THE MISTS OF MY HEART By
Pharm AGBOLUAJE OLADOYIN
It feels so good on the mountain top tonight. Cool breeze teasing me lustfully, arousing my senses to the brim. I am going to enjoy the serenity of the moment while the beings are asleep. As I held my brush, ready to paint the best picture ever. Thanking my stares that I came with mama Chinedu’s palm wine, a perfect companion while I draw on the world the mists of my heart. Deep mysteries I am ready to unveil while the night owls stare at the becoming picture.
Kunle kept rolling on his bed, his eyes devoid of sleep. It kept ringing in his ears that that the debtors were going to come in the morning and yet he can’t boast of a five naira note, not to talk of the five million naira he owes. If only he knew the economic recession was going to hit his country this hard, he would have been invested the whole money into his business instead of spending the money on frivolities. His wife had died after contacting the deadly HIV from him. He knew he was at fault; he was unfaithful to her and kept jumping from one prostitute to another. It was as if God had deserted him; yes he must have, he groaned out. His heart thumped so loud while his whole body trembled. Death is the best way out, he told himself. Surrendering to the waves of frustration hitting him, he gulped down the rat killer powder he bought from mama Okafor’s stand in the market today. He kept rolling on his bed as his breath faded away slowly from him.
Amope stood in front of the mirror, staring at the skeleton she could see. She was once the paragon of beauty on campus until a year ago when she became very sick and was diagnosed of breast cancer. On that fateful days when the attending physician told her about her having cancer, she fainted twice. If she had not been surrounded by her family members that day, she would have killed herself. She had gone through so many stages of chemotherapy, her head was clean shaven and her two breasts removed. Her boyfriend of two years broke up with her few months after the diagnosis. As she kept staring at herself at her reflection, this battle I will win, Amope told her herself. She was ready to fight the demons that daily beset her, aiming to steal her strength away. She held the doctor’s report to her chest which indicated that she has only two months left because the cancer has metastasised to her liver. Her graduation was one month away from the University of Ibadan where she studied accounting. She checked her purse to count the money her parents gave for her graduation. She planned on ordering for clothes and shoes that will she will wear for the main graduation ceremony and cocktail party on jumia by the next morning. She made up her mind to enjoy the days ahead to the fullest while she waited for the cruel hand of death.
More mysteries lay deep down on the surface of red earth but who I am to say it all. There are men who smile during the day but weep blood at night. Women who are haunted daily from the fears they carry about. Children who can’t face the future because it is full of uncertainties and I who has become tipsy from the power of my sour wine…chuckles. It is not so much about what happens to us but it is our attitude towards them that matter. Whether we give up before the doom bell is struck or we dare to defy the impossibilities. We have only one life to live and if we dare take the first step in life called eternity, and then we had better be ready to really live because no one has it all.
Life is indeed a roller coaster ready to change tides as it pleases but we can be so sure that the tide rise highest before it comes crashing down, no matter how high it rises, the ground is going to hold a homecoming party for it. It is time we became strong for ourselves and live life to the fullest. We better not be like kunle who never waited till morning to hear about the miracle drug for AIDS and receive the five million dollars sent to him by uncle Jide, his long lost uncle in Canada. We had better be like Amope whose cancer was going to clear off totally in the next three days and is really going to die at the age of 96 years.
So I present my best picture to you which I will name life; which is still in a state of uncertain definition. Just layers and different pattern lay on my canvas; the world. Hopefully the beings who see it in the morning can understand the subtle meaning. I had better hurry back to my warm bed before nature catches up with me here and the night owls become my companion tonight instead of the loving arms of my husband; Musa.
By
Pharm AGBOLUAJE OLADOYIN.
