Preordained #ProjectNigeria

38- Surprise!

Nwanyieze's POV~

He's also an orphan.

Time seems to slow down, but the jolt that passes through me is faster than the speed of light. The amusement in his eyes have evaporated and all I see are raw sadness and pain. I want to hold him, to tell him that he'll be fine, that I'll be here and I won't leave him like his parents did.

But words are wind, and I'm likely to disappear from his life anytime soon. The thought is bitter, that two people who have lost everything and found each other at the wrong time will inevitably part.

That's why he's so good to you. He understands, in a way. Will he understand when he finds out about you?

My throat clogs up with unshed tears, my breath catches in my throat as he looks up at the ceiling and sighs. I don't say anything, I just settle my head back onto his chest and listen to his heartbeat. It is fast, beating like the drums I used to dance to during school ceremonies in primary school, when my life was simpler and I had no idea I was an orphan, about to be abused, thrown out and sucked into the dark world of the night.

I can't talk now; and so I snuggle closer, entwine my legs with his, stroke his jaw. My dress, a chiffon gown in light green, hikes up to my upper thighs but I ignore it. I doubt he's paying attention to that.

"I'm sorry, Maduka. I really am," I finally say after a few minutes.

"It wasn't your fault," he replies in a raw voice.

"I wish I could do something."

He chuckles, a sound that is devoid of amusement and full of something dark in nature that I cannot describe. The hairs on the back of my neck stand, and I know that this Maduka isn't the same one who had welcomed me into his home with a smile and called me his baby girl. But I hold on; I hold on because I can relate to what he's feeling now.

Nobody can do anything to take the pain away. You learn to live with it.

"They died, just like that. I found their corpses in bed. After that, I ran away from home. I was seven. My mother, she was pregnant and I used to feel the baby kick with I touched her belly. They were all gone just like that."

"Why did you run away, Maduka?"

"Nobody would want me."

"Oh, no."

And before I know it I'm kissing him, trying to pour all my emotions into that contact, to tell him that it wasn't true, please it wasn't true.

"You have to listen, I have to let it all out," he groans when I withdraw, both of us breathless. "I slept in the back of a truck after wandering in the bushes..."

Maduka's POV~

My feet were hurting. I'd been running around on bare feet, after Kunle the corper had discovered me, the whole clan had been thrown into confusion and chaos. My uncle's wife, Ndidi, had whisked me away to her compound and offered me food. When I rejected it, she force-fed me, bathed me, and kept me in her room away from prying eyes.

Her room had been a small one with a concrete floor, the window had been without bars and so I'd pushed open the sliding glass panels, slipped out and ran into the bush behind it, half-blind from tears. Terror, confusion, and disbelief were what I felt.

They had been cold, so cold and stiff lying on their bed. The baby wasn't kicking, my mother wasn't smiling, my father wasn't sighing like he usually did when I woke him up.

Night time came and I emerged from the bushes, but I wasn't returning home. I knew what death was; I knew they weren't returning and that if they did, Papa would know where to find me and he'd have done so long ago.

Three houses away from mine, I could hear the noises. Voices, lots of them in my father's compound. I heard my name being yelled.

"Maduka! Maduka, lota! Biko, lota ooo!"

It was Daa Ndidi, her voice was strained and full of tears. I saw a lantern coming in my direction and without thinking, I scrambled up into the back of an old pick-up truck that had been beside a mound of red sand, the same mound of red sand where I had sat and built sand cities with my cousins a few days ago. I crawled underneath the trampoline covering and lay still, holding my breath.

My body ached, I was cold, my stomach grumbled and my eyes were swollen from all the crying, but I had resolved never to go back home. Daa Ndidi passed by the truck, and I heard her loud sobs. I loved my aunt; she always wiped my runny nose and gave me extra bean cakes or an extra piece of meat whenever I ate at her place.

"Maduka, nwa m." Maduka, my child.

Her voice faded, and so did the last of my strength before I fell into a deep sleep, into a dream where my parents and unborn sibling were alright.

The next day I found myself in a new environment. The truck owner had driven off with me in it, fast asleep. He hasn't bothered to check the trunk, either, because when I climbed out I saw no sign of anyone who could own it. People were everywhere; and yet no one noticed me. There were vehicles, more than I'd ever seen. Noise filled the air, small stalls occupied every book and cranny of this place. I later learned that I was in the Owerri market. I wandered, walking the crowded streets and dodging vehicles and people, my stomach grumbling. The sun beat down on me, making me dizzy.

I'd fainted a few hours later, right inside a puddle of dirty water.

A knock on my front door interrupts me. I'd totally forgotten about our food.

"I'll get it," she says quickly, getting to her feet and running to the door before I can move. She pulls it open and I hear her gasp before taking a step backwards.

"Nwanyieze? What is it?" I ask, sitting up.

"Did you miss me, Queen?" an American-accented voice asks, full of amusement.

Saheed.

A/N: Comment a suitable song for this scene here!

* runs into the bush*