Business trudged along today; could this mean that no one wanted to eat anything today? This week has been somehow generally—my mother had lost her wares at the market, my brother had nearly drowned in the village stream, and now this? Were these omens of a greater evil to come? The gods forbid!

I cleared the few plates that were used to eat today, and went to the business of washing them. As I cleaned the grime from the utensils, my mind wandered to the events before my elder brother’s demise. He had fallen from a palm tree during one of his usual morning taps, and was bedridden for four months. All the healers of our community and the neighbouring ones couldn’t help him; they had declared his case in the hands of the gods.

Then one night, he grew worse; he was moaning and his breathing came out in short, sharp breaths. I was outside when this was happening. I had looked up at the ukwa tree in front of our compound and there perched a huge black owl. It had big white eyes, deathly eyes—and they stared directly into my frightened eyes. In our village, seeing an owl meant that something evil would happen. And evil did happen.

My elder brother, Obinna died in the wake of the morning after suffering the pains of his fall for over four months. So what did these bad lucks mean? I seriously hoped that it was nothing serious.

I finished washing up and locked up my shop, heading home. I did not want to take my usual route home today. There was no need revisiting the past memories that path brought. Ujunwa. Just the name alone brought them all back. It was still so painful, so raw.

We had been so much in love that everything seemed attainable. She was the light of my world and I was the moon in her night. Everything was so beautiful, so perfect. Till the prince came. He was the prince of the neighbouring kingdom, and had picked an interest in her. Soon, we saw less of each other. Whenever I complained, she would claim that she was busy with one thing or the other. I suspected something was wrong, but I couldn’t put it down to the prince.

Till it was too late; till she informed me that she was getting married to him. She had found in him her soul mate, she couldn’t continue with what we were doing.

“What are we doing then?” I had asked, shock still reverberating through me.

“I… I don’t know anymore. I just can’t continue with you when my heart has been taken by… by another man.”

“Is it because I don’t have his kind of wealth? Was our love dependent on such things?”

“Oh, Anayo, it’s not what you think. It is more complicated than that.”

Read more ➡️ https://www.thezenpens.com/2018/12/27/we-met-a-short-story-by-somtoochukwu-benedict-ezioha/