IJE AWELE 2

A seaside holiday: the beach, long walks and sand castles. Father sat on a deck chair, trying to read. Cold wind was blowing despite the sun. Her mother rubbed sunscreen lotion on her and said you could not be too careful. She told Father to keep an eye on her, she had to go back to the vacation house for her book. Five-year-old Awele was burying her father's feet in sand until Miss Stephanie sashayed to where her Father sat. She said she was on a vacation like them and throughout her light conversation with Father kept out reference to Awele's presence or even the fact that Father was married. Her wide smile seemed forced and long nails painted red looked scary to Awele. She left her father's feet and went further away from them to pick some seashells by herself. Father did not seem to notice as his gaze was riveted on Miss Stephanie's ample bosom that was barely covered with her neon coloured bikini bra.

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?