“Report to the Garrison immediately,
you are going for an assignment now” and it was 11: 45 Pm, that was the text he
showed me before he planted a kiss on my forehead like he always did, and then
he left. He has left so many times in our two years of forever, I very well
hated the going but the coming back was nothing words could describe…
He took his riffle and made for the
door, watching him leave always left me sad, but this time it was a different
kind of sad, it felt more like a loss. Like so many other times I did not know
when to expect his footsteps at the door; was it after three weeks like the
Ogoja assignment he went for earlier in the year, or the 4 days Ekulobia
mission he went for just last week or could it be, and I sincerely hope it was not like
the Monrovia assignment he went for last year that kept us 7 months and
thousands of miles apart. That was the most painful so far, the seconds hands
of the clock dragged its feet round the clock for seven months while me and the
little 8 months old Black Rose I carried inside me waited at the door for our
hero to return.
After four days waiting all I could
get was a text that read “Hi black Rose, can’t really talk now, we are in a
hostile environment, see u soon…xoxoxoxo” I tried to imagine his smooth baritone
voice saying that to me over the phone so that I can tell him that little Black
Rose misses him, I want to tell him how I can’t wait to feel his warm breath on
my neck. But I know he has sworn to always attend to the needs of the country
whose flag he salutes, and it will take me a long time to get use to that. My
only consolation through all my period of waiting and now is that one day, in
our journey into forever, his hands will grow frail and he will no longer be
able to hold on to his rifle, those days I will put his hands in mine and hold
them tight and I will lay my head on his chest, we will sit outside the balcony
on a rocking chair under the glowing moon and count the stars…but till then, all
I have to keep me warm at night is a 17-word text message…
