Baba Said (The Offering of a Writer's Block Sufferer)!

I am suffering from writer's block these days, but I needed to share something on this blog, if only to convince readers the blog is still alive (Lamide, thanks for the 'push'). So, I have decided to post one of my short stories 'Baba said'. I would have to also blame watching 'The thin line between love and hate' for the 20th time today for influencing this decision. The story has a Nigerian flavour, enjoy:

The woman bent over the motionless male form tenderly. She was murmuring things to him as though he were listening.

“Darling, you’ll be okay soon… honey, it will be okay… sweetheart, you’ll be fine…” she kept murmuring in a staccatoic accent. Looking at the scene, one would think they had known each other for a long time. However, they had only just met that morning.

Benji had noticed the woman’s more-than-normal attention on him as soon as he had sat down on the bench at the bank where he had gone to withdraw some money, waiting his turn. It was the sensation that someone was staring unflinchingly at him that made him turn sharply to his right, only to encounter a pair of feminine eyes boldly staring back at him. The look was so possessive and assured that Benji shuddered unconsciously. The man beside him turned to look at him and Benji muttered a sorry.

She was sixth on Benji’s right and had leaned forward and turned her head solely to look at him, it seemed.

Benji turned again to look at her, wondering if she was someone he knew who was waiting for him to recognise her. But even as he turned to look at her again, he met the same eyes and realised that he did not know her. No one would have encountered those eyes, even momentarily, and forgot their owner.

The next two hours of waiting for the woman’s turn so he would be delivered from her optical torture were quite excruciating for Benji.

As the woman leaned forward to continue her unconservative regard, Benji leaned back against the wall. The woman leaned back too and Benji leaned forward. Now, almost everybody was looking at the both of them. The woman beside Benji even tittered, obviously thinking it was some kind of game. Benji did not think so and fired her a deadly look. He even contemplated leaving the bank, but thought against it when he remembered that he had no money at home, and had to send some money to the village for his critically ill mother through a friend who would be leaving for the village very early the next day.

"Stupid cash machines," he muttered. If they had been working he would not be in here. He looked down at his empty wallet and sighed. Perhaps that was what he ought to be doing. Looking down at the reason for which he had come to the bank and totally ignoring the witch’s inexplicable stare.

(to be continued in next post ;D)