Xanthous Feelings[ONC 2023]

IV

YEMI NEVER RECALLED BEING AFRAID OF THE DARK.  She lived in the dark her whole life or at least that's what she thought. They would eat by the ocher light of a candles glow__mother and daughter. Beneath the moons grinning light they would gist about what uncle did what, what auntie wanted to get married. Her mother would tell her stories of her  grandparents and their grandparents but not her father__never her Father.

No, the bastard had abandoned her mom before she was even born. Yemi knew her mother still harbored hopes that one day Ibrahim Dantani would leg walk back into their lives and sweep her of her feet because she is sure as hell the sorry excuse of a man has never even heard what a waltz was.

So when Yemi changed her last name to Shekwo-duza, she wore that name like a freaking badge of honor.

She would catch her mother gazing fondly at a picture of him, trusting that one day he would remember the child and woman he had abandoned.

Yemi  nursed no such lies. None whatsoever.

He made it clear that he was done with them when he invited her mother to his wedding to some bleached bimbo, shaming her mother in the process.
Quite frankly Yemi was done with him too. Adamilo Shekwo-duza cried for days. Technically, they were never married but her mother loved that man. It hurt more than she could explain.

Look were love left them. Love never put food on the table. Love left them to rot and found another muse. The conversation she had with her mother drifted in her minds eye.

"Are you seriously wearing that to your graduation party?"

Yemi looked at herself in the mirror, seeing nothing wrong with the simple look she had gone for; boyfriend jeans paired with a simple top and boots.

"Mummy what's wrong with this? " She still could not believe her mother was going to allow her spend the night partying, well Adufe was going to be looking out for her but still__Yemi felt like she had won the mother lottery.

"What's wrong is that you're going to die from heat when you get there__you need to let your legs breathe Mama na"

Yemi secretly loved the nickname her mother called her.

"I don't have anything to wear " she huffed

"I know, which is why__" her mother pulled out a yellow dress she was hiding behind her.  "You can still wear your boots, I bought it so you can enjoy yourself for just one night but don't enjoy yourself too much oh"

"Thank you Mummy" she tried on the dress and it was perfect. 

"And when you get there, don't collect drinks from strangers oh" she winked and was about to leave the room.

"Mummy wait, have you ever been to a club before?"  Her mother smiled sadly.

"Yes, how did you think I met your Father?" She slid away before Yemi could argue that the man was not  her father.

Nevertheless Yemi loved her mother dearly but she swore never to love like her__love like the earth would fall apart if she didn't give in, the kind of love that breaks a person.  The kind that burns like wildfire. And maybe, just maybe the universe was warning her about the path that laid before her that night.

***

If truly there was a God in heaven__he just loved to watch Yemi squirm. Because the very person she ran from was standing right in front of her with his hand on the door handle and a look on his face Yemi could not quite decipher. His eyes went to her fingers, poised to write, stained black from her pen.