Plucked ripe is my need to suckle hard all that is sweet, patient and anxious to fly swiftly in the darkness you bring.
I wont stand here and scream, shocked and rife is my rim, I have to stay here and breath. Rocked and stuck is my ice, I have to reshape my ride. Flocks of pigeons peck my face, yet I stand here with grace. Plucked and Bright is my life, I'll just spread out and shine. The mosquitoes are uncountable, yet our hunger is unquenched in this new strange world I call home. I am not alone as my furry friends crawl up the clay caked caves, they climb my webbed wings and stump on my ears. Yes I am upsidedown. You need to see how I see the world. It beautiful and loud and real and covered in clouds. The mosquitoes mission is to wipe out their race but in my colony, we never stop until all is gained. The mosquitoes reduce to the thousands in one night and as much as we like to clean up, the taste is boring. It's like chewing gum that has lost its flavor or won't just mould and bend to a bubble controlled by your tongue. So we crawled towards the moonlight and out from our home, into an entire new world. The smell of sweet nectar invites and wood me, from a seabed filled with purple water lilies. Bright and beautiful with a bright yellow core, open and waiting to be sucked dry by me. This world has no clue not only am I going to bombard it, but it's about to be Ransomed By Two Hundred Flying Foxes. Our predators long extinct and our curiosity bar now unstoppable. The clueless children try to catch us in the moonlight and as we scratch and claw, we stain and spread what was long ours alone. Our infectious claws dig in and our moist jaws sink in deep. It's a night of many options and for a while, I think I am a dragon and I flap my webbed wings high and try to fly away with the child holding onto my feet. A none-stick frying pan smashed into my face and I let go as the child's mother screamed at me. The game was up but as I try to recover I see a fat juicy moth and forget the pain and snatched it from the unnatural light that lit the front porch of this home. I am not alone and in seconds all was covered in me, my siblings and friends.
Our invasion was complete.....
At the time, some seven years had passed and I was a little confused because I was in front of Information services building in CMS. Also in Lagos and I heard students discus eating bats as smoked bush meat.
I was going to protest when someone mentioned they look like monkeys, bats look like monkeys? No way, that even got me more upset. So I speak up and then it happens. The handsome boy I had been eyeing and admiring points his fingers up at the African fruit tree above me. I flinched and ducked and froze all in that order and it made everyone laugh.
Have you never seen a bat? The question scared me and as I watched the black and yellow striped monkey like winged creatures crawl together and move with strange suede like wings. I only had to agree at least partially, to me they looked like they had monkey bodies, fox face, pigs snout, Chihuahua ears and prehistoric wings and claws. Bats are genuinely the scariest looking animals I've seen in my entire life. I would die if two flew towards me and a thousand... Forget it.
The online magazine scared me and I looked up at the sky, searching for any winged animals. I saw a hawk and later a raven but no bats. The sun was still shinning, so I was safe.
Anyway, my pop itches and I try to force the wooden stick into it and can't quite reach it. The pop was built to accommodate shoes, thanks to Ajoke and her designer orthopedic cobbler friend. Should I call her? Too late, Idibia and Nnoye have climbed the stairs and are in front of me. I stare at them and as Idibia tries to hold her, she tries to put some distance between them. A grown woman faa and a very pregnant one for that matter.
My hands go to my missing baby bump and I clench my fists under the table, hard so I feel enough pain not to cry.
'Ade, you are in a mall'
Nnoye was in shock and a little confused.
'And you are with Idibia', I add.
I search for the film crew I assigned to follow her for the show and spot them and I'm glad I have a wide brim hat on with massive sunshades. Not as if it will hide my face, anyone who knows me will still recognize me. I just did not want to be on camera.
'The doctor says I should move around more, or he will have to induce....'
Nnoye stopped talking and my smile grew so fake, I had to stop trying.
'Join me', I add as I dig and failed to hit the spot itching me in my cast. Instead I have broken my skin and I flinched.
'A mint spray will help', Idibia suggests.
'Really'
'I've broken my limbs skiing and on my power bike uncountable times...'
Nnoye placed a hand on his arm to stop him from talking.
The silence was deafening and I had to stop it from making me miserable.
'I had to get out'
'What about Celine?'
'She has Pierre and I'm sure needs a break from babysitting me'
'Celine loves you, we all do'
'I know'
It was painful to watch them but better that I was not alone.
Two hours later Ajoke and Alan join us, Alan is enraged by the traffic that had no reason to be there and I just want him to get me the frozen yogurts he has been going on and I about.
It was sweetand mostly sour like I like my yogurt to be. And swirled like ice cream in a beautiful almost square cup with the cutest long stem green plastic spoon on earth.
A pain raced throughout heart and for a minute I could not breathe. It was like I remembered the accident and lost m twins at the same time and then I went blank.
It was a panic attack and I was very scared and worried, it's like the ones I took before leaving my house have worn out.
Ajoke pops two pills in my hands and helps guide the straw of her Chapman into my mouth. I wasn't cry loud or any embarrassing drama, instead I feel my nose run and wiped my tears a d then my nose.
'Maybe I should go home'
I bury my face and cry, ashamed that I could not hold it all back at least until I got into a car.
'We will, just relax first', Ajoke says massaging my back.
Calm now, I sit upright and laugh at the distressed faces staring at me.
'When will I stop crying, right?'
It was a rhetorical question, at least my smile eased their fear.
'You want us to go?', Ajoke asked.
I shake my head and throw my head back, the fresh air was good and this shopping mall in Alausa Ikeja was perfect for us all. And far enough to keep my mind away from what I was used to.
Ajoke turned to Nnoye, ' did your doctor say you should hook up with Idibia without our knowledge?'
'No he said I should be active'
'Idibia you like that kind thing...'
'God Ajoke', I tried to stop her.
'Abeg we are all thinking it, abi Alan?'
Poor Alan was roped into it without his consent.
'I don't know anything about anything'
Ajoke laughed.
'You are posing for Ade eh, see you go bribe me before anything ooo'
Nnoye wanted to kick her but kicked me instead
'Aaww, Nnoye'
'Sorry Ade, I was trying to stop Ajoke from her inappropriate talk'
'Did it work?', Ajoke asked chewing ice.
'I am not you', Nnoye snapped at her.
'That's why they are not yet out, all this hoarding is not helping matters'
'See, I can't tell if she's serious or not', Nnoye adds and orders a whole roasted chicken.
'For two of us...'
'Ajoke, let me see ya hand in my good'
I just shake my head at my insane friends and leaned forward again. I think the medicine is kicking in.
Ajoke was angry at Nnoye and for good reason, she watched her eat the entire chicken. And so, she got up and ordered a fresh batch, knowing it would keep us all here longer.
'Ade, I did not mean to keep Idibia from you but....'
'Its fine'
'Its not, I like him a lot but he has said it, ho ha. Marriage is not in his horizon until at least five years'
'And?'
I was munching on dark chocolate chips on Alan's yogurt. It was good and rich and he decided to get himself a fresh cup.
'Sorry I got hungry', I didn't even know I had taken his.
'Its fine'
Nnoye and I are alone on the table.
'Idibia and I didn't...'
'Its your business...'
'I am flirting with him but it's because I don't know who will stay. I just want to be complete when the baby comes'
'You are complete however you are...'
'I just get so lonely... Sorry I didn't mean...'
'I am lonely too but not all the time, I get to talk to him when I shut my eyes'
'Even here?'
'Its why I laughed, he said I was been silly crying and making a scene in the biggest shopping mall on the mainland'
Nnoye gave me a look that made me regret opening up to her.
'Okay and what about church?'
It's the first time I have heard Nnoye mention church.
'What has church got to do with it?'
'The spiritual veils are porous when surrounded by life and.... Well you have experienced both, so let's be prepared'
'How?'
I did not like where this was going at all at all. This sounds to me like a set up....
**"ADE'S JOURNAL" Season 2 Episode 90**
*"ADE'S JOURNAL", 90, COPYRIGHT 2017*
**BUSOLA ELEGBEDE, COPYRIGHT 2017**
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