The Eternal Melody

(Originally: The Eternal Malady)

She was beautiful. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw unsullied beauty like hers. Her skin was unblemished smooth, it was the kind you wanted to touch, stroke lingeringly and appreciate, yet not so much lest you tainted it with imperfect fingers. He liked the way her dark hair fell over her left eye, keeping it a mystery to him. Her colourful Ankara skirt stopped shortly after her knees, her legs were tucked beneath her on the park bench where she sat reading a novel.

He had been watching her surreptitiously for close to twenty minutes hoping she hadn’t noticed. Surely he had to invent a reason to meet her or he would regret it by morning. The sun was beginning to set and it wouldn’t be long before she left, people were already leaving the park; a woman was putting her twin sons into a suburban van while their nanny gathered the basket and blankets. He heard her laugh and wondered why, was the book that interesting? He studied his dusty sneakers and fingered his sweaty hairline.

‘Fuck it’ he muttered and stood up towards her…

She had been aware of his presence the moment he jogged into the park. It looked like he had been running; his camouflage shorts and Nike sneakers confirmed it plus his sweaty top. He collapsed on the turf a few feet from her and seemed to catch his breath. He wasn’t overtly handsome but still attractive. He had a tall, fine build and was in great shape, obviously the running worked. Unknown to him, she had caught him watching her a few times and smiled to herself as she turned a page; now the book didn’t interest her anymore.

She often came to Muri Okunola Park when her 1004 apartment was too crowded and she needed the serenity; Temi her sister usually had noisy friends over on weekends. She wasn’t exactly introverted but then she liked her peace and quiet. Her park visits were quite uneventful, until today when ‘six-packs’ strutted in. He was adjusting his Ipod…Ipod? How retro, who uses Ipods these days? She wondered what songs he had in there ‘Return of the Mack? Or Keith Sweat’s ‘Twisted’? She chuckled to herself and stiffened when she noticed he had stood up. Uh oh! He was coming her way…

“Hi, mind if I sit?”

“It’s a free park”, She shrugged and smiled.

He adjusted the volume on his Ipod. Ipod.

She couldn’t help chuckling to herself again, but she kept her eyes on her novel.

“Must be very funny…the book?” He leaned in to read the title on the cover.

“Not exactly, I am just amused”. She adroitly hid the title with her hands.

She looked at him again. He had dark brown eyes; they were curious. He was no longer sweating as the wind blew gently. The faint scent coming her way was a combination of his perfume and perspiration. It was vaguely antiseptic.  

“I know, I think they are amusing too”.

“What?” She asked, unsure.

“The LASTMA officials over there”, He pointed close to the entrance gate. “Every evening at the close of work, they come here to share the day’s income. Expect an argument soon.”

She looked towards the gate and indeed there were four uniformed officials seating on the grass. One was counting a wad of notes while others watched with rapt attention. It was quite the sight.

She smiled, “That’s funny, but it’s not what amused me”.

“No? Okay.”

Awkward silence.

She struggled to read a few more pages, while he switched between songs.

“Can I ask a question though?”

“Sure”

“Why an Ipod? Nobody uses Ipods anymore…”

“So that’s why you were amused” He sighed, shaking his head in realization.

She burst out laughing. Her laughter was healthy, full of mirth and contagious. He liked it. In fact, he liked her already.

“Is it a bad thing?”

“No…it’s just unusual seeing someone use one these days, we now have these cooler things called Iphones.”

“Well, to start with this isn’t just any Ipod; it’s a 4^th generation Nano classic…”

She scoffed softly and rolled her eyes.

“No! Listen, it was the first of its kind and a game changer”.

“So you are a techie?”

“Not just that. I’ve had it for some time. Besides I don’t run with my Iphone. I get calls and it’s distracting.”

“Okay, so it’s just for workouts? Now that’s more like it”.

He shrugged, this one was naughty.

“What do you have against techies?”

“Nothing, why?” She sounded surprised.

“It’s the way you asked the techie bit, I was wondering…”

“Nothing oh I just w---”

At the moment the LASTMA officials began to argue loudly and soon enough there was a scuffle between two of them.

“I told you...Let’s leave here, we won’t hear them over there.”

As they got up he realised she was reading The Book Thief; nice. In his head, he bumped her up a few more points on the babe scale.

When they stood, she observed how much taller he was in comparison. She suddenly felt safe and smiled to herself.

“This is better, besides it has a great view.” He said as they settled down on the east end of the park overlooking the flyover bridge towards Ikoyi.

“Great view of what, the Lagos traffic?”

It was his turn to laugh.

“Are you always this skeptical?”

“No, just being practical”.

“You’ll soon see”, was his reply.

Now they felt more comfortable and were sitting closer to each other than before.

He could see that she had a tiny birthmark on the curve of her chin; perhaps the only ‘blemish’ on her skin, like a full stop used to mark the conclusion of a beautiful creation. On several occasions he was tempted to reach out and trace the spot with his fingers.

“…your name?”

“Sorry, what did you say?” He asked, waking from his reverie of thoughts.

“I said, since we are almost sharing oxygen space, we might as well know each other’s names. I am Oyinkansola”.

He smiled. She had a funny way of putting things.

“Zik”

“Zik as in Azikiwe?”

“No, you’ll never guess.”

“You are right I probably won’t. My knowledge of Igbo names is limited to Emekas and Chibuzos…”

“That’s because they are common. By the way it’s pronounced ‘Air-meka’”.

She had pronounced the E like A in Amen.

“Oh Sorry, Emeka”, She corrected, trying to mimic an Igbo accent.

“Don’t be” He smiled.

“So what does Zik stand for?”

“Don’t laugh, it’s Zikoranaudodimma”

“Say what?!” She shouted and they both burst out laughing.

“Please can you say it again?”

He did and once more they doubled up with laughter. The few people left in the park looked their way for a second.

“I’ll just call you Zik” She said when they had both recovered.

“That explains why you didn’t start with your name abi. So what does it mean?”

“No, not true. He laughed again. “Show the world that peace is good”.

“Hmm, I like it. It’s so thoughtful and nice”.

“Thanks. So what does Oyinsola…mean?”

“Oyinkansola, honey drops into wealth…but you can simply call me Oyinkan”.

“Sounds sexy. Yoruba girls often have sexy names.”

At that moment the LASTMA officials seemed to have come upon an agreement and began to leave the park. One of them massaged a swollen jaw.

“Do you run every day Zik?”

He liked the way his name rolled off her lips.

“Usually when I finish work early and on Saturday mornings.”

His earphones dropped and he picked them up. As he put them into his pockets she asked what type of songs he listened to on his "4^th generation blah blah Ipod"…Her words.

“Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice”.

“What? That’s even worse than I imagined!” She shook her head.

“Calm down”, He laughed. “Just pulling your legs…here, listen.” And he put one earpiece into her right ear.

“I like this song, sounds familiar.” 

“It’s On top of the world by Imagine Dragons”.

She nodded her head slowly to the song; her eyes were closed as he watched her. The other earpiece was in his left ear.

“I told you the view was great from here.”

“What?” She opened her eyes and looked to the direction of his gaze.

The sun was now halfway dipped in the horizon of the clouds; a fiery semi-ball of golden yellow, spreading its glowing streaks across the Lagos evening sky and highlighting everything in its path like a phoenix rising from its flames. It was a most beautiful sunset.

In that moment he knew it was right; the setting, the music and the sunset in her eyes. She suddenly had certain vulnerability about her as she looked back at him.

“So you are one of those guys?” Her voice was suddenly very low.

“What guys?” He leaned forward as if to hear her better.

“Those deep—“, She closed her eyes.

He kissed her there without waiting to hear more. He knew what she was about to say but it didn’t matter now. Her lips were soft like none he had felt before. She may have been caught unawares, yet she kissed back matching his rhythm. The music kept playing in their ears.

The moment she saw his eyes she knew it was going to happen. Heck if he didn’t kiss her already she would have boxed his ears. He was a deep soul no doubt, she had never done deep before but she liked him and didn’t mind. The kiss was passionate, almost too good to be real and by the time they separated she literally couldn’t feel her legs.

“Just like honey drops…” He murmured.

She giggled softly.

Are you coming to the park tomorrow?” He whispered and attempted to raise the bangs over her left eye but she stopped him.

“I don’t know, maybe. Why?” She whispered back.

“I want to see you again”.

In response, she kissed him again and the only thing on their mind was their entwined lips and the music playing in their ears. Over the course of the next few weeks or so they would meet at the park and watch the sunset…every evening.

                                               

                 ***************************************************************

Temi sat down by the bed reading her sister a book. The beep of the ECG was now a part of her life; it had been for two weeks now. Its lulling sound reassured her that her sister was still ‘alive’. She looked up from the book and regarded the peaceful look on her sister’s face. The Band-Aid which had been changed recently ran across from the back of her head and covering the left eye as well. The doctor had said the cerebral oedema caused by the accident had reduced and all they could do now was hope.

In the same room, a few feet from the first bed was another visitor, she too was visiting her fiancé who was also hooked to a life support machine. She often listened as the other woman in the room read a novel to the unconscious girl on the bed. She read the novel every day; it was titled The Book Thief. Her fiancé had been in the same accident and was also in a coma, like the visitor across all she could do was pray for a miracle. She switched on the 4^th generation limited edition Ipod he had always been proud of and placed the phones in his ears; his favorite song On top of the world by Imagine Dragons was playing. He smiled briefly in his coma but remained unconscious.

On the white-coated wall of the hospital room shared by both patients hung a huge art painting of a verdant park against the backdrop of a beautiful golden sunset. However neither visitor paid it much attention.  Instead, they were more worried about the condition of their loved ones and the strange phenomena that unfolded before them.

Two weeks ago, not long after the surgery an orderly had tried to move the male patient to another room and was halted by the loud warning screech of the ECG machines flat-lining, it seemed to be protesting the separation. It wasn’t until he placed the beds back together that the machines were restored to regular rhythmic beeps indicating life.

The doctors had observed that the machines strangely recorded not only the same readings of pulse rate, heart beat and brain activity for both patients but they moved in unison together as though they belonged to one person. It was unanimously decided by both families that their beds would remain close together if it would keep them alive.

What was really surprising though is that neither patient had known each other before the bus accident which occurred at Muri Okunola Park. The accident claimed the lives of four LASTMA officials, a woman, her twin sons as well as their nanny and a few other passers-by.

Although Zik and Oyinkan had managed to survive, unknown to their families, they remained trapped in the subconscious limbo of an alternate world; a false reality where they meet every evening and fall in love again and again to the eternal melody of beautiful sunsets and delightful sounds.

THE END.