Tega, inside the cavernous hall, kept his eyes on Amanda as she stood with members of her platoon listening to their names called by an NYSC official. Her eyes also kept darting to him.

 

She heard her name called, and she went up to receive her letter of posting. She folded it without looking at it, walked over to Tega and stood by him. He heard his name, collected his letter and they left the hall.

 

“Where the hell is Yandev?”

 

They were sitting under a tree at the Mammy Market. The business season had also ended with the conclusion of the orientation programme. However, some shops were still open, attending to the last minute needs of corpers.

 

“We can ask one of the locals.” Amanda beckoned to a young man stacking crates of empty bottles.

 

“Would you be kind enough to tell us where Yandev is?”

 

The young man smiled and asked in halting English: “Is that where you have been posted to?” Amanda nodded towards Tega.

 

“Ha, corper, you’re lucky oh!”

 

Tega responded with a blank look.

 

“Yandev,” the young man continued, “is a small town, village if you like, outside Gboko, about forty-five minutes drive from here.”

 

Then he left them, after stressing once again that Tega was truly lucky.

 

“Cheer up, Tega; with me here in Katsina Ala and you in Yandev, we will be close enough. We should at least thank God for little mercies.”

 

A long silence. She was right. They had been lucky, and he knew it. Amanda would remain in Katsina Ala, serving with the Local Government Secretariat and he would be in Yandev, his primary assignment in N.K.S.T. Secondary School. There would only be a forty-five minute drive between them.

 

He could live with that. He would make the distance even shorter with frequent visits. He was smiling now, a big broad smile spread across his face, radiating towards her. She swarmed in the warmth of it.

 

“So what do we do now?” He asked.

 

She thought for a while before answering.

 

“Since my station is in town, we will go to the secretariat. I’ll report, and then we’ll take it from there.”

 

Daya motel was at the foot of the Katsina Ala Bridge, about a hundred metres from the edge of the main road that ran the length of the town. The motel, a small affair but big by the town’s standard, consisted of a cluster of small cabins and chalets.

 

Tega, Amanda, and Audu, an official of the local government council, got to the motel on three ‘Okadas’. Tega stayed outside, while Amanda and Audu went in.

 

Amanda soon came out with another man, the motel attendant. He led them to a chalet tucked in a corner among dense foliage. The chalet was different from the rest. It was bigger and was painted green, which contrasted beautifully with the gray of the other chalets. A leafy tree and a picket of flowers shielded it from direct view.

 

Amanda’s room had a double bed, an air conditioner, a writing table, a closet and a bathroom, the door to which was by the closet. The attendant gave Amanda the keys and cast a baleful look at Tega before leaving.

 

Tega dumped their bags in the middle of the room and want outside to get the last bag. He came back in, lugging it. The bag was big; Amanda had told him that it contained foodstuff, a camp gas cooker and lots more.

 

He dropped the bag and slumped on the bed, feigning exhaustion. Amanda had taken off her Khaki Jacket; she stood by the window in her crested T-shirt.

 

“Thank you,” she said without turning.

 

Earlier at the secretariat, she had been told by the chairman - a pleasant middle-aged Tiv man - that the council’s guesthouse, where corpers were usually housed, was being renovated after it had been vandalized. She and the other corpers would have to stay at Daya Motel until it was ready.

 

She turned from the window and looked atTega. Their eyes met and locked. Drawn by the intensity in his eyes, she swooned and floated to the bed, into his arms. She laid on top of him and he held her; she felt she would die if she let him go again.

 

“Oh, Tega,” she moaned, “I love you. I am not asking for any commitment. Just make me happy today - one day. Then...after wards...I don’t know. Just hold me.”

 

They got lost, consumed by the passion that was at once old and new- timeless. The old love, the one night affair of adolescent miscalculation, had given way to a new love, one that had no history, yet, its history buried in that first faraway meeting.

 

They rode the crests of the highest waves, hurrying towards the soft sandy shores of self-awareness. The terrain faintly familiar, like a road one remembers from childhood, every landmark suggestively familiar, dredging up long buried memories - oh, yeah, I’ve been here before. Later, they found themselves, and they lay in each other’s arms. Spent.

 

It was dark outside. Night had fallen and they could hear the alien voices of nocturnal insects as they went about their nightly commune. The room was also dark, and silent, save for their panting breaths, which were stabilizing after the flight they had taken.

 

Amanda broke the silence first. She whispered, “Tega?”

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