The tears flowing down her cheeks wouldn’t just stop. She’s dying in silence.
No one to talk to. No shoulder to lean on. It seems the world is crashing down on her. She possesses a great smile but there is pain, regret, hurt and, above all, confusion behind that smile.
Labake is a lady in her early thirties. She’s tall, slim, fair in complexion, and has an inviting eye balls that glitters like a diamond even in the dark.
Well… Labake is not the chatty type who likes to talk but will definitely pour out her mind to anyone who ‘cares’ enough to listen.
I sighted this in her after the tears rolling down her pretty face wouldn’t stop. I approached her, held her hands tightly like someone who understands what she was going through and told her all would be well.
As I stood up to take my leave, she said to me “T-girl, can you please stay a little and repeat those words again?”
I smiled and repeated the words: “Labake, all will be well.” She opened her eyes, tried to light up her face with a smile but this wouldn’t just happen as the tears still flowed like rain drops. I wanted to let her be, but she held on tightly to my hands and continued to weep in a broken hearted manner.
I stayed and looked on while the tears lasted.
As she closed her eyes and cried, I could see her telling herself.
Labake is a colleague in the office where I’m serving as a youth corps member. I have always admired her and I didn’t hesitate to tell her how beautiful she is.
She is not only beautiful, but she’s quite intelligent as well. She’s a naturally slim person but she is gradually getting thinner by the day.
When she finally got the strength to speak, she poured out her heart like a tape recorded version of someone who was narrating her sojourn in life.
I listened with rapt attention and didn’t interrupt until she finished.
Labake is the first child in a family of five. Three girls and their parents… She has always been a good girl.
While her mates and friends were trying their luck, relationship wise, Labake was head over heels in love with her studies. She had no intimate friend, but she had companions but derives the greatest pleasure in her studies. She would rather cling to her novels than go about visiting friends. This continued until she got to the higher institution. But in her second year at one of the Polytechnics in Nigeria, she met a young man who swept her off her feet.
The guy, who gave his name as Korede, had just graduated from the school and came around to collect his result when he sighted Labake.
Labake, on sighting Korede, could not get her eyes off the young man as well.
I think it was love at first sight but it was meant to be.
Korede, according to Labake, stays in Lagos, and worked with one of the private radio stations there. While Labake was playing hard to get, Korede was already in love with her. He would leave Lagos to visit Labake in school during weekends. Labake never allowed Korede to sleep in her apartment but he didn’t see it as anything.
He would lodge in a hotel in town and still come around to take her out. This went on until it was time for Labake to go for her industrial attachment.
She was able to get a place in Lagos. All this while, Labake was yet to give Korede a positive response as she was still playing hard to get but she was already in love with him.
Labake had no other person to confide in than her mother. She told her mum about Korede and showed her mum his picture.
The next thing that came out of her mum’s mouth was that how could she fall for such an ugly guy.
She didn’t allow that to discourage her. The love continued to grow and she eventually gave Korede a chance as her first love.
Labake thought she was the happiest person on earth when she found love until her dad called and told her to forget about marrying Korede.
Labake was angry and tried to defend what she felt for Korede. The reason behind her dad’s comment was that Korede was from a particular Yoruba tribe, which he doesn’t particularly like.
At this point in her narration, she started weeping again.
She said her dad told her if she goes ahead to marry Korede, that he wouldn’t bless the union!
She became confused and scared. She didn’t want to lose Korede yet she loves her parent.
She quickly ran to Korede and informed him about what was going on.
She said Korede only laughed and told her to keep calm and promised never to disappoint her if she can marry him.
Labake, who was naïve at that time, finally bowed to the pressure from her parents and had to end the relationship with Korede.
Korede, although very bitter about it, did not give up on Labake but Labake wouldn’t just take the risk.
They became platonic friends but it took Korede two years to give up on Labake. He stopped calling and just like the way it came, Labake saw less and less of Korede.
She became empty and felt empty. Several other guys came, but none of them measured up to Korede as majority of them just wanted to visit her Garden of Eden and leave.
Korede was a rare guy. He never asked her for sex while the relationship lasted. He was just after her happiness. He wanted Labake to be happy at all times.
Labake had no other choice than to go back into her shell. She became the normal acada babe she used to be and went back for her HND.
She topped her class and none of her course mates measured up to her but something was still missing in her life – LOVE.
She was already in her late twenties by the time she graduated and everybody in her family was already getting worried that she had no boyfriend, let alone a fiancée.
She went for youth service and yet Labake couldn’t find love. After her youth service, the mum, who was beginning to get extra worried, took her to a pastor and immediately the pastor saw her and prayed for her, he said: “Young lady, why did you allow them change your destiny? The person you are supposed to marry is long gone. Just pray for God’s mercy because even if any other man comes, the chance of you having a successful marriage is slim!”
Labake didn’t believe what the pastor said until two other strangers walked up to her and told her exactly the same thing.
Of course, Korede came back years later to Labake.
But not as a bachelor anymore.
Korede is now married and just came back to Nigeria to take his wife to the United Kingdom where he now resides. On his arrival back in Nigeria, Korede traveled down to Ibadan, where Labake now works, to check on her and couldn’t just hide his tears.
Korede wept like a baby when he saw Labake. He held her tightly to his chest, looked her in her eyes and told her: “Labake, you shouldn’t have allowed your parents live your life for you.”
The words kept ringing like a bell in Labake’s head even after Korede’s had long gone.
She is now in a dilemma because no other serious minded person has come to ask for her hand in marriage and she’s now left with the option of becoming Korede’s second wife based on Korede’s proposal.
Labake, who respects the marriage institution so much, turned down Korede’s proposal but she is lonely and desperately needs a shoulder to lean on.
Not only that, she wouldn’t stop shedding those tears because she felt the mistake she made could never be corrected.
Immediately Labake finished with her long held heartaches, she heaved a sigh of relief even though one could still see the bitterness in her.
But even as these men of God see beyond what we cannot see, God’s mercy is all in all.
There’s always a point in an individual’s life where parents no longer have a say but can only guide their children. Labake’s bitterness is not based on what happened but she also holds a very strong bitterness towards her parents.
She’s also bitter towards herself for sheepishly heeding to her father’s threat. I call it threat because even if she had gone ahead with the marriage with Korede and her father fails to bless the union, like he said, he would have blessed the union later.
Contribution is Adetola Ademonsun, youth corps member, serving at Ibadan, Oyo State.
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