I Kissed an Angel - chapter 1

SHE’S GONE!

My eyes were fixed on the sky. The enormous sphere hanged tremulously like a thick shroud stained with darkness and spread discriminately over the face of the sun. The air was still and the November harmattan had its harsh embrace on all creatures. Birds were no longer singing and the goats have been hushed to silence.

My mind was not clear at that moment because many thoughts were struggling for my attention. All my senses seemed to concentrate in my eyes, and my consciousness was only on what passed across them.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp thump in my right shoulder. All my senses rushed back to their duty posts.

“I say what shall we do?”

Aisha’s voice reminded me that I was not alone. Yet I didn’t answer.

I gathered my eyes from the ground on which they had fallen when I felt the sharp pain, and fixed them up again. The shroud was gradually turning into a grey blanket. I could hear hens fluttering in their roosts, sheep bleating in their cages and children walking back home from their plays. In the midst of those noises I heard a low sob, soft but compelling sobs I couldn’t ignore. I withdrew my eyes from the sky and looked at her.

She covered her face with her palms and placed them on her laps, weeping. I patted her on the back as a mother does her baby. “It’s okay. We’ll get over this.” I said it more to console myself.

She soon stopped crying, wiped her tears and raised her head. “Temi,” she called and said, “look into my eyes.” I looked at those tender eyes I had loved so much. Then she said, picking her words one after the other, “What shall we do?”

“Ai,” I called her fondly, “I don’t know.” I took he hands and repeated, “I just don’t know the best action we should take now. I suggest we wait and see what happens.”

“Wait for what?” She asked with an unusual voice. “You should have known how desperate these people are. If we wait any moment longer, we might lose each other – forever! She took her hands from mine and looked away. Then she looked at me again and asked, “How would you feel if I were kidnapped?”

“That can’t happen!”

“You don’t know whom we are dealing with. I can leave this place now and be gone!”

“Why talk like this? Is there something you know that I don’t know?”

“You don’t know anything about these people.”

“Alright, alright,” I tried to calm her. “So what do you think we should do?”

“Let’s run away!”

“To where?”

“Lagos!” she was quick. “Your people are there and you have applied for Masters in Unilag. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Where do I take you in Lagos? Definitely not my place. My parents will never accept such arrangement. And by the way, what happens to my service year?”

“You simply take me there and come back!”

“Take you where?”

“Anywhere!”

She was going to break down again. So I kept quiet to allow her control herself.

What had come upon Aisha? I had always known her as my angel of delight. She hardly talked. And when she did, it was snappy and spiced with smiles. Her joyful disposition had always been a mystery to me. It had always amazed me how she could be unruffled even at the face of provocation. She was always calm. She talked more with her eyes than her mouth. There was something mysterious about those pair that attracted me in the first place. They blinked with expressions. It took me some time to understand the way she used them to express herself. It was that understanding that had cemented our relationship.

But now the relationship was being threatened by storms and we had to hold on tight, otherwise the ship might go under. What can I do?

Then something flashed across my mind. “I have an idea.” I said. She looked interested. “I’ll talk to your father… ”

“It can’t help,” she cut in.

“Ai! Please listen. I should be able to convince him to reconsider his decision. But if he refuses, I suggest you accept his decision…”

“What?” she cut in and stood up. “What did you say?”

“I mean…” I was stunned. What has come upon Aisha? I looked up at her with mouth agape. I tried to explain my point but her reaction so stunned me that I missed my point. I looked up at her dumbfounded. “I mean you…” I tried to find my words but she cut in again.

“Wa yo Allah!” She put her right hand on her head as if she had an attack of headache. “I can’t believe this,” she said and, covering her head with a shawl, quickly walked out of the compound into the dark night.

­­_________________________________________________________

I sat still. Then I realized what I should have done. I stood up with a start and rushed out after her. Then I realized I was in bathroom slippers. But I couldn’t see her in the moon-lit street. She couldn’t have disappeared so soon. I walked down the street and asked a lad coming from the other side if he met a lady on his way. He said he didn’t.

She couldn’t have been kidnapped so soon. But how could she have disappeared in a moment? She couldn’t have gone out of the streets in two minutes. Could she?

I walked up to a suya seller. He said he didn’t notice her. A man at the suya spot said he saw her coming out of my compound and that was the last he saw of her.

That information threw me off balance. I rushed back to my place and put on a pair of trainers. I rushed out again. When I got back to the street, I asked myself where I was going. Where could I go? Report to the police? I’m not sure she was kidnapped. My best bet was to go to her place.

The street was quiet when I got to her street. I was really scarred but I courageously walked to the security post and peered into the burglary proofed window cut in the concrete fence that surrounded the compound. There was nobody inside. I was going to turn back when I heard a harsh voice behind me.

“Mai?”

My heart flew away and my breath was almost caught off as I turned to face the owner of the voice. It was Audu, the security man. I tried to cover my fear with a smile. But he got me and laughed, enjoying himself.

Not minding him, I asked, “Have you seen Aisha tonight?”

“No. She go since.”

“Hasn’t she come back?”

            “Kai, Timi, I say no.”

            “Could you please check inside for me?

            “No! Oga dey in.”

            I sank into a tattered sofa at the gate. Where’s Aisha? Is she still out there? Has she entered the house without Audu’s knowing? Has she been kidnapped?

            Audu would not let me be as he bombarded me with questions and gossips. My friend, I had no time for those now. I stood up and quietly walked home, looking at every direction if peradventure I could see her. But no, I saw none of her again that evening.

            The next day was a Saturday. It was a work-free day in the school where I was doing my primary assignment. I left for Aisha’s place as early as eight in the morning. Audu was around to receive me. I asked if he had seen her. He said he hadn’t.

            I went into the compound. I had become part of the Zakka family since I came to Nasarawa six months ago. The children, Danladi, Umi, Luka and Aisha had become addicted to me. Their mother was very kind and gentle. The father also, though hardly converse with me like other members of the family, nonetheless welcome me to the family.

            So I walked into the compound that Saturday morning, expecting the usual welcome. Little did I know that things have changed. It was Umi who opened the door for me.

            She called out to the rest of the family that I was around and the children rushed for me. Then a voice pounced on me.

            “You, get out of this compound!” It was the father.

            Momentarily, I thought he was addressing somebody behind me. So I looked back only to return my face to a violent slap. It struck me hard and I saw sudden flash against a dark background. At that moment, I thought I had gone blind, but I open my eyes and saw an angry man being pulled away by a woman. They were Aisha’s parents.

            Umi, Danladi and Luka were crying around me.

            “Audu! Audu! Get this bastard out of my compound!”

             I stood still, rubbing my palm on my face. Audu led me out of the compound and I stood at the gate.

            I asked Audu again, “Where’s Aisha?”

            “I tell you, Timi, I no know. She dey your place?”

            “Audu has begun his manners. I had better get out of here. But it seemed I could not walk home. It was like the pain had spread to my legs. I took a commercial motorbike home.

            I walked quietly into my apartment so that Segun, my colleague, wouldn’t see my face. I dumped myself in bed and mused the unfortunate incidence. Why are things going wrong around me?

            “You know, don’t you?” It was my angel. “Until you trace your steps back home, you’ll continue to have trouble out there!”

            “Are you not a man?” The other asked. “Go for what you want. You can get it if you’ll go for it! Go on, man, you shouldn’t lose what belongs to you!”

            “But her father hasn’t given her to me.”

            “Yes, he will. You have to claim her before they give her to you. Whatever a man can conceive and believe he can receive. See in your mind that she’s yours, believe in your heart that you can have her, and then she will be yours! Come on, man, go for what belongs…”

“Okay, okay. I hear you. Be gone now!” I know who was talking and the danger of listening to him.

            “Until you come back home, you’ll continue to have trouble outside.”

            “Yes. I’m coming back home, Lord.” I have said it many times yet I never arrived home.

            I loved Aisha. I wanted her. What should I do? Should I back out? Wouldn’t that be an act of cowardice? Would it be an act of disobedience if I hold on? There must be a way to have her with me on my way back home. I thought of her back in Lagos where we first met.


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