Ife fell unto his mat the warm glow of the sun creeping in. He played over the message from the morning meeting
"I'm sure you may have heard of his Majesty's passing away we are here to confirm it is true he passed away..." this had rung through Ife's mind for days. his head was filled with memories of the king and he clutched his chest. it hurt and for some reason, his eyes watered. Maybe he was sick. And he wanted to help out on the farm but was in pain he told his uncle about it and was sent to his hut to sleep in. He didn't understand this feeling but yet was relieved to feel it his eyes became heavy and he fell asleep
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Ife was woken up by a tap on the shoulder and turned to see a man he didn't know
"Who are you?"
"An old friend to the king I came to see him off at his end"
"what?"
The man sighed
"I came to pay my respects to the king"
"the burial is not until tomorrow"
"Thought you were all preparing for a festival"
"well it's in preparation for his burial many people from different towns were coming"
"I guess it's been a long time since I've attended one"
The man sat down on the floor
"you said you know him how?"
"a long time ago we were war buddies you should have seen him he was amazing on the battlefield he always had an overwhelming victory time after time in a time where empires like the Oyo, Kanuri and Benin were ruling everything he built a kingdom where he could stand on equal footing with them"
"really?" Ife said
slowly sat up and leaned his back to the wall
"really! But it wasn't just that it was his nature he was a true leader always putting everyone ahead of himself I remember a great famine that occurred once it was terrible so he left south and he came back with crocodile meat ended up having a thing for it afterwards oh yeah" he brought down his bag and grabbed a gourd and kola nuts from his bag
"conversation is always better when there's food "
He poured out the contents of the gourd into two horns and gave ife one and had ife break the kola.
"palm wine?"
"of course from the very best," the man said
Ife took a sip
"This is great! I don't remember this since -" he briefly clutched his chest
"what's wrong are you sick? don't die yet the king would be upset that im not there before some kid"
"im fine it's just that I get this pain in my chest and a sore throat and sometimes my eyes leak it's been like that since my parents died and it's worse now I don't know why but it feels weird not like physical pain but something deeper "
"Have you told anyone about it?"
"yes my uncle, he looked at me weird and told me it's okay and so he never really stressed me I hope it's not something serious "
The man laughed
"what?"
"It's something serious alright"
"Seriously?"
The man gulped the wine
"it's something everyone has to come to terms with its called grief"
"grief?"
"it's the pain that proves love rather it's the ultimate show of appreciation"
"mister your eyes"
"it's okay" he wiped off his tears
"I don't think I can do it because my uncle didn't grief for his brother nor his lost child because he feels no pain"
"no he definitely did it's just something you can't explain it's okay to cry from it to hate from it but it would be foolish to think you don't have to if you feel it"
Ife chuckled slowly his tears flowed fast. He cried and cried even at the funeral of the king he cried silently when he came back he cried all the while the man stayed by his side
"why does it have to hurt? Even though I love them why does the love hurt?"
"it hurts because it's true love"
"thank you sir"
"please call me asher"
"okay Asher thank you for taking care of me"
Asher got up and stopped at the door
"goodbye kid finish the rest of the kola and palm would you?" with that he left