Quest for Happiness

Walking down the road, Anne thought of all she had lost and heaved a sigh. Tomorrow, she would be returning to London, as there was nothing left for her here. She had been fooled enough and guessed it was time to return to family, her only hope was that they would accept her after her nonchalant attitude towards them. When she thought of her son and her granddaughter, it brought a bitter-sweet smile to her face. Oh how it would feel to be home…

Part One:

Going through the arrival section of the Murtala Muhammed airport, Anne couldn’t help but smile brightly. Good thing she brought her sunglasses, as the sun outside was shining brightly and the day was clear, as opposed to the snowy and dull weather in London. Looking round, she searched for her cousin Joy as she headed towards the exit, thinking to herself, “I hope this vacation would be great”. It felt really good to be back after being away for three decades. She could still remember when she left Nigeria with a lot of high hopes, her aunty and cousins were there to see her off. A 20 year old lady who was going to study in a foreign land, where she knew no one and had no idea how things were run. She had completed her studies, gotten married, had a wonderful son, Alex, who just recently got married and had a daughter of his own. Things couldn’t get any better, till she lost her husband. She had been devastated and still hadn’t gotten over the loss, though he wasn’t the best husband a woman could pray for, but at least he was hers.

That was probably what made her accept her cousin's invitation to come to Nigeria for her nephews wedding. Afterall, she had been away for a very long time and it was good for her to reconnect with her extended family. Who knows, maybe she would end up settling back here. With this thought in mind, she turned and saw Joy standing close to the entrance, looking around and trying to see through the crowd. The only reason she recognised her was because they had connected a while back and been chatting through facebook, sending pictures of themselves and their families.

Looking at Joy, she looked slightly bigger than the pictures she had sent and a lot different than she had looked 30 years ago. “Wow,” Anne thought to herself, “I wonder how I look from her point of view”. As though Joy could hear her line of thought, she turned to look at her direction and on making eye contact, grinned widely and hurried towards her. Oh it felt good to be back...