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The uncertainties that trailed Dila’s words ‘…give your heart to a woman more deserving’ seem to strengthen my resolve. It was either her or no one else. At first walking away had appeared to be the easiest solution but that would make me less of a man. I decided that there is no shame fighting for who you want irrespective of the bruises the battle leaves your soul with. After that day, we became closer. We captured every moment in pictures and captioned it with poetry. There was one we captioned ‘me and you is all that matters to you and me’; in the picture all we did was gaze into each other’s eyes.

“So Mr. Poet, while you stared into my eyes what did you see?” she enquired. With a smile and without giving thought to what to say, my mouth let out the words.

“I saw a new world where the moon was cooler, the stars brighter, the sun gentler and the sky bluer. I saw you and me in this world without friends or foes. It was a world where our love blossomed like the flowers in it. A place where there was no death or tragedy; the only emotion we understood was joy and laughter. A kingdom where the only temptation I had was you. Where we renewed our vows every morning; trading words of unending love.”

She sighed, “How many kids did we have?”

“None. We were everything to each other; you were my wife, aunt, sister, daughter, niece and friend.”

“We were each other’s only family?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes became cloudy, she smiled at me and a tear dropped, “I saw that our love endure sieges, storms, doubt, lies, envies and family differences. But you helped us to the happy ending. Femi, I love you. You are all this union needs to survive; you will hear a lot of bad things about me. Words that are not appealing to the soul. Whether or not we survive is a choice you’d have to make every day. I will my heart to you from this day, do with it as you please.” She rounded off with a kiss on my head. Strength and weakness confluence within me; .”

Few days later, I delivered the love letter to her. She made me read every word to her, and thereafter she gave her body to me. She was a virgin. Made me very scared, if she is a virgin, what are the bad things she talks about?

I was out of town for a while and I missed her every minute. The phone calls couldn’t make up for the void her absence created. The minute I alighted from the bus on my arrival I headed for her house. I was pained to have met her absence but I met her younger sister, Anita. She told me Dila had gone for CDS. Yeah, she is a corps member. It was my first time of meeting Anita; we talked about Dila and I.

“You were the one that wrote her the love letter?” she asked as she forced a smile,

“Yes” I affirmed.

“I hope that is enough to make the difference” she added. I was confused so I asked her what she meant, but she didn’t give an answer. She diverted all conversations towards the letter. She acted strange all the while, at some point she brought out the letter and read it to me after she had mentioned “how I wish this was being addressed to me. Dila is so lucky, isn’t she?”

“Perhaps, I am the lucky one” I refuted and she went ahead to read:

My own,

Irrespective of how archaic it sounds I can never grow too old to say you are the sugar in my tea, lol. With you my mind has grown younger. You are like a flower that springs forth in the middle of Sahara; the mystic wonder of my existence. The reason I love you this much is because you are nothing like the others; you are beautiful, fierce and wild. Meeting you was an accident that has shown me direction and given me purpose. Before I met you I had the best bad behavior, no one could change me, but with your arrival I became a better person. I want to spend the rest of my life with you; can we live our lives one happy day to the next?

You are mine and I am yours, if you die, we die, but first we live. I don’t want to be just a page in your history book; I want to be in every chapter till the happy ending. I am quite skeptical about what the future holds but I know there is no future without you. Loving you is the purest feeling I’ve ever had. I know you think you are not good enough for me, but a chance at a life together is greater than the risk of being apart. I will do all I can to make you happy and always pray that your happiness includes me. Loving you will be about celebrating the things we have other than regretting whatever we lack.

Whenever I look at your face I see a portrait of hope. I am in awe of how fortunate I am to have you. I am but an ordinary man who has fallen in love with an extraordinary woman. I do not want to be carried away in the euphoria of this moment; I want you to be the rest of my life. I want to walk paths with you and talk facts with you. I want to be the man to wake you up with a song every morning and read you a poem till you doze off every night. I want us to set a world record of the strongest home; beautiful kids, a peaceful family and an adventurous life. As impossible as it sounds, I look forward to the both of us dying in each other arms. Don’t misunderstand me; this letter cannot adequately express how I feel. Dila, I love you.

Olufemi.

Anita rounded off with a thunderous clap, shook her head sympathetically and asked me,

“How much do you know about my sister? These words are too strong for her. I just hope you can handle it when it begins.”

“Handle what?” I asked inquisitively.

“I love my sister, but I cannot afford to have guilt on my conscience. Being with her is as dangerous as how adorable she is. Everyone that has cheated on or hurt her has met their deaths or declared missing. Everyone thinks she is either cursed or evil. I am the only one who thinks otherwise; perhaps it is because of the blood that bonds us. Are you ready to go all the way? You should have a rethink before going any further. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. You should ask her about Derrick, Emmy, and Gloria. Most importantly ask her why she killed our father. I am not a snitch. I just think it is safe to know what danger you are entering into. I love my sister. Dad loved her too, but she double tapped his forehead with a 5mm Beretta and burst his skull open.”

Did she say kill their father?

Written by Femi Fragile