Frankly Told: As I Stand Here
The wind caressed his body where there was exposed skin, almost as gently as her touch. The air carried the scent of flowers. For all the warmth and love around him, he was grateful that he had moved past his cold feet.
He couldn’t help but smile. She smiled right back at him and gently squeezed his hands, which held hers. He could barely hear the mumbling of the man who stood beside them with how much she held his attention. He felt like a child again. As he stood there, like a giddy teenager in front of his crush, the memories replayed like a broken record in his mind.
The attention on them drifted from his mind like a whisper and when he turned to the man next to him, he simply gave him a curt nod and smiled. Without words, he already knew. The whole ceremony had flown by without him realizing it and he was at the point he most dreaded but he dreaded it no more. He cleared his throat.
“For someone who speaks for a living, you would think that at this moment, that would come in handy but damn, I am still speechless before you,” he started and the audience giggled.
She smiled at his humour and his heart melted a little more inside him. He knew it made her warm up inside and her nerves evaporated in a smile, that had him subtly shaking at the knees.
“I remember the first day I saw you. It feels just like yesterday but the twenty-four hours I talk of are actually eight years,” he chuckled. “ We were at some event over there to celebrate some launch or whatever, I don’t remember but what I remember was you. I remember turning to my boy over here and telling him, that one there, that one is the one.”
Giggles and chuckles punctuated the story as he retold it and his best man reached out and patted his shoulder, smiling widely in nostalgia.
“He told me, ai chief, that one? You are sure? Ebu look in the mirror, then really look again and then come back and tell me if you are still aiming to build a house with the bricks you will be given,” he said as his eyes jumped between the crowd and his lady. “But si if you know me, I am stubborn. In my head, I knew even though I was there for business and she probably was too, I could not let this chance pass.”
He rested his eyes in hers and softly smiled, giving a gentle squeeze to her dainty hands. The rose gold ring, soaking in her chocolate complexion, fitted her slender fingers better than he thought it would.
“I couldn’t muster the courage though and the day ended with me going three-nil for trying to approach her, I mean look at her. Even me with my courage, I was kidogo shook,” he recounted. “ But the man upstairs doesn’t play with blessings and he gave me another chance. Not less than three months after that, I saw her again. I was like no, this time, I won’t slack.”
“So I walk up to her and my hands are shaking, mind you we are in the mall and I think she was with her friends standing at a ka-kiosk advertising product or something, so public rejection was on the table,” he continued. “I knew that but heri I get rejected and I move like me rather than not. So I say hi and ask her if I had seen her before, thinking I was sleek pretending to be cool like she wasn’t the only thing I saw at the event, then this mami tells me she knows ati she had seen me and my failed efforts, during the event.”
He kissed his teeth and the audience burst out laughing.
“Safe to say the number was gotten and I spent the first few dates trying to rebuild my image. Apparently, she thought I was a cute guy so of course she had seen me but it was up to me to chase her and it has been so until this very day. I mean, my people are known for it so I will show her that even me, I can keep running.”
“As I stand here, I don’t care who has said it before but I am in fact, at this moment, the happiest man alive and you, my love, are the reason,” he spoke in confidence. “In you, I have found my highest highs and fought through my lowest lows. In you, I found my truth, strength and breath. I vow that I will use these always as I grow older and deeper in love with you. I vow that if I cannot find words to explain how much you mean to me, I will use more actions. Let heaven hear it, I thank God for you!”
His eyes fluttered open, he was surrounded by darkness, curled up like a ball underneath covers that reeked of sweat. He couldn’t put his finger to it but it was hard to breathe. The air felt so thick going down his throat, it woke him. His limbs felt like twigs made of lead. How long he had laid there, he couldn’t say but he hadn’t had a meal in a while and the only liquid his body had tasted was alcohol some nights back.
He heard the door unlock from the outside but the strength to raise even as little as his head, to look over at the door of his studio apartment, escaped him. At the same time, he had resigned himself to the thought that, if it was a thief, he was fine with dying there. The room was suddenly flooded in light and a gust of wind found its way to him, knocking him out of the limbo between sleep and wake.
The smell of toast, some kind of meat and eggs followed and he was then certain that it wasn’t a burglar. Then came the sound of clattering utensils and water running momentarily. Strength to get up flowed into his muscles as he connected the dots as to who he wished had just walked in, trying to pretend he was up. There where he thought she stood, was a big figure. He opened his mouth to speak but it had long gone dry past the point of sound.
Seeming to notice at that point, the figure turned around and approached him with calculated steps.
“Chief,” the man spoke. “I told them I would have you ready in an hour and we would be heading to the home so we need to move.”
The blanket was yanked, his arm was grabbed and he was hoisted up to his feet as if he was not the weight of a fully grown middle-aged man. A towel was thrown on his shoulders and wrapped around his neck before his closet doors swung open and clothes began to fly out. There was a pause.
“Also I don’t know how to ask this but do we need to write something down for what you’ll say or will you just wing it?”
The question went unanswered and he felt a hand pat him twice on the shoulder.
He looked up, meeting face to face with the tsunami of sadness and in silence, fell into a tight embrace, heaving in empty sobs.
