She Is Blind

Chapter Eleven: New Horizon

    If I was confused on who I was in love with, AB’s advice had cleared it, and our kiss had confirmed it, but I could not help feeling weird each time I remembered Blessing. We did not let it go beyond the kiss, at least it was one thing we agreed on, and so when we had let each other go after a long and emotional embrace, and after confessing eternal love to each other, we went back to the parlour.

    My parents came back from the church service, and my mother embraced Gift, while my father touched her shoulder. She stayed with us all day, after calling her parents to let her know she was safe and would not be coming back till evening, and they sent their regards to us. After that she started playing with Jemima and answering her numerous questions about what being blind was like ever so patiently.

I felt a personal pride, watching her talk to AB when he arrived after everyone else had come back and joke with each other as if they had been friends for years, talk to my mother about life in her school and to my father about Nigeria’s pathetic situation. She blended with my sister so well I could not help thinking of how good she would have been with children if she could see them, and I watched her teach Jemima how to use Google Assistant for commands. For one thing, I thought she was a wife material while standing there in a corner of the parlour, watching her with a smile, and shaking my head.

    She joined us for dinner, and although I knew she could eat by herself, though not too properly, she told my parents she was usually fed by one of her family members. It fell to me to feed her with the meal of Pounded Yam and Egusi soup, and I could not help my amusement at her cheekiness and how smart she was to get me to feed her right in front of my parents. Soon it was time for her to leave and it was evident everyone wished she would stay a little longer. My mother, however, was the one who openly expressed that wish and everyone concurred with it, including my usually emotionless father to my surprise, but Gift said she had to go, promising to sleep over another time.

    By 5:48PM, I started taking her back home. An evening soothing breeze blew gently as we walked on the lonely road, and I felt as though even Mother Nature wanted us to be together, the breeze a sign of approval. We walked on, holding each other’s hands with me describing the things I could see on the way to her. I told her about the lonely road, the sky that had the same colour with her eyes, the red clouds so coloured because of the sunset, the green scenery, the birds flying back home, the bats resuming their activities, and the golden brown sun setting in the horizon. We had turned on the last bend to get to her house when I squeezed her hand a bit.

    “Why did you do that?” she questioned me, her eyes radiating curiousity while I turned to face her.

    “There are so many things I want to do to you all at once, to hug you, and kiss you, and stand on the highest peak in the world and scream how much you mean to me and how I could die for—“

    She had tried to put her finger to my lips, but she missed because she could not see me, so she ended up tapping slightly on my chin, causing me to be quiet.

    “Don’t you ever talk of dying and leaving me, because I will be willing to die along with you. Just stay alive for me and tell the world how much you love me and how much I mean to you. That is all I really want from you.” she whispered.

    I felt so loved and so wanted in that moment more than I had ever been in my life, and so I pulled her close to me in an embrace. It still did not feel enough to me, so I raised her face up to mine and kissed her, eyes closed and uncaring if anyone was going to come up the road, and when she clasped her hands around my neck in a bid to pull herself closer to me, I felt what I had wanted to feel, so complete and alive. Blessing was the less romantic past, and Gift was here, my present and future.