She was all over him, kissing passionately, holding
unto his bearded face in her bare hands, refusing to listen to the uncomfortable
way they both sat at the back seat of the keke Marwa, as the driver sped on,
along Aromire axis of Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja, Lagos.
She knew it was unconventional, but she just couldn’t hold
back her emotions. Today, Tade had shocked her beyond her imaginations. He had succeeded
in reaching down to her deepest innermost part, a part of her no one had ever
been able to get to.
Being in Tade’s arms right now and having spent most
part of the afternoon together had made it so special, so special was it that his
insignia of love dangled cheeringly on her wrist, a feeling she told herself,
is equivalent to walking on the moon, a feeling she agreed, she had never ever experienced
before in her life.
She was so absentminded in her thoughts and kisses that
she hardly paid attention to the keke Marwa driver, who gladly pretended
ignorance of what was going on behind him as he shot the three wheel locomotive
cart down the tarred road.
This was bliss. Now Alice knew where her heart stood.
She had finally made her choice: A right choice for the man to live with for
the rest of her life. It has been a tough decision to make but she was
presently convinced that her heart had finally chosen right.
Coming all the way from England to Lagos to see Tade
was worth it. The pressure from Kunle and his family had been overwhelming but
something in her heart had insisted that Alice should see Tade before taking the
final leap, at least to see him for the last time before she agreed to the
nuptial knot with Kunle.
In fairness to Kunle, the young solicitor and attorney had
it all in place, everything needed for them to receive his parents’ marital
blessing. His background spoke of good grooming and upbringing. His father was
retiring from a law firm in Edgeware Road, London, which he partnered with an
equally astute English man to go into maritime business, leaving his slot in
the law firm for Kunle to slip in.
So being married to Kunle, invariably meant, being set
for the upper-class lifestyle that England could ever offer them as a young
couple. It was equally a lifestyle that Alice and her family were already used
to.
Kunle’s mother Chief Mrs. Yemisi Williams had already
indicated her acceptance of the buoying relationship between her son and Alice
and couldn’t have expected any less a bride.
But something in Alice
kept her totally aloof to a final decision. Tade’s face kept popping up
wherever she was. Suddenly her dreams were filled of him. He was the young lad she
had met on one of those Sundays back in Nigeria at the local Anglican Church
she attended with her family a decade ago at Yaba, before her family’s final
relocation to England. Her parents had been shuttling between Nigeria and England
over the years, but had finally decided that it was in their best interest to
live where they have more of their investments.
Tade was the son of one of
the church’s clergy. For Tade and her, it had been love at first sight. He was everything
that Alice had dreamt for as a future husband and Tade wanted her, told her so
even when they were just preparing for admission into a higher institution.
While Alice got an
admission to study Pharmacy in England, Tade got admission to study Law at
Obafemi Awolowo University. Though they parted, but it seems that their hearts
did not as Tade wrote her consistently throughout the years that followed.
Newer technologies also helped to keep them in touch with one another.
But like is usually said, distance is no best friend to
relationships especially the very emotional ones. Kunle capitalized on Alice’s
loneliness. At the beginning ofcourse, Alice did not see it for what it was.
She just knew that she was fond of Kunle who on a good day, could easily pass
as any girl’s dream of a man. From the
day he came with his father on a visit to their home in England for a legal matter,
the friendship had taken off.
Now Alice was in Lagos, a visit she had deferred over
the years. It was a visit that she wanted to be her deciding factor, and her choice
of her future husband.
Back in England, everyone waited for her verdict: her
parents and Kunle’s parents.
Now, sitting next to Tade in the Keke Marwa which
presently nosed through the streets off Allen Avenue, Alice felt at peace. It was her third day in Lagos, and it felt
like she was already on a honeymoon.
Life with Tade was so simple like their present mode of
transportation. A keke Marwa! She laughed, and told him, that the keke Marwa
made her feel like she was lost in India! He laughed at her, parting the curly hair
on her lovely face.
Three days earlier, Tade had received her at the airport
when she arrived in the evening. They had drove in his black painted Kia saloon
car to his two bedroom apartment off Allen Avenue in Ikeja.
The apartment had no
exceptional luxuries like her home in England but it was simple and tastily furnished
with Tade’s call to bar portrait hanging at a corner on the wall of the sitting
room.
Tade was all over her and it was like both of them had
bottled their love which they started spraying on each other, as they held unto
each other’s arms, touching and touching.
It was indeed a homecoming for love. The words were
much but so were the actions. There was so much to share and so much to show.
And as if Tade knew what was on her mind, in his simplicity, on this third day
of her arrival, they had strolled out of the house as casual as they could be
in denim jeans pants and colourful tops.
From one place of interest to another, they moved
around the city in one public transport to another having parked his car at
home. Alice was very much unprepared for it when sometime in the afternoon, right
there on the streets of Lagos, Tade pulled out a ring, and proposed to her.
Bewildered, Alice melted into his arms.
The Keke Marwa came to a halt just outside the compound
where Tade lived. And he must have rewarded the rider very handsomely from the
cheerful look he suddenly displayed on his face as he thanked Tade.
“Welcome back home Mrs. Tade Akinlade,” he said to her
as he waltzed her into his apartment.
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