Chapter Five

"Closing time people, you have fifteen more minutes to finish up your business and get out of my library. I need to get to my beautiful wife" shouted the librarian.

I looked at Anna who had been dozing on my shoulder for a while.

"Hey time to get out of here" I softly whispered.

"Mmm… already?" she slowly lifted her eyes to meet mine.

"Yeah, we have been in here for a while " I pointed out at the window.

"Okay let's go"

I got up to gather my things.

We were the last people to exit the library. As Anna exited the library, I detoured to the front counter to return some books and say good night to Mr. Bamusi.

"Looks like we are having a good day" said the librarian as he processed my library card.

I quickly picked up on his intent from his tone and choose to casually ignore his remark for that time being.

"Good night Sir and pass my greetings to the madam please" I quickly changed the subject and paced out to catch up with Anna.

She was waiting for by the railings outside the library block. As I approached, she looked up from her phone.

"Ten Kwacha for your thoughts" I said wondering what she was thinking about.

"I was just looking at the stars wondering how it must be like for astronauts to live among the stars "

"Exactly how I feel like in your presence"

It was moments like these, her lively and beautiful mind that seemed to always pulled me back to under her spell each time I tried to let go. She was deep like that and her intellect was so alluring.

"You never cease to amaze me, every single time" I said.

I was about to tell her how I had had a similar space like encounter that morning but decided it was wiser not to do get into all that.

I imagined all the follow up questions that might have been sparked by my encounter. I was not sure I even had the right answers for any of the enquires that would have transpired in the aftermath of sharing my experience with her.

We sat there just watching the sky for some time with the stars flashing to us in the distance. My thoughts then took me to how it had been one of my most eventful days ever. There were just so much details to digest as I recollected at the end of the day.

For the time being however, I had to execute my gentlemanly duties and take Anna to her room.

We walked down towards the cafeteria. The time was now a little past 9pm but the atmosphere outside felt like it was still 6pm.

We went past the occasional different groups of people on our way. Couples deep in intimate conversations on a dark corner somewhere and the usual loners rushing to or from the classes with their books.

As we snail paced to our destination, I found myself stepping back into my castle in the air and we forged on in silence.

"Is everything okay with you?" she enquired.

"Yeah" i replied. Quickly realising that my response was dry and dismissive.

But I could tell that she sensed my thoughts levitating on some distant subject.

My face was always a dead giveaway when I had something chewing me up inside. In a brief instance, I wrestled with the idea of opening up to her about my new-found secret, the mystery angel. The mystery around it all was what enticed me, who she was, what her name might had been was the least of my bothers at the time.

I small part in me still felt that I had a chance with Anna and I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize my chances with her.

I eventually came back to my senses and met Anna's searching gaze. For a brief instance she just stared at me and then momentarily let out a chuckle, brushed me aside and she skipped forward a few yards.

"What was that for?" I asked looking puzzled.

"Nothing, you just never tell me things anymore these days" she responded rooted in front of me. I stepped forward to her spot and we both stood our ground.

She never bulged even when I drew closer and, in that moment, I was tempted to just pull her to me and plant on her beautiful cherry red lips the dreamiest kiss she had ever had.

I felt a sudden wave of courage sweep through me and the burst of adrenaline as it rushed to my brain. My heart hastened in an instance and I found myself trapped in that moment.

Inevitably, the gentleman in me withdrew with nothing but a dry smile to mask my cowardice.

Chivalry was going to be death of me, a headless chicken could have done better than me in that situation

This was not the time to be pondering on such thoughts.

Halting in my tracks I looked back to found Anna glued to the spot I had left her.

"Are you coming?" I shouted.

She walked forward to catch up as I started walking away again.

"You see what I was talking about" She says as she interlocks her arm around mine.

"We don't talk anymore"

A weak sigh is all I could master as a response.

"Well, I just have a lot on my mind"

"And you don't trust me enough to confide in me?" before I could cook up a good excuse for my poor communication skills, she proceeded.

"I am always sharing with you my issues and I just wish once in a while you could do the same with me"

Her words caught me off-guard, I looked at her flushed and feeling a little guilty. In my head, I once again over analyzed words.

"I promise to put in some more effort from now on, but as you might already be aware, communicating is not my strongest attribute"

"Yes, you are a man of few words and it's one of the things I like about you. You have your own unique way of communicating"

As I process her last words, I thought to myself how she would find anything about me appealing. Settling on making less of a big deal of it all I decided just to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

We forged ahead conversing about the kind of day we had just had. I tried to tell her about my incident in class earlier that morning forgetting that she was in the front the whole time. It always escaped my mind that we took similar courses even with different degree

By that time, we had arrived at the hostel's intersection "the Bermuda".

"I want Doritos" she suddenly announced as we approached the two hostel paths.

"I think I might have a few lefts. Should we check?"

All thanks to minimal supervision from the school administration "inter-hostels" was condoned. Hence, no trouble for her to get to my room.

Some students even went as far as moving into each other's rooms, it became a form of mock marriage tradition all around campus.

"Yes please, am starving"

We head down to the boys' hostel block.