Perhaps we will talk more with time,
Or perhaps we never will be able to say it all, to clothe things in words,
Things that have long been naked
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Abule-Ijesha cried in silence as her landscape screamed for change. The soiled earth mourned for new occupants, the land bitter and soon men too became so as though both deserved each other.
Rebecca walked towards the gutter kicking the plastic bottles that covered the path. Her lips paused in thought akin to one hushed by a force greater than herself. With eyes vacant, almost teary, she mounted each step with a chiselled move, pace steady, legs progressing assuredly on the ground like a hammer targeted on a spot. She walked well exuding a confidence, one that had come to define her.
I watched as she approached, expecting something from her. Perhaps a nod of recognition. She only looked through me. It seemed she didn’t see me because she looked beyond my face. I nearly turned back expecting a figure at my back but I was directly in front of a wall.
Rebecca placed her eyes on the ground thereafter. I heaved. She only continued on. Even though, I could do same I didn’t even without any obligation to the girl almost towards me. I felt a need to ask her about herself.
The ‘boys-on-the-street’ were not boys anymore but I didn’t see how I could ever refer to them as men. They lacked the subtle sign that brought about the referral. They lacked responsibility, although, it was a little more than that.
They were crowded at a spot, speaking in loud tones almost fighting. I looked over them trying to understand the reason for the ruckus. But I knew it would be ‘ibo’. I smiled as I looked at Rebecca again. This time she was closer. Her walking was taking a slower pace; she tried more to absorb the irritable environment than to look on the road she walked.
She looked at me. This time, intuition whispered to me that she actually saw me. Her eyes pierced through me.
I moved away after noticing that the boys started to grab each other in wild places. I looked at them for a moment and hurriedly, returned to Rebecca.
The time came when she uttered something I heard. I pretended I hadn’t and looked at her still. She repeated herself this time with mild touches of anger showing its gleam. I had achieved something, I thought. She asked another.
And I smiled at her. She didn’t return it. She looked at me. I knew what she was doing but I began to reply.
‘I came to look for you but I didn’t see you.’ That was the answer to the first question.
‘I remember that but I forgot to. I will do it later.’ The answer to the second one, this came out easily. She took my left hand as we walked to her house. We had a lot to talk about.
‘Something happened.’ She said almost carelessly.
‘I know,’ she squeezed my hands. I pinched hers and smiled at her.
She returned it with a trickle down her eyes. My joy lessened and I wiped them with my unbound hand. Rebecca tightened her lips forming an expression of grief. I looked at her; frowning hoping the tale wouldn’t resemble the face.
TARE ABANG 