Hi dearies!. Today and every other Wednesdays, elsieisy.com will bring you one of a kind story titled – LONELY ROADS, written by one of her finest friends and colleagues – William Ifeanyi Moore. Keep it a date every Wednesday, you don’t want to be left behind. And Ladies, watch out as I might decide to show the fine dude’s picture. 😉 Read the Prologue:
The circumstance surrounding the birth of Afam Udemba was the kind that made you question the existence and fairness of God. From the very moment of his conception his life was marked by his bloodline to be one full of loneliness and all the suffering that came with it. He came out kicking and screaming, but perhaps if he knew what the world held in store for him, he might have considered not taking those first painful breaths of life. Afam was born an osu (outcast), and in Aboh that made him a walking plague.
Onuowoli (Onu) was fully aware of the life that awaited the son she had brought into the world. She was an osu herself, after all. She held him in her arms and questioned if letting him live was the right thing to do. He was so innocent, smears of blood covering his face as he screamed and she hushed him to be quiet. His innocence was his right to live, but it was also his right not to be condemned to the loneliness he was being born into. Onu based her decision to keep him on the saying that any life was better than no life at all. But behind that and a hundred other reasons she used to justify bringing him into a world that did not welcome him, she knew there was one true reason. She saw him as a cure to the loneliness that was driving her insane. He was an escape from all her miseries. The presence of someone to love was one thing, the presence of someone to be loved by; that was just irresistible.
Onu cuddled and nursed her baby with all the care and love a mother could give. She looked into his small brown eyes and she thought about the many secrets that surrounded his birth, from his conception to his delivery. None of these secrets was ever going to be known to him. His life was shattered as it was. Knowing the truth about himself was only going to make things worse. She was scared of the future, but for the moment she was going to drain every joy from her new born child. In Aboh a child was seen as a gift from the gods. If there ever was a woman the gods owed some happiness, it was Onu.
Time flew by and Afam grew up very fast. Onu occasionally felt sorrow for him, but she never regretted letting him live. Sometimes she questioned herself and had her doubts, but no regrets, not for a breath. He grew up to be everything she could imagine and even more. He was the kind of son that made you believe that a child was truly a gift. Onu was as happy as the world would let her be, at least for the moment……
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7 comments
I wonder if Onu and Afam, are those now who get bombed daily in the Northern part of Nigeria but dont seem to find it in them, to run away and back down to the East for their lives
The presence of someone to love was one thing, the presence of someone to be loved by; that was just irresistible…I loved reading that sentence. Will stay hooked, thank u sir
Umm interesting plot, my thoughts are flying off tangent as my imagination is running wide with what and what may or will happen! Good starting point.