AND THE 'ALBERT' GOES TO...

 Rev. Albert had eventually taken notice of her and they had become friends, wasn’t long till their friendship had developed into something stronger and primarily mutual. Obiageli would come to learn that dating a minister, one who was a cynosure of all eyes old and young alike had its perks. She would come to adopt a selective deafness mechanism that shielded her from endless snide remarks from females who found it hard to concede defeat; some of the females had become less active in church matters, what was the point of donating fresh flowers 8 days a week to the church and not receive so much as a dead plant stem from the reverend, or even a ‘hi’?, some others had in turn become overly active too. Zona joked that those in the latter category were the ones who waited, fasted and prayed that the offending relationship comes to naught; they believed themselves to be next in line to own the priced reverend and would do what it took, including unnecessary and truly ridiculous fluttering of lashes like one who suffered some sort of seizure just on Sundays.

 “Mom is Albert coming; I would love for him to be there if he doesn’t mind at all”. Graduation day was here.  Zona had come to love the 45-years old minister and had returned his fatherly affection when she had asked his permission to go on a date with Joshua. The reverend felt humbled, he knew Zona could date whoever she so chooses but the fact she asked him made him feel welcomed into their little family of two. The reverend was only too happy to oblige, he took it even a step further by inviting Joshua to a church outreach program to get to know him, an act that would show Obiageli that he could be fatherly too when he eventually asked her to marry him.  “Well yes, I think he will be delighted to come” Obiageli said. She was grateful Albert was in their lives; she had been apprehensive at the start of the relationship, she didn’t want another man breaking into their lives and breaking right out. She shuddered to think of what it spelt. She may very well then accept that maybe she just can’t get a man to stay, or maybe it was just her fate. Then again, Albert was no Azuka, not with the not-so-subtle hints he dropped lately about imminent marriage between the two, or with the way he has been nothing short of fatherly towards her beloved Zona. She knew he was in for the long haul, he loved Zona, he respected her and Obiageli had relished the fact that they shared a lot in common including celibacy. She considered herself lucky even though Albert claims to be the lucky one (for in truth, Obiageli was beautiful in every sense of the word, she was kind, she was intelligent and she was celibate). She would hold the priced reverend close to her heart before the huge hat females of little house Baptist church pried him off her hands.

The graduation day came and went. Zona had delivered a speech that was quite riveting; no one expected any less from the elite valedictorian anyway. She was happy she was over and done with it without falling on her face thanks to her mom’s constant ‘thumbs up’ and assuring smile, grin more like. Obiageli had beamed with pride the entire day, but who wouldn’t?

 Zona was excited for the future. She was scared as well. She knew it was only a matter of time before she was left to her own devices, she wasn’t sure if she was prepared enough to meet the world before her, if she was prepared to be apart from her mom. What scared her most was the constant tugging in her heart to find her father, the ineffable yearning for the man. She couldn’t understand why;  for the most part they did just fine without him, but something in her screamed out for her dad like a foghorn. She had finally told her mom of her decision to take the trip to Nigeria at dinner on the day before her graduation and Obiageli couldn’t be more pleased. Obiageli had wanted her daughter to come to the reality of her Nigerian heritage on her own, she had tried her best to teach her the ways of her people when Zona’s inquisitiveness had piqued, she had also prepared some of the native dishes for her with the makeshift ingredients they could find and the leftover ones from the batch Obiageli’s friend had sent to them. Zona had developed an affinity towards Jollof rice and relished the days Obiageli prepared it, she couldn’t boil an egg to save her life though; her mom had tried to get her to even identify a spatula but she had soon dropped the quest. Zona had also learnt a bit of the Igbo language and some phrases from her mom’s ever present relatives.   But in truth, nothing can quite suffice for experience, the logical part of her needed the adventure (she had finally agreed with her mom on that bit) and mostly the little girl in her needed her father. She had many questions. Her head may explode from them if she didn’t get to asking right away.

...till the weekend my darlings.

I hope you are having as much fun reading these as I do writing them. I cannot thank you guys enough. 💫💜💕💓💙💗.

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