19th August 1973, Madubeke village, Eastern Nigeria.

Leaves rustled softly beneath her bare feet as she walked, the sound an apt accompaniment to the soft jangle of brown beads slung across her waist. Barefoot in the fading sunlight, she moved swiftly along the riverbank, a wooden calabash of water perched atop her head as she steadied it with her hands. It was eerily quiet. The familiar sounds of riverside chatter and sloshing water had faded along with the day, as the last of the villagers returned to their huts for the coming night. She was alone, her only companions the dense trees that lined the river…and what lay beyond them…She quickened her pace. 

Hidden amongst the foliage he watched her, his eyes never leaving her form as they followed her every move. She wore a wrapper across her thin body, secured in place by a knot which had been tied just over her chest. Her raised arms were bare, glistening with errant droplets of water that had spilled from the calabash; he watched as each droplet traced its way down her body and into the soft folds of her wrapper. His eyes lingered over the curve of her breasts and her gently rounded hips, and he drew a harsh breath.

Suddenly she paused, glancing furtively behind her. Her eyes narrowed as they darted around. She sensed his presence, as he knew only she could. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The sound of an owl tooting abruptly pierced the silence. She smiled then, secure in the belief that she had identified her pursuer. “Ah…ikwiikwii”, she whispered, voicing the native term for ‘owl’. She continued down the riverbank, adopting a more leisurely pace this time. She began to hum softly; it was a tune he did not recognise, but the primal urge that gripped him was all too familiar. This one was different. “Per tempus et corpus”, he whispered raggedly. He was losing his grip on this reality; he could feel his strength begin to wane. I need her, he thought desperately. And then he was beside her, silent, his breath on the back of her neck. She halted abruptly, frozen in place, and he watched as the fine hairs on her arms stood on end. “Onye Obia…” she breathed tremulously. He touched her arm, and she spun around to face him, her calabash falling to the ground. He did not speak, words were irrelevant. “Not…afraid”, she whispered in halting English, as she regarded him intently through dark brown eyes. “Not afraid”, she repeated, her tone more convincing this time. She lifted a hand towards him; it was his undoing.

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He crushed her to him, his lips crashing down upon hers with fierce intensity. Feverishly he ran his hands across her body, moulding himself to her slender frame. They fit together perfectly, a seamless blend of passion and need. She wound her arms around his neck, her fingers entwined in his soft brown hair. Noiselessly they sank to the ground, locked in a carnal embrace. She felt it then, a brief searing pain as he claimed her innocence. “You…are…mine”, he whispered thickly. She could not speak. The world was, quite literally, spinning. She clung to him, gasping for air. The sky exploded in a kaleidoscope of colour as he poured himself into her. His fingers dug painfully into her shoulders. “I cannot…stop it…” he whispered, “I cannot…” She sensed the sudden trepidation in his voice. “Ogini…what is it?” she asked.

And then she saw it.

A tall building loomed suddenly in the distance, a gigantic steel monster that touched the sky, like the ones in Papa’s English books...Skyscrapers, he had called them. It hadn’t been there before. She blinked, still clinging to her lover as another steel monster appeared, and then another. They were close enough that she could hear music and laughter coming from the people within. Shaking, she shot to her feet, euphoria being slowly replaced by incredulity. Transfixed, she watched as the river disappeared around her, and then the trees. They were somewhere else. She opened her mouth to scream but couldn’t make a sound.

And then he was gone, she realised, just as suddenly as he had come.

The steel monsters had vanished. The river stretched out beside her and the trees stood tall and proud beneath the sky. Still shaking, she smoothed her wrapper into place. All was as it should be.

And yet she knew that it was not.