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Souvenir (Part 1)

Seeing her again after all those years hurt more than waking up one morning and finding her gone without a trace, more than all the years spent searching for her in every face, wishing to no avail that there was a way, any way at all to see her face again.

And yet seeing her sitting only a few steps from him, smiling and attending to customers without a care in the world was worse than all the nightmares that kept him up all those nights ago; all the slaps he received for yelling her name at every moment of release.

Somehow, the last seven years had not existed. He was only an onlooker, counting houses and streets only to find her here, smiling at all those strangers without a hair strand out of place. She was still the way he remembered: That glowing olive skin and the longest hair extension he had ever seen even on her. She was still vain, his Njideka. Under the bright white bulb, she glowed and glowed like a thousand fireflies on the surface of the sea. Her lips were a soft pink, better than the crass shade of purple she wore the day they met- or bumped into each other while rushing to the respective classes they were both late for.

“Oh my God” He still remembered her gasp and wide eyes “You just can’t see, can you? Look at my face on your shirt. All my hard work gone!”

She was whined like a puppy that got stepped on the tail and it took a while before he understood her grief, a longer time because he was the one with a ruined white shirt yet he was not the one lamenting.  “I’m sorry but you’re the one that ruined my shirt” he burst out, amused.

“And you ruined my makeup! Is something funny?”

He loved the way her nostrils opened up like wings when she was angry. He laughed good-naturedly while taking in every inch of her features. She was small and her thin arms were jutting out from the big blouse she wore, probably to downplay her size. Her eyes were a brown pool that quickly lured him for a swim, and for the life of him, her face was perfect with tiny brown dots scattered here and there even on the bridge of her sizeable nose. Her lashes were thick and her brows  were carved until they looked like lines confused between the straight and narrow- but they were lovely- she was lovely, a dream to behold. She was also vain and uppity and he wondered if she was not aware of her beauty without all the effort she seemed to put in.

“I’m sorry about your face” He said in contrition. Suddenly tired of laughing. “But if you’d let me be your mirror I’ll have to tell you, no damage has been done. You are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a lot of girls”

“I bet” came her sarcastic reply

“Why haven’t I seen you before, Beautiful?”

He was a final year student of English after all, and words came easy to him, as well as women. He was Nnanna Agu, they fell at his feet like a pack of cards.

“Mr. Sweet talker, excuse me, I have a lecture to get to”

Before he could say another word she disappeared into the first year classroom.

Written by Nneoma Otuegbe

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