Oge

Whether it is for my sport or for her charm I do not know. I only reckon with the immutability of

the human emotion, which hitherto I had vehemently denied that it could ever have a grip on me.

However, evenings with Oge made all the difference.

On the ever busy corridor of the classrooms harboring great ingenuities and terrible ideological

mantras, she seemed different and somewhat stood out from the crowd in her own way. Her

composure and none flagrant nature magnates faster than electricity. It didn’t take long before

my attention was drawn and consequently the adventurous tendency hiding down below sprung

up ready to glide through the thoroughfare of the just opened escapade.

“Guys, what’s up? Anyone taken notice of that new girl yet? I dared to ask Ebuka and

Obi one evening after classes.

My question was received with a mixture of consternation and some kind of laughter of

ridicule.

“Pastor, what is coming over you bro? Came Ebuka’s voice. “Asking of a girl in this

manner is unlike you.”

As I suddenly realized that I had overshot and made to retreat, Obi’s daring voice; which

is always full of his realist philosophical rhetoric came to my aid or to spur me further.

“Well, I think the question we should be asking is who is the girl and what exactly are

we supposed to take notice of concerning her? “Nothing much,” I defended.

I just felt that she is uniquely quite or appear so. I was careful in choosing my words as I

tried not to betray my already escaping feelings.

“Mr. C, go ahead and make your move quickly if you really care this much for her. I

don’t care who she is. If she can get your attention this much; something I’ve not seen since we

were in first year, I think this is your chance. Use it bro.” Ebuka ended.

I don’t think I had actually expected something different from him but his sincerity was

rather astonishing. Normally, he would have come in with his special skills of never being

serious but not this time. I was really glad. The evening ended with strong reassurance from my

friends and I was glad it did. *****

“Sometimes, I feel I should have been a different person with everything around me now

being just a dream then I can wake up and feel good about it.” I said as we stood along the

mosquitoes infested walkway of the lodge with her head, covered with her newly braided

doughnut shaped hair style slightly resting on my proud smallish shoulder and my left arm

around her for perfect protection.

“Hmmm, I feel you could do much better being yourself and happy for whom you

already are. Moreover, you know I appreciate you the way you are,” she said looking up straight

into my eyes with that look that has kept me a prisoner of her charm for months now.

As I opened my mouth to talk but no word came out, the school security patrol van

passed flashing a blinding light at us but I seem to have been transfixed at how well and softly

she had taken all my ranting for the whole of the evening. I did not know what I could have

become without her and so didn’t even want to leave that very night as it was usual every

evening for months.

“Hey fish,” as she always called me. “I think you should go have a warm bath and a cool

refreshing sleep. In addition, I want you to always remember how much I believe in you. That is

why I chose to love you and be sure that even concerning this your present situation, you are

very far from being alone. I am right here for you and I am saying to you again, ‘you are good

the way and the who you are right now’.” She concluded.

After several odd seconds of silence, she knew I had nothing to say and so headed straight to hug

me goodnight. Clenched in the warm embrace in a manner that I thought we could melt into

each other, time like eternity seem to have passed when I found my voice again.

“O G, please accept me as I am and don’t leave me. I don’t know what next awaits me

but with you around, I can be the most daring desperado in pursuit of destiny just like in this

case. You know I love you. I’ve never loved before and now I wish I had met you earlier but

I’m still grateful I met you all the same. Thanks for being here with and for me. Good night.”

****

Sometimes, those memories that you wish will never fade becomes the ones that are gifted with

speed to degenerate into oblivion. Loving for the first time, I believed that eternity past, destiny

present and paradise in the future were complete in and with Ogechuckwu. My passion had

driven me so close to her that I even did not know how far away from my friends the same

passion had driven me to. Ebuka had become tired of joking with my “loving with my heart and

head” at the same time, which he opined was a dangerous step to take. He had openly confronted

me at Obi’s off campus house, we had played the blame game, and danced round apologies,

which we all knew, were not sincere as Obi smartly pointed out though wrapped in a witty comic

story before we left him that night.

Nevertheless, what could have replaced a relationship that had lasted for four months and no

issues had arisen, as it was customary with the ones I know about including Ebuka and Obi’s

even with their experiences in relationship matters. Unlike others, as I heard, she never asked for

anything and when I got worried that she probably didn’t like me, she boldly told me she loved

my person and knew how much I had and was not after that and even allowed me talk with her

family many times just to prove to me that she was real. She was not the kind that was always

out for romantic talks. Her passion for academic success had helped mine too; I had been

declining going to night study classes with her as was traditional with her. Most importantly, she

was mature with our relationship so that none of her classmates knew of it until I graduated. She

stayed real and composed at school and never exploited her personal link to me and the little

influence I commanded at school for anything. She was not ostentatious, she was not parasitic,

and she was real. She was the perfect woman for me.

However, it came crumbling very fast and in few weeks, the mighty edifice of love erected with

every iota of caution I had and I guess she too was almost a piece of rubble. For reasons I can

hardly lay hands on, communication level declined, distance set in, chats became spasmodic, and

the texture of voice when we talk became dry and strange. I knew that my fear had played out. In

other to avoid witnessing the final collapse, I chose to keep my distance and allow natural death

to have its way and it worked out.

Now why did she suddenly decide to send the message the other day to awaken the dead; one

year after we had ceased connecting?