Ride Her Shoes

13-Dreams

"Nmachukwu ! Nmachukwu !!" Her mother called her with teary eyes. She watched as her mother stood in just a wrapper, wrapped across her chest reaching her ankles.

"Nne," she replied her mother, sounding so confused as to why her mother would be calling her in such a sorrowful manner. Her mother pointed a finger at her stomach and she looked down at her stomach only to find out that it didn't have the baby bump anymore and her eyes widened.

She looked further below her stomach and saw that there was a deep red stain on her dress. Looking at the floor, she saw a pool of blood around her as she stood in it.

Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest and she could hear each and every beat.

"Nne!!!" She shrieked in horror but her mother wasn't there anymore and she was beginning to feel a whole lot of pain after seeing the blood.

The pain surged through her body in a very treacherous way as it tightened her lower abdomen with sharp unending pains and even her mouth was beginning to feel bloody.

She was going to sit on the floor when a strong hand held her up from reaching the ground then she was tapped continuously.

She was roughly shook and it made her jerk forward. Opening her eyes, she wiped the beads of sweat off her face using her index finger.

"We're at Gate." The woman that shook her informed her as other passengers began to jump down from the vehicle. It took her a few minutes to realize that she had been dreaming and their vehicle had come to a halt at a very busy area.

It was just a dream she assured herself as her hand unconsciously made its way to her stomach and began to carress it in a circular motion. She looked outside and the realization of how foreign the land was to her began to get processed in her memory.

"Ma,"  Nmachi whispered, trying to call the attention of the woman that woke her up but had the woman not been attentive enough, she wouldn't have been heard.

The woman was dressed in a long skirt and blouse. She had a matching head tie on her head and still covered her chest region with a long black scarf.

Nmachi wondered why the woman would be dressed with so many layers of clothing and still needed the scarf as her clothes weren't even revealing. As a matter of fact, the only part of the woman's body that met the sun was her fair face, neck and wrist.

"Yes," the woman replied, turning swiftly to face her.

Carefully, Nmachi picked up her bag and got up from the bench she was on to get to the woman.

The woman who seemed to be in her early 50's patiently waited for Nmachi to get her things as she watched her through the big transparent round glasses she wore.

Upon approaching the woman, Nmachi said,"I am going to Umudike," the woman just raised a brow as if trying to ask how that was any of her business, or trying to recall when she had asked Nmachi where she was heading.

"Ohhkay?" The woman said with so much uncertainty but didn't look away from her.

Summoning courage, Nmachi tightened her grip on the bag she was holding, "How can I get to the University there?" Nmachi asked.

The woman looked at Nmachi begining from the slippers she had on her dusty foot to the hem of the green oversized buttonup gown that stopped at her ankle, almost covering her slippers.

The woman stared at the puffy hands of the dress Nmachi was in to the puff-puff hair she made then her eyes landed on the polythene bag she was holding tight and only one question was in the woman's mind which was what someone like Nmachi would be looking for in the walls of the university.