SOULEY
Hi

INI
Hi

SOULEY
You are sitting alone, hope all is well?

INI
I am alright. I have just had my meal, so, I want to rest a little before leaving.

SOULEY
OK. Can I share the table with you?

INI
Yes, you are welcome.

That was how Souley and Ini met in a campus resturant, it didn't end there, they exchanged contacts when Ini was about to leave. From there, heart crept into heart, they began with likeness as friends, then to love.  They were both students of the Federal University located in their state, so they had all the time on campus. One challenge Souley began facing early  in their relationship was that, Ini was an albino. Though she maintained her skin well, people still saw her as a strange creature. Ini was fashionable and open hearted. She faced  discrimination here and there but she had her head up, she was more than anything anyone could say, she didn't made the choice of her skin, she did not made the choice of how to appear here on earth, so she needed not to kill herself over what she could not change. Her studies was her priority, she focused on that with all diligence. She did not allow her new found love to stop her, she was sure, yet unsure just like others had done, she might be left alone, disappointed. Others had done it and she had the mind that same might repeat itself. Only that she could not stop her mind from loving others.
      Souley loved her, what was in his heart for her was beyond the skin. It was love that conquers all things. He was happy, very happy with their relationship, her life was an inspiration to him. She was a bright spirit being who dedicated herself to making others happy. She gave herself to be a source of happiness to many rejected or discriminated by others.  She gave good support to Souley in his musical vision. He  began to count on her for one, two things, Ini remained strong and reliable. Souley enjoyed it and in his mind, one, two, three thing were going on for the future. When he made it, when he hit the world with a hit song, Ini would be his queen. She was a sure inspiration all the way. All these were in the face of challenges coming from family and friends. How could he, a star,  a popular jingo, be dating an albino? His friends were always challenging him and making fun of him, oko afin.  When one of his sibling got to know, it became a family rebuke. 'In all the campus, the only one you could see is an albino, is there nobody else?' Is albino not somebody? Do albinos had a choice  to make a choice ? Even the dark skinned, did they made a choice of that?  We got to the earth to see many ready choices already made for us. If we had been given that chance, possibly, we would be far from where we were born. May be I myself, would have chosen to be born in obodo oyinbo, where they say, the life there is close to the one in heaven. Money flow on the street, don't it?  Food fall from the sky,  is it a lie? Many things we pray for here is a free gift there, isn't it?
     Souley held on but with time what the people were saying built up in his mind, he was rising to fame then and his friends were like, is she going to be Souley's first lady? Afin! The discrimination became so strong that he began to feel they were right. Though he found no fault in her, his mindset had been influenced. He began to battle it, ini gave her one happiness he couldn't explain, she was reliable and good for him. He believed, he had found one among women that he needed. The fame he was getting was greatly contributed to by her, so why leave her for another? On the other hand, Souley, the merry maker with an afin as girl friend, how does it sound? Battle  of the mind 'to be or not to be'. A man's choice and the people's choice. Which way to go?
     He began to lose the battle with much pressure of discrimination, he permitted their words and he began to fade away from her. He began to give attention to the African queens, dark and glowing. Shining and radiant, first class girls in levels, 'slaying queens' on the campus. Ini was disappointed in a way. She thought her heart was secured with Souley. She took it all, prayed that her feet would lead her well. Such thing do pain, it hurts but she always found her healing in helping others get healing with hope and strong faith that she was going to get one, who would not let her down.
Souley was feeling unhappy on the inside. His happiness had being tampered with. He was no longer the Souley with ini. He missed it by accepting  their  will over his but the people praised him now that he had a fine chick, dark and lovely Toyin, as his first lady. He would smile outside and despised on the inside. He wished he was with the albino. This one was not useful to him as the albino. With ini come from within that natural joy that sprung from the soul, no other presence provoked that.  Souley kept moving but his heart was unhappy, someone of great value was missing. You know that feeling that comes with losing or letting go someone who worth more to you. He wanted to go back but what will people say? So he kept that part of him hurting, with his eyes moving up and down with desires on Ini any time she came around him, doing her things. Her memory with him remained lighted up. He almost broke down, one evening when he was performing  a song they composed together, and there she was within the crowd singing along with others. His heart beat fast as if, that was the one who was suppose to be here with me doing this song. He quickly gained control over his emotion and moved on.

One afternoon, he saw Ini dropped off a young man's car, excited and smiling.  His heart moved up and down as if to question the man who he was,  as if to warn him not to come back to her anymore. He could not so any of such. He had lose the right he might want to claim.  He moved away quickly with a vacuum in his mind. He lived with it for long time and when he gathered the strength to come back,  she was heavily occupied. A man with promise was there making her smile as the morning sun. Souley regretted his giving up his stand for what people say. Made up his mind to seek his happiness and not what people willed.

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