MARRIAGE TO RE-MANAGE.

NOTE PLEASE: This story hasn't yet been edited. Its just fresh out of my head....



Vera sat in the coffee shop that morning sipping gently out of her hot cup of tea and coffee. She was wearing the same purple floral gown Jola had bought for her on her thirty eighth birthday. She usually came by the coffee shop every Friday wearing a pretty gown and a pair of simple slippers and always sat at the left corner of the shop beside the small window adjacent the main entrance, sipping from her cup and working on a new poem or story.

Jola always told her that her fingers did magic with words on paper and that her writing could capture the heart of the stiffest person on earth. Jola worked as the chief editor for one of the most popular magazines in the country while Vera worked as a freelancer for different big shot magazines across the country. Jola and Vera shared a lot of things in common and they were both successful at their jobs.

They met in 2006 at a book party organized by the National Writers’ Guild and their love history began its story from that day. Jola was Vera’s longest relationship after her marriage to David her late ex-husband failed. David and Vera had both just signed their divorce papers but David died in a ghastly motor accident on his way back to his hotel room. Vera mourned David for one year but moved on with her life right after then in 2003. Since she had no children with David, she took to dating men casually and taking time out to hang out in clubs, attend parties and prosper in her writing career. David’s death afforded her an opportunity to enjoy selfish living, a life she craved for all her life but never got a chance to live. Vera swore that rather than have a relationship or marriage cause her sleeplessness, she would live and die single. She swore never to bother a pin about any man.

Vera became a little more tolerate when she and Jola started dating one year later. She let herself believe he was a good man so they got engaged after eight months. Jola was pleased that Vera didn’t turn down his request when he proposed that she married him. Vera still hadn’t gotten over the distasteful experience of her first marriage so taking any man seriously after then was more difficult for her than any other thing she had done. Jola carried her patiently throughout their relationship hoping that he could serve her hope and get her to believe that she could still enjoy a good married life in her life time. Vera soon grew fond of Jola and in no time, she fell in love with him.

From good looks to a kind heart to a very versatile beautiful mind, Jola was a man any woman would dump her man to spend a day with. He fulfilled every description of the perfect gentle man most love stories described. He seemed to good to be true, yet stayed true.

Still at the coffee shop writing, Vera’s attention was fixed on the notebook size laptop open in front of her when a tall dark young man walked into the coffee shop. The gentleman had the same body frame as Jola and had walked in with a slim dark skinned lady who wore heels that helped her measure up to the gentleman’s height.

Vera’s attention got slightly distracted and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the gentleman, who was now looking in her direction. All vera could make out of his face from where she sat was a side view of his face that replicated Jola’s. Vera couldn’t understand why Jola would walk into the same coffee shop he knew she liked to hangout in and not bother to look for her and say hi. She infact wondered why he would walk in there holding another woman and caressing her waist like he owned it. Vera’s thoughts soon engulfed her that she saw herself walk up to him and tap him on the shoulder.

He turned back to see who it was that had tapped him, and the smile on his face faded as soon as he turned back and his eyes met Vera’s. “Yes ma’am?” he said, replying her tap with a questioning look.

“Yes ma’am? Did I just hear you say yes ma’am?” Vera asked, squinting her eyes with her back slightly arched.

“You tapped me, so I ask if there is something I can do for you” he replied, looking calm and warmly at Vera like he had no clue what that tap meant or if it had any meaning at all.




Vera stepped back slowly, holding her head in her hand like a one who had been hit unexpectedly by a migraine. She roamed in her thoughts for a while until she was slapped back to reality by her phone’s ringtone. She slid out of the thought she just had and looked at the counter to see if the young man was still at there but he was gone. Neither the young man or the young lady he had come in with were at the counter. She never got to look at the man’s face and although she had imagined the guy was Jola, haven seen his face in her short trance, she chose to believe it was someone else instead. Vera decided to forget about it and go back to what she was writing and her phone rang again. It was Jola calling with his cell phone. Jola only called with his cell phone when he was away from the office. Vera let the phone ring to it’s limit then she picked it up, switched it off and went back to what she was writing. She wasn’t sure what she would do or what she wanted to do. She decided to forget the entire episode and continue what she was writing….

THE LAST UPPER CUT

This story has been published on www.ynaija.com


I curled up at a corner in the room close to the living room and peeked at my parents as they spat curses at themselves.

“You’re the biggest mistake I ever made!” my mum screamed out in a high soprano voice.

Her neck veins were all out and obvious, protruding from under her skin like they were about to tear themselves out of her neck. Mum continued her rant saying, “I should have left you at the altar on our wedding day and ran to Englandwith Austin. You’re nothing but a big silly mistake!”

Dad ran up to her with his fist clenched, about to throw a punch at her. Mum took quick steps back and hit her back on the wall behind. She shielded her face with one arm and waved her fist in the air with the other arm.

My father was standing over her at this point with eyes as red as mine were whenever I has conjunctivitis. He breathed in a heavy-quick manner that made his chest broaden and push out so obviously that it made him look like the cartoon character named Johnny Bravo.

“You think you can cheat on me and file for a divorce to get out of the marriage whenever you liked abi? I will kill you with my bare hands today and send your corpse to your father, you shameless whore.”

My father wore no single line of a smile or anything close to it as he spat his words out. He was dead serious and dead ready to kill my mother. He slapped her head against the wall severally, lifted her off the ground and threw her on the couch. Mum wrestled herself up the chair and staggered up to a standing position. She threw a couple of uncalculated punches in dad’s direction but only one made it to his nose.

For over 20 minutes, I stayed curled up at the corner where I was, watching my parents argue, throw punches, drag each other by one part of the body or another and throw things around. It was like a live wrestling match was being played in my living room. The kind of fight I saw in movies was taking place in my own house yet my thirteen year old hands couldn’t summon the courage to stop the madness.

An idea had come into my head that I should film the entire episode so I could play it for my parents to watch later on. I wanted them to learn from it so that they’d and never let it repeat itself. I wanted them to stop, hug each other and love themselves again. I wanted them to stand in that living room and realize the mess they had made of themselves and their home. At some point, I wanted them both to slump and die. So many thoughts ran through my head and pictures slid pass my mind whenever I closed my eyes.

I remembered dinner on the dining table two days ago and how my parents, my older sister and I sat at table together eating, clinging cutleries, sipping, drinking, laughing and chatting like a bunch of united happy people. The contrast between then and now was so sharp it made the thought of the possibility of any happiness existing in my family as blur as the vision of a man who had large boils hanging down his eyelids.

My older sister soon barraged into the living room from the market, panting like a dog that had spent all its energy barking. I was sure the sound of chaos blasting its way out of the house must have made her run like a confused lion from the gate. She struggled with my dad and managed to retrieve the figurine he was holding from his hand. She threw it as far as she could and ran up to my mum who was now holding a piece of broken glass in her hand.

Adanna my older sister soon got overwhelmed with rage. It had taken over her so quick that she didn’t realize when she blessed my mother’s cheek with a slap and yell at my father to sit his shameless butt down. Everyone soon froze and stood where they were staring at themselves. The chaos had mellowed down and what now went on was a battle of heavy breathing. Tension had overtaken the cold air from the air conditioner and heated the room such that sweat rained down our bodies.

Bloodstains painted the walls while pieces of broken wares scattered themselves everywhere, covering the living room like snow. The television was the only lucky thing that didn’t get hit. The aquarium was smashed to pieces and the tiny beautiful fishes in it did not survive to see the end of the fight. Dad walked out of the living room and since he always had his car keys in his pocket, he zoomed off in his Toyota Camry saloon car without saying a word to any of us. Mum slumped at a corner of the living room and begun to cry. She didn’t care that she was lying on piles of broken pieces of glass. Adanna stood at the centre of the living room, staring straight into my eyes like there was something she had to make sure she memorized in them. Her face wore no expression, neither did her legs move.

I sat curled up like I had been with my lower lip bit between my teeth, rocking myself back and forth at one corner and praying the fight had ended for good. I had no idea that I had a cut at the centre of my head which bled profusely with blood tickling down my back like sweat. I soon became cold and passed out.

ECLIPSE

If you search round the world, I assure you it will be extremely difficult for you to find up to ten persons who possess the kind of impressive and pure talent Nkasiobi Chukwu A.K.A Eclipse has. Joggling between a job as radio presenter of one of the most listened to radio programs, “cruise easy” on 91.1 Lion fm UNN, school work as a 300 level mass communication student, music production and graphic designing, Eclipse is an example of a jack of all trade and a pro in all.

Born on the 23rd day of July 1991 as the 3rd child of 5 children, Eclipse was raised under the guidance of Pharm and Barr Chukwu. Eclispse’s father is a pharmacist while his mother who is a lawyer by training is a Reverend heading a Methodist church in Imo state Nigeria. Both parents have contributed immensely to the wonderful training that has formed this strong young man. His first experience in education was at Airforce Nursery and Primary school Kaduna where he received his Nursery and part Primary education before transferring to UNILAG staff school, Lagos to conclude his primary education. He proceeded to Federal Government College Kwali Abuja, Nigeria to receive his secondary education and University of Nigeria thereafter for his Bachelor degree which is still running.

At a young age of 19, Eclipse is bringing the revolution we have waited so long for. With a pure delivery of rap lines, smooth harmonious music, breath taking punch lines and rhymes, Eclipse is one rapper whose music will get you listening and thirsting for more. Eclipse apart from being one of the freshest and best rap talents from the east is also a very good graphic designer and music producer, producing over 10 tight beats, music concepts and other forms of artistic bombshells every month. He has earned so much respect and won over many hearts, breaking non and pleasing all. I advise that you get yourselves ready for the revolution cause this young dude is set on exploding your minds for real. Eclipse is rap music’s next rave.

VIDEOMAIL (Take your twin seriously)

THE UNN SEX TAPE…

It has become a reality that things or people we do not know can come around to harm us and even destroy us if we don’t get lucky.

Exam period in the University of Nigeria Nsukka is usually quiet, boring, annoying, frustrating, agonizing, and monotonous, in fact every other thing you can think of that best describes the opposite of good. The school becomes a practical ghost land once exams begin and many students begin to live from classroom to library, thereby cutting away every other aspects of their life. Except the religious aspect sha, and of course it is no longer news that UNN tops the list as the most religious school, school with the largest population of religious students or school with the highest number of religion students outside the department of religion. To cut the long explanation short, more students are involved in religious activities in UNN than you will see in many other universities in Nigeria.

In February this year during the heat period of exams in UNN, a sex video found its way in some students’ phones. Sex tapes have of course become a normal thing to see in anyone’s phone and they have become very normal that people have started to make videos of themselves in the act. I really don’t want to go into any moral argument about this issue but I’ll simply leave us with a question. How much has pornography helped us as individuals and as a generation? There! That does it, now back to my story. This sex video school UNN in a new way. Even bookworms and exam freaks stepped out of their shells and flowed with the new season. The sex tape became a “must see movie” with everyone discussing its contents in the hostels, in class, in the library, at eateries, in church and everywhere else people gathered. The guilt people usually felt when they watched porn disappeared and like a 4 unit load assignment, people made sure they saw that video.

What was so special about the video? Aha! I’ll tell you.
Many of us human beings will rejoice over someone’s downfall more than we would over their success and it is very sad. As soon as the girl in the video was identified as a UNN undergraduate, it became the justification students gave themselves to watch the video and store copies of it on their phone which they were willing to share. Most people who saw the video suddenly became saints and Judges, blaming the lady for being so stupid for allowing herself to be put on tape in that manner and raising there noses in disgust over how she had shamed God for indulging in such a sinful act. No one bothered about the man in the video or his own sin, or about themselves who had equally just wronged God by allowing their eyes behold such evil. We all blamed the poor girl and clamped down on her to destroy her psyche and ruin her with dirty words. Everywhere she went, people pointed at her or stared at her awkwardly but her friends still stuck with her.

Days after the video and its story had circulated the school, facebook, youtube and some other social network sites, the suspected lady in the video took courage and denied that she was the lady in the video. The school administration set up a panel some weeks later to look into the issue and find out the truth. Testimonies then came from people who claimed to have seen the video four years earlier and a friend of the actual lady in the video was even contacted and she confirmed that the suspected Unn student wasn’t the lady in the video. The suspected UNN student was however taken through series of cross examinations, one of which involved her being examined naked (by some females on the panel) and compared with the lady in the video.

At the end of the investigation, the young woman from UNN was found innocent and was recommended for counseling sessions with a psychologist.