Unhappy – a cooking pot and twisted tales

‘You have to look relaxed and smile Nkeonyelu. Abi, you don’t want them to give you the visa?’

‘I hear that they look at people’s picture to decide who they will allow to go abroad o.’

‘Aha! That’s a better pose.’

‘Oya, Patrick snap it like that,’ Nkeonyelu’s mother’s insisted.

‘Make sure she looks beautiful o!’

‘Can you believe it? You, my daughter, will be going to Germany.’ Her ceaseless excited chatter attracted the eyes of other customers.

Nkeonyelu was not as enthused as her mother. Patrick’s busy photo studio was the best that the little town had and not far from it, was another shop where her heart lay.

Secretly in her mind, she wished the visa officer would look at her picture and dislike it.

She silently prayed that they would deny her the visa to join her unknown husband.

It was marriage by proxy and the past few month’s following the ties, she has nursed an unhappy heart.

Her secret love for Ekendili only seemed to burgeon more with each passing day, but she knew that her family would never welcome the suit of the poor cobbler when a golden opportunity has been handed to them right on a platter of arranged marriage.

Inlinkz

In response to the FFAW photo prompt above. Thank you, Uday for the picture and Priceless Joy for this enchanting story platform.

Quick glossary:

Abi – Don’t you?

Oya – Quickly

What do you do when a blogger that you have become attached to just ups and suddenly disappears into thin air?

I met an awesome Christian blogger and we were consistently supportive of each other and I loved his quiet reflections. Sometime ago, he hinted on changes going on in his life though he was not specific and I didn’t needle to pry, but I sensed his unhappiness.

For several weeks, going on two months actually, he has neither posted nor visited and bantered with me like he would and after waiting for a while and missing his blessings sufficiently, I decided to go looking for him.

It was a shock to find his blog was now private and needed a password. I sent a request for access some 3 weeks ago and not a peep.

I am almost tempted to mention his name and ask if anyone has seen him floating around cyber-space and just to know that he is fine and didn’t do something stupid.

Then I simply whispered a prayer in my heart hoping that all is well with him. That whatever his problems were, I hope he has found sufficient grace to surmount them.

I have tried to find reasons not to worry, yet my mind wanders now and again to my friend and it is a bit surprising to realize how much I care.

How much a great number of people that I have met here mean to me.

How overtime our blogging friends start feeling familiar and like extended family.

How we develop attachments with total strangers across the globe.

I realized that maybe I am putting too much of my personal emotions in the friendships developed here, thinking that maybe, I should feel detached so that I wouldn’t notice if someone is missing in action; but that is simply not who I am.

Even bloggers who are blogging incognito, I have assigned voices and faces to their ambiguous status.

I can start writing a long list of bloggers that I will miss if I don’t see them for a bit and my list would be so long because I think I virtually follow everyone who follows me.

I simply think that if they find me worth spending their time on, then they are worth spending my time on as well.

So, I guess this is blogging life. Now here, tomorrow gone Not happy.

Please, to all my blogger friends, do let us know when you want to run along and I want to let you know that I appreciate meeting you in this space and time wherever you are.