe fosho jor”(I want to wash my clothes) and I hissed and said “odabo”(Bye bye)

YOU WILL BE GREATLY MISSED……………..