Happenstance

By Offiah Chukwuemeka

People had started to talk about the madwoman who had scouted the village streets. She looked vaguely familiar, but then everyone looked vaguely familiar in a village that small. But few who knew her story knew better than to call her mad, for they understood that a heart could only bear so much grief, a mind only carry so much pain.

Mgbolie's betrothal was the spark that started the fire that set her life aflame, and her father was the one who had wielded the lighter. The man, a retired hunter named Amobi, was almost as old as her father. She had not objected to the union because she could not object, so when he climbed atop her, she lay still as a log until it was over. When the first pregnancy came, she did not know how to feel, and it irked her that people could smile greetings at her when all she wanted to do was part ways with her body. Labour came swiftly, and she birthed a corpse, and her sadness was crushing, crashing, and complete. Then, a second pregnancy came. Then, a third, a fourth, and a fifth, and Mgbolie started to hear the voices of the shadows of the street. If only she bore as many children as she shed tears, one said.

Her life seemed controlled by a series of waves, tumultuous yet harmonious in their conspiracy to break her. There were men who did not make it through their wives' first pregnancy. Meanwhile, hers lived and refused to give her children. It was a cruel game fate was playing on her.

The morning she left her hut for the streets, the morning she ran mad, Amobi was found lying naked on the cane bed in her hut, cold and unmoving.

Writer’s Biography
Offiah Chukwuemeka is a Nigerian writer from Enugu State. Although he is currently a student of Architecture, he hopes to pursue a career in writing in the future. He writes mostly fiction but is slowly trying his hand at poetry. He doesn't have a favourite book because he feels he doesn't have to have one. When he isn't writing, you could find him either reading, watching a movie, or trying to convince himself he knows how to dance.