Fractured Constellations
Is it not a common saying among your people that, “Yanga dey sleep, trouble wake am up?” Yes, I was on my own, minding my business, when you decided to invoke my wrath. What insolence! What rash audacity! What deer would dare to arouse a lioness from her sleep if not one already bored with […]
Why I Killed My Husband
Within the depths of love’s embrace lies the power to conquer even the darkest of secrets. … Omolade Today is my husband’s funeral, and I’m seated at the front pew in church, eyes wet and wiping down my tears every two seconds, a front I had to keep up with because nobody must know I […]
The Scent of Madness
Baba is prancing about in Okene market, stark naked, walking in circles, and guffawing like a wounded hyena. Market women are staring confusedly at his testes, which look like bloated garden eggs. Some shake their heads while others murmur and laugh. It would be difficult to convince them of Baba’s abhorrence of madness when he […]
Confessions
Forgiveness came easily to me. I had learned it from my mother. She often asked, “If I didn’t forgive, would you and your siblings exist?” With forgiveness as her anchor, she overlooked my father’s many shortcomings, his tendency to take offence at the slightest provocation, and the unspoken expectation that his transgressions would be forgiven […]
On Tuesday of Last Week
My name is Osondu. I’m a POS attendant, and I’m on the run for my life. … On Tuesday of last week, my birthday, the trajectory of my life changed. Mr Njoku had come, a perpetual smile etched on his face. He wore a childishly ironed shirt (lines made to form an enlarging kite at […]
Onono’s Affliction
In the exorcist’s waiting room, Otumve interrogated his daughter. “My child, did you kill your mother?” Silence. “What about Old Hani’s brown dog?” Silence. “How did Madibu’s second wife die? What did you put in her food that afternoon you were sent to her?” Silence. The girl only stared at the floor of Adinoyi’s secluded […]
Absently Present
On Christmas evening, Oma sent another message, the same kind she had always sent, baring her sorrowful heart to him, of how she felt in his absence. She asked him for the umpteenth time when he would return or respond to her messages. She wasn’t expecting a reply, though. He never replied anymore. With every […]
A Garden only Seen in Dreams
At the hospital, Timileyin learned that someone in his family had donated a kidney for his transplant. He couldn’t process it at first. The tests had shown neither of his sisters was a match, and they were the only ones who came to mind whenever he thought of family. After all, they were the last […]