I was about knocking the gate as usual when I noticed something unusual: Voices and laughter emanating from the living room.

Then the motorcycle of Mrs. Annette’s husband who should have been away on a work trip.

Then the bicycle of the watchman who comes in the evening.

What was happening?

I knocked on the gate and waited. Through the opening between the gate and the wall, I saw a fair beautiful young lady walking towards the gate. Before I had time to contemplate her beauty and who she could be, the gate parted.

“Good Afternoon!” she greeted in a heavy French accent.

“Afternoon!” I replied, trying hard to conceal my joy and smile at her odd accent.

Now I could see some resemblance. Mrs. Annette’s daughter she spoke about.

“You are… teacher? “ she asked with difficulty, pausing to ponder over her choice of words to be sure what she said make sense.

” Yes.” I replied.

In the hall, their father welcomed me, introducing me in French to the new family members and introducing the visitors to me.

“They we be learning Engrish…” Mrs. Annette’s husband announced in his terrible English.

The young girl seemed very enthusiastic about learning English. Her younger brother seemed interested in fun and gave the impression of one allergic to books.

And the coming days justified my impressions. The girl was very intelligent, very beautiful and very eager to learn. She made notes of everything I said…

Those days I used to have very good old English books loaded with exercises that I dished out to them.

Their father told me that in their country Mali, it’s a source of pride to parents to have children who are fluent in English. That is why he wants to do everything possible for his kids to master English before he returned home after his contract expires.

I could not tell if Mrs. Annette was interested in me or not. If she did, she was very good at concealing it. But she did seem very eager to link me up with her daughter.

For a number of days, she kept mentioning how nice it would be to be married to her daughter. And I liked the idea, so I encouraged it.

Later when her daughter left back to Mali, Mrs. Annette gave me her daughter’s number so I could stay in touch while she’s in Mali. But I noticed her daughter appeared rather cold over the phone whenever I contacted her. She seemed very nice and friendly when she came to visit her parents and I taught her and her brother English.

What had changed? Did her mother mention us getting together and she didn’t like the idea but couldn’t say it?

I remember mentioning it to her mother and she brushed it aside and encouraged me to keep calling and staying in touch with her daughter.

Then one day, something happened. I was having a conversation with Mrs. Annette when she asked of my age.

“Nineteen.” I told her.

“Oh no!” she said, “It won’t be possible! “

” What won’t be possible? “ I asked, my heart beating.

“You and my daughter.” She cleared.

“OH why? “ I asked in shock.

” In our culture, a woman can’t marry her junior brother. She’s twenty and you’re nineteen. It’s unacceptable in our culture to marry a man younger than one’s age. “

Back then I was so naive and foolish. I felt wounded and crushed. In my little head I and her daughter Valérie were already married and I was even thinking of what names to give our children.

Valérie gave me a gift before she left: a wristband. I never take it off. A special souvenir. Now, all hopes of marrying her were gone.

I felt crushed. I tried to convince Madame Annette but it was all in vain.

Those days, I was very poor at hiding my feelings. In the days that followed, I came to their house to teach the younger kids as usual, but I didn’t look Madam Annette in the eye. I just greeted her quickly and moved to the board to teach. I stopped sharing jokes and other information with her. She noticed the coldness and our relationship became strained.

How foolish of me. How could I tell if that aborted marriage plans was the best thing that ever happened to me? Besides I was too young by then to make sound decisions, especially one regarding a life partner.