Butterfly Fish Read Online Free PDF

saw what she was destined to purchase on Emeka’s stall. It lay right at the very bottom under a weighty pile of displayed attire and she’d never have even noticed it had it not been for the left corner folded up, like a crooked finger beckoning her towards it.
    Emeka smiled knowingly when she reached him.
    â€œAha, I know what you want, it is the only one of its kind that I have,” he said smoothly removing the desired garment from its position and spreading it on the top where it truly belonged in all its glory. “You will be a vision in this; I have been waiting to sell it to the right person, a person who truly deserves it.”
    Adesua resisted the urge to laugh in response, knowing full wellthat Emeka would have sold it to a giant grasshopper had it presented him with a half decent offer. “It is beautiful,” she whispered, stroking the bold print of deep blue and orange angular lines that your eyes traced until you touched the outer edges kissed with gold.
    â€œMy father will give you a week’s supply of farm produce in exchange for this cloth and the matching head dress,” Adesua said careful to keep a pleading expression on her face.
    â€œWhat? No, no, no,” Emeka responded, shaking his large head from side to side adamantly. “You want people to laugh and say Emeka is a fool. No, you will pay me like everybody else.”
    â€œBut I am not trying to get out of paying sir, I am simply giving you another choice of payment, please I am like your daughter. I have nothing to wear for the king’s ceremony.”
    At last Emeka agreed, biting heavily into the chewing stick dangling from his mouth. He made a show of packing her item for her, folding and tying it so it rested neatly and addressing people walking past, “Let nobody say Emeka is not a kind man oh! Let nobody say Emeka does not have a heart that gives.” He gestured pulling at his ear lobe urging people to listen, instead they were only fleetingly distracted.
    â€œThank you sir,” Adesua responded. “You will be well rewarded.”
    â€œYes, just make sure your father is ready to give me what I am owed, I will pass by in a few days to collect my payment.”
    â€œYes Papa Emeka.”
    â€œBe sure to tell him I am coming, I do not want to be a bearer of bad news.”
    It was only after she picked up her cloth and walked away that Adesua saw the monkey approaching. Before she could react it had jumped on her back, desperately clinging on. She tried to ply its wily brown body off her but it would not relent. It brought its pinched face close to hers and bared its teeth, grabbing at her hair and pulling tufts out, noisily screeching while her hair fell to the ground. It scratched her face and neck drawing blood and she felt a stinging burn on her skin. She screamed at the top of her voice, furiouslyflailing her arms about and hopping up and down, yet the stubborn animal remained there, boring its black eyes into hers, hissing and spitting angrily. She raised her palm in defence but it shot its head forward and bit her finger. By the time Emeka and a few others reached her, she lay in a heap; there was no hair on the ground, no marks on her body, and no blood.
    The monkey had vanished but momentarily Adesua had felt that there was nothing she could do to get that monkey off her back.
    It was a sign of things to come.

Will
    The cat’s meow drew me outside. I recognised the neighbourhood rambler, black with a split white stripe down its back. It stood on a half smashed green bottle, back arched, body poised. Its amber gaze bore into mine and momentarily it looked like an artist’s sculpture: Cat on a Green Bottle .
    â€œHey boy,” I cooed gently, tightening my dressing gown. “Get off that.” I bent down to shoo it off amazed it had at all managed to balance on the bottle. Smoke filled its eyes as it leapt off in a nifty trick. The bottle rolled towards my feet,