MICROFICTION: WATER GIRL

 By Edith Brown

                  Image by Edith Brown

WATER GIRL

Nafi glared at the shinny pebble in her shaky hands like a distinct devil and sighed. She had done this seven times already. What was different this time?

Nigeria, 2080

A deserted country ruled by the branded and mutilated ones, the Abikus. A grin spread out on her face as she recalled a popular saying from the Bible, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.”

Nafi glanced at her brothers and sisters who had all assumed mortal bodies, all branded with incomplete body parts, this is a dream come true. 

Walking over to the window, Nafi ran a finger over her branded arm and reflected on the eerie surrounding, the withered tree, the lifeless colour of the sky, the red rivers whose colour intensified with the blood of every resisting, rebellious unbranded mortal who refused to surrender their body for the rest of our brothers and sisters that wanted to come to the mortal world. This place was way better than the underworld where the goddess bid them to stay. A haven for all the branded and mutilated ones, at last a place where they could come and go as they pleased.

She woke up drenched in sweat, ruminating on her dream. A utopia for her kind on this mortal earth? Even the never smiling goddess of the spirit world would laugh at the mention of such ridiculous dream. She would miss dreaming, this was one of the luxury spirit beings lacked.

Not even a drink of beer would calm Nafi's nerves tonight. Nineteen years on earth was too much time spent on earth already, she could feel it, her brothers and sisters from the other side were clawing at her to come back. She would go this night, rummaging through her wardrobe, she picked her favourite dress, wore it, fastened on her favourite boots and went back to sleep. It wouldn't hurt anyone to go back in style.

                                               

Edith Brown (her/she) is a co-editor for OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review, a photo/phone-tographer, editor, literary critic-cum-feminist and a lover of magical realism, especially in the Nigerian mainstream culture.