Once upon a time...

The month was February and the year was 1997, forget about the day abeg, but i know it was sunny. yeah real sunny because i had my sunshades on( God bless those piece of glasses).

A lone ranger i was, walking down the slope of the popular academic campus of the Enugu State University of Science & Technology(ESUT), counting the fleet of cars as they drive by, biting my lips, cursing and regretting why i had come all the way from ''Canaan city'' to ''Egypt''. I missed Lagos, my friends, the molues and danfos, not to talk of Iya Mulika's amala and ogunfe. I felt home sick, but as an ''Area'' guy, i had to adjust to the situation.

I liked nothing about the town i found myself. Enugu seemed dry to me because i was always broke. The town is not cost effective at all...because of the colleges around, accomodation was hell on earth. Getting chow? na war! Now you know why it was all frustration! frustration! frustration!. But the saying that ''at the end of every dark tunnel, there is light'' is actually true. This is my story. A story about love and realizing your dreams.

I was running late for lectures one crazy hot afternoon. sweating and angry as usual when this little red car zoomed by. i was lucky to catch a glimpse at the driver. A chick behind the wheels?. Not that i have never seen a lady driver before but the fact that she was of a mixed race, part Asian and part Nigerian, left my mouth wide open for the flies to do a survey.

With my leggedez benz, i followed suit. I have seen a lot of people of the mixed race type in my life time but not the Asian type. I was curious. To my delight, she was heading to my faculty. I got there panting from the quick paces i took and she was just disembarking from her car looking all relaxed and sweet. Her eyes were like two perfect lines drawn just above her cheeks. She had dark long hair that got to her lower back. Her being? petite and graceful. She was perfect! i could feel my eyeballs taking the shape of love in their sockets. What is she looking for in a town as dry as Enugu i asked myself? I later found to my dismay that she is more Ibo than i am.

The next couple of weeks for me was hell because i just couldn't take my mind off what i saw. To add to my predicament her Faculty was close to mine. She was in Law and i was in Social Sciences. Whenever she passes by i try to resist the urge of howling like Droopy after been kissed by a lady. I am yet to repair the pillars i bumped into while looking at her and walking. To cut tory short, i got to know her name and i found out she was a member of one of the best clubs on campus-Writers' club. Of which yours truly later became an active member. Based on club levels, we became friends and i got to know her a lot more.

After months of spending time together as comrades, i was opportuned to give her a poem i wrote to her. The poem was about her. Things took another turn. Uzo and i got intimate. The problem for me was that i couldn't tell if i was infatuated or inlove. I liked what i saw quite alright but was that what i really wanted? i took the picture of her physical appearance out of my head and looked within, that was when i knew i was inlove with her. I loved everything about her, the way she talks, walks, reasons, and even eat. It was like heaven on earth. i have never been happier in my life ...except... What we shared was pure love, friendship and commitment. We were so close. I was more of the love pigeon though, i guess cupid fired too many arrows on my bum. We had it going on well for us. My folks started wondering why i stopped coming home for holidays. To me, Enugu was Canaan city, the promise land.

Good things they say, don't last. Suddenly the atmosphere became cloudy and we had to break up. She told me that she was more comfortable with me as a friend rather than my girl. It was a big blow but i rcovered faster than flash. We went back to becoming just friends. we continued keeping intouch. Then for just the sole reason of letting her go, i decided to break every means of communicating with her. I shut myself out. We lived our separate lives but kept each other as friends some where in our hearts.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge. The month was November and the year was 2oo6, forget about the day abeg, but i know it was sunny. Guess whose office was a block away from my office? Yes o, Uzo! it was like a dream. We were just staring at each other. To me, the old flame came up like the olympic torch. We had so much to catch up on. Anyways, the ''catching up'' was done on our matrimonial bed. lol.

We got married on the 8th of November, 2007.