I have a blazing smile, and a penetrating gaze.
When we were young, my brother liked using some words in his sentences.
We could be having a reason to celebrate and he would go, “I hope this will not turn out to be a shattered, scattered, battered and tattered memory.” I am sure he just loved how they sounded on his tongue.
Mama would scold him, and he would say, “Just be patient, you will see.” And I will look at him, seeing, and waiting.
It has been 10 years, my brother is now a prophet ordained in my heart. This is me saying I am living his words.
“Do you know how the road to heaven looks like?” My sister asked, as I gently covered the sticklike looking things that used to be her legs. I shook my head.
“It is lined with the blood, and the sweat of those who can endure.”
I do not think to tell her, that her logic was skewed. Not when we can both see that the blood and sweat of my family lined the front street of heaven, that the only enduring thing even here and there is the streets. And her own enduring, yet fading breath.
Later, I comfort people, exhorting them with what I do or even know to believe anymore, quoting verses, raising hymns, while the poison in my body grows, and spread. This poison that has made a matyr of me.The streets are patiently waiting for me now.
They say I am a wonder. They say my home is quiet and still, but no one talks about my heart that is shattered, battered, scattered, and tattered, they don’t see it. What they see will always be the only weapons I have; a blazing smile, and a penetrating gaze.
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Christiana Agboni was born and raised in Nigeria. She has been in love with books and writing for as long as she can remember.
Christiana has several works submitted to literary magazines like WSA, Kalahari Review, and Loana Press, amongst others. She has also co-authored a best-selling anthology with black female authors of African descent titled ‘Hell hath no fury.’ She also has a story in a forthcoming anthology.
Christiana writes Christian fiction and literary fiction.
Read – Even the Sun Sets – A Flash Fiction by Nathaniel Z. Matoh – Nigeria
