ACROSS THE GULF

Abstract

What had started as the beginning of a blissful life ended up as the beginning of pains, sorrow and loss that would dog her all her life; the beginning of a ruined future of a family about to be born. It was a moment of bliss shattered by the most terrifying sounds that she had ever heard, sounds that haunted her for the rest of her life. It was not entirely Ofala's fault. As always, she was eager to escape from what she had nicknamed nkporo-ulo-nso, Churchprison, especially on evenings when her father was not in a prayer or some other meeting at the Church. She hated the house: its shape, paint and the dank, stifling air it exuded at night.