The Story Of Us

#2-Prologue

29th May, 2016.

It's a Sunday, it's her 20th birthday, it's the 29th of May. She sank into her plane seat and heaved a sign then fastened her seat belt just before they took off. She always liked the window seats, for although she had a great fear of heights, surprisingly not when she was traveling by air. She always liked to have a good view of the sight below, as they flew over countries, to her home Nigeria.

They just did a transit at Istanbul, 6 more hours to Abuja. She zoned out while looking out and decided it wasn't a good idea after all. Not fond of sleeping while travelling, she brought out her phone and logged into Whatsapp to view her friends profile pictures and statuses. She knew it must be flooding with her pictures by now. And she was right. their statuses were hilarious.

Farha: Happy Birthday to our big baby, tell Yaya that his wife to be is saying hy😍

Maryam: Happy Birthday beautiful one.

Halima: Happy Birthday child 👶

Rufaida: Happy Birthday dear, our teen is no more a term😝.

Abida: Happy Birthday adorable, the baby among us 😌

Aisha: Happy Birthday dimpled Khady our teen has finally come of age, we can now successfully marry her out without being charged for child abuse.

Fatima: Willy Willy of life, get well soon. Adulthood is a disease. 29th May please bring our baby back, we don't want her to grow😭😭

She burst out laughing which earned her some few stares, gathering herself together, she kept a very straight face like she wasn't the one laughing a few seconds ago. That's what her friends did to her, with them she's totally crazy, no dull moment with them, they could bring one out of every mood, they were wonderful like that.

She did some other things before logging out. Going through her gallery, she smiled. They had insisted she stayed back so they could celebrate her birthday, but her father insisted she comes home, and so they threw a pre birthday party for her, they made her day.

Manal graduated few weeks back, from Romanian American University, Romania. She majored in English Literature, backing a first class, she came back home knowing she did made her father proud, albeit reluctantly, she didn't want to come back. However, she couldn't run from reality forever, it's time to grow up and face it squarely. Ramadan is on the 6th of June Manal, exactly a week after your birthday. Please come back home my dear, we miss you. Those were the words he used to cajole her.

Even her birthday didn't feel like hers again, she wasn't as excited as she used to be, she wasn't even excited at all. she wasn't used to celebrating alone, and for that, every birthday brought back memories, of good times and bad.

Tears gathered in her eyes and she dabbed at her face with a wipe she brought out from her make up bag. In moments like this, she did what she knew how to do best, she wrote.

She brought out a pink sheet of paper from her bag and scribbled some lines down, not satisfied, she brought out her huge black diary, settled more into her seat and began writing. Unknown to her the surprises destiny had in store for her exactly a year later.

***

29th May 2017

"...Happy Birthday to you" General Gana, Ramadan, Malik and Malika concluded their chorus in different horrible voices which made her laugh. They all handed her the bunches of flowers each was holding. Her father sat on the seat close to her hospital bed while the rest went out only to return with gifts and refreshments.