Anele was done.<\/p>\n
She just couldn\u2019t go on. What was the point? Who would she celebrate with? What joy would she derive when amid the colourful ornaments and decorations, her entire world had become monochrome? She was alone, and for a moment they had planned to celebrate for the first time in their new apartment, it hurt to see all their plans fall apart just because of him.
\nWilliam looked at her as she stared at the phone in her hands. He heard the spattering sound of tears hitting the screen before she flung it at their portrait on the wall in frustration. She didn\u2019t look at him. She now knew what had happened and it was hard to take. He understood. It would be difficult for her not to react like she was. He couldn\u2019t get through to her and she didn\u2019t even act like he was there with her. The sadness, anger and misery were all too consuming so he just sat there and watched her go through the emotions ravaging her the way a small fishing boat would in a raging storm.<\/p>\n
Anele had always been expressive while he was the contained one. Thinking about it now, he chuckled upon the realisation that he never called her by her actual name; he preferred calling her Sabre. That was the name he got when they met online. The name struck him because it reminded him of Diego, the tiger character in Ice Age and this was the only reason engaged in conversation with her.<\/p>\n
Anele on her part had noticed a cynical status update and in their first-ever conversation, asked to know what got him so annoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey.\u201d
\n\u201cHi.\u201d
\n\u201cAdded you from the Writers Fight Club just in case you\u2019re going to say \u201cwho are you and what do you want?\u201d
\n\u201cLOL! No, that\u2019s okay, I know. I\u2019m not that type.\u201d
\n\u201cGood, saves me energy. I\u2019m lazy like that.\u201d
\n\u201cThanks for the heads up. I bet you\u2019re an angry one sha, going by your last post. Is there anyone you\u2019re thinking of kicking to the curb?\u201d
\n\u201cLOL! No, I\u2019d rather just shoot them.
\n\u201cOh wow! For real?\u201d
\n\u201cHahaha, no. I just get to think of random stuff sometimes and I put it all up. By the way, what\u2019s the story behind you, using \u2018Sabre\u2019 as your screen name, hope you don\u2019t bite?\u201d<\/p>\n
He lay on his bunk at the barracks that evening smiling at his phone like a spell had been cast on him, chatting away with a stranger for hours on end. They talked about Sabre-toothed tigers, argued about the bite force of wild predators and a ton of stuff he wouldn\u2019t talk about with just anyone, much less for hours, up till the point when she asked, \u201cHold up William, what the hell are we?\u201d
\n\u201cI have no idea kitty; I guess there\u2019s a lot of time to find out.\u201d
\nAnd find out they did, that they were what people would readily call soul mates. It was all so wonderful till what happened threatened to destroy everything they had built.<\/p>\n
William remained on the edge of the couch, lost in thought when he heard the sound of a briefcase snap shut.
\nShe was leaving.
\nHe sprang up and said the only thing he had the strength to say, hoping it would make her change her mind.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t go. Please!\u201d
\nShe didn\u2019t even look back.
\nHe didn\u2019t say anything else but kept repeating the same three words as he followed her down three floors.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t go. Please\u2026\u201d
\nLike a spell, he hoped the words would take on some power or life of their own and hold her back. Stop her. Restrain her. Make her change her mind.
\nStill, there was no answer other than Anele\u2019s losing struggle to muffle her sobs and stop herself from shaking. She put her luggage in the trunk and got in the driver\u2019s seat. There was no way she\u2019ll be staying inside that house, not after what she saw inside the paper. William had told her he was coming home in a few weeks and would send her a list of things to put in place ahead of his arrival. He wasn\u2019t around when she finally decided on an apartment, and she had asked him to send his thoughts on how he would like their space to look. It was one of the things he loved about her. The consideration she had for him even when it came to stuff he had no interest in was one of the things that made him realize she was a keeper.<\/p>\n
But she didn\u2019t get a list. He didn\u2019t call and she didn\u2019t hear from him. She wouldn\u2019t have known what happened if she didn\u2019t check Instablog that morning and at that point, she wished she was out of data. She would have loved to keep living in ignorant bliss but since that had been taken away, she felt her only remaining choice was to get away from the pain.
\nHis pain. Her pain. Their pain.<\/p>\n
People deal with pain differently; some go through it by connecting themselves to whatever remains of pleasant memories while others try to get themselves away from anything that would remind them of what had been. She didn\u2019t want to see the pencil-drawn portrait of her that William drew. Neither did she want to go anywhere near the kitchen because they cooked together often and had planned a set of meals for their upcoming Christmas barbeque. She\u2019d smear his shirt just so he\u2019d take it off and he\u2019d do the same. It was where they played the silliest games. The couch would be untouchable too; it was where they cuddled there while occasionally wrestling for the TV remote.<\/p>\n
Anele wanted no memory, no reminder of what was, and surely didn\u2019t want to stay where she\u2019ll be surrounded by memorabilia; she was better off leaving.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a futile enterprise and she knew it. You can\u2019t leave pain behind, especially not by vacating a location. It follows like a stray dog stalking a stranger.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t go\u2026Please!\u201d
\nThe same plea, the same response as the first \u2014 ignorance.
\nBanishing those thoughts from the innermost recesses of her mind for the time being, she pulled out onto College Road and headed for Ojodu. She didn\u2019t know where she was going or if she wanted to go anywhere at all. All she wanted to do was to get away. Perhaps she would drive around for a bit before deciding. Face her pain and go back home or stay a while with her best friend, Dotun?
\nShe\u2019ll know when she was done.
\nFor Anele, each tear brought with it, a memory of their best moments together. They\u2019d decided on a second date less than an hour into their first and by the end of that week, were in the same bed in her one-bedroom apartment. It was a reckless adventure that ended up with her getting pregnant. William didn\u2019t care. For him, everything was falling into place, and he couldn\u2019t wait for them to live together till they were old and grey.
\nWilliam ran after the car as fast as he could. There was a bit of traffic. If he could get to her before she entered a major road, she\u2019ll stop \u2014 except if she didn\u2019t mind running him over.
\nHe was too late.
\nShe was wiping tears off her face while looking into the rearview mirror when she ran a red light at the intersection in front of Excellence Hotel. An oncoming truck hit the car broadside and didn\u2019t stop for another ten metres.
\nWilliam screamed.
\nIn seconds a crowd had gathered to help pull her out of the wreckage. To the amazement of her rescuers, save for a small bruise on her forehead, Anele was fine. A policeman motioned for her to follow him to the County Hospital nearby for a quick check-up before heading to the Area G Divisional Headquarters where he would take her statement.
\nThat was when she saw him.
\nWilliam stood on the other side of the road wearing his uniform and hat just the way she liked it. The silly smile she had become so used to was on his face.
\nShe ran.
\nAll she wanted to do was hug him so tightly that her arms would break. That, she did, his open arms welcoming as always. It was as if her near-death experience served as the motivation, she needed to forget her present pain and just stay in the arms of love. Her love.
\nStill, in his arms, he finally said what he wanted to say all the time she ignored him at the apartment.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll always love you, never forget that.\u201d
\n\u201cI know. I was so upset and disappointed but I know.\u201d
\nThe policeman, puzzled as to why the young lady stood motionless on the sidewalk, walked back, and urged her on. In his right hand was his phone with the screen off. Beneath that screen was an Instablog post showing the photograph of a group of soldiers with William standing on the far left.
\nThe caption read, \u201c10 Soldiers Killed in Bloody Terrorist Attack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anele was done. She just couldn\u2019t go on. What was the point? Who would she celebrate with? What joy would she derive when amid the colourful ornaments and decorations, her entire world had become monochrome? She was alone, and for a moment they had planned to celebrate for the first time in their new apartment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7523\/revisions\/7526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}