top of page

LUH DENEBOLA

Aida Oluwagbemiga

July 2020


The star second in brightness in the constellation of Leo is known as Denebola. ... Betelgeuse’s 'giant’s shoulder,' the giant being Orion; Denebola is 'lion’s tail.'

I spend so much time with her, all this is about to change, my life is about to change again.

My new home is a solid 15 minutes drive away from the heart of the capital city. I'm heavily disinterested in Math and calculating when numbers serve as a major center of anything, so I cannot accurately give figures on the miles/kilometres which would come between us. I did try to get a place close to her, It would mean long evening walks together on an insane level, now there is a lot of numbers between us, accurately designed to look like metres and kilometres, and the reasons to further keep us apart, well there's the tiny factor of just how much little money I make, the money factor shamelessly will rear its head, gas money and all.

She is warm when she wants to be, I am protective of her and she does the sweetest of things. We scare over dark films, I had somersaulted towards the stranger things series, which I was more than happy to binge-watch when I could borrow a computer for some brief short stays.

Here's the thing about Luh, she is a girl, the first time I saw her was at our now dead, dying and decaying high school, cut to maybe 7 years later, on a Saturday. In a corporate casual mismatch, Her pants were made from this fabric, we here like to call Cashmere, they were very masculine, and in dark tones.

That very first meeting, post different college experiences and also post 1 year of the Nigerian youth service, we went to a bookstore. I didn’t want to like her any more than I already did.

I remember us buying this book ‘the Muslim society’ or so, It had a certain appeal. We settled on lunch, a fulfilling choice of Masa, roast chicken, locally pasteurized yogurt with helpings of Fura. I have no idea what fura is made from.

From what I have seen which isn't plenty, Masa is made from a liquid thick form of rice, poured and placed over heat just like pancakes and tortillas, tossed and turned to get a good brown, then served, sometimes with soup, I remember dying momentarily in spasms.

My northern vibe suffers quite a bit, so It’s quite a lot to get into, and well, quite the experience.

I don't imagine the soul mate principle works instantaneously, but It might have been for me with her, I was maybe unable to see that.

She is in the pregnant stage of her awesomeness, she wears big t-shirts and wears mostly flip flops and sweat pants, and absolutely never showers in the morning, then she gets really snappy and cranky but she is so soft, her hair always smells likes coconuts.

This time spent, might be everything, for me.

I wasn't thinking about us as tears filled my eyes in the morning as I saw 'the last word', a film about the beginning and the end of Amanda Seyfried's friendship with Shirley Maclaine.

I found myself thinking life is too much, too hard, to lose all the good things in life, live through that, and find good things you only lose again.

I saw her coming, now there's going to be a longing, the type which breaks the heart to so many tiny shards unable to repair itself, the good ones always are.

This is essentially what comets do, she is Luh Denebola, and when you go through her phone, you find a song titled Orion's belt.


Aida Oluwagbemiga

bottom of page