It was full evening. Darkness ruled. But not for long. Behind solitary clouds on the elbow of the east was a flush of silver -harbinger of the mellow splendour of a rising moon. The exalted trees faithfully kept watch with me, their trunks leaning on the night, swaying lazily, their branches whistling a dirge in the wind.

It was on a moonlit night that I saw her again that same day. At the village square. Children ran this way and that – chasing each other worshipping the lamp of the night with their play.

I was returning from visiting a friend. She was running an errand for her father. Bathed in the silvery tide her beauty looked unearthly. My heart was racing afresh. I stopped to greet her.

"Thank you again for helping me" she said.

"I was glad to help"

"My father sent me to get some tobacco for his pipe" she continued.

"And my heart sent me this message, I wonder how to start" I replied.

"What?"

"Pardon me. I do not mean to cause offence by this. Today my heart has gone out of me and has not returned" I said.

Silence. She said nothing.

"I know that for me things cannot remain the same again however this finally rolls. Dare I dare?"

Silence.

"I have not know you for long but in these matters time is as short or as long as the heart perceives it. I do not know of eternity but within the confines of time, there are no absolutes. Though it seems I have known you for a short period but long it definitely is because I have waited for this all my life"

Silence. Just staring at me.

"Ifeoma, I have never been in love before and I have always wondered what that experience would make of me. Now I know."

"You do?" she said

Her response startled me.

"Certainly. Today I have felt the throb of another heart next to mine I have seen the divine in mortal robes. I have looked upon the embodiment of all the goodness of heaven in a lady. My heart struck a note the first time I met you. That note has trickled down the grains of time. I am captive to its deathless refrain."

"And what do you intend to do?" she said.

"Ifeoma, how do I say this? A little bird flutters near my minds ears and echoes that which my heart already knows and that is "I love you". Not just an empty word issuing from the chambers of my beating member but a word rooted and thriving in the very essence of my soul. I desire to twine my love with yours. Will you take my hand – and my heart too? Will my wandering heart find rest in yours?"

"Perhaps yes. Perhaps no." she said.

"And what does that mean?" I asked.

"That you would have to wait for my reply."

"Waiting is a virtue that is difficult to have right now. But it is also a lesson I must have to learn."

"I would have to beat my thoughts and all you have said to shape on the anvil of my heart." she said.

"I pray the shape should fit my favour."

"Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. It would go through its cycles – its manifold changes and impressions as the mind chews on it."

"Such constancy of change might blight my hopes."

"Or do the converse"

"That too. So when will it be?"

"This time tomorrow. Same place" she said. And she departed.

Daily, men pray not to see war, when there is one constantly raging within us. Goodnight my love. Until I see you again and hear what tidings those lips of yours have to offer, peace in my heart will be a privilege I can only imagine.

***