ANGEL OF HOPE 11

Angel Of Hope (

(Continued from the last episode...)

“What’s funny, this isn’t a laughing matter” she said seriously.

‘I know but I can’t just stop laughing all the same” I said. “Look at you, what worries me is nothing like that. I am more concerned about Uncle Nat and his threats. If he could send kidnappers to us in the first place, who knows how far he would go again?” I asked seriously “That is my concern and if not for that, I would have taken you to a priest right now and begged to be joined together with you for the rest of my life”

I took her face in my palms and kissed her salty tears.

“Don’t you get it; I can’t live without you. There is a reason why fate crossed our paths in life together; it’s been basically for this. We are destined to be together. Uncle Nat was just a factor in this fateful game. And nothing- not he, age, disease or death can separate us. Each moment out of your presence is like moments spent without air.” I said and kissed her fully on the lips, my tongue traversing the deep corners of her mouth.

She tasted heavenly and I felt myself hardened. She returned the kiss with equal fervor.

“I love you too. O God, I wish I could show you how much it hurts my heart the love I have for you. I can’t lie without you and the thought of spending the rest of my life without you in it is like a death sentence” She said “Why does it hurt when you are madly in love with someone? Why does my heart beat faster at the slightest touch from you? Have you casted a spell on me?”

“I wish” I said honestly “I honestly wish I have a spell that could bind you and me together forever”

“Me too” she withdrew from the kiss, stood up from the bed and began to pace the room. “My greatest fear is that we might not be destined to live together. I have this horrible feeling that something will eventually go wrong. Love that is as strong and powerful as ours hardly ever lasts for long. Look at Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Jack and Rose…..”

“Please stop” I said “Our fate could be different. God is the writer of this story and HE is not a sadist, he would end our story differently from those that you are mentioning. Besides, we still have a very long way in dealing with fates and destinies. Let’s enjoy this moment before it’s gone”

We began to kiss and undress but we stopped and quickly pulled apart as Lizzy busted into the room.

We busted into laughter at this untimely and unfortunate intrusion.

A couple of days later, I cancelled my tenancy in the house and we all traveled back to Lagos. To start a new life there against all odds.

When I got to Lagos, I went to Abuja that same week to write my Post UTME in the University of Abuja then I took a flight back-first class to Lagos that same day. Life resumed as it did before and the following week, she resumed her work at the bank but I remained at home, expecting the post UTME result to come out.

A week after our arrival in Lagos, her mum called and told us that all preparations to make Lizzy travel to the USA were ready during a video call.

“Michael, are you and April sure that you don’t want to come to the US too?” she asked on the night that Lizzy was to travel, during a conference phone call.

“No ma” I said unregretfully. A year back, I would have given anything in the world to be offered such opportunity but now, it doesn’t really mean anything to me again “I think we’ll stay here together”

“No problem” she consented “But I’m concerned about Nathaniel. I’ve called him several times to talk to him about you two but he wouldn’t pick my calls and I’m very sure that he is very mad at what happened”

“Mum, don’t worry yourself about it; he would get over it with time” April assured.

“I hope so and I don’t want to experience any more childish dramas from him because I won’t tolerate any nonsense again…”

“Mum, don’t worry, it would hurt anyone and it’s hard to let go but eventually he would be okay”

“Good to hear” her mum said.

“We have booked the ticket for the first flight tomorrow so she should be in the US by 12 noon.” I said with nostalgic, I was missing Lizzy already.

“Okay. Reuben and Seyi are here too, they want to talk to you”

Seyi and Reuben’s smiling faces appeared on the screen.

“Hi!” they chorused excitedly.

“Hey, yo kiddies, how you?!” I hollered excitedly, “How you two holding forth over there? Look at you guys, so exuberance!”

They busted into laughter.

“Where’s Liz” Seyi asked.

“In her room, sleeping”

“Awwwn” they both said, disappointed but they perked up again and began to talk to Miss April. Their conversation was so long that I finally excused myself and went to bed because I had to wake up early to drive Lizzy to the airport so she wouldn’t miss her flight.

A week later and two weeks after writing my Post UTME in the University, I was finally offered admission to study Law in the school. The news came through my email one afternoon while I was at home, writing. Finally I could do what had seemed impossible to me all these years. Though Rose (my ex-girlfriend) had graduated from the same school a year back as a lawyer. Miss April was behind herself with joy when she came home in the evening and got the news.

“I was actually thinking of it today; I was wondering if you would go to a private Uni instead of waiting endlessly for admission to come through in a public school but thank God, our prayer has been answered” she said as she flopped down on the couch beside me, making the couch to squirm. I lifted my legs off the floor and placed them on her laps and she began to absent mindedly fiddle with my toes.

“What would you eat?”

“Anything you give me” she said.

“Okay, I made a delicacy, let me set the table for us”

“We could eat it here instead of the dining room. What’s it by the way?” she suggested.

“Amala and egusi, your favourite” I said with lots of smiles like a mischievous monkey.

“Wawwu! Let me go and check it out” she said and jumped off the couch.

“Wait right here, I’ll…..”

“If I hear, let’s see this together!”

A week later, we both traveled to Abuja for registration and paying for the hostel where I would stay. Though the hostel costs much more than I was comfortable with but she insisted that I should take it, stating that comfortability should first be considered before considering money. I was dumbfounded but grateful for all her efforts.

The registration and packing took almost ten hours and we finally ended everything by six PM after all my things had been moved to my hostel.

“Whew!” She whooped. “Thank God we are finally done since morning.” She said pleasantly as she threw herself down on the bed, discarding her shoes in the process. I did the same beside her; doing the same. Both of us were staring at the ceiling but our minds were wandering through the silence that ensued after that.

“What now?” she asked silently after several minutes of silence.

“Like, what are we doing next tonight after all the stress of the day?” I teased.

“O God!” She said “Don’t be a bore, answer my question. What now after all these. Now you are in school and I will be going back to Lagos. For some time, we might not see each other but is that the end of…. EVERYTHING?” she despaired.

I couldn’t respond out rightly cuz I didn’t know what to say. I had been very busy throughout the whole day that I haven’t thought about it for once but before then I had been thinking a lot about it.

“Why are you so silent?” she asked when I didn’t say anything.

“Nothing, I’m thinking about this-about us” I said. “After now is something I’d rather not talk about because I have….”
“I’m lost too” she admitted.

“Maybe we should let things sort themselves out?”

“Yeah but it doesn’t look good. What if in the end, we don’t end up together?” she quipped.

“That’s impossible” I said seriously “Why would you even think of that?”

“Because this is reality; not some kind of dreams. Look at you, you are already in school, brilliant, ambitious and handsome, it won’t take long before you are hooked by one of those girls and what happens to me after that?”
Then I understood her perfectly. I howled with laughter at this. So when I was thinking of taking our relationship to another level she was thinking of me with another person and being jealous?

“Don’t tell me you are jealous?”

She blushed from her head downward.

“Of course I’m not…..okay, maybe I am but it’s not because I am jealous or something and that’s why I am asking…..”

I rolled on my side and kissed her deeply, cutting her off what she was saying and taking her breadth away. She responded with equal fervor and for the next couple of minutes we were tangled together on the bed until I pulled back and dipped my hand secretly into my pocket and extracted a small pouch.

“What’s that?” she said, half dazed from the tumble and tangle and deeply upset that I stopped “And why did you stop?”

“I wanted you to see this” I said and opened the small pouch, a diamond ring gleamed and sparkled, converging all the nearby lights to itself and reflecting in a thousand fragments of different colours. She gasped excitedly like I knew she would. The diamond ring had cost me a fortune but she worth far more than any amount of money I could think off. The diamond had cost me one hundred and twenty five thousand naira.

The previous week, her mum had sent me one thousand US dollars through western Union to “use it to buy some things you would need in the school” as she put it. When converted to naira, the money was two thousand naira short of three hundred thousand. So it was out of this that I used to buy the ring.

“Baby, I want to make a request, will you wait for me please?”

She began to cry and smile at the same time and didn’t speak for a very long time but I didn’t pressure her. When she could put herself together, she said yes, choking on her tears.

“Yes, she said” I’ll wait till you are ready and I promise to stay faithful; to you alone.”

Early the following day, she left for the Nnamdi Azikwe airport and I drove her. She cried all the way to the airport but I didn’t bother to console her or do anything because I felt the same way she felt too. When I couldn’t cope with the silence anymore, I switched on the radio, searching for a station that would be playing a cheerful music but there was none. The first station that came on air was playing Celine Dion’s ‘Goodbye’ so I quickly tuned away to another station but the next one too was playing Charlie Putt’s ‘See you again’. It was as if all of them have decided to be gloomy so I switched off the radio angrily and contented myself with the impregnable silence.

Out of frustration and for lack of anything to say or do, I switched off the radio again, Celine Dion’s “Goodbye” had stopped and it’s been replaced with Westlife’s ‘No Place That Far’. I let the music play and hummed the lyrics “If I had to go, if I had to run, if I had to swim a hundred rivers and to climb a thousand walls, always know that I will find the way, to get to where you are, there’s no place that far………”

At the airport, we arrived a few minutes before the scheduled flight so we had a couple of minutes on our hands. For those couple of minutes, we stood locked in each other’s arms, not minding the people who were passing us by at both sides.

At last, her flight was announced and we drew apart reluctantly.

“I’ll be counting the days when this semester would be over and I would set my eyes on you again.” She said amid tears.

“I can’t wait to see you too, there are lots of things we need to talk about but you have to go now, else you will miss your flight”

I watched with longing as she walked towards the waiting craft. I stood till it took off and flew out of the airport, wishing that she could stay longer. Perhaps till the next day or spend few more hours with me. I walked away to the car park when I couldn’t see the aircraft again. Fortunately, there were lots of urgent matters waiting for me when I returned to the hostel so I was kept busy throughout the whole day.

Later in the evening, while I was on bed, I began to wonder why she had not called me since we parted at the airport. I dialed her number but it was switched off. I began to think that probably it was the network. I kept trying the number till I fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night in pitch darkness. My bedside clock read 3:02 AM, PHCN must have interrupted the power while I was asleep but that was not why I woke up.

It was because of a troubling nightmare that I had. In the dream, she was in a moving train, sitting by the window and waving to me while I kept running after the train to keep her in sight. No matter how fast I run, I couldn’t catch up with the train that seemed to be going nowhere but moving very fast. I picked my phone and tried her number again but it was switched off as well. She was using three phones but none of her numbers was reachable. I began to despair.

I placed a call to Janet, her bosom friend and co-worker. April was her maid of honour two years back when she got married. I asked if she had heard from her since she left Abuja but she said no.

“Calm down Mike, she is probably in a place where she couldn’t keep her lines on, wait till the day break; you will see that her numbers will go through”

“Well, I hope so but I don’t know….thanks anyway, sorry for disturbing you”

“No problem, goodnight”

I tried three more friends but none of them had heard from her after she left Abuja. I tossed restlessly on the bed till the day broke. I sprang out of bed with the first Muezzin call to prayer and threw on a shirt. I left my hostel by 6;12 AM and took a cab to the Airport. I didn’t know why I went there but there was a nagging thought at the darkest corner of my mind that was telling me that the plane she took had crashed. My fears were confirmed as I reached the airports gates because a throng of people was already there, weeping, shouting and screaming.

“No, no, God no, please no…” I said as I pushed my way through the crowed to reach the front. A man in his late fifties was standing in the front and addressing the people

“Once again, the aircraft of the Transatlantic Airlines that took off here yesterday by 8AM had unfortunately crashed on its way to Lagos. Efforts are ongoing to rescue the passengers but many of them have been found dead. Move to the left and go to the West wing, there is an electronic board where passengers and their names and status are displayed….”

I didn’t wait any longer, I left the crowed and went to the place he indicated. A large electronic board was strategically placed there and it displayed the names of the passengers aboard the ill-fated flight alphabetically. I jumped down the list to S and I found her; she was number 46, Smith April. I felt like fainting and if I was not in the midst of people where our bodies were touching, I would have fallen.

(To be continued...)

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ANGEL OF HOPE 11

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