Malaria Symptom (by Edoziem C.V. Chisom)

The evening had grown older,the clouds had gathered and the sun had almost gone into oblivion. Emeka starred keenly,plying his focus on the fascinating lady beside the stream. He laid down the bunch of firewood he’d gone to fetch at the foot of an udara tree.
“Can I help you my mistress?” He asked. She smiled, without force and viscosity. “No thanks.” Emeka’s lips spread broader, insisting on helping the stranger. “Let me help you.” He grabbed the clay pot from her and went down to the bank of the river and filled it with fresh water, managing to avoid the fingerlings that swarm by the river bank.
“Thank you so much.” She said, winking and Emeka couldn’t help noticing the long, coquettish eyelashes.
“Don’t mention, its nothing”he replied,though he was out of breath and sweating profusely. “I am
Emeka, and you?”
“Adanma”. She said with a pout on her lucious lips.
“Wow!, that’s my mother’s name!”
She chuckled, as though in unbelief.
“Can you walk me down some ways? I can’t go home alone, its almost dusk”. Emeka was so pleased. Maybe she was enjoying his company,he thought, and didn’t want him to go. “Sure, I’d be so glad”. They kept talking as they walked past thick bushes, farmlands and rivers. Emeka looked a little uncertain about where they were heading to. Finally they where
there to his relief.
“This is my home” Adanma said, gasping from the long walk they had.The building amused him: the roof was made of thatch and dry sticks; the walls were brown and rough. The entire building was dilapidated and looked more like a coven of witches. He let the
thoughts flee. Quickly, he helped her bring down the pot of water, resting its unsettled bottom on a hollow opening on the earth.
“You mean a beauty like you stays alone? Chai!”
“Yes ofcourse!” She replied.
She prepared dinner with some speed – fufu and egusi soup. Emeka ate with intensified gusto, swallowing morsels like a hungry pig and sipping from his calabash of cold water.
“Its late, you know you can’t be serious about leaving, Please stay with me, just for today’s night”.
“But.. .” Before he could complete his sentence, she spontaneously threw her arms around him, and swept his lips with hers. “Please stay!” He kissed her back. That simple move- the prelude of going beyond a simple kiss to romance was all it took to bring back that startled look to her incredible eyes. He took a moment to be sure and then gently unfastened his lips from hers.”I’ll stay.” he said.

The night grew darker, the moon was no where shinning. She lit a rusty oil lamp, glowing so reddish like the eke-day fresh palm oil. Emeka couldn’t help stealing surreptitious glances, his eyes kept piercing through the translucent curtain she’d used as a wardrobe as she undressed and
changed into a simpler and tempting soft regalia. He could see the naked sihlloutte the twin peaks of her breasts, her inviting curves, running end-to-end like contours, perfect as the eight. She advanced towards him, smiling endlessly, placing her tender palms on his chest embedded with curly grains of dark hairs. Though Emeka’s mind was unsettled- unsettled because he barely knew her and he had to be at home,but Adanma was simply irresistable. Firm dark eye lashes covering her pair of dreamy eyes, oval head with well-lapped ears, and dimples embedded in each side of her puffy cheeks,skin deep, smooth and soothing skin overlaid with a uniformly toned complexion and a pair of spotless,long legs. She was a goddess!

In the middle of the night, hours after their passion, his fingers glid slowly on the right side of the mat. He felt nothing, even though he was half-asleep. Curiously,he moved his palms further, this time, he fingered something streamlined, slender and smooth.
Immediately, It wriggled.
“Ahhhhhhh chineke m o!” There lay a long cobra with three heads poised to sting,facing him.

He woke up panting.
“Nnanyi ogini!..my husband what is it!?”asked Osodi his wife.
“Another bad dream” he replied,panting and sweating like an antelope that just managed to escape from the chase of a tiger. She reached for his forehead to check his temprature. He was burning.
“Nnanyi, you have malaria” she sighed.

Edoziem C.V. Chisom is a student of Federal University Of Technology,Owerri.