Mowabites Worldwide

Flies. They wouldn’t let the sores of a dog be. And the poor dog is forced to stay in motion to ward them off, all along jerking, flicking, tossing its head -all the frantic head shakes its creative mind could conjure. And yet, the savage flies pursue with renewed sadistic zeal.

The dog stops and howls in frustration.

I wait under the mango tree, occasionally turning to glance through the thick umbrella of leaves to see if my host is on her way. No sign of her. My legs ache after the long walk.

I turn to see a boy with a wheelbarrow full of palm nuts and tubers of yam.

Two men are returning from work with pick axes and shovels slung across their shoulders, one’s backpack is slipping off his arm, but he doesn’t seem to care.

Tired of standing, I bow, holding my knees.

Would be a good idea to sit under the thick concrete floor of a nearby shop’s balcony. But no one was in the open shop.

My fatigue nudges me to go sit. I trudge to the shop.

My new position allows me to see into a house next to the shop. A woman was rebuking two children for mistreating a goat. They were strangling and whipping it for no reason.

“It’s not a good omen to punish an animal like that.” She scolded.

It sounded like an indirect message to me. I tried to not pay attention.

I was contemplating something else. My mission there. Whether it was a good thing or not.

In the past, I had banked my hopes on someone I thought would be my last. I was sure it was true love, destined to be. From the moment I set eyes on her, I just knew she was the one. My instincts, emotions, reasoning, and every spiritual sign I needed pointed in that one direction.

It wasn’t long before I woke up from my daydream. To realize all my hopes and investments and the future children I had already assigned names had all come to naught.

Wasn’t once. Nor twice. And by the twentieth time, I need not be told what to do next time. Circumstances had given me enough lectures. By the 21st time it was happening to me in this 21st century, I would be a fool to not sit up, wise up and rise up from my stupidity.

But this issue of having a backup plan in a relationship is a tricky one. And sometimes sounds immoral from a distance. She’s loyal to me. Naturally, I should be loyal to her. But I need to stay open and not become exclusive, till exclusive becomes the only way forward. Perhaps, it’s better to keep searching underground since the motives can easily be misunderstood.

Finally, my host, she arrives. I noticed she deliberately avoided letting us go to her place, saying she would like to show me her workplace, a school she felt over qualified to work in. I was quiet, listening to see what kind of person she was.

She did most of the talking all along the way, my head aching from the incessant chatter. I turn to admire the mountain and the floating scanty buidlings at its foot.

We arrive at her workplace. A very small school indeed, and now she found a chair to sit on a talk more. I knew from the things she intended to do that she wasn’t ready for a relationship anytime soon. One of those who will keep running till they realize that though it’s slow walking with someone, one goes farther than running alone.

I smile, feigning interest in what she was saying. She was now talking about countries she loved to visit. I was saying in my head, “I certainly don’t want to be used for an experiment by someone who is still figuring out the direction of her life.”

I was now in a relationship and wasn’t desperate to be in a second. But the comfort of an existing love relationship gives me plenty of space to explore how I would have been treated by so many girls if I were now searching, paying close attention to their motives.

Sometimes comparing what you have versus what is out there makes you appreciate what you have more, or if what you have seems inadequate, at least you know in what areas you can improve on what you have to make it all you ever desire.