Escape to tomorrow
Sade couldn't wait to get out of the scorching heat into the refuge of her aunt's house. She was tired...so tired. Tired of hoping, tired of fighting, tired of reaching for more. It was as though she was the subject of some wicked cosmic joke. She involuntarily reached for her phone to call Kola, knowing that just hearing his voice would be a comfort. Then the reality of her situation washed over her like ice-water. Tears stung her eyes as the events of the previous afternoon played before her mind's eye. She had never felt as inadequate as she did when Kola told her that he wasn't interested in a relationship with her anymore. Was she really that bad? It was bad enough that every company she had applied to had turned her down, or that nobody was buying the clothes she was selling. The break-up had been the straw that broke the camel's back. And boy, was she broken.
The door clicked shut as Sade quietly stepped into the living room of her aunt's three-bedroom apartment. No one was home. The absence of the usual childish chatter and noisiness gave the house a silence that matched her mood. She dropped wearily to the couch and allowed the tears to flow. Sobs raked through her thin frame, the anguish in her fragile heart threatening to choke her to death. The pain of rejection sank its long pinions into her heart and squeezed out the life left in it. She felt so inadequate, like she was utterly useless. The thought caused a fresh outburst and this time, she cried herself to sleep.
There is a reality that doesn't seem quite so real. No one knows how this reality comes about, just that it does. As Sade wearily drifted into unconsciousness, rather than be wrapped in a blanket of sleep, she simply stepped into another reality, one quite unfamiliar to her. Everything was the same, yet different. It was as though what she saw had always been there, but had never been obvious. She was still her aunt's house and everything was the same, yet different...in a good way. It was as though there had been a beauty in the house that she had never seen but now was exposed. As if an unseen layer had been peeled off to reveal a beauty underneath. It was breathtaking...had the house always been this way? It had always looked so ordinary...her sister barely had time for herself, a magazine-style decor wasn't priority. Still, it wasn't like the house changed, everything that was there before was still there. It was more like a hidden beauty in those ordinary things had been revealed. It was very puzzling. This doesn't make any sense, she said to herself as she walked around the house, touching everything in amazement. Suddenly, she came to a halt as she saw her reflection in the full-length mirror her sister had bought only the day before. Filled with wonder, she slowly reached out her hand, as if to feel the wondrous creature in the mirror. This couldn't be her, lailai. The stranger in the mirror looked like her but wasn't her. Everything about the person was the same as it was with her, except that something seemed to have been removed, revealing a more glorious her. As Sade was trying to comprehend the absurdity of it all, she woke up with a start. She was back in the reality she was familiar with, the not-so-beautiful one.
Extremely perplexed by her earlier experience, which she couldn't bring herself to call a dream, Sade knelt on the cracked tiles and tried to pray. It was all so real, it was as though she had simply stepped through a door. Suddenly, a voice, as gentle as a caress, spoke, "There is a beauty in you that I am slowly revealing. Take my hand."
