“Parents, please make it your prioritized responsibility to introduce your children to all their relatives (even the family dogs & chicken) however much you may not like your relatives- for in this time of Human Migrations, Face Book, Twitter & whatever else connects people from across the globe. You just never know when your son or daughter who moved to the big City or another Country will of all the girls or boys in that City or Country will fall in love with his or her own un-introduced sister, brother, cousin or even uncle”.
As is common knowledge, unlike in other parts of the world, Africans don’t share the same Family names – Surnames are given to children based on the circumstance of his or her birth or after some dead ancestor , therefore making it difficult to know who is related to who. And sexual relations between close family members is Taboo – forbidden.
The funeral
When my mother called to inform me about the death of one of my cousin brother, I simply shrugged & said “oh! That is sad” little did I know that the funeral I would be attending -of this cousin brother I had no knowledge about would turn out to be of the very guy I nearly dated- my David! My crush!
How we met
It was a two way traffic at first sight
My auntie knew I was very efficient in accomplishing errands or tasks.
So that evening when she asked me to go to the third neighbour’s house & collect an envelop (money), giving me clear directions to his place, it was just any ordinary errands I would be running for her as usual.
Knock knock.. who is there? “Aauumhn, it’s me, auntie Christine has sent me to pick an envelop”. When the curtain of the door opened in front of me, my eyes went wide like King Julien’s (Madagascar2) all I could do to keep my knees from not giving way from under my body, was to take on the dead fish pose.
Our third neighbour smiled, introduced himself as David & invited me to come in.
The Zombie
Ok I don’t recall how, but I am almost sure it was through that same door behind the curtain that I must have walked through & found myself sitting next to David on the same bed that doubled for a couch. He offered me tea or juice- to both which I declined- partly due to shyness but heavily bcos I had turned into a Zombie. Couldn’t tell if I was half alive or half dead.
All I recall is the intensity of that passionate kiss & caresses & the promise to come by the day after bcos he would be working double shift. I swear a day had never been so long – the wait so painful. David & I had experienced what they call “love at first sight”
David, oh David!
He was by all standards three times a Brad Pitt, two times a Johny Depp & the other time……? Drop-dead- charming, tall, very light skinned, well built, his teeth were all in the right place & very white, he had this smile that would charm any bird out of its tree, did I already say well built? He had this look like the Heroes from the Wild Wild West movies.
As it goes, David had left the village many years back, the same village I had also left shortly after to go to the same City to make a better life. His parent’s home was the house by the big mango tree on the way to the village’s only spring from whence we fetched water.
A down to earth village boy with a heart of gold according to the funeral speeches delivered by his family & village members, David had made good of his life in the City. Working for one of the biggest 5 Star companies as an engineer, he was a boy set for greatness.
I will never really know what killed David, bcos I abandoned the funeral half way to go clear my head & heart’s content & never returned. Meanwhile I had wondered earlier on why David was never at his home for a week without informing me – there were no cell phones at that time.
Diary of a mad woman 