Not God's Will For Us To Marry

 The next academic year began in September, after the long vacation. I was still savouring the visit of Adeze as we resumed for the new session.

I proudly told Nkechi that  my girlfriend visited me at Aba. When you eat an appetising food, you don't easily let the memory go away quickly.

Nkechi did not enjoy the gist, but told me she loved me. I was surprised because she had a fiance.

We became closer as the memory of Adeze soon evaporated,and she never visited again.

There were no distractions, and so we gradually grew intimate.

One thing led to another, and Nkechi called off her engagement with her lover, Mike.

Nkechi is reserved and loved me whole heartedly, to the extent she tells me the ugly encounters she had occasionally with men. 

When the then old Imo State government threatened to sack auxiliary teachers, I was forced to do my PGDE at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In my absence , a medical doctor, her town's man, came around to sleep with her, but she rebuffed him.

Nkechi had the key to my house, so she quickly allowed her visitor sleep in her room, while she slept in my own. 

The following morning, the disappointed man angrily drove off, and never returned. She narrated the story to me, and my observant neighbours also told me the same story.

Any time we went on long vacations, she would tell me about the suitors who came to seek her hand in marriage, and a good number of them lived abroad.

I believe that my closeness to  her quickened the breakup of her engagement. One day, Mike visited her, and she was not comfortable with the visit. As we were outside, sitting in front of the house, Nkechi drew nearer to me, making gestures of love, and a preference for me, as I was speechless.,

Soon, we were living together, cooking and doing everything together.

She washed my clothes, and often took a good care of me. She would routinely remove pimples from my face, and had a pet name for me. She normally called me Nonye, or Isi horse.

We believed the relationship would end in walking down the aisles, hence she urged me to join in looting her father's property, but I was never interested in such things.

In Nkporo the people are mainly farmers. It is the women who  engage in farming. The men spend their time as they choose.

Nkporo people, just like Ohafia and Abiriba  people, are culturally matrilineal, and so children are closely related to their mothers' kinsmen.

If a man dies, his mother's  relations share his property. If a woman dies, she is buried in her first daughter's kitchen.

An Nkporo man can marry his father's relation, but it is a taboo to marry his mother's relations.

Teachers also engage in farming activities. When I went to the place, at first I was unwilling to farm. My own portion of land was usually given out to friends, but with time, I had no choice but to join others in doing the needful.

When you finish your lessons for each day, you took your matchet and sneaked into the farm. At a stage, the villagers started complaining, that teachers do farm work instead of facing their sole job as teachers.

Truly, love is sweet,but if it backfires, you will know that there is fire on the mountain.

Nkporo has a common boundary with Abiriba. In fact, history has it that Nkporo and Abiriba were one until some people moved away and settled in Nkporo, after a man was  murdered.

The two communities are always having a land dispute, which has led to loss of lives. Abiriba people need plenty of land to expand their community, as they are very successful business people. In one occasion, Abiriba people killed a woman, and Nkporo people went on a revenge mission. Thereafter Abiriba people arrested some Nkporo indigenes.

Nkechi was quiet, and reserved, and an introvert. One day, a friend came around and we wanted to go out and have some fun. We urged her to join us, but she refused, and started crying; we tried to calm her down, before leaving anyway.

Nkechi was born-again, and so whenever I was in trouble, she prayed for me. By that time, I was interested in occultism, and copiously read the books of Lobsang T. Tampa, a Tibetan occultist. Often I would be attacked by demons, and as usual, she  would pray for me.

I got born-again when I was transferred to Umuahia. By then we had parted company.

Our relationship was marred by constant  quarrells that, Evelyn, our neighbour, advised us to  jettison any marriage plan.

Nkechi specialised in foods and nutrition, and was a wonderful cook.

I enjoyed her coconut rice, gnarnshed with fluted pumpkin. I learnt how to make pancakes from her.

Her  polygamous father, a successful business man was wealthy. They had a house at Enyimba City.

During the long vacations, we all met at Aba, and exchanged visits.

After three years of intimacy, she secured admission at U.N.N, to further her studies.

I utilised that opportunity to draw near to God, to find out what the future held for us. I consulted Napoleon's Book of Fate, to find out if the marriage would work, but always got a negative answer.

I also consulted the Secrets of the Palms. I fasted 6 to 6 dry, and did all I was required to do. In the  dream,I saw her walking away from me. I was pained, and repeated the prayer, but got the same result.

When I became born-again, and joined the Scripture Union, I met a sister at Township Group, and proposed to her, as I was praying, a still small voice told me, " you may not marry her." Not long after, she wrote me telling me she was engaged. She was doing her NYSC at the University of Calabar.

One day, Nkechi visited me at Aba while we were marking WAEC scripts. She got angry, because she said I received her coldly. I too was angry, and quickly saw her off. 

Marking WAEC scripts is no mean business, and a tideous job. You even find it very difficult to attend church on Sunday, until you finish the exercise. 

After some months, I got her letter informing me that she was getting married. She wanted to introduce me to her man, but I declined the offer.

I was surprised, when I met her about ten years later,and she started complaining about the whole failed relationship. I was speechless, because I had expected her to have forgotten the past, and to be happily married.

 That was the best relationship I had with a woman. It was not God's will for us to marry, otherwise, nothing would have stopped us.

A primary school teacher, and a school bursar lived next to us. They were in love, and lived together, just like us. They ended up as husband and wife, as I attended their wedding. 

Life nawa o.

Sweet love.