THAT LAUGHTER

"Tap tap tap tap tap tap..." Urghhh! Who was it at the door the very moment I'd moved to the much anticipated level 3 of my Video Game???. The persistent tap continued, seemed I was the only one available to answer so I had to go and get rid of the nuisance. It was a young lady; she'd come to buy eggs! Of all things! Such a nuisance wasn't unusual though as my family's poultry was popular in our area. People of all shapes, colours and sizes trooped in from far and near (and just at the wrong moment sometimes!) to buy our farm fresh eggs of premium quality... Yeah...! The first thing that struck me about this face was, "Hmmm, pretty!" Now I know I don't have shabby taste... She had this aura of simple prettiness about her, the way her eyes reflected the day light and the almost perfect shape of her face, the straight nose and pouted lips... Yes, I could take my eyes off her but something kept drawing them back, perhaps to take a better glance, drink in it's wholesomeness... admire it more... Miraculously, a help showed up and took her order so I engaged her in light conversation by the porch while she waited. She gave polite and earnest answers and wasn't coy like the typical undergraduate/fresh graduate in our area. I got to find out she lived not too far down the street with her uncle but had been away for a while, 'finding new horizons', she had explained.

"Oh! I can see you've already met." " Met?" We asked in unison, the question was from my uncle who had just come out to the porch. I had been so engrossed in our conversation, I hadn't heard him come out. "She's the one I have been telling you about, a true daughter of her mother, she'll make a good wife." My uncle chimed, winking at her. Then, she laughed... That sound! It was like the sound of many angels' voices and merry bells mingled with flowing water that sent a delightful tingle through my spine. I felt like I'd been thirsty all my life and just found water! Could that be just laughter? How did she do that? I did not want the sound to stop, I was drowning in it. There was this refreshing quality about it that made me want to just sit and bask in the euphoria it produced. Oh! I had gotten into 'it'! I didn't realize when she stopped laughing, the sound kept echoing joyfully in my head, until my uncle's voice cut through my daze. "Ugo, see the good Lady off to the gate at least." I turned to realize the eggs that had brought her originally were already in her hands and those dainty eyes still danced with that wonderful laughter I had just heard. Did I pass out or what? Hope I had not made a fool of myself cos it seemed I had zoned off completely. Had I been bewitched? No, such things didn't exist anymore. I swiftly made to take the eggs from her, covering up my confusion with a smile. "Don't let me bother you," she declined, still smiling. "Hope to see you some other time!" She said cheerily and turned to go, I was still in a semi shocked state and my legs could hardly move in protest. I only managed a weak, "Okay, bye...", watching her as she walked away in quick easy dancelike steps, seemingly oblivious to whatever spell her laughter, that laughter... had cast on me.

It would keep ringing in my ears. And for the next couple of days, I would wake up and run to the porch every few minutes, thinking I'd heard her laughing there... The sound was drawing me, would I go after it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HYPOCRITE

Often times I've shied away from writing for the world. For to write is to bare my heart; to bare my heart is to bare my soul, to bare my soul is to expose me to the world, to you. To your scrutiny and to your criticism, to your judgement and to your denunciation of me; of what I think, of what I stand for, of who I really am. I stay in my fragile shell, seeking its meagre protection but it fails me. I retreat into my woolly cocoon but oh what folly that is too, for it's protection is not an inch enough. Worst still, my heart betrays me; it begs to be heard, to be seen, to be revealed, to be exposed if not necessarily understood. Today I'll give you a glimpse, it might shock you, what goes on in this heart or it might be just what it is, another heart's expression... Hear me: I've been a hypocrite I haven't checked the meaning of that word in earnest but my thoughts tell me it describes me well, I've been a hypocrite I've judged others for crimes I w
Read more

The Client

The client in question wanted a proposal for a Noodle factory. We'd earlier gone to take measurements of the site and presented him a sketchy proposal after which he asked for more proposals and research and gave some money for it. He said he'd be travelling to China around 20 something of this month so we were supposed to give him feedback before then. This led us to a race to beat time last week. As of Thursday we still had nothing on ground and were sweating our heads out to present something before the week ran out. Finally we put something together Friday evening. It was pretty past our working hours that my colleague's husband drove us to our client's office. Lo and behold, it was closed. I was silently praying that he wouldn't be cross with us whenever we finally got hold of him because of the slight delay. My colleague promised to get in touch with him during the weekend and we parted ways. We saw briefly on Saturday morning but she'd not made contact wi
Read more

SOLDIER BOY 2

And yes, your guess was close, he asked for my number quite alright, no, not a kiss (eeeuwww), he implied a future that involved a ring and making babies too(Lols!) but his condition for letting go of my hand was indeed preposterous: I'll come hang out with him at his flat somewhere around Zango later in the evening, shey I can cook? I'll fix something quick and we'll just gist and play, nothing serious, nothing would happen... Ha! Is your mouth dropping open like mine did that time? (in my head) Of course I maintained a calm façade and with that smile that makes some 'fools' (yes fools), think I'm joking, I said 'No Sir, I can't do that', 'Why?', Soldier boy was asking why??? And truly, why would I say no? Values, Principles, Standards, KNOWLEDGE: I knew better! Apparently, he'd met many naive girls in his time and I painted the poster picture for naïve with my small frame, multicolored weave-on and modelling papers. He really wasn'
Read more