I cannot lie to them , any more

Growing up in a rural setting has made life for me look like all things exist and end up going to fetch firewoods and water from the stream.

     Enjoyment of the moonlight game, which has created a bond with my friends, has made me refuse suitors from the Netherlands. 

God bid!!!  Shouted my mother, what is wrong with you?

My mother said, what is happening? Do you want us to remain in this village and suffer? I told my mother we are not suffering, rather we are enjoying the natural environment which those in the urban setting don't enjoy.

I'm a very hard-working young lady who can make a living from my farm products, makes brooms with palm fronds, and work on people's farms. We were not so rich but very comfortable with the little we had, but my mother was still not satisfied.

Suitors continued coming from the city which I turned down expecting to get suitors from the village due to my love for rural settings until I met him.

Chinedu is an architect, working for a road construction company. He was sent to my town to look into the feasibility study of how roads will pass in my village.

My village is closer to a stream which has made the road difficult for vehicles to pass through them. He visits the community on weekends to invite interested young people to work with him and they get paid daily.

One fateful day, he came into our compound, an average height chocolate good-looking man approached me and greeted and asked me, where are your parents? I raised my eyes and looked at him and saw a very captivating smile on his face.

What a creature, I said to myself. I told him, my mother is in the kitchen and very busy. He insisted, he must go and see my mum in the kitchen, I stopped him but when his resistance grew past mine, I left him to go to the kitchen.

I escorted him to the kitchen to see my mum, after introducing him to my mum I came back to the veranda and continued with my broom work. They spent a lot of time chatting in the kitchen and my mum was relaxed with him. After a while, he came out and waved at me, and left.

Chinedu is loved by the elders in the village because of their humility and how diligent he has been carrying out his activities. He stays in a hotel outside the village, which is a bit far from my village. The amazing thing here is that he started visiting us regularly.

This made the villagers start to speculate that he is interested in someone from my family, which everyone suspected would be me. One sunny afternoon, I was going to stream with my two friends, Chichi and Ada. They asked me, they noticed that Chinedu visits my family regularly.

I stopped, and asked them what is the meaning of that? They laughed and said, I should tell them the truth.

I told them, he visits our house, and not regularly, but this is a lie.

I know he has been coming to our house almost every evening.

I noticed my mother never engaged stories about him with me, so my mother started changing new wrappers and clothes.

One day, I confronted my mother and asked her, "I hope you are not collecting all these gifts from Chinedu thinking that I will agree to marry him".My mother looked at me and said, don't worry "I will collect them for your good.

Days passed, months passed, and the showering of gifts has been going on but it kept me worried because Chinedu has never approached me to woo me.

Our diet changed a bit because my mother started cooking more foreign dishes, when I ask her, where did she learn all this, she will tell me "she learned online".

Chinedu bought my mum a phone which is now using to upgrade her life.

I was happy for her because she is feeling fulfilled now. She has always wanted a luxurious life she could never afford. Thank God someone came to fulfill that.

Eight months later, His work in my village was completed and He was given a grand send-off by the community. He was pictured as a disciplined, respectful, and caring young man. There's no record of any unhealthy relationship with any lady in our village.

After his send-off, my kindred who has noticed his regular visit to our house asked him, Let me quote my uncle, "is there something you are forgetting behind" he smiled and replied, "I will come later. Everyone laughed.

Chinedu didn't contact us or visit us again as he left.

I was expecting him to be visiting us at least once in a while. I missed him, I said to myself. On one occasion, we were picking palm kernels behind the house, I asked my mother whether Chinedu has called, and my mother said, I should not ask her that kind of question again.

Ever since our contact with Chinedu, my mother now behaves as if she doesn't belong in the village. Chinedu got a shop for her in the nearby town outside our village, where she now sells wrappers. one day, my friends asked me when Chinedu was coming back to the village, I told them, I don't know.

My mother now focuses more on her wrapper business, which has made her travel to Onitsha and Lagos regularly.

She stays up to one week any time she travels, which made me wonder which type of business trip this is.

Anyway, she is happy, I said to myself.

One fateful day, she came back from her trip, she left her phone on the parlor cushions and went to ease herself, a message came in and some minutes later, a call came in.

The phone rang several times, which made me pick up the call so that I could tell the person to call back later.