The eyes of the moon

The night met us together. 

It was frigid and I let her head find its way into my embrace; together we would ward off the cold. 

The stars spread over the dark sky unusually caught our gaze for sometime. But it isn't just the first time we would be out here, in this cold, dark night, where silence was the only song that played out in our ears. Every night we would run to the top of the hill, the torquoise sea, smiling across from a distance, bringing wet air to our feet. 

But this night felt different. With the moon. With the stars. With the cosmos. There was something awry about the moon's face - he frowned relentlessly, scaring away the stars. It had started to look at us with new eyes, different from the previous nights. 

'What's wrong?' Anna asked while turning my face to hers. 

'I don't know, I think something is wrong with the moon today.'

She thrusts her head upwards, while taking a sitting position, to get a better view of the sky. 

'But I see nothing wrong with it. It's OK.' A smile curves in at the corners of her mouth and a dazzling glow in her red eyes. 

It wasn't about the moon. Not the stars. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the night. I guess, the problem was with me. I felt strange this night, like I did previous night and I would the following night and with every other night. I was growing into a man—one I was scared of becoming. Maybe, I would start to look at the world differently; different from the way I used to see it.

 Here is college staring in our faces. Wish we could be young forever.

'Why are you this quite today?' The answer just wouldn't come out. I was scared that this time would come and we would no longer hold hands together, let alone get the opportunity to do that. 

She jerks me forward and I give a look of fear. 

'Would you still love me even after highschool?'

She pauses for a while, her hands slip away from mine, and the silence was strange. She had never thought about her love for me. She was quick to say the words: 'I LOVE YOU,' over and over again, until not just my ears tingled with joy but my hands, eyes and heart resonated in a quick dance. This time, she had to rethink her love for me. Maybe she did not love me again, and had started to look at me with the eyes of the moon. 

'Do you still love me?'

'Come on... You know I do. But...'

'Now the but comes in. Here we go again.'

'Don't get all hysterical now. Father wants me to go to Harvard.'

'Oh yes!. Far away from me.'

'Don't say that!' I love you but... I can't possibly disobey my father.'

Her father didn't waste a second to dislike me and add me in his black list of bad people who brought only bad luck to him and his menage. 

Ever since Anna and I started off together as kids, he's been on my neck, like a painful sore that wouldn't go away. Several times, he had threatened to call the police on me—and he finally did. Thanks to my Uncle who bailed me out. Her mother would approve of us, although, secretly, else, she would make it on her husband's list too. 

But is it my fault, I wasn't conceived with blue blood like them? I was only a baby when father died. Mother sold her last to ensure I arrived to this place in life; the journey wasn't a smooth ride. 

Then she rises to her feet, heaves a deep sigh, and trudges down the hilltop. The urge to chase after her fell strongly on me, but I couldn't. My eyes followed her into the darkness, and she was gone. Gone without a word. Gone forever. 

Several years later, I'm in a Toyota Camry car cruising around somewhere in Lagos. Suddenly, I halt the car just along the road, and a face I never imagined I would see again comes out of shop rite. But she's not the only face my glance caught; there were two beautiful little faces tagging along, hanging on both sides like a lady's handbag. I take quick steps down from my car and walk to the other side of the road to her. Aside the two children hanging on both sides of her fat waist—she had carefully placed one of them on the ground to attend to the stuffs she had bought, there was another tiny fellow growing inside of her; a tummy projected outward from a red dress. 

I call out to her while she struggles with the kids and two big white leather bags with the shop rite label boldly inscribed on it. 

'Can I?' I offer to help with one of the bags, when our gaze locks in momentarily. I recognize the face but the face couldn't recognize mine. But I don't really blame her, it's been a very long, long time. 

'Thanks,' She responds, shifting her gaze quickly to attend to her kids. 

'Are they your kids?'

'Yes, they are,' tiny crinkles at the corners of her mouth announce themselves when she smiled. 

'Anna! Your name is Anna, right?'

She's startled. 'Yes. And how did you come about my name?'

I take off my dark shades so she could get a better view of my face. But it was vain. She couldn't pick the face. 

'I'm sorry who are you?' I felt a twinge of sadness flow through my mouth and Iike a bitter pill, I had to swallow it quickly without making a face. 

'Anny it's me...'

She's about to inquire something else, like I was in for some interrogation by an officer, then she pauses and allows her mind to take her down memory lane. 

No other person had ever called her by such nick name. 

So she finally remembers us. Somewhere, within the archives of history, our paths first crossed. In the foolishness of childhood, we first loved; we had our first kiss; in all that mud and splatter of rain, we had promised to be there for each other, never to let go no matter the pressure. 

Now, all that's just in the past. 

'But... How... How's it that you are here?'

'I just returned from the States, after completing my masters program.'

'Wow! Awesome.'

Then I take another look at her tummy, and her belly button shooting out like the nose of the dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While on top of the hill, I would play with it, drawing it softly like a string while she falls asleep like a baby. Now, it's bigger.

'So you have children already.'

'Yeah, got married last year.'

'Hmm...'

'So what about you?'

'Me... Ehm... No, I'm not married.' 

But I was. Sometime ago, there was this lady, Rain, from Texas. We met in New Jersey, in a grocery store. She was nice, jovial and a warm smile accompanied her. We had a beautiful thing going. This thing culminates in marriage. Few months later, the marriage comes to an abrupt end. I loved Rain, but she cheated, not once, not twice, countless times with Antonio, my best friend. 

'Ada, Chike, come on now, go in, and don't touch anything there. I"ll be with you both, eh...'

So, we chatted for some time, then exchanged numbers before biding her off. As I watched her drive off in a Lexus, I was tempted to think she was truly happy and fulfilled with her marriage but she wasn't. I could see it, those tiny cracks not just in her eyes but her voice as we talked. When I inquired about her husband and how she was enjoying her new home, she just shrugged in silence and a tiny drop of tears would sneak down her eyes, and she wiped it off so I wouldn't notice. 

On a second thought, maybe she is happy. Maybe it's just couple's normal bicker. I wish her the best. But I can't say for myself; I'm still in love with her.