By Okwuje Israel Chukwuemeka   “Merci! Not Messi,”Mademoiselle Jaiyeoba said, scowling, creases rumpling the bridge of her nose. It was ninth period, at one thirty. The afternoon sun was smouldering. Lunch was due in a couple of minutes, when the bell would go. Jude had been paying attention to the lesson. With fawning seriousness he had enunciated novel French words [...]

by Nonso Uzozie     The breakable plate dropped from Yinka’s hand as she heard the loud explosion.  It was too loud and earth-vibrating. She knew it was another explosion because it was the only thing on the nation’s air. The only thing in the front pages of the dailies and television screens: horrible scenes and strange, heartbreaking captions, about how [...]

by Emmanuel Iduma  This didn’t happen every day. A man and a woman were sitting by themselves beside a gutter.Her head was resting on his shoulders; his arm drew her close to himself like he had paid for her body and soul. Their belongings were collected in polythene bags that seemed to contain all the mundane things of this world. Yet [...]

By Obinna Udenwe   Today is not a market day, so we are not packing brooms and beads into baskets to be taken to the market. I am just sitting on the pavement of our house, staring at the birds. Papa is preparing to leave for Nwida market, where he goes everyday to drink palm wine – for papa, everyday [...]

By Obinna Udenwe   Wave. That was what Grandma Ada and Grandpa John called their piano. When Grandma Ada was a little girl, she lived with the missionary nuns in Edda, a large village, distance away from the Cross River. The nuns had a piano. Ada learnt very fast despite her timidity. Years later, after the nuns had all died [...]

 by Chioma Iwunze-Ibiam   In between rousing from a dream and drifting back into a serene sleep with a noisy yawn, Emeka muffles my mouth with his palm and shakes me into consciousness. “Quiet,” he whispers, “Get up and put on some clothes, something’s going on outside,” I suck in air through my teeth, hold my breath and listen. Outside, [...]

Do you like what you see? a sparkly voice asked. He glanced around, thinking the question was directed to someone behind him. Then he saw a pair of brown eyes sizing him up and realized for whom it was meant. A clingy ruby top hugged her slim body, an outfit quite unbecoming for a salesgirl. He wondered what kind of [...]

By ‘Dami Ajayi   Marriage, grand as it sounds, was not for me. But no one will understand, most especially Bridget who flew in her gown from Madrid. The bouquet she holds was hand-picked yesterday morning in Paris and sent to the church so that it could arrive in time for our wedding. She had thought I was going to [...]

 by Ikhide Ikheloa I am hungry. Very hungry. And hunger drives my brain cells to a certain point of brilliance, that hell-nirvana that my adversaries, and quite a few friends, call stark raving, certified lunacy. And as always happens when hunger places my growling stomach under house arrest, I commence esoteric ruminations, thinking deeply profound thoughts, or as my detractors [...]

By A. Igoni Barrett The morning he slapped his mother, Dimié Abrakasa was preparing to leave for school when she rose from bed, drank the last of the gin he had bought her the previous night, threw the bottle in the corner, then bent close and said, ‘I hate your eyes, my son.’ 1 Daoju Anabraba turned to alcohol after [...]