LOVE TRAGEDY

Okay — here is the full *5000-word version* of *LOVE TRAGEDY*. I'll write it as a complete story in chapters. This is Part 1 [about 1500 words]. Just tell me "continue" and I'll write Part 2 till we reach 5000. --- LOVE TRAGEDY - A Story of Love and Loss *CHAPTER 1: WHERE IT ALL BEGAN* In a small town called Ikorodu, where everyone knows everyone, there were two children who were born two houses apart. Amara was born on March 3rd. Daniel was born on March 5th. Their mothers were best friends. Their fathers drank together on Sundays. So naturally, Amara and Daniel grew up together. At age 4, they shared a single biscuit. At age 7, they fought because Daniel pulled Amara's hair. At age 10, they promised they would never leave each other. At age 13, Amara realized she liked Daniel differently. Not as a friend. As something more. At age 16, Daniel realized it too. By 17, they were officially dating. Not the childish dating where you hide behind the class. It was real. Everyone in their street knew. "Amara and Daniel" was one name. If you saw Amara carrying water from the well, Daniel was behind her carrying the bucket. If Daniel was playing football, Amara was at the side shouting his name the loudest. Daniel was brilliant. The best student in their secondary school. He wanted to be a heart surgeon. Amara was a writer. She wrote poems, stories, small love letters she would fold and put in Daniel's pocket when he wasn't looking. On their final year in secondary school, under the old mango tree behind their school, Daniel took a plastic ring from a bottle coke and knelt down. "Amara, I don't have money now. But one day, I will buy you a real diamond ring. Will you marry me?" Amara laughed with tears. "Yes, you fool. Stand up, people are watching us." That night, they made a promise. No matter what happens, they will end up together. *CHAPTER 2: THE SCHOLARSHIP* Life has a way of testing love. WAEC results came out. Daniel had 8 As. Straight As. He was the best in the whole local government. Amara had 6 As and 2 Bs. She also passed very well. Then the letter came. A fully funded scholarship from a University in Canada to study Medicine. For Daniel. It was his dream. A dream he had since he was 10 when his little sister died of heart disease because there was no doctor. Amara was happy, but her heart was breaking. Canada is far. Very far. "You must go," she told him on the bridge that night. That bridge was their place. They called it "Our Bridge." "This is your dream, Daniel. Don't say no because of me." "But what about us? Two years? Four years? Long distance?" Amara held his face. "We survived primary school, secondary school, your stubbornness. We can survive distance. Go. And come back for me." Daniel promised. "I will come back. You are my future, Amara. I swear on my life." He left in September. The whole street came to see him off. Amara did not cry at the airport. She waited until she got home, locked her room, and cried for three days. *CHAPTER 3: THE TWO YEARS OF WAITING* The first year was beautiful. Daniel called every day. Morning and night. He sent pictures of snow. He said snow looked like Amara's skin. He sent videos of his small room, his books. Amara sent him her handwritten stories. She started university in Lagos, studying Literature. She was lonely, but she was proud. Second year, the calls became less. Once a day became once in two days. Then three days. Daniel said he was busy — medicine is hard, exams, lab work. Amara understood. She tried not to complain. But she noticed his voice changed. He sounded tired. Sick. He coughed a lot on the phone. "Are you okay?" she would ask. "Yes, just cold. Canada is very cold," he would say quickly. Amara believed him. Love makes you blind. Then one day, she saw a picture on i********:. Daniel with a white girl, smiling, her arm around him. Her heart dropped. She called him immediately. He said, "She is just a classmate. We had a group project." Amara wanted to believe him. But the seed of doubt had been planted. *CHAPTER 4: THE RETURN* After two years, Daniel returned. He finished his foundation program and came home for Christmas. Amara was at the airport by 5am. She wore his favorite yellow dress. She bought a red rose. When Daniel walked out, she ran to hug him. But he stepped back slightly. He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. He looked thinner. Much thinner. His eyes had dark circles. He looked like he had lost 10kg. "Amara," he said, hugging her briefly. On the way home, he was quiet. In the car, he looked out the window. That week, everything was strange. He avoided being alone with her. He didn't hold her hand. He didn't kiss her. When she tried to talk about their future, he changed the topic. One evening, she went to his house. His mother opened the door and whispered, "Amara, please talk to him. He came back from Canada and he has been crying alone every night. He won't tell us anything." Amara went to his room. Daniel was sitting on the floor, head in his hands. "Daniel, what is wrong? Did I do something? Is there another girl? Tell me! I'd rather you tell me than treat me like a stranger!" Daniel shouted, "Yes! There is another girl! I don't love you anymore! Can't you understand? We were kids! It's over! Leave me alone!" Amara froze. The red rose she brought fell from her hand. She ran out crying. That night, she wrote in her diary: "Today, the love of my life told me he doesn't love me anymore. I don't know who I am without him." For two weeks, Daniel avoided her. He acted cold. He went out with other girls, posted pictures just to make her jealous. He was playing a very wicked game. But every night, after making Amara cry, he would go home and cry harder. He would vomit blood in his bathroom and clean it before his mother saw it. Because the truth was not what Amara thought. *CHAPTER 5: THE SECRET* Six months before he returned to Nigeria, during a routine medical check-up required for all medical students in Canada, Daniel collapsed in the lab. He woke up in the hospital. The doctor, an old white man with kind eyes, sat down next to him. "Daniel, your blood tests are not good. Your heart... you have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. It's severe. And advanced. It's genetic. The same thing that killed your little sister. I'm so sorry. You have at most six months to one year." Daniel thought the doctor was joking. He was 19. He was healthy. He played football. He was going to be a heart surgeon. But more tests confirmed it. His heart was swelling. It was failing. He needed a transplant he could not afford. He would die. His whole dream shattered. He was studying to save hearts, and his own heart was killing him. He thought of Amara. Beautiful Amara. Young Amara who was waiting for him, writing him love letters. What would he do? Tell her to watch him die slowly? To become a nurse for her dying boyfriend at 19? To ruin her life, her youth? No. He loved her too much for that. So he made the cruelest, most loving decision. He would make her hate him. If she hated him, she would move on quickly when he died. She would not mourn too long. She would find someone else. So he started being cold. He posted pictures with girls. He stopped calling. He told his mother not to tell anyone about his sickness. He swore his doctor in Canada to secrecy. He was killing himself to save her. *CHAPTER 6: THE RAINY NIGHT ON THE BRIDGE* It was raining heavily on December 23rd. The kind of rain that makes Ikorodu roads flood. Amara couldn't take it anymore. She called Daniel. "Meet me on Our Bridge. One last time. If you truly don't love me, tell me to my face and I will never disturb you again." Daniel didn't want to go. But his mother forced him. "Go and end it properly, Daniel. Stop being wicked." He went. He was very weak that day. He had taken strong painkillers just to stand. Amara was there, soaked in the rain, holding a red rose. The same kind of rose she brought to the airport. But this one was wet, petals falling. She was crying. Rain and tears mixed. "Daniel, look me in the eyes and tell me you never loved me. Tell me those ten years were a lie. Tell me that plastic ring meant nothing." Daniel looked at her. His love. His Amara. In the rain. Shivering. The girl he wanted to marry, have children with, grow old with. He couldn't lie anymore. He broke down. He fell to his knees in the flooded bridge. "Amara! I love you! I have always loved you! I love you more than my own life! That's why I did this!" He shouted, coughing, blood now coming from his mouth, mixing with the rain. He pulled out a folded paper from his pocket. A medical report. He threw it to her. Amara picked it, her hands shaking. She read it. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy... prognosis: 6 months... terminal... She gasped. Her knees gave way. She fell into his arms in the rain. "No... no... no, Daniel, no!" "I didn't want you to watch me die," he cried, hugging her so tight, both of them soaked, both of them sobbing on the bridge where they had first fallen in love. "I wanted you to hate me so you could live. So you could be happy without me." Amara hit his chest. "You fool! You stupid fool! You think I would be happy without you? I would rather have six months with you than a lifetime with someone else!" They stayed there, hugging, kissing, crying in the rain, while the red rose floated away in the flood water. People passing with umbrellas stared at the mad couple hugging in the rain. That night, Daniel was admitted to the hospital. Amara never left his side. He lived for four more months. Four beautiful, painful months. Amara read her stories to him. He held her hand. They got married in the hospital with that same plastic ring, because there was no time for a real diamond. Daniel died on April 23rd, holding Amara's hand, smiling. At his burial, Amara didn't wear black. She wore the yellow dress she wore to the airport. She placed the dried red rose on his chest. And every year, on rainy nights, she still goes to Our Bridge. She stands there alone, holding a red rose, talking to the rain. Because some love stories don't end. They just change form. They become memories that live forever. *THE END*