INTROSPECTIVE

Chapter 7

Midnight.The universal hour of all lonely hearts.The loneliness always catches up with most people at this time.Making you realise the truth that you have been struggling to avoid the whole day.The truth that is: your life lacks meaning and and that there's probably a deep void in your heart that you just can't seem to fill.And so you become maddeningly desperate to make even a little bit of the loneliness go away.

So some resort to engaging in various forms of self-destructive behaviour hoping to ward off the loneliness for a little longer.Others will cry or binge drink or eat.Anything at all that will make you forget the loneliness.

They catch up with you at midnight. All the failures and mistakes.It's like you're suddenly looking at your life through a magnifying glass.So both the good and the bad times are magnified. You surrender to all your memories and relive all the significant moments of your life.Really,it was a prime time for insomniacs.

It was no different for Eva.At night is when she remembered him.No matter how hard she tried,memories of him were inescapable.So as she sat in her car parked on the very same road where that minor yet unforgettable accident happened eight days ago,she couldn't help the fact that her thoughts had strayed to the first time she had seen him.

It was in the middle of a lousy afternoon in a local music shop.Her friend was busy searching for the earliest Sauti Sol album,seeing as she was a serious fangirl.And since Eva didn't share the same enthusiasm for  the band,she was left to her own devices.

Several of the Afro Neo-soul albums she had been perusing through had dropped to the floor and she was busy picking them up.She was right about to stand up when she saw large black Maasai shoes at the door.Curious to know who had enough guts to pull off a look with those shoes,she looked up.

And there he was.All six feet of him,wearing dark skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt with the word,Wydde emblazoned on it.He had a striking appearance,to say the least.But what struck her even more than the Maasai shoes was his face.He was wearing Raybans so her view of his face was limited.But the high cheekbones were not easy to miss and his shades only seemed to highlight his high cheekbones even more.He had an unmistakeable stud right on his lower lip and Eva found herself imagining how the stud would feel on her lips while she kissed him.

His hair was something else entirely.He was sporting dreadlocks that were dyed red and had shaved both sides of his head forming a dreadlock sort of mohawk.If there was one thing someone would remember about his apperance it was his hair.It had a personality of its own and seemed to say,"Look at me and don't forget me."Eva was sure she was staring.But you couldn't blame her.After all,everyone in the music shop had been staring at him from the moment he had entered.Unashamedly,mind you.

Eva was so busy following his hair's unspoken heeding that she didn't notice when 'Mr Maasai shoes' was walking towards her until he was two steps away.

"Hi.What's your name?"

Her throat was dry all of a sudden.Was he speaking to her?It couldn't be!It took a moment or two for her to finally find her voice.

"Evans."

He chuckled softly while glancing pointedly at her chest."I can see boobs so I doubt very much that's your name."

While normaly she would have been taken aback by someone saying something like that,Eva hadn't even heard a word he had just said.She was too busy listening to how he spoke rather than what he was saying to bother with such trivialities.That accent was so....,what was the word for it again?

"So you like Anto Neo-soul?"

Sensual.That was the word.Very sensual indeed.She grinned like a fool.She had finally found the perfect word.