LOVING IT ON VALENTINE'S DAY

So, Nwamaka was a familiar face who lived around my neighborhood. We coincidentally met on a cool breezy Friday evening, precisely on February 14th, at a gathering. "Events occur in real time" - a true saying, culled from a movie, "24". I could vividly remember how and when we met. The gown she outwardly styled, the organization of her natural hair, the scent of her perfume, the smile she wore, and the steps of her dance, remained fresh in my memory like the everyday colorful nectar sucking butterfly that peaches over a sunlight flower, and causing it to pollinate. Immediately I’d say within me, “I have found her”. She stood very close to me, tactically moving her body to the sound of the bubbling and grooving music, trying to find a perfect dance step to fit into the sound that assembled in her head. She was resilience. She kept her moves real. It was an interesting sight to behold. Courtesy of her joy, I approached her. It was not as easy as I thought. But then she was welcoming. She’d was charitable with her words, probably, because she succeeded in finding a marching dance step to the music that played. Funny, right? This was good news for me. But I was not quick to express how I felt at that moment. Maybe because my ego was at work. It was a fun-fare experience, that instantaneously registered some impression into my mind. It was a day to remember. And as you are already anticipating, we became good friends on Valentine's day.

Life with Nwamaka was adventurous. I could imagine how she literally lives to her own philosophies of life, fiddling through difficult choices, and transforming opportunities into avenues of fortunes. People in the neighborhood knew her for that, but only a few of them were interested in the good life she strove to live, because she was obviously the most envied among her peers. Many guys desired her because of her beauty, but she never consented, hoping to find that perfect guy just the same way she found her perfect dance step. Well, thanks to her virtues and vices. They formed parts of her, today. The truth is that her attributes are indubitably countless. Mostly the goods. However, the connection with her mum seemed to be the guts of her style of living. She was obviously a pure and fortunate version of her mother, popularly called “mummy Iyawo”; a very kind and joy-hearted soul. The both could be, like Baruch Spinoza, called ‘two-sides of a coin’, an amazing eye sight.

Slowly but gradually, time enveloped past events, but friends we still were. We applauded ourselves for such an expression of nobility, the nobility that emanated and transcended from the act of ‘not-knowing’ to the beauty of ‘knowing’, as seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, a complete rotation of the earth round the sun. But today is different. Like other birthdays, she has turned 22. But never to forget that I met her at 17. The nostalgic feeling crips so hard that I can only reminiscence. Everything good about her came to my head, they played like a well-scripted action movie, they were forceful and rapid. It was a series of memories rolling like a rolling camera ready to capture a scene. Then, all that came to my head were the good things about her. She was good to a fault. But her heightened brown-skinned complexion wouldn’t allow you to observe the bad in her. It was as bad as that, yes.

One thing would incite a scaring feeling towards her. It is the fact that she lives in contempt of herself, and at her own expense, relentlessly ready to prioritize others’ happiness. She has, more than other things, taught me how to recreate life. I called her ‘my twin’. She delighted in this name, but unlike before, she acted fascinatingly to it. Behind the rosy part of her, there were also times she’d vehemently insisted on her own strands of choices, and often times demand for her space. I recalled at this point, that life in itself is begging for completeness; for love, which could be found in the ambiance of friendship. She is quite aware of this, but would prefer to be that completeness that is lacking in the world. I forgot I didn’t tell you that she intends to become a lawyer someday. But yeah, that's a story for another day.