CAMARADERIE TROUBLES

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, days to weeks… Selena knew the sound of silence. It is the loud echo of nothingness which deafens the ears even when there are voices all around. There was a stabbing pain in her little heart that wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard she tried. She should have talked to him when she had the chance. She should have told him how much he meant to her; definitely should have told him that she loved him so much. She should have been there, been there with him in the hospital, holding his hand as he grabbed ferociously onto the reins keeping him alive. She should have been the cord that held him together; she should have been his anchor… like he had been to her, her whole life.

IK was the one who always understood her. Even when others misunderstood her and probably thought her a bit weird, IK was the one person who could tell what she was thinking. He defended her even against their parents when she was about to be punished for doing something wrong. Still… she wasn’t there for him when he needed her the most. She wasn’t with him, and when he begged to speak with her, she had refused. Her reasons for not speaking to him seemed senseless now. He had begged, God knows he begged to hear her voice, and yet… and yet…

Selena bit hard on her lips, as she filled herself from crying. That unconscious act probably runs in the family. She blinked severally times as she watched Amanda and Solomon play a bit sluggishly in the compound. If only she could be as young and as naive as them, Selena thought, feeling way older than her nine years old self. She was growing up but maybe that wasn’t a good thing. If she was to be granted one wish, she will she’d be as young and naive as Solomon was, maybe that way, she won’t feel this pain anymore.

“You’re doing it again”

Selena jerked out of her reverie and turned to the watchful gaze of Mrs Simon. The beans they were obviously picking was poised between them, in a fairly round tray. A bit was suspended in her small palm, only God knows how long it had been there.

ma” Selena said

eyes on Selena who had her eyes on her palm,

into

and raised her head till the

eyes on the beans, obviously

gasped. “Don’t say that, Selena” This was the first time Selena was

for several weeks now. No calls, daddy hasn’t even come visiting like he used to.”

still she couldn’t deny that not hearing from the Onaje for so long

the older woman’s eyes, reading it as surely as she’d read a book. “You