I looked in the mirror and admired the pretty beads in my hair. I positively looked like a child with my Minnie mouse t-shirt, wide-legged blue jeans and braids adorned with beads of multiple colours. I must confess, I had missed wearing beads like this. It was great that they were coming into fashion for adult women. Not that I looked like one… or thought of myself as one. My best friend Sola had told me she hated being mistaken for a teenager. She had changed the way she dressed to look more mature. Me? I embraced it. I was 27 and wasn’t sure of what I would be doing with my future. That people thought I was a teenager made me feel like I had more time to figure things out. Maybe I am running away from reality under the guise of embracing my inner child. I shoved that thought to the furthermost recesses of my mind. “There is no rush”, I remind myself. I still have time to grow up. Though the widening discomfort in my chest begged to differ.
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Ogechukwu Egwuatu is a Nigerian writer who sees writing as a means of exploration. She enjoys creating a blend of fiction and non-fiction in her stories, blurring the lines between the two. The myriad possibilities of meanings and stories untold is what intrigues her in flash fiction. Apart from flash fiction, she also writes poetry and op-ed articles.
Read – Barbie Dreams – A Flash Fiction by Rehema Zuberi (ResH) – Kenya
