Sally Island

When it dawns on this island, it dawns boredom. It's dawns on us the dreads of lonely times, tho we have ourselves, I Eddie, Ike, James and Omin. But at some times we wanted more to happen in our lives. The fun we know is in the paddle of our wooden boat on the calm waters of Achike River. We on a daily basis lurk for fun like bored captains of a pirate ship on calm waters. But the problem usually was our fear to explore and reach out. We don't see ourselves in other shores apart from ours. Like we are restricted under the law of the land not to, but really it was our mind restricting us. It triples the boredom this season, the sales have been slow. The company haven't called for more fishes and we don't have enough cold room for more fishes so we can't even cast more nets for the struggle we adopted  as fun. We only cast our nets in hope of something unusual. 

It's common to go off course to make a strange killing, as we paddled that day, we decided to explore so we paddled more into the middle of the water for the strange killing we seek. Suddenly, there was a sight, something quite unusual like we sought. A human we observed. There she laid lifeless like a corpse on a raft like residue of a ship wreck. This sunny afternoon and there was no trace of the other part of the wrecked ship. Ike had easily stopped fishing, he was sure it was a girl lying there after James pointed us at the direction, those were the two that always wanted adventure the most. Paddling towards her, I thought it was a bad idea, Ike and James wanted to at least take a closer look. While we were still deliberating on what to do, Omin had already dived into the water swimming towards her. The lady killer, as he usually prides himself as. I'm sure he wanted this one all for himself if there was a chance she was alive.

Within minutes, Omin already without our help carried her to the boat, we just had to pull her in and try to revive her. She was a bit conscious but very cold and tired (from her look), she was shaking. Judging that she was floating on a wreck, we assumed her boat crashed, but we weren't asking yet. That would be rude, besides, we weren't even sure she could understand her language. Who knew where she was head and which tribe she was from? At least she wasn't an Oyibo that whenever they appear on our island, our brothers and sisters starts disappearing. She had our skin colour which to us means no trouble. It was only to figure if she could understand us, then we would know if she was from out village or a neighboring village. Because at times like these, our girls who got lured away by the white men run home after they start missing home. Most times they return pregnant, that is how they come up with offsprings with strange skin colour and hair texture. We were astonished by her beauty. She wasn't like the girls we had in the village. She had longer hair than the usual, and her skin was like the sun never smiled on it. Her breasts were still erect at her advanced age, looking alluring like the sight of an untouched newly ripped palm fruit. unlike the girls in our village, her flat tummy like the doors in the white men's house, was standing firm on her curves like the side of a perfect bow which was supported by legs straight like the pillars in the king's palace.

Ike paddled home as fast as he could, in excitement of the killing, this was more than the usual forecast of expectancy. I covered her with my shirt and we were still speechless as we paddled home. She was too beautiful. James at some point asked where we should take her to, Ike thought taking her to the village was the best, I knew this was going to be trouble if she meets with the welcome of the village. Our village's hospitality one of it's best features especially for a stranger who we don't know where she is from. So I suggested we take her to our get away cabin. We nobody but us have access to, we can keep her there until at least she gets herself and explain her ordeal to us, so when the villagers ask question, we won't stutter. As we approached the shores of home, she woke up, looking confused and tired. She suddenly realized she was naked, and held herself trying to cover her nakedness. It made us laugh because we already admired every inch if her body while she was out. 

We were taught not to break bread with the ungrateful but although she couldn't talk much, her face showed appreciation. The strange situation didn't dispense an awkwardness. Her response to her welcoming was warm. She didn't have that stranger's look of uncertainty and fear. We were glad we could make her feel at home. We made fire to keep her warm and made the best meals we could make that evening even more welcoming to her. Her composure was as if we had known her for ages. My inner excitement was trigger at every glare at body. With no hidden intentions we wanted to appreciate her for coming into our lives no matter how brief and expelling the boredom that shackled us for ages. That time nothing meant more to us. Nothing was going to wipe the smiles on our faces that night. It was an uninterrupted fun evening at our cabin away from the village. Yet the night was seemingly quite young. 

Story: Nnagoziem Udensi 

Illustrations: Kenedy Joseph