The early morning sky brooded at 3am and Ojotule’s heart was a beehive of activities. For 30 years, she had wallowed in confusion, anger, and now a deep-seated sadness; weariness that nothing could shift.
As Ojotule approached her destination, her heart took another turn. 30 years of emptiness. Of pain, and tears with no succor. Like the elegant spear grass, poised and waiting, for the carefree child’s finger to dance along its tip, only for it to tear and wound the tender hand.
Her neighbor, Iye Uyo had expected to see a hysterical young woman last night. “Cry it all out dear, we’re here for you.” She had said. Ojotule remained as stiff as the body of her sister that had just been on the bed they were standing beside. Her eyes stung.
She had no tears left. She had used it all at a similar location the year before and her mother’s body had gone as stiff as a board too. And the years before that, one by one for her three hefty brothers. And years back, when she was a little girl and thought her father was just sleeping and would soon wake.
The river looked as deep and dark as the sky matching her moods. She was ready to follow her paths of thorns and thistles to go meet with the one who lives on the streets paved with gold, and ask why her life was a mockery.
She dipped a leg into the waters, and in that moment, she saw a gleam on the surface, she looked up in surprise and saw the sun coming out from behind the deep dark sky. She watched as the sun rose and rose and lightened the sky, and the waters. The sun had never risen so early before.
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Christiana Agboni was born and brought up in Nigeria. She has been in love with books, and writing for as long as she can remember. She has several works submitted in literary magazines like WSA, Kalahari Review, and Loana Press, amongst others. She has also co-authored a bestselling 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.
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Read – Crimson Rebirth – A Flash Fiction by Immanuel M Kiilu – Kenya
