I won’t say much
about myself because I didn’t have the kind of background you all would wish or
desire. I am from the primitive part of EMURE, Ekiti state. My father was a farmer who married two wives,
and his first was my mother. I was a
foul shot for my parents according to history because I came when my parents
had already hung the booth of child bearing. That’s why I am the last born. I
learnt all was rosy during my pregnancy but immediately after my christening,
all became dawned on my parents like a fallen pyramid. My name is Adekunmi.
In my childhood,
I had not much to be pampered with like other ‘last born’ in some rich homes.
Poverty taught me and I sincerely learned so fast that at age twelve, I had
been skilful in hunting for games after school hour. I and other seven children
of my father were his human tractors, ploughs and planters on his vast farm. We
would all leave school at 2 P.M, straight to his farm and arrive home around 7
P.M every evening. Our holidays were always on his farm. That’s why I hated
holidays as a child. And so I became so desperate for emancipation. I wanted to
leave home and never to come back again into poverty, hunger and what seemed a
punishment to me – Farming.
In search of a way
out of poverty, I joined the cruellest and most brutal gangsters in my
community and, all of a sudden, became their ring bearer. I couldn’t really say
how I got up to that eminent post, maybe because I was desperate. I left home to my own one-room apartment at age fifteen
and could feed my gang with the proceed of hooliganism we got from incessant
raiding of neighbouring villages and also from the trafficking of wee. Not only
that, we used to deal in rough and a little difficult jobs like per-boiling of
rice after harvest and planting.
During this
period of my life, something strange used to happen to me. This, I never
discussed with anyone because I would not want to look vulnerable or emotional.
I wouldn’t call this strange happening a trance or vision. It most times
occurred when I was alone or sleeping, like a dream. I used to see this
beautiful young lady, coming to me to act like my girlfriend. We would spend
times together in each other’s alms in a very beautifully floral area with so
much promises of love. Ordinarily, I was more of a misogynist in my real world.
I hated the emotional aspect of the relationship with the opposite sex because
I thought I would appear vulnerable.
However, with my
unseen girlfriend, I became so weak and totally open whenever she was around in
my dreams or trance. Thank God it was not real in the world I was then with my
friends but I enjoyed her company and the sweet memory it brought whenever I
was in the real world. This began to change me and my personality from very
cruel to someone principled. I began to hate cheating and loathing, and within
a short while, my gangster crew had changed its motif from that of vandals to
disciplinarians. We later became a group saddled with the responsibility of
ensuring justice in the hood. What a power of the unseen affection and love!
One fateful
morning, I was summoned to fight another cause of justice which I was glad to.
During the struggle, I got a heavy blow on my head by one of the opponents and
I landed in the world beyond. My soul began to wander around and finally got to
a lonely room, well furnished with lady’s stuff. It was not quite long when I
toured, a little, round the room that I saw a lady take a bow in a lonely
manner that made me pity her for no reason. As she raised her head, guess what?
It’s my unseen girlfriend but to my surprise, she was terrified by my presence
and ran to the sitting room in apprehension.
“Hey! What is
it? Don’t run away from me now…it’s me…your friend, remember me?” I said as
loud as I could but it seemed she didn’t hear me, I presumed. This is because;
those I have met earlier didn’t or pretended they didn’t hear me. So I sat on
her dressing mirror in wait. After a while, she came back with a determined
face and shouted,
“Are you real…if
you are, let me see you again please…”
Now, she was a
little emotional and started sobbing. I pop out from where I was hanging
because I could not stand her tears and said,
“Hey…stop
crying, I am here.”
She became a
little startled but would not run now.
“wow…so you are
real! I thought you only existed in my imagination and dreams” she muttered.
“It’s ok. Sorry
I startled you; I thought you would not see me like those I have met. Even my
friends ignored me.” I responded.
“Honey, I can
never ignore you. I usually come here whenever I needed to see you. My room is
always lonely enough to experience you and your touch in my imagination.” She
murmured right in my alms.
I could not even
think of where I first met her, all I knew was that I have found my love. We
began our own saga of love which many, reading this, may not believe. She was
the only person that could see and feel me and I sincerely loved it that way.
Though, I was not unconscious of the people in the real world, she alone filled
my entire world now. To the people of her world too, she became lonelier. Her
parents began to complain about her staying in-door almost always. She never
would feel hungry for days because she forgot she hadn’t eaten most times she
was with me. She was so pail to her real world but so robust to me; so ugly to
them but sparklingly beautiful to me, maybe because our world was different
from theirs. We both wouldn’t know what
time we were. Times were rolling into days, days into weeks and weeks into
months but what mattered was us. I would love to live forever simply for her,
she wouldn’t hesitate doing the same for me.
Sadly, I noticed
I was growing unbearably weak and I was afraid to die because I knew I might
not see her again. I kept this from her because I couldn’t stand her tears. On
a fateful evening, we decided to go beside the pool in her parents’ premise as
usual. As we were cuddling each other, I fell and fainted. I heard her scream from
away and I wake up only to find myself connected to some oxygen cylinder and
drip passed into my system in a room. Like a dawn becoming day, my blurred
vision was set on a female figure seated beside my bed and I gladly thought it
was my unseen love, only to clearly notice it was my younger cousin.
“What am I doing here?” I said slightly angry
Rather than
answer me, she jumped out of the chair to call the doctor and some of my
relatives on the hospital lobby.
“O ti laju
o…doctor!” she shouted as she dashed out of the room.
When all rushed
in in astonishment and awe, I calmly asked,
“How long have I
been here?”
And a voice from
behind the crowd said, “Eight months ago”
