I don't have much to say about Henry. If I were to describe him with words, I may end up filling an entire exercise book about him in one day. He is not someone I talk often about but he is important to me as much as Goodness is important to me.
There are days when I think about him and how our friendship would have grown if his parents had not migrated to a different state in Nigeria. There are days when I wish I could have done better in improving our friendship. Did I try? Yes! I did the best I could do to keep us in contact at least.
Henry may not be an important personality in this book but he is one of the few persons in my life that has changed my view of society.
"I forgot to ask you about your arrangements with that woman last month. How did it go?" Uncle Max asked this morning before leaving for work."It was good. She understood how I felt about life and she was willing to offer me her childhood experiences even though I didn't ask her for it," I replied with my elbow behind my back.Uncle Max arranged his files inside his bag and informed me that he was going to work."What about Miss Bisi?" I asked before he stepped foot outside his house."She is there," he said without facing back."Are you not planning on apologizing to her?"Uncle Max let go of the door and told me to mind my own business.
"God loves you, Perer," Aunty Matilda visited today with plenty words of encouragement for me."I am not sure about that," I said. "If he loves me as you have claimed, he wouldn't have let my little brother die.""Death is a mystery," Aunty Matilda continued, brushing her fingernails with her other hand."We cannot explain how it happens, it just happens.""Of course. We all know God's reputation, Aunty Matilda," I smiled. "Always making sure that everything happens perfectly for humans.""Well," Aunty Matilda shrugged nonchalantly so as not to appear flattered by my evaluation. "He knows what he is doing compared to all those who doubt his words.""I don't need God in my life," I clarified Aunty Matilda's thoughts about her efforts. "I don't need someone who only shows up after the main event. If God truly exists, he should have done something in my life a long time ago. He should have made me und
I spent the whole of today thinking about the summer rain and the deep blue sky. I wondered if the clouds were still watching over me or if they had lost faith in me. Due to some reasons, Aunty Matilda said we could not go to Lagos until she was sure that everything was placed in its appropriate position in Lagos. She basically postponed our trip to the next day.I thought of Henry today and how long it would take for him to send me a new message. I also thought of Delaney who I was slowly losing interest in. I wanted to know if she was holding up and not spinning around a corner stone. Maybe she was spinning around! Maybe she wasn't! How would I know?
Today, I realized that I have been falling off the cliff only to discover I was still alive when I hit the ground. If only I could learn to not think too much. If only I could learn to live with death.Between the man with an Arsenal jersey, using every gallop pass to mistakenly slap a man's clean-shaven head, and the fair lady with an Irish lipstick, using every moment to flash her selling point, I sat on a bus headed to Lagos, wondering if the sole of Aunty Matilda's shoe is the reason why she feel a certain discomfort.
The trip to Lagos was awesome! Aunty Matilda made sure I didn't miss out in any of the activities she considered as an adventure. Although we planned to use a bus from Enugu to Lagos, we had a change of plans when Aunty Matilda told me that we had to stop at a park because her friend had sent a driver to ensure that we come to Lagos without experiencing any difficulty. Because of the change of plans, a trip that was supposed to last for one day, turned to two days. It felt great to be spending some time with a woman who had devoted her life to the work of God. After some hours of non-stop driving, Aunty Matilda told the driver to stop us at a restaurant so we could get something to eat.The driver pulled the car to the curb and killed the engine. Aunty Matilda opened the door and told me to step out. I obeyed and got out through the other door that was close to me. The driver was still sitting in the driver's seat when Aunty Matilda was done adjusting her skirt. There wa
I was silent and did not speak again until Aunty Matilda's friend looked at me. I closed my eyes."Perer, your aunty said that you are a good boy. And if you remain a good boy, I will be a good friend to you. And any time you see me or my husband passing close to you, don't forget to greet. When a boy doesn't live up to expectations, he must be scolded. Your aunty believes in you as much as I believe in you but you must prove yourself if you want me to trust you. The job in getting people to have faith in you is making them believe in what life has turned you into, making them believe that even if people may say terrible stuffs about you, you can prove all of them wrong. Do you understand all I am saying?""Yes, ma!" I said."Good," Mrs. Udo smiled. "I have been given the responsibility to take care of you and if I must do it successfully then I must teach you some important things about life.""I understand what you have to do. If I must live in your house t
Perhaps I was feeling different today as I got up from bed. Perhaps I was feeling both weightless and full to the brim at the same time, and I needed someone to talk to about it. I can't describe how I was feeling this morning especially after hearing all Mrs. Udo had to say about her son yesterday."I have known many people in my life who have dreamt of becoming famous with a rock band. I know some rock bands that has not made its members rich, but at least when they travel to Moscow, Reykjavik and the USA, they get paid for playing. My son wanted to be a rock star. He loved the guitar and he used to play it for me whenever he came back home," Mrs. Udo said to me this morning."That is great to hear, ma," I replied, not smiling."He wanted to live the life that so many men and women would dream of, as a rock star. I used to tell him that the life of a rock star might not make him happy. I told him he may be led to try drinking and drugs.""Did he live
I was not afraid as I stood in Mrs. Uju presence to tell her about my strange dream, but my lips were trembling and my chest was heaving. I wanted to go back to the dream so I could understand more about the dream and why I was being chased by a street gang that I had nothing to do with. But I knew I couldn't do that. I knew it was safe for me to be in the real world, standing in front of Aunty Matilda's friend and telling her about my experience than running away from a group of people with desires to hurt me."I am running late for work," Mrs. Uju said impatiently. "Do you still want to tell me about your dream?"I nodded."What is stopping you from telling me?""Fear! Terror! I don't know exactly what is stopping me from telling you. Give me some time," I said.I watched as Mrs. Uju relaxed her bones as she waited for me to spill out what had made me to scream by five o'clock. I began my dream by telling her how I found myself in the midst