AWERO

"Dapo" i heard her call out and instantly i could feel the hair on the back of my head standing as if to seek out the voice that called out to me and as i turned to see who it was, a beam of the moonlight that had managed to escape an ensuing cloud struck my face forcing me to shield my eyes with my palm. As the figure drew closer i could make out Tomi's face. She wore a brighter smile compared to when i saw earlier that evening, she had been on an errand for her mother but still had insisted on coming to see me at Dairo's place. We'd been sneaking to see each other for the last two weeks since i finally wracked up the nerve to ask her out after almost a lifetime of crushing on her. "How long have you been waiting?" she asked as she drew closer to me, i gathered her into my arms dug my nose into her freshly made braids to take in her intoxicating scent before letting out a very long sigh of relief and muttered out with a voice that reeked of longing "not as long as i hope to wait for you ololufe mi" those words rang in her head forcing her to flash her shiny white teeth that were at this moment stained by the beams of moonlight, my lips twitched to the side to make out a smirk because i knew how much my words affected her, and the next ninety seconds that followed our tongues locked in each others mouth as we explored every corner of our dentition. Her words when they came knocked me off the semi aroused state i was in but the softness with which she spoke them made every bone in my body relaxed. It took another three seconds for me to realize what they were about. "We'd be late to Mama Abeni's place" she had said and until those words registered i had completely forgotten about Mama Abeni's. She was the oldest woman in our little town of oshogbo and twice every week, before it got too late myself and my friends along with other kids i wasn't so familiar with gathered under the shades of an iroko tree that sprouted out of the sands of her compound. She told us tales only someone as old as her could know and last time we were there she'd promised the next story was going to be one of the best she'd ever shared with us so for the last four days i had looked forward to this night until i saw Tomi. Quickly we took the paths that led up to her house, carefully maneuvering to avoid coming in contacts with older folks who were sure not to ask where we headed but rather why it was just us two and after fumbling around in the moonlit night for an exhilarating five minutes we came into the company of our peers whom were heading in the same direction as us. We made our way to her place and by the time we arrived she was already sat on a wooden stool that Baba Dagba the famous carpenter in our town purported out of the branch of the iroko tree in her compound. It had been rumored that her residence was at some point the Aafin of one of the most influential Obas of the ancient oshogbo kingdom but if that were true the times had done away with most of its royalty at this point. I was quick to make out Dairo, he wouldn't have been so difficult to figure out anyways because of the size of his head, we often teased him with the nickname "Opa" which if said in full elongated to "Opa meji o to fila". His eyes sparked as he saw me and i could peer through them to see his excitement to know what had happened earlier that day when Tomi came to see me at his parents residence, i had no plans to divulge such information despite having known him for the last ten of my fifteen years,i turned my head to seek out my Tomi and found that she was with her friends and just before i could avert my eyes her gaze caught mine she smiled, tilted her head to the side to reveal where i had given her a hickey and before i could return the gesture Mama Abeni's voice caught me. Her voice was crisped and almost frail, the years had watered down the sharpness of her tone but was still audible enough for the one hundred and seven of us to hear. "Long ago, when the gods walked amongst men and the drums of war never ceased to sound, when men were being tested by the courage of their heart and not just by how long their farmlands stretched and women were more pertinent to taking care of their households, there lived two souls whom found favor in the eyes of the gods and overcame "OYA" the goddess of death through an act of undying love" and at that i could feel the heat from a laser like dart targeted at the back of my neck. My eyes moved through the crowd of seemingly hypnotized pupils to meet Tomi's iris fixated on me, her lips pursed out like they were inviting mine, she smiled and i blew her a soft kiss which if a friend of hers hadn't stood in that moment to go pee she was sure to have caught. I let Mama Abeni's voice serenade me again and within seconds i was lost somewhere in the fourteenth century again.