CITY OF GRIEF AND DECEIT

Some fates are actually the result of a small push. This very fate, however, came out of a sudden grief—a melancholy—and, like a dog holding a bone, it transformed its anatomy into a gleeful soul, filled with indescribable excitement.

Blessing was a taller and fairer-complexioned lady. She became enraged after receiving five heartbreaking, bone-crushing love rejections from men in a month's time. Filled with extreme sadness and a phobia of being deceived again, she trudged throughout her town, Mafindi—a place where love rejection has become as available in every house as the sun; there was not even a lady that didn't get hers—leading her to a place where her feet were so exhausted that they began to stop. Thus, she sat there, in a desert several miles away from her town, recollecting the flowers of pain that filled her garden of happiness, hope, and solace; reflecting over the sole reason behind the tears that flooded her eyes and left her tissues burnt with grief; and doubting the breathtaking surprises she had experienced in her life; and doubting the breathtaking surprises she had experienced in her life; and doubt It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no top and no bottom, just circles and circles of miseries.

Sitting without any hope again, an elegant, cute man dressed in a black suit—like a barrister—appeared before her like a thunderbolt, shining like a diamond, blooming like the sun, and glittering like gold. When Blessing peered into his face with keen interest, she began to observe how handsome the man was—apparently, even the wind expressed happiness by blowing rapidly towards him—and, like a parrot, she asked him with gusto, "Who are you?" "And what brought you here?" These questions came out of her mind unprepared; she was not able to control her emotions. Without any action, the man, like a baby that plays with toys, was silent for a while before he voiced out with a resonant sound that had, perhaps, made every breathing being in the desert to listen—a tone that shares a resemblance with a nightingale:

"I am a messenger from a world adorned with alluring brightness. I am here to engrave your lugubrious expressions. Not only will I give you a calabash of love, but I will also form a speedy river that will perpetually flow for a long time, giving deep peace to your tender heart and trickling the ice of great consolation from your eyes down to your abdomen—a slow flow that will sluggishly penetrate into your heart, imbibe all the breath-snatching exasperations you have accumulated for long there, and squirrel them into my heart. "I am Joseph!"

Upon hearing these delightfully appealing expressions from Joseph, Blessing became seriously awestruck. She embraced him tightly, drew him closer to her bosom, and sounded out:

"Joseph! Of all the cold nights, lucky memories, and silent joy I've had, I've never encountered the likes of your soul-soothing voice, radiant face, or structurally enchanting being throughoutmy life! "My heart is so fortunate today!"

****

After a few months, their bond, like an iroko, grew taller and taller. One day, Joseph decided to give Blessing a gift. He consciously pondered what to gift her, like one who was asked to swallow the world. Considering some factors, he footslogged to the forest and brought a flower. Lately, he inscribed some words on a piece of paper and wrapped it together with his flower.

It was in the scorching sun of a Sunday that the ladies assembled underneath a mango tree in their town, Mafindi, to receive their packages from their lovers. Blessing was fatigued from waiting; thus, tears of animosity began streaming from her eyes. "Joseph?" She thought in her mind, gazing at the top of the mango tree. She could only smell the overripe mangoes on the tree.

Not sooner than later, from afar, she beheld the movement of a wind—it was a breath of Joseph, blowing gently, and then she was elated beyond expression. He handed his envelope to her and, with a charming grin, disappeared.

Blessing danced to the tune of gleefulness and quickly unwrapped her gift. She looked at a piece of paper and opened it. She began reading secretly.

"Blessing, today is Valentine's Day. All I can say is, "Your love gives me a light to see beyond—it's an ice crawling on the body of my grief."

The following day, Blessing walked to where she thought she could meet Joseph and, passionately, give him a peace-filled smile that would quench his miseries. She searched ups and downs looking for him, yet all the efforts she made were a mere illusion. The day passed, and she didn't see him. The night slipped into another day, and she didn't even perfume the smell of his breath. It was very strange, this ice of love that crawled on her grief.

After she thought about it for a while, she made sense of the package she received from Joseph. "The last sentence showed that he would leave me." She said, gazing at the sky. Thus, she realized the inescapability of her fate.

Mati Diop’s ‘Atlantique’ for Cannes Film Festival

It is indeed, without doubt, sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you. Blessing's hope and love were for Joseph, whom she missed despite the fact that his face ran through every strand of her heart.

© Yahuza Usman

More about Yahuza Usman @Hall of Fame

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