THE WINDSHIELD

Driving down Gbaaondo’s street in Vandeikya, towards GMK football stadium, I saw Anna.

Way back, Anna had this huge admiration for me. I once asked her out but she opted out saying, ‘Charles, I don’t just like you; I actually adore you. But you see my life? It’s complicated and I don’t want such a sweetheart like you to come into my life and leave with regrets. Let’s just maintain a casual friendship. I still love you, but it work the way you want.’ It was a hard moment for me after I heard her say all this to my face. I looked into her eyes and saw utter truthfulness, I realized it had to stop there and I should not press the issue further. I backed off.

We were both students of the same university, she 300 level of Mathematics, me in 100 level of Physics, but I was older age wise. She caught my attention the day she performed Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’ during one of the university’s Love Feasts, which was my first to attend. After the Feast was over, I saw that she was walking to the hostel alone. From where I came, a beautiful girl with quite a flawless voice, after a well done performance, would have a bunch of admirers and good music appreciators flocking around and about her. ‘Or was it because she was no new student and perhaps, everyone already knew she was quite a lovely singer that no one was with her while she walked back to the hostel?’ I thought. I later got to understand that most people had it that she was somewhat proud, but she wasn’t proud to me.

It was in this humble nature that she sincerely told me we couldn’t be in a romantic relationship.

Before this ending, before I backed off, her respect for me grew extravagantly when she discovered that I did and loved music more than herself. We’d sing together for hours under some Neem trees close to her hostel, mostly in the evenings, and I’d teach her some secrets to achieving a cherishable singing vocalism through ways she was supposed to exercise her vocal cords, and maintain the right singer’s diet, even though she was just a student.

Anna was a person one would call ‘lovable’ but only to those so close to her. We lost contact after graduation and I never saw her until today as I drove towards the stadium. She wasn’t looking bad anyway. I didn’t look at her, or around her for long, to see what she was doing in Gbaaondo’s street.

My windshields were tinted with black, so Anna didn’t see me. I drove past her and pulled over at the stadium.

*Fiction