'Nneka is staring at the wall, I’m sure she’s wondering why I wasn’t gone'. Nneka has always been beautiful; a younger version of her she heard people say, her long silky brown hair and fair skin. She always got attention anywhere she went. Especially with that smile of hers, her dimpled cheeks, she was a taker. She couldn’t bear to look at me, this much I know because she’s been fidgeting with her fingers since I rested my eyes on her. I know she wants to cry, she stares blankly like that when she’s trying to hold the tears back. Grace never knew it would happen so, she was hoping for forever. Chidi walked in, as usual with his almighty self. His shirt was usually impeccable as it is today, the only surprising thing was that he was wearing jeans. He stopped wearing them at 35 when he told Grace he was getting too old for them. She laughed at the silliness of the thought. Chidi always knew how to hold his own with younger men. Now he’s young eh? The man she married died two weeks ago she likes to think, Chidi is just occupying his body. This was what she consoled herself with.
That pain surged up when Chidi bent to kiss Nneka on the cheek, her daughter. It was his daughter too legally. Grace had Nneka when she was 15, the seed of a forbidden fruit she ate. She married Chidi at 26; Nneka was 11 and was as tall as she was. She was delighted at the bond they developed even when they were courting. Though they didn’t have kids of their own, Chidi loved Nneka and she loved him back. It was just recently she understood the love they shared. She wondered if it ran back to 12 years ago or if it’s just blossoming. ‘They could have at least spared me, I wasn’t dead. At least not yet'. I was lying there, watching them, wanting to speak, to scream, to haul something at them but I couldn’t’.
It’s the second week she’s been here. She wished she could reverse time and live in denial. Grace was supposed to come into the country on the 16th and not on the 15th of July when she suddenly showed up to find her husband in bed with a woman, not just any woman her daughter, their daughter. There and then they tore any garment of shame they might have had left and declared undying love for each other. Chidi was talking now, he was saying something about getting a divorce and starting a new life……that was the last she stayed to hear. She couldn’t breathe; the room must have been sucked up. She had to get out! She grabbed her keys and left. Chidi wouldn’t dare chase her in his state of Adam before the fall. She knew she was in the car, she knew she was driving but she didn’t know where to, at least she knew why. Her husband, her man was confessing love for her daughter, her happiness. Nneka is just 23 godammit! How could Chidi take advantage of her like that? Like a death reminder Nneka’s words echoed in her head ‘I’m in love with Chidi mum’ Chidi? Not Dad. This definitely was a dream, so she thought because all she saw right now was two big lights and the relief it brought to her when it came on her. She found herself here when her eyes opened. It dawned on her she was hit, and she was in the hospital. But, she couldn’t move.
Chidi sat beside her now, his face looked sorrowful. He was saying something but she couldn’t hear, she wanted to but a calmness was filling her, the bliss she had known flashed through her eyes, definitely that wasn’t a tear she saw in his eyes……she tried to look again but all she saw was darkness……Grace had slept In pain with hope to rest in peace.
