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What Made Now Sour: Amanda POV
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2020-11-10 06:30:27I am flying.
Without wings, with only the air to hold me up. Then suddenly, the air lets me go and gravity snatches me. I drop into the rivulet like a stone, feet first, where I make a splash worthy of an Olympic medal.
"Followed somebody who knew." I finish. I splash around in the water and it ripples brown currents from the disturbed soil under.
"Are you crazy?" Chideziri bellows, well on his own path to craziness. I turn and spray water at him with my palms cupped together to form a spade. He is wet, through and through, from feet to chest, and is glowering down at me.
"Is that really a question?" I snicker.
Craziness is a prerequisite for awesomeness. Not everyone you see walking on the road is aware of that. I don't mean crazy-crazy, straitjacket needing kind of crazy. That's a bad kind. I am talking about the good kind of crazy.
Okay. Slow down. Rewind.
Good kind of crazy? There is no such thin
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Nothing rivals a kiss from your favourite person in the whole wide world.Nothing in the whole wide world rivals a kiss from your favourite person when you need it most. Nothing at all, G.My eyes are closed, lightly, shut automatically the moment she kissed me. She lingers a second. A second long enough to make me want to depend on her more.When she lets go, i open my eyes and the sun has dipped further into the water.But it is still bright out here."Every time we are alone, this kind of thing happens," she says, quietly."And whose fault is it?" I joke."Yours." she intones, not missing a heart beat.A Classic case of Amanda. I chuckle to myself."Thank you though," I say. "For coming to get me. I needed this."."Whenever," she answers, focused on the bear paw imprints on my shirt. Out of all times to be bashful.I steal a kiss.
Last Updated : 2020-11-11She Belongs To The Sky Alive, You Say: Amanda POV
Afterwards, we sit on the jetty and listen to Teni's Wait on my earphones. One bud is his ear, one in mine. Honestly, I never, ever, enjoyed a song with one earbud. I still don't, but I like the sharing part. I wonder how Patoranking and Lil Kesh's is it because I love you will sound if I listen to it like this. It used to be my favourite song. I wonder about the mangrove tree near the jetty, its thick twisted roots growing into the river bank, I wonder how long it has stood there, watching silently. I wonder about the straight line of black ants marching up its torso carrying fresh green dicot leaves.But I don't let myself drift very far away. I am sitting next to him, being here, whilst wondering about the world. Living it, breathing it, wondering about it. Oddly, it is not so bad to sit and watch for a second, like the tree.I don't know when I start humming, humming to the next song on my playlist."Please stop," Chideziri begs. "Please."
Last Updated : 2020-11-12She Belongs To The Sky Alive, You Say: Chideziri POV
By the time darkness falls we have left the riverbank.The ends of my knickerbocker are still wet and they are cold, plastered to my knees.Amanda stopped us at the suya shop I'm front of the store. The suya man was busy arranging and rearranging the heap of meat stock piled on his table, a thickset man with too prominent a Hausa accent. He called her "Aunty", in that sly way traders do, even though he looks twice both our ages combined.He said, "Ah, aunty welcome. E don tey since I see you.".I got the feeling that she often stops by. I never thought of her as a carnivore. But we learn every day. I told her that, and she laughed, while pointing out the bloody red pieces of meat she wanted from the pile. When he had finished grilling the skewed meat over the improvised barbeque, he chopped onions and cabbage, with expert precision, added it to the mix and then rolled it up in old newspapers.Amanda said.
Last Updated : 2020-11-13She Belongs To The Sky Alive, You Say: Amanda POV
I close my eyes as I think of the sound of a popular Nigerian music in my head. The beat is steady and I can feel my eardrums vibrate to the sound of its intensity which tries to draw me apart. I try not to think of the music but I can't stop myself from enjoying its lovely taste.It takes a while before I realize that the sound I hear in my ears is not the sound of a popular Nigerian music but the sound of my own voice, warning me to pay attention carefully and always follow my heart. I rest my head on the bed and before I can recognize the sound in my head, I fall asleep.
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It rains mad heavy all night. It is still raining by the time dawn ascends the horizon. I saw it all, from black to gray, then dark blue and later translucent turquoise; because after undoing my braids which were damp with rain and river water, and drying them as best as I could, I stayed up through out the night, texting Chideziri.It has been said once, that the best conversations happen around two-thirty a.m, when eyelids are drooping, when words are sincerest, and the awkward silences are not awkward at all.Amanda: ......Chideziri: Ikuku afaAmanda: What?! (Laughing emoji)Chideziri: Have you gotten home yet?Amanda: Don't try to change to the subject (finger pointing up emoji). What is that?Chideziri: Ikuku? (Grinning emoji) it means wind.Amanda: ??Chideziri: You run quite fast, like a petty thief.Amand
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Last Updated : 2020-11-14She Belongs To The Sky Messages (Two): Amanda POV
There are two Chideziris in the shop at once.It is the kind of thing you see in a movie, very much like that scene in Divergent where Tris went up against herself. Only this time one Chideziri is fair, as luminous yellow as the sixty-watt light bulb, and far more muscled, equipped with mountainous shoulders and a big mouth to go along. He has said like a thousand words within the five seconds I have been in here. He is also the Chideziri that's braiding my hair.After Saturday night, after I came in from the downpour and I couldn't blow-dry and re-braid my hair altogether before Monday, after Aunty Seedy called to tell me she couldn't come around because of a family meeting she had to attend (she still links up with her exes family. Don't ask me why. Of an inkling I have none), Dad decided to bring me to a saloon–the saloon, he said. He said he had a classmate in town who owns a saloon at Elimgbu. He just didn't tell me that that 'friend' was Chidezi
Last Updated : 2020-11-14She Belongs To The Sky Messages (Two): Chideziri POV
It ts that day Celine undid her buttons, all over again. I am so not amused.Tobi's hands move swiftly in her mane, yet softly, with greater care now. There's a bit of Apple on his arm and he slicks some onto his fingers every now and then.He leans towards her ear and says something I can't hear. She giggles. I catch fire.It's that bloody day all over again. Somebody hit the restart button on the DvD plate; it is only different now because she's my girl, and he's my brother—it is a measure more obnoxious. When he finishes, her hair is tapered down her nape in crooked lines, her forehead sleek with oil. She looks something fierce. She examines the hairdo in the mirror and smiles. Her full cheeks blossom and I am reacquainted to the lush sugar of her face.I know this Amanda, I think.I know this Amanda that smiles at people she does not know and plays with the tail of her braid, I think.Later
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