Nmeri17:


behold good health has been bestowed upon me. the light of mine Lord also shineth along my path at a time like this, thy friend is in search of a fair handmaiden

My heart gladdens at the news of thine health

Dear friend, why searchest thou thee for a handmaiden, when fairest maidens abide all over the countryside? Perhaps, my friend seeks for the hand of a particular wench? Speak up dear friend, that we might take thine matter to our dear lord

Enoquin:


My heart gladdens at the news of thine health

Dear friend, why searchest thou thee for a handmaiden, when fairest maidens abide all over the countryside? Perhaps, my friend seeks for the hand of a particular wench? Speak up dear friend, that we might take thine matter to our dear lord

I ponder, if I spake to thee saying "thou art the wench after mine own heart" wouldst thou be dismayed, or filled with gladness, or will thou cast such tiding by the wayside as one casteth old bread away??

Enoquin:
That I Might Forget

Sweat streaks across my brow
My heart beating faster than your thought
Ride me my lord,
Ride me that I might forget

Forget how easily I might slip
Into endlessness and despair
Harder my lord,
Harder, that I might forget

Forget the path that I chose not
Or how lowly I have sunk.
Easy my lord,
Easy, so we both don't crash

For I musn't forget my place
A slave doing the bidding of her master
Crossing lines that we shouldn't
Damning me to eternal despair
And you to what?

hmmmm...ride me my lord

yu now doing poems?? wow. very soon you'll switch to hymns or prose

A Blip of Imperfection
Today - 8.20 pm
The room was filled with happy laughter. Glasses clinked as mini toasts were carried out. The waiters moved round the room almost invisibly with their trays. The young single women stayed in small groups taking sly glances at the single men. The men laughed at silly jokes and pretended not to notice the women, at least for that moment. Where did they all come from? I didn’t know almost all of them and yet here they were gathered for me.
The couples stuck together, the old ones looked round at the gathering and nodded their heads at the splendid arrangement. Of course, everything was perfect; it had been planned by the great perfectionist – my mother.
There she was, holding a glass, one hand slightly holding my father captive and yet still surveying the room for any imperfection. It was a grand evening one of her wishes as regards her last daughter was coming true. Of course, she always gotten what she was wanted.
I had studied what she wanted, become what she wanted and was going to marry who she wanted. I was indeed the perfect child, an exemplary daughter. The type of child all parents wanted, the one most girls hated and all men wanted. This was my engagement night. I was to be properly introduced to my fiancé this night. We had met once; two years back when a party was thrown after I had been awarded a doctorate, it was a fast introduction and we were left alone for two minutes before someone came and dragged me away.
I only knew his name and what he did but he must have been mightily impressed because the marriage proposal came immediately after that and mother came in beaming and told me how I had done her and the family proud and that she was going to throw me the best party ever. No, she didn’t even ask if I wanted to get married or what my feelings were; she never did that.
“Look at you! I have been looking all over for you, is this where you have been hiding?” My sister asked, holding a glass and stepping out on the veranda. She looked lovely in a sari gown and the veil she had over her head, made her more sophisticated. She looked happy.
“Why, is the party not to your taste dear madam?” I asked playfully, I loved my sister to bits. She was the closest I had to a friend – well, she was my only sister - but even she had been taken from me, married to an Alhaji as his fourth wife especially as she didn’t do all mother wanted academically.
“Funny, does mother know how cheeky you have become?” She asked tugging at my cheek playfully, coming to lean over the railings.
“Mother doesn’t know anything about me with the way she carries on.”
“Now, come on! Mother doesn’t do these things on purpose. It’s all for our own good. Take a look at me, I never thought I’d support mother on anything but things have happened that have made me understand why she does what she does, it’s all in our best interest.”

Nmeri17:
hmmmm...ride me my lord

yu now doing poems?? wow. very soon you'll switch to hymns or prose

I am not now doing poems. I have always dabbled in it for as long as I can remember even though it isn't my calling

Nmeri17:
I ponder, if I spake to thee saying "thou art the wench after mine own heart" wouldst thou be dismayed, or filled with gladness, or will thou cast such tiding by the wayside as one casteth old bread away??

Taken, dear friend; taken.

Enoquin:


Taken, dear friend; taken.

pray tell, doth he own a nairaland account??

I like the beginning, not sure what to expect yet. I am getting really lazy to write these days, I need help.

“The statement is strange coming from one who detested mother but sometimes I can’t help but think it might not be for our own good. Sister Gadina, I don’t know if I like this Danladi…”
“Ssh…don’t say it out loud, lest mother’s enemies hear and rejoice. You certainly do not think everyone here wishes us well. And what is this I hear about Danladi you think I loved Zaki at first? He was disgusting to me and I felt nothing but disdain for him especially as he was much older than I had envisaged in my daydreams and with me thinking that I was always going to be a first wife but I have come to understand and feel something for him and even being the first or fourth wife is nothing as long as you get what you want most of the times.”
“I have heard tales such as yours and have also heard of others who never felt anything for their husbands so it’s not as open and shut as you say it is and besides I’d mind if I was the third or fourth wife.”
“Oh, so you want to wax philosophical on me?”
“No sister, just as we assume that women feel a rush of motherly warmth when they first hold their babies, we do know that it’s not true for all women. I don’t want to manage anyone or be managed. I feel far removed from all of this; I have done everything mother has ever wanted, why can’t I have this one decision to myself.”
“Because…”
“Hauwa, where are you?” Mother’s voice rang out from across the room interrupting Sister Gadina and even though the veranda was kind of dark, I winced and so did my sister.
“Put on a smile now, for your sister perhaps?”
“What if I go in with a big frown instead?” I asked mischievously leaving my sister to shake her head at me.
Smiling woodenly, I stepped into the room and walked towards mother, all eyes were on me.
“Hauwa, where have you been hiding? This is your party and you are not even here to host it, hiding away like a little child.” Mother scolded me smiling as if to remove the sting in her words and stretching her hands to pull me firmly into her gathering. Did she have to say that in the midst of everyone?
“Barka da yamma,” I murmured in general to the group.
“Is that how to say good evening to our esteemed guests and our in-laws?” Mother asked with a tinge of exasperation in her voice.
“She means well,” father interjected, perhaps to show that he was still the man of the house but he had disappointed me too much for me to care.
“How are you?” One ugly looking man in the group asked me.
“Very fine sir, thank you.”
“She seems quite timid though, nervous of Danladi already?” An elderly woman in the group asked. Everyone laughed as she continued, “don’t worry about him though, it’s his sister you should worry about, a bit like your mother which is a good thing, ladies of nowadays need a strong guiding hand.”
Oh, the joy of exchanging one prison for another, glamourous indeed!
“Quite true...” Someone replied as my mind drifted off. Yesterday’s event flitted across my mind.

spacefreak:
I like the beginning, not sure what to expect yet. I am getting really lazy to write these days, I need help.

If you have an idea for a story, try fleshing it out. I couldn't open the link you sent

Nmeri17:


pray tell, doth he own a nairaland account??

Aproko!

Enoquin:


If you have an idea for a story, try fleshing it out. I couldn't open the link you sent

I have already started. It's one of my topics titled "scandal". The problem now is finishing it and I don't want to rush it. Ignore the link.

LewisO:
Enoquin what happened? all this long epistle only 1 "Like" so Nairalanders are "Like" greedy, i only have one account, i will open 100 Nairaland accounts so u can get atleast hundred likes from me alone!

Will read your epistle later.

Mockery will get you nowhere.

Enoquin:


Aproko!

dyu wanno drop his name in my pm??

"Oh, the joy of exchanging one prison for another,
glamorous indeed!"

#wicked

Yesterday - 5.00 pm
“You seem to be holding up quite well considering...” The man said.
“I was quite weighed down about it but not anymore, whatever will be, will be insha Allah.” I replied getting up and straightening my clothes.
“I still feel we should tell your family ...”
“No!” My outburst surprised him and I smiled to reassure him, “I have everything planned out don’t worry. My mother won’t know what hit her.”
“I hope you aren’t planning anything drastic?”
“And what if I am?”
Shaking his head, he replied “Hauwa, you are simply too intelligent to carry on this way.”
“Ah! But then how did you gauge my intelligence, through our witty conversations or because I agreed to go through with this?”
“Don’t blame me for that, you agreed to it, without that agreement we won’t both be here.”
“Hmmm...I won’t be able to make it to these meetings again though.”
“I understand; what do you feel as regards your impending engagement?”
“Oh, I thought that topic was off limits? Well, I pity Danladi somewhat, if you must know.”
“And why is that?”
“I think it’s time for me to go. I have less than one hour to go get what I need for tomorrow.”

Nmeri17:
"Oh, the joy of exchanging one prison for another,
glamorous indeed!"

#wicked

see the kain statement wey you come like

Fifteen years ago – Evening – Time Unknown
“I don’t want to study that!” I yelled at my mother.
“Stop that noise this minute, Allah save us from stupid children. You are going to study that Hauwa, you will live your life according to my...our plan for you.”
“I want to study English; I want to be a writer, a journalist”
“Who are writers? The scum of the society I tell you. Who knows they exist? Everyone writes, I don’t know why you think you have to be trained for that, if your husband agrees to that mad idea ...”
“I don’t want to get married either, I want...” The deafening slap caused me to see colours I didn’t know existed.
“Listen to me and listen well! I have the final say and you will do as I say, if you attempt anything contrary, I will sell you off or kill you myself, whichever one pleases me. I have
indulged your tantrums enough; fill that form before dinner is served or start to kiss this life goodbye.”
She flung the form at me, slamming the door at me on her way out. I sat frozen and without asking for my permission, the shedding of the old me began, paving way for a future robot.

Present day - 8.45 pm
“Can I be excused?” I interrupted, taking care to smile. It was time.
“Don’t be rude...” Mother began
“Let the poor girl go. I think Danladi will soon approach her and she perhaps needs time to gather her thoughts.” Father was really amazing this evening nearly making me abandon my plans. He touched my arm briefly smiling and looking into my eyes. Was that a plea? Could I still go through with this? I have to, the time is now.
Smiling briefly again, I walked away.
“Hauwa, can we move somewhere a bit private?” Danladi asked suddenly materializing by my side. I nodded, inclining my head towards the veranda I had just vacated moments earlier.
“Good evening.” We were at the veranda, at the spot I had loved as a child. This was a befitting spot for leaving behind memories.
“Evening nyarinya, you look beautiful as always.”
“This is our second meeting, isn’t ‘always’ a bit overboard?”
“Silly girl, I heard you were a cheeky one.” He replied laughing.
I knew I was acting silly but I couldn’t help with the counter reply “I hate being called silly.”
“Then don’t act silly.” He replied quite unapologetic. I really didn’t need this back and forth.
The silence stretched. I stared into the night's nothingness. I saw him take a peek at his wristwatch. What a shame! A shame we were doing what neither of us wanted. Perhaps it was with another girl he longed to be with or perhaps it was business. It didn't matter.
“Please, can I be excused? I need to get something.”
“Okay but don’t keep me waiting.”
I smiled without humour as I walked past him, walked past everyone and towards my room. In my room, I locked the door and removed my veil. I looked at myself in the full length mirror as I removed my clothes and stood nude.
I cupped my untouched except-by-me breas.ts sighing. I ran my hands throughout my body. I regretted everything. I wish I had felt another man’s touch, something to hold on to in these last moments.
I opened my wardrobe and pulled out a bottle of smuggled Russian Vodka, a valium prescription bottle and a wineglass buried deep under my clothes. The valium was already ground and I emptied it into the wineglass adding a generous dose of the Russian vodka.
Downing it immediately, I lay down. In 20 minutes or less my heart would stop beating. I would first go into paralytic shock and then slowly oxygen would be cut off from my brain. I knew all these because I was a doctor; a doctor who was dying.
I have had Pancreatic Cancer for a while now and didn’t have much longer to live, two days at most. I had been going for therapy to try and come to terms with my illness and on coming demise and yesterday was my last day.
My therapist had wanted me to let my family know but I wanted it this way...when mother was at the height of her glory. She had always insisted on perfection, I was going to be the blip of imperfection on her ...
My thoughts were getting erratic.
Did I regret anything? Should I have...?
Darkness, I gasped for breath and then...


THE END

Another sad ending#

teamplayey:
Another sad ending#

I dedicate the next short story ending to you

Enoquin:

I dedicate the next short story ending to you

Thanks in advance, Enoquin. OneLove

Har Hausa kina ji?Babe you sure say no be one of dem super humans we have around.

NAMI

It’s a little bit funny, this feeling insi---iide. I’m not one of those who can easily hide

Elton John’s ‘your song’ crooned from the speakers. I want to get up and change the song but cannot. The song strikes a deep chord in me that pulls at my very core. It doesn’t describe my present circumstances but it’s pushing me into a deep dark abyss. I don’t like it and I hope and pray the power gets interrupted so I’d have a bit of peace.

I don’t have have much money but boy if I did, I’ll buy a big house where we both can live

It’s true I didn’t have the money but even if I did, I wouldn’t still be able to buy a house for us because we both won’t live in it. I don’t like this. Where is the deck’s remote so I can mute the song from this corner of the room.

My gift is my song and this one’s for you

I let out a sob. My gift is not a song I wish it was. I wish it was that simple. The sobs would not bring anyone running in. My room was barricaded, leaving me to suffer alone. It was what I wanted but then again I wished someone would break through the barricade to get to me.

How wonderful life is now you’re in the world

Is it? Was supposed to be. How do you let it sink into the skull of the one you love that you cannot be together because you had a vision of you both growing old together, living to a ripe old age with loving children and grandchildren? For that was my lot, inverted visions.

Realgana:
Har Hausa kina ji?Babe you sure say no be one of dem super humans we have around.

Lol. I can only wish. Nagode

Growing up was weird, I remember waking up one morning joyful because I had seen my mother in a vision holding a baby and smiling. I had skipped out of the room and gone to my parents’ room to inform them of what I had seen only for my heavily pregnant mother to turn and face the wall, sobbing. My father had gotten up and gently but firmly pushed me out of their room, closing and locking the door.
“… to her?” I heard my mother ask as I stood back to eavesdrop after being puzzled by their attitude.
“Perhaps, my mum will tell us what to do about her case when she comes.” My father assured her with a sigh.

Days later, my baby brother was buried. It was a stillbirth. I didn’t understand it, I had seen my mother smiling in my vision. The solution, my grandmother later said, when she came down was to hide important things from me; things that had to do with life and death or any other serious matter. It didn’t work.

I had a dream my sister graduated and then she didn’t. she went for a departmental party at the beach and drowned. Saw my dad’s promotion in a vision and he got fired that week. It wasn’t all bad though, there were good visions but they were very rare and usually insignificant when the big bad one came along.

I didn’t have much friends not when word of my crazy visions got out and that was due to a fighting spat between my best friend and I in public. I had thought of the various ways my best friend could come to harm but nothing happened to her. My thoughts never translated to much….my visions did.

My father’s death was the most painful though. I had been writing my final exams and was right in the middle of answering a question when I suddenly saw my father smiling and walking towards my school gate. I didn’t like the vision and immediately after my papers, I went to my brother’s hostel and without telling him anything, grabbed his phone and ran off with him in hot pursuit.
I knew what I wanted from his phone, text messages….and I saw plenty. Dad was in a coma and I knew there and then that he was going to die. I stopped in the middle of the road and crouched low from the pain I knew was going to envelop everyone in the family soon but which was a burden on me now. My brother could do nothing, torn between anger and sorrow.

I had pretty much kept to myself from then, rarely speaking to people and always trying to mind my business till he came along. He had a presence I couldn’t deny, one that made my heart swell. He also had this reserve about him that I liked and he also liked me.

We started casual dating at work lunch and the night we held hands and kissed under the stars, I thought I would die and go to heaven. I had never allowed anyone that close except my late father and even then our father-daughter bond had nearly been strained because of the visions.

The day we made love was when I started having the visions and even though I tried to push them back into the deep recesses of my mind, it just wouldn’t stop. Finally, I summoned the courage to tell him about me.
“And why didn’t you tell me?!” He screamed at me in shock and outrage.
“And not feel this, not know that I possibly could love this deeply? I am sorry I didn’t tell you, I was summoning up the courage to but I am not sorry for meeting, knowing and loving you.”
“And leave me with what? How terribly selfish of you babe, how utterly wicked!”
“I know it was terrible of me but I have become terribly selfish; who knows when I’ll be happy again especially as I might have to leave you.”
“Shhh…don’t!” He dragged me close, holding me tightly. Perhaps he felt the inevitable too.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t talk like that. Who says you have to leave me?”
“Have you not been listening to anything that I have been saying?”
“So, because you have visions of me dying old, it means I would die young? Something must kill a man you know…”
“Yes, but not when the man has a chance at surviving if the dynamics are changed.”
“I am not leaving you Nami”
“Shhh…don’t say what you shouldn’t.” I interrupted.
“Okay, perhaps then I should do this,” he smiled, threw his head towards the ceiling and yelled; “hear me oh ye gods or whoever is up there listening, the ones that continue to torment Nami with terrible visions, I am not leaving her. Take me this very minute, I dare you! And even if you did, I…she…we’ll still win because we got happy even when you intended misery. Even if she is my wife for a minute, we still would have won!”

This was madness, Ralph was utterly mad. I have never seen him this reckless. And then he was turning to me.
“Ralph, you do not get it. This thing…we have to stop.”
“No, we cannot give up! If you were selfish enough to start this, be selfish enough to see it through.”
That wasn’t fair. “No, it is you that are becoming selfish, what happens to me after you die?”
“Already? We are talking about my demise already? Who is this Nami, take her away and bring the one that dared to tell me her outrageous dreams.”
“I cannot Ralph. My lot is to be alone,” I replied turning away, picking up my clothes I started putting them on.
“No, it isn’t. You can decide what is to be your lot.”
“You don’t get it. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be happy knowing what might befall you. I will always hold back part of me that shouldn’t miss you too much once you are gone.”
“Shhhh…I know you have been conditioned to accept defeat…” and then, “Marry me Nami, say yes this minute.”
I turned in shock and watched as he stretched his hands towards me, naked in his full glory, backing out with my mouth agape, I turned, picked up my bag and ran but not before seeing the utter despair in his eyes.
I would have screamed ‘yes’ if the vision showed him dying young or violently, I would have gladly been his wife, if I wasn’t cursed. The tears fell as I waited for a taxi and for the first time ever, I shook my fists at the skies.

And so here I was, alone. I was lucky this happened during the holidays, I got in touch with an uncle and escaped there. My uncle had a separate guest house so I didn’t have to put up with appearances. I had been here for two days and rarely ate the food that was brought. I just wanted to be alone to grieve for what I had lost. My phones were off and except for the maid, no one came to my door.
I wished someone would but was glad no one did. Had I been selfish? How was Ralph doing? Did he grieve for me as I did for him?
The knock was light at first. I pretended not to hear. Then it increased slightly till I couldn’t ignore it, standing, I approached the door cautiously.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me Nami,”
I pasted a fake smile and opened the door. My uncle’s wife swept in, her yellow gown lightening the room, her fragrance theraupatic; she didn’t return the smile or pretended not to see it.
Scanning the room and raising an eyebrow at how disheveled the room was, she turned to me. I sure looked dreadful. We weren’t close but I heard she was a pleasant but blunt woman.
“You don’t dress the room neither do you allow the maid in to dress the room Nami, is there a reason why your sadness should interfere with cleanliness?”
I opened my mouth but no words came out. That was mean, whoever said this woman was nice needed their head screwed on correctly.
“Please try and tidy up, look at that food tray…”
“Aunty, please what do you want?” I didn’t need this especially not from someone I barely knew.
“I need you to stop hiding in here like something is wrong with you. Do you know how many times your mother and brother has called because they couldn’t get to you?”
In my grief, I had forgotten how worried, my mother and brother would be.
“What did they say?”
“You would have to switch on your phone to find out.”
Moving to the bed, she pushed the rumpled bed sheets to one side and sat down and then with a smile, patted the space beside her. The change was so sudden that I found myself beside her.
“Nami, you have been terribly wrong,”
Confused, I looked at her. What did she mean? What was I wrong about?
“You have been scared to live that you are merely existing. Now it is terribly wrong to run from a challenge. Tell me, what do you want from this life?”
“I…I…want…would like to be free…free to live”
“So, what’s holding you back? Why do you choose to live in fear?”
“Aunty, you do not understand, these visions I have…”
“Nami,” she interrupted; “your vision is just that, a vision; what you do afterwards is more of a determinant than your vision.”
“Aunty, how would I have stopped my father’s death or my sister or how can I hold back time for Ralph?”
“You could not and you cannot but you should also not cower in fear waiting till whatever is bound to happen does. Regardless of your visions, some of us have a limited time on earth but we strive to make the most of it by…”
“Aunty, what do you mean by some of us? Are you or uncle ill?”
“Well dear, since you came in; you havent been to see the children; you would have seen that Tina is near death’s door.”
“Tina? When? What is wrong with her?”
“Tina has leukemia, she has less than three months left and want to spend it at home. I never thought this would happen to me ever or never knew how we were going to carry on but we do. We laugh with her, try new things and don’t think about that day.”
“I am so sorry but your situation was thrust upon you, mine is affected by the decision I make.”
“So, you are saying; Ralph would live if you do not marry him? And what if he is destined to die young regardless of whether he marries you or not? Would you carry on knowing you could have shared more time with him? If you had Tina as a child, would you have been in tears everyday or would you have tried to make her remaining time as pleasant as could be?”
I didn’t need to ask how she knew the story, Ralph must have told everyone who cared to listen. Everyone kept saying the same thing, that I needed to live and not be in fear always.
“Well, you really have to tidy this room. We have guests coming over.”
This woman was really a confusionist.
She looked at her watch and stood. “Tina and I are going shopping for something I forgot to pick yesterday. You should come in and say hello to her and the rest of the children when we are back.”
“Thank you aunty, I am so sorry.”
“It’s alright, see you later” And with that she swept out of the room. Yes, she was right but before I switched on my phone, I needed to tackle the mess in the room.
My spirits had somewhat lifted.
45 minutes later, I was done. I even used the perfume after my bath and nearly put on yellow till I refrained and picked another colour.
The knock came and I glanced at the time. It was nearly five, time for dinner. I needed to tell the maid, I would be joining everyone this evening.
Smiling, I opened the door and there he was, his hand lifted to knock again. I know I should have asked what he was doing here and how he knew I was here and all that but I couldn’t. I was already in his arms sobbing.
“Ralph, I am so sorry.”
“And here I thought you didn’t miss me as I did you,” he said patting my hair just the way I liked it and making that hushing sound that made me a baby all over again.
I loved this man terribly. I loved him and damn whatever was going to take him away from me, I will love him, be his wife and the mother of our children till then. I lifted my head to kiss him and just then saw my brother who had just come round the bend grinning. I turned away shyly and laughed.

THE END

Dedicated to Teamplayey

oga Ralph, go buy that book titled "10 easy steps on how to build your own coffin in 30 minutes"