The Re-union 2

"Papa, its Nduka's wife...Nduka a na," she says and swallows hard.

The line is silent for a few seconds and just when she feels he hasn't heard her, his voice fills her eardrums that its so easy for her to imagine him in the same room as her.

"My son! My only son! What have you done to him?

The Re-union1

"Is there anyone you'd like to call?"

A thousand thoughts race through her mind as she holds on to the dining chair, her knees, suddenly seem unable to bear the weight of her rubbery legs.

SOLILOQUIES: Straight outta Hades

You can call me Shade. Its not my name but its what I say now when anybody asks,which isn't often. I am invisible.

I have been wandering in this void for approximately 48 hours. That is more or less the time after I had been certified dead on arrival at the teaching hospital.

From this vantage point, I can be said to be seeing it all: the bereavement of kith and kin, friends, acquaintances, not to mention numerous sympathetic patients, the glee and joy of enemies and the apathetic reaction of the larger community to whom I am just another suicide statistic. Through it all I can hear the questions in their hearts for which an answer seems elusive: Why? Why did she do it? What could have forced a promising young doctor, wife and mother to take her own life?

SOLILOQUIES:Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

I wanted him back. Not in a thousand years would I have thought I would ever come to this but then again,not in a thousand years would I be on the throes of such scandal.

I was embittered at him for his deceit and disrespect of me after all we had been through. But 'the wife' was never given a thought when a pair of long,slender and youthful thighs promised pleasure unimaginable. So I had never been given a thought,never been asked if I would mind sharing my husband with a younger and more attractive lover.

SOLILOQUIES:Forbidden Pleasure

No it wasn't love at first sight. I wasn't flattered by his charm and interest in me. I tried to ignore him and turned down his relationship proposal countless times.

I wasn't having any of it - a destined for failure relationship shrouded in secrecy and guilt. A roving fire of passion and lust bound to leave everyone burned out. An abominable liaison - or so I thought.

But he had been relentless, plying me with gifts and acts of kindness, making me change my mind, making my cold broken heart start to beat again.

"No it can't be him!" Common sense had warned my heart. "Anybody else but him."