AWERO

LATE AT NIGHT

Her room was slightly lit by the cold evening sun that had almost disappeared, it had rained earlier and she had thought to take advantage of this and had managed to slip

unnoticed by her mom to go rest till she felt the lazy beams of dusk spill across her room stinging her eyes, forcing them open in the process and her

mother's voice called out to her. She flung open her eyes aggressively after failing to convince her mother she was too deep asleep so her mom would let her be but she

knew her mother wasn't the type to fall for such theatrics. She got up, tried not to meet her mothers look of disdain walked passed her muttered some words as their shoulder

brushed. She let the the fading light of day wash whatever sleep was left in her just in time for her to see her friends approaching her. Instantly her face straightened

when she caught sight of her friends, she smiled and gestured for them to wait for her as she went to the back of the house to pick up her clay pot so she could join her friends

to the stream. They conversed all the way to the stream, stopping only to avoid passersby overhear them as their conversation ranged from the prince's promiscuity and coronation

that was two months away, to the villagers they met on their way, to the men in their lives and they teased her because she was the only one in their circle that had no interest

in men at least.

"Egbon mi e yi ti a se le ni na ti to a o se yo ku ni ola" Omotoye raised his head, turned to face Daud, the weariness in his eyes was evident, he would have insisted they kept

working if the sun hadn't almost escaped so instead he dropped the hoe in his hand, raised his face upwards to drawn a long drag of fresh air that wasn't already dampened by

the soil, brushed off the dirt from his chin, walked to where his jar of water was but dropped it almost as soon as he picked it up as it was empty. They had barely walked a mile

since they left the farm when they heard voices coming from a distance away, he turned to ask Daud a question but he answered before the words left his lips

"odo o ji na si bi egbon mi" his words were like a melody to his ears, he was very thirsty since he had no water left in his water jar so he asked Daud to lead the way."E o ri bi arakunrin yen se wo ore wa"

one of ladies said as she was sure they were a distance away from him and Daud, "Bee ni" another chipped in, teasing her not

"O si fe fi oju ko e mi Dunni" she continued. Dunni stopped in her tracks turned to face the other two girls with a stern face but they didn't stop

until she yelled at them and the rest of the journey home they walked in silence.

The next morning Omotoye and Daud were out very early to finish their work on the farm and by the time it was noon they were done and were on their way to the market to

the market to deliver yams to the traders who often patronized them. When he got to the last woman he was supposed to deliver yams to he didn't expect to find a young

middle aged woman that he was sure to be younger than he was. She had on an inviting smile until their eyes met, he wasn't sure what he had done wrong but somehow also

couldn't explain why this lady who had shone the brightest of smiles to the woman who was just in front of him seconds ago could turn and give him the coldest of glares

like he was 'Esu" himself but then, he thought to himself that wasn't why he was here today, he didn't care, so he called Daud handed the sack of cocoa to him and walked away

from her shed. She could see that he was also pissed but she just didn't care. Later that night as he slept and turned in his mat, his mind drifted back to Agbeke the lady

he had met at Imagbon but before he could close his eyes to sleep he remembered he had met the lady at the market before but where he couldn't recall.

It wasn't until after a week he went farming and this time Daud decided to stay back home, he had awoke very early, had his morning meal which was boiled plantains and a

leftover of the "Efo riro" his grandmother had prepared the previous night. He had with him his farming tools, a jar of water and his some extra of the plantains for him

to eat at the farm. He wasted very little time to get to the farm as there was no one for him to converse with since Daud wasn't with him today, he exchanged pleasantries

every now and then as he came in contact with a few villagers he recognized, tried to flirt with a few ladies he met but they just wouldn't let him come too close. He missed

the women in Beti no doubt and of course his friend Maja, he secretly wished he could go back sometimes but he's only been here for two months.

When it was time to leave the farm he packed his tools and headed for the stream to go wash up as he didn't remember to do that earlier that day before leaving the

house. She raised her head over her shoulder and there he was heading towards her direction, she pretended not to see him at first and so did he when he finally came to

the accessible part of the stream. He saw that she was doing her laundry and couple other ladies were trying to fill their clay pots with water and soon after the stream

was empty save for them both. They both attended to their business in silence, each person trying not to look the other persons direction but a few times their eyes locked

and in those moments they had sent death threats to themselves with their eyes. Omotoye was done already, although he couldn't clean up like he had hoped because of her

presence and he had started to walk away before something in him clicked, he stopped turned around and said to her "ni gba me lo la ma ni la ti ri ra ki a to le ba ra wa so ro"

she dropped the piece of Adire in her hands looked him squarely and replied with "ko pa dan dan la ti ba ra wa so ro" her words hit his ego, his eyes lit up he opened

his mouth to speak but the words wouldn't form in his mouth, he tried to keep his cool but her words as she kept speaking were testing his resolve, he wanted to hit back

at her, to remind her he was only trying to talk to her and not for something else but she wouldn't stop talking, asking him to stop stalking him and at that the words

finally came and he asked her for her name softly like he hadn't been angry a few minutes ago. She paused for seconds as she heard the words and even if she didn't want

to talk to him much less telling him her name but mouth still formed "Omodunni". He smiled, complimented her, mentioned his name to her. It started with an apology, soon

after they got talking and spent the rest of the evening doing so till it was time for them to go home.

In the coming weeks, they became good friends, saw each other more often, her friends teased her when they found out he was they same guy she had quarreled with them about some

two weeks prior but she had told them there wasn't anything more to them than the friendship they shared but for how long remain to be known. The rain gave away very

little of its intent to fall and didn't give any of the traders a chance to get home from the market so by the time it began it caught almost all of them at their sheds.

She packed up the items she had brought to sell that day, drenched from the rain and heading home when he saw Omotoye trying to find escape the claws of the rain. She called

out to him, the wind almost swallowing her voice, she called out to him just in time as he was entering a house, he turned around, saw her and ran back towards her. he offered

her warm clothing he collected from Folu his cousin, asked her to wait till the rain subsided at his place and she did wait only that the rain didn't budge and rained

enormously till very late at night.