Life seems to be going slow in a city that is regarded as one of the busiest in the world. Today, everybody, even the cock locked in the cage of a butcher shop, seems to be on a break.
It was May 29th—Democracy Day.
My second cousin, Adaeze, who just turned nineteen in a few days, had newly moved with her parents to Lagos, and was trying to adapt herself in the famous city. She was fun, frolicking full of life and energy, and so sweet that she was able to mix with people quite well and quite fast. Ebuka was an ordinary boy who was a little shy and quite immature for his age. He didn’t understand what was important in life, and mostly did things without understanding what and why he was doing it. Everyone made fun of his foolishness because he sometimes replied questions without understanding what he himself was saying. But in spite of that he had some striking features in his character that people loved.
‘Are you new here?’ Ebuka asked.
‘Yes, actually we moved here two days ago.’
‘Where do you study, and what year?’ Ebuka asked. ‘I study at University of Calabar, and I’m in my final year in school. What about you?’ Adaeze replied. ‘I’m at University of Calabar too, but I’m in my third year. Why haven’t we met before today?’ Ebuka asked with a glee.
‘I don’t know. It’s a big school.’
‘Where were you going to, let’s take a walk.’ Ebuka offered, but Adaeze had to return home soon to avoid scolding.
‘I’m sorry, I have to be on my way home. I don’t want my mother to scold me. It was nice meeting you.’
‘Okay, bye.’ Ebuka replied.
As Ebuka returned home, he still thought about Adaeze. He had been around a lot of girls all his life, but he never felt such a way talking to a girl before. Something had happened really out of place for Ebuka after Adaeze walked into his life all of a sudden, unaware of the fact that he had developed personal feelings for Adaeze in such short span of time. Ebuka sat down to study but his mind became distracted by Adaeze’s thought. He desperately forced himself to concentrate but couldn’t. His heart as well part of his mind was eagerly awaiting for the next interaction with her. The rest of the day passed by like this, leaving Ebuka a severe urge to see Adaeze again.
The next morning seemed to begin in the same monotonous way as it began with him failing to wake up on time. The naughtiest boy who always came up with newer tricks up his sleeve and who became a topic of discussion amongst the parents around, seemed to be a changed one completely as he sat quietly all throughout the day, reading, and lost in deep thoughts. This sudden change of behavior of Ebuka came as if like a 440 volt shock to everybody. After reading, he was seen eagerly waiting for the arrival of the evening.
Throughout the day, Ebuka never was able to keep Adaeze out of his mind. He literally craved to meet her. Ebuka couldn’t understand what was going on in his mind, and for what good reason he couldn’t abstain himself from thinking about her. Though Ebuka grew up in the metropolitan city of Lagos where people are used to realizing and knowing things even before they are needed to, he had been too innocent and had little practical knowledge about the subject of love.
So, the feeling, which Ebuka couldn’t really explain; maybe it was a crush, an infatuation, or love, but he was certain that it was something alien to his knowledge. Finally his wait came to an end when the clock struck 5 in the afternoon as it was time for him to go out and hang out with friends. Ebuka ran down the stairs excitedly. Adaeze came out an hour later. She came down fiddling with her phone. She smiled sweetly as she found Ebuka standing outside of her house, waiting for her. ‘How did you know where I’m living? I hope you are not stalking me. How long have you been waiting for?’
The mere presence of Adaeze, and that sweet grin of hers seemed to wash away reality, and send Ebuka to a world where anything is possible. All the pain, agony, and harshness of waiting for so long suddenly drained into the sands. ‘Can we sit and chat for a while I am quite exhausted from the waiting?’ Ebuka asked. ‘How long have you been waiting for that you are already exhausted? Did you sleep here last night? Okay, not a problem.’ Adaeze replied still curious about Ebuka’s intentions. ‘I am also a little exhausted too. It’s too humid out here in Lagos. The city is nice and friendly. At least it had been to me,’ told Adaeze.
‘Yesterday we didn't get enough time to know each other that is why I’m here. I can’t seem to forget about you, and that doesn’t happen to me all the time. I quickly forget about everybody I’ve met, but you seem to be stuck in my head—dancing in my thoughts.’ Ebuka confessed about a feeling that was still strange and completely vague to him. Adaeze tried to control the blushing as she fiddled with her phone, but she couldn’t help herself. ‘Really? I can’t seem to get you out of my thoughts throughout the night too. I couldn’t sleep. I was up all through the night, busy wondering if you were up as well, thinking about me just as much as I was thinking about you. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop thinking about you.’ Adaeze confessed with her eyes locked down to the sands.
Adaeze was fondling with a piece of glass which she had just found while her eyes scanned the sands, in attempts to avoiding staring at Ebuka. ‘This glass is blunt, but I can hurt you with it. It just depends on the way I use it. I can actually use it to hurt someone.’ Adaeze said trying to bring up a conversation to ease up the tension that enveloped the two. ‘It can’t. It’s too blunt,’ Ebuka carried along.
‘If you think it can’t be used to hurt someone, then let’s try it on you’, and she very confidently attacked Ebuka playfully, knowing pretty well that it won’t hurt anybody. Ebuka realized her prank and let her as she attacked him. He simply made little efforts to resist her, and on contrary tried to frighten her by saying, ‘See, if you somehow become successful in hurting me with that, you will have to marry me because no girl will want to. By the way, why do you want to hurt me anyway?’ ‘I want to prove that somebody can be hurt with this because it’s blunt’, Adaeze began to laugh at Ebuka’s foolishness. Ebuka didn’t reply and watched her like she was his favorite movie playing on set.
Slowly Adaeze started falling in love with Ebuka unknowingly. Her giggles, pranks and happy-so-lucky attitude amazed him. As at that time, there were over seven billion people in the world, but only the two of them mattered as far as they were concerned. Everything seemed to no longer exist, everybody seemed to no longer count, every event seemed to no longer matter, just the two of them, the tiny piece of glass in Adaeze’s hand, and the strange but soothing tension that enveloped them—just that moment—mattered, counted, and existed. Every other thing slowly faded away.
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