LOGINShare
The Now: Chideziri POV
Last Updated:
2020-08-31 01:13:03A whisper of words, that's what it begins as.
Then slowly, ever so slowly, it creeps, then crawls into a formidable tempo that can turn heads. A smile bright as any street light in this crazy city Suns up Amanda's face. Resplendent in its rays, beaming directly on my face. I wonder why they even bother with all these solar powered lamp posts lining the alleys and walkways, when a single person can make-up the whole town in glowing, scintillating shades o'brown and white.
"Oh my God! This is my song!" She shrieks.
I don't recognize the song until Falz's voice seeps out of the home-theatre speaker, loud and accented, and confident in its pitch.
Yah
What if I ask you to marry me?
Born for me
Je ka ride till eternity
What if I say there's no plan B?
Say I ready to come in to meet the family
Come
What if I already planned it?
I find myself being hauled back into the hou
Related chapters
She Belongs To The Sky The Now: Amanda POV
That Disc Jockey knows his stuff.The cheer is a roar, and it is a combination of hollering and lip-synching. Soon the party is alive again. Abe leaps out of his seat, startling Ahmed wide awake. He bounds into the quickly converging crowd and screams "Gimme space, make I no kill person!" then he does that swaying dance he does, with his knees bent in a crouching stance, his arms moving as if he's rocking some big Madam's hip.SMH........ We are immediately caught up in a tide of skin—russet, honey, latte, cinnamon, umber, whatever. Sweaty, dry, oiled, perfumed; it doesn't matter. We all are just skin. What matters is the now. The damp heat that isn't even a little uncomfortable, the screams of "She say A-ye, No lele", the energized air forcing birr down my burning windpipe, the touch of strangers arms and bodies and vibes on mine. That's all that has an iota of meaning in this now. And this now.....this moment...it's covered
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky The Now: Chideziri POV
Even Chantelle gets into the fray. It's that dope.I've been thinking on what Tobi says about the brother of a fool being a fool. Judging by the crazy dancing I see I say my friends are fools. Big time. And If it makes any sense, then i am one, too. And I couldn't care less. I want to be a fool for life, if I get to keep these ones, if by some chance, fate doesn't reappear to tear our clique apart after this stage of our lives. I am aware that there are few re-beginnings and fewer happy endings, but these moments—these minut bursts of light are all I'm certain of.
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky The Now: Amanda POV
There are only three words for what we are:Young.Wild.Free.Snoop and wiz khalifa said it all.I get the feeling that this is what being a teenager should be like. That songs were made to be sang out loud, with lungs fresh from Heaven's factory. Life—to be experienced in an uncontrollable atomic fashion constituted by bursts of unbridle-able energy. The air—to be inhaled without thought or obligations or responsibilities; released, unshackled, worry-less, unchained—free.Young.Wild.Free.Until our eyes are fixed beyond the sun, our nostrils will know less roses than our skins the thorns.Life is as complex as a pendulum tossed to and from opposing extremes. Though the storm rocks our boats and the gentle wind eases our rows, our peace still ebbs and flows, because until our eyes are fixed beyo
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky Post-Euphoria: Amanda POV
Trouble as defined by an English dictionary: A distressful or dangerous situation.Trouble as defined by Me: Bad shit that ambushes us at the worst possible times, when we least expect it.That's how it creeps up on us, stealthily. Then in a whoosh of air, it lands heavily on Abe's jaw. The punch rocks Abe's chin and throws him off balance. The petite babe he was practically humping shrieks and scampers away."Gee," Abe growls, he spits on the tile "who be you?" The guy that hit him stands over him glowering.The music's volume is turned down to its lowest immediately, only its beat remains. It sounds lonely, unaccompanied by the coarse pitch of Kizz's voice."Oboy c'mon wida you, you dey jons?" he sparks. He sounds like a frog on a rainy night. Abe wipes his mouth with the back of his palm and straightens to his full height, glaring the guy down. They are nearly the same height but where Abe is burly, frog-guy i
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky Post-Euphoria: Chideziri POV
One of the many unspoken rules of PH city everybody and their mamas know is that when you are in a place, and boys start speaking strange pidgin and sizing up one another or breaking bottles, you need to get out of there, and you need to do so quickly.I can't though. Bro code says so.Rule number one: Never let a brother go to war alone.Rule number four: Never leave a brother behind.It couldn't get any worse.I swear to God, Amadioha, Idemili, Ala, Anyanwu—every bit of divinity that cares to listen infact—if Abe gets us killed, I will resurrect him, just so i kill him myself.Abe punches the gee on his throat, and he staggers back, spluttering and spitting. Someone screams in the crowd and they disperse in a surge, on the brink of a stampede. The ruckus creates a rift between the guy and his backups, a small chasm of flowing bodies and for an instant he is alone. Abe follows up the fou
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky Post-Euphoria: Amanda POV
Abe didn't get himself killed after all, as hard as he tried. That's some consolation. I think of neither the fight nor consolations on the ride home. There were still some taxis zooming on the highway at that time, even as young as the morning was. Chideziri shoved Chantelle and I into the first one that stopped. The cab dropped me off at home and I wave Chantelle good-bye. She was still glued to her phone. She seemed happier at the party, lighter, less like a scared child. I liked that. I think of Chideziri sliding his hand into his hair and pulling at a single stubborn kink. I think of Pascal rolling up the sleeves of his GAP sweater. I think of Abe, just before the fight, I think of how he moved care freely, the mad vibe he gave off. I think of Chantelle's laughter, rare and wonderful. I think of the lights, how you won't think that crimson could be so lively. I replay the night in my mind when I climb the steps, till when I turn the key in the lock. I don't notice the dis
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky Then we imploded
Anger isn't always an outspoken emotion, but it always is a dangerous one.Dad's anger uncoils rapidly, in increasing degrees of piss-tacity, like a boa constrictor disentangling itself from an oak. He stares at me slack jawed. Even the black shadow that has pooled around his feet under the flame of the bulb and stretched toward me looks incredulous. They both stay there staring, still as rock."Amanda? " his tone is even more flabbergasted. He wore one of those his plus sized t-shirts that smell new and look old. It has a faded picture of an isle emblemed on its chest and i can see the links of the gold chain on his neck catch the light and sparkle above the cloth's fraying collar. He never takes that necklace off, ever. He even wears it into the bathroom, when he wants to take a shower. It's gold, plus it has his and Mum's wedding bands as its pendant. Gold upon gold."Amanda is that you?" ."Yes Daddy? Daddy welcome." I manage.
Last Updated : 2020-08-31She Belongs To The Sky Then we imploded: Chideziri POV
Amanda hasn't come online since we crashed the party.I'm thinking it's her battery. Or she has no data. Both of which are remediable if I knew which. Abe has been online, however, more than usual. Mostly, he's angry—at whom I don't know. How he is throwing shade online you'd think he sells sunglasses, i swear. He's there, talking about: They tried to put me down. But I came. I saw. I conquered. (Fire emoji)#undefeated.The guy is a joker. If Pascal and I hadn't showed up when we did, we'd be talking of how we should go about embalming him. I shut my trap though, lest he turn on me. I don't have strength for beef now.I am still lying there, on the sofa in the parlour, swinging my feet and laughing at his rants when Mumsi comes in. As soon as she showed up, she asked me a question, at the doorstep while I was still trying to haul in her numberless bags.Take a wild guess."Have you eaten?" or "how are you?" are t
Last Updated : 2020-08-31
Latest chapter
She Belongs To The Sky Eclipse: Lorita POV
Calling Ma to tell her the exam is over will only make her rush me, I think.Today is the one day I don't want to rush things. So when others pull out their phones and gather round for selfies and corny posts such as GRADUATE IN A BIT or BEEN HERE, DONE THAT, I push my phone deeper into the slash pocket of my overall."And we good to go!" my best friend appears just as she disappeared: when I wasn't looking, and all of a sudden.She stretches her arms out for a hug."Ewwww." I dodge her. My best friend, Amanda, only seems to want hugs after one of her many visits to the toilets. There's enough bacteria on the doors alone to kickstart an epidemic."You know you want this hug," Amanda grins, inching closer.The periodic toilet frolicking is normal, the usual. The grinning is new. Whatever Port-Harcourt did to her was good. She even let me read her journal for like six seconds—which is a record. She n
She Belongs To The Sky Eclipse: Abraham POV
I slump onto the grass next to Chideziri. He keeps staring up ahead into the tree, as if he's looking for something in particular, not paying me any mind. "G." Nothing. I shove his shoulder. Still nothing. "Are you going to sit here sulking all day?" Finally, he looks at me. "I can try, can't I?" "It's passing out day, you fool. We had plans, remember?" "Frankly, I don't." He says. I raise a brow at him; he only shrugs. I adjust myself till I am lying on my back in the untrimmed grass. "Well, since you don't remember, I'll wait here until your mermory starts to come back." "You'll be waiting for a long time" "I have enough time." I fire back. "Jesus Christ." Chideziri mutters. "Don't use the name of the Lord in vain, bro." "Guy, g
She Belongs To The Sky On The Wings Of A Flood: Chideziri POV
After four months of complete drought, March releases the first rains.Rooftops turn red with dust filled water, dust that accumulated over the dry season. Children play around under the rain, splashing in puddles.I spend half of most days in second term numb and staring. Staring at the teacher, at the writing on the board that makes no sense to me whatsoever, at the wall clock hung above the marker board. Then I spend the other half of the day noticing I'm numb and staring.In church, I no longer swing my shoulders to the music. I don't listen to J.Cole anymore.She is too everywhere. Too present to be so absent. My clothes smell of rain-beaten leaves, of abandonment, of freshly written poems. How hard I scrub makes no noticeable difference. Weeks after January the sixth, my knuckles are red and raw from trying to scrub her away, and failing to.She is too everywhere.I learn to stay in my room, curtains drawn
She Belongs To The Sky On The Wings Of A Flood: Amanda POV
Queen's is as quiet and sprawling as I remember. Almost too quiet. The pinafores are also as I remember, shining from excessive ironing. But now the shirts are cardboard paper and the weather is always so dry that I have to keep lipbalm in my bag, just in case my lips crack. Again.Lorita's here, and she definitely missed me. I get cupcakes literally every day of the week, and a lot of guilt trip for that one time I abandoned her, went to Port-Harcourt, and while there, lived my best life.The absolute best thing about being back is that Queen's installed a new track. I'm feeling it.Now, I can run.As far as I want, as far as my legs will carry me. So fast that I fly. I close my eyes and there I'm in PH city, with Chideziri, sprinting, the rain right behind us.When I open my eyes, he isn't there.~
She Belongs To The Sky Exodus: Chideziri & Amanda
CHIDEZIRI I kiss her now, because when she's gone, I want to remember how her smile tastes mixed with tears. I want to remember the flayed pink that the sky took on, how rays peered down through clouds. I want to remember the mangroves, their dying leaves forming a glade of rusted confetti. I want to remember the sun, before it was eclipsed. ~ AMANDALeft to Aunty Seedy, suffocation by embracing is how I'd die."Nne, I'll miss you sorely." She says, smothering me. I lose count after the seventh hug. All our stuff will be moved to her house. Sofas,
She Belongs To The Sky Purple Hibiscuses: Chideziri POV
The trees outside my window are almost naked now, burnt to figs by the ever angry sun. In the darkness of dawn, their branches resemble bones. I can't sleep, and being awake staring at the skeleton branches isn't helping, so I take Tobi's hoodie and leave the house. Outside is silent, much like everything else. So silent that when I pass the playround, I can hear the grass whistle. I walk. I walk by the tailors shop, to Close 4 and past. Past the hulking buildings and lonely trees. I walk till I get to the river. Elimgbu river has sunken so low that the stones underneath break its glassy surface. The first time we were here, it was full to its brim. Leaves floated on its surface. Pebbles lived under. It was beautiful. That is the thing about faded glory. It always starts out beautiful.
She Belongs To The Sky Purple Hibiscuses: Amanda POV
January, the sixth arrives quickly, quietly. January, the sixth steals our time. I wake up not remembering what the day means, at first. It comes to me slowly. The night before we leave, the night before January the sixth, I learn two things: there are two kinds of hunger, and one can keep you up all night, staring at the ceiling and missing a place and people you are yet to leave. It is two O'Clock in the morning and disconcertingly quiet when I decide that I can't endure the trashing and turning. I take a book from the shelf that will no longer be mine by evening, purple hibiscus, with the cracks on its cover and Adichie's delighted face above its blurb, and I go to the sitting room that will not be ours by evening. There, I turn on the light and cozy up on the couch. Halfway through the first chapter, feet shuffle in the hallway and Dad emerges from
She Belongs To The Sky Yultide: Chideziri POV
Ahmed is stuck at his mother's shop. But as always, he finds a way to vanish. Abe's on his way already. Pacal posted pictures of the places his family had been to today: cinema, swimming at a pool and Ferris wheeling. The mere sight of the Ferris wheel gave me vertigo.By the tone of his last text, he's down for a reunion. Although he's never been as good as Ahmed at vanishing, I know he'll be there. Chantelle gets there first, to our spot at the river. Her sister's nurse friends visited, and in her words, turned the house into a marketplace. Amanda arrives last. The sun has sunk below the horizon by then and mosquitoes are biting. "I come bearing gifts!" she bellows, stomping down the planks, her footsteps heavy with the weight of five paperbags she's clutching. "Since when did Amanda become Santa?" Abe says. Yet he grabs his gift bag when it's offered.&nbs
She Belongs To The Sky Yultide: Amanda POV
Christmas is explosive. Literally so. The number of fireworks produced in a single annum is alarming. But what is even more alarming is the fact that the effing hoodlums that deadbeat parents in my neighbourhood call their children seem to think that detonating all those fireworks in the street just beyond our gate is cool. On Christmas eve, after one "knock-out" landed on our roof, I reached the end of my thoroughly stretched patience. I stormed out to yelled at a couple of them loitering in the street. All of which I did barefooted.Don't blame me, I was spectacularly pissed.The twenty fifth—Christmas day itself—is spent out of our house and in Aunty Seedy's, with her and Ozo. Dad wanted us to go to Chicken Republic, or one of the many fancy restuarants he made it his business to locate in the area once we arrived, since neither of us can boil an egg.
