MY-TRIP-TO-ETERNITY-WITH-YOU

by Abisoye Shoroye (Nigeria)

A leap into the unknown Nigeria

MY TRIP TO ETERNITY WITH YOU. ` BY ABISOYE SHOROYE EZEKIEL Nigeria is a pretty big country and being from the Western region, there was a lot that I had not seen. So after my studies at the University, I called up my friend that it was time to visit her in Kaduna. Tamilore was my childhood crush. She grew up in the North but was sent to the West to study. Tamilore had quite the holiday planned out and while I thought it was a lot, every single outing made me eager for the next. Since I had never been to Northern Nigeria, Tami started by taking me to all the popular places I had read about. We went to Nok Village, Gamji Park and her school Ahmadu Bello University. The following week, unknown to me, Tami had planned a tour with eight other friends of hers to the Kajuru Castle. Now, Nok village was a historical tourist attraction, Gamji park was a very serene place and we even had a picnic. Kajuru castle Kajuru castle is a luxury castle built between 1981-1989, by a German expatriate working in Nigeria at the time. The castle was built in a medieval Roman style and people even said, it was the African version of the Bavarian Castle. You could visit this place and get lost in the fantasy of being a Roman prince or princess. The baronial styled halls, the dungeons, the towers and the armory used to adorn the hall made it the perfect for a destination wedding. That fateful day came and I charged my phone fully so that I could take many pictures. I had read about the castle so much I kept looking forward to seeing crocodile statues everywhere. We arrived and I was amazed. The pictures didn’t do justice at all. The stone used in building the walls couldn’t have been concrete, the courtyard took me back to palaces in Rome I’d never been to, and the interior made me appreciate the German who built the villa. He clearly had the picture of home in mind. As we were halfway into the tour, we were shown the bedrooms in the castle, I thought I heard gunshots. I wasn’t imagining it; the gunshots came again and this time, closer. We took cover, I and Tami went under the bed while the rest of her friends found different places to hide. It didn’t take long, the shooters littered themselves all over, some came to the bedroom and took three people who were caught trying to hide. Tami tried to rescue her friends but I couldn’t let her. How would I have explained to her parents that their only daughter was taken by hoodlums. I was also scared of losing her. I and Tami stayed under that bed, held hands, prayed, cried and eventually I told her how I really felt about her. We decided it would be best to kiss just in case we didn’t make it out alive and Tami’s lips were softer than the inside of a rose petal. She laughed in between our kiss stating how callous we were kissing in the middle of a crisis. Before long, she rested on my chest and I held her close. We were there till the next morning. I and Tami got out and went outside the castle to find her parents waiting to receive us. We didn’t speak about the kiss or the fact that we cuddled till morning until she drove me to the airport weeks later. I hugged her to say my final goodbye and she kissed me when I tried to pull away from the hug. Afterwards, she said, I’m not ready, but that night, in your arms, I felt safe. So thanks for your friendship, I hope it doesn’t end because in the future, I’m hoping for more. That was seven years ago. Today, she becomes my wife legally. She doesn’t know this, but I’ve booked the weekend at the castle for our honeymoon. It’s the place she felt safe with me, and the first place we kissed. While it’s a place we should be scared to visit, I know she’ll love it