UCHE'S STORY.

Its a Wednesday night, the Harmattan fills the whole room, the noise from the kitchen radio awakes my thoughts and I look up at the wall clock and see that its almost 8 p.m. my husband, Richard would soon be back home and my darling daughter Adaeze. I instantly rise walking briskly to the kitchen, today I am going to prepare Adaeze’s favorite meal, garri with melon soup. I always save some leftover melon soup in the freezer just in case Adaeze wants to eat. I bring it out from the fridge , poured it into the pot and added water, then its time to make the garri. The volume of the radio was a bit high, as the man shouting 'VOTE APC' rang in my ears , I turned it off either because the volume was too high or because I didn't want to hear anything about voting. I realised long ago that this country belonged to a few people ,I am just  not one of them;I am a stranger here. I quickly make the garri and checked if the soup tasted right and it did. I decided to call Adaeze to know if she is on her way home but her phone is switched off as usual. I serve the food on the dining table , bringing out the orange juice from the fridge and remembered the look , Mummy Eziekel ,my neighbour who owns a tuck shop  outside the house,gave me as i stepped out to buy orange juice which is Richard's and Adaeze's favorite flavor of juice. she gave me this pitying look and told me 'You don't have to pay for it' and refused to collect money from me . Mummy Eziekel,such a strange woman. Anyways the dining table was set and i could hear the horn of Richards car and i got really excited. It’s  family bonding time, i dish out Adaeze's meal, then Richard's, then mine. i was almost done when Richard stepped in and i quickly went to hug him and collected his  brief case , he pecked  me and said

 'how are you my beautiful wife' i replied with ‘beautiful as always ‘

 I’ve made dinner for us the whole family’ Richards face changed , i noticed and said ‘don’t worry adaeze is already on her way’ and i pull him towards the dining table. i showed him his dish ..brought a bowl of water for him to wash his hands and i sat beside him. he didn’t touch the food , just kept staring at where i kept adaezes food and back at me before bursting out in tears and i was surprised.

 ‘Richard whats wrong?tell me’ . He looked at me,held my face with his hands and said , ‘Darling' when will this stop?' 

“Adaeze died 2years ago”; my face dropped.” she died  years ago at her office building which caught fire. “Remember?she is gone and she is not coming back Uche. “She  is in heaven now. We went to bury her in abakaliki together at our family house compound ,Uche. do you remember? “you need to realize this and you have been making eba and melon soup for the past two years “. I couldn’t make out the words Richard was saying again. i was panting , i felt like i was just hit in the chest. 
Adaeze cannot be dead. my daughter is coming tomorrow that's all i said before passing out .