“ Ebiere! The little one who ran away to the white man’s school!” “I didn’t run away, Mama,” Ebiere said, her voice breaking. “I just… left.”
But Ebiere had listened too well. She had built a life where the water was clean, but her soul was dry. She had replaced the sound of village drums with the sound of Slack notifications. She had replaced the taste of fresh bush mango with the taste of anxiety.
She stayed for seven days. She helped Mama Patience mend the church roof. She taught the children how to read using a torn newspaper she found in her bag. She drank palm wine from a calabash. She slept on the floor.
“Auntie Ebiere!” one of them shouted. “Is it true you used to live in a glass house in the sky?”
Lagos, 2026. Then Port Harcourt, 1994.
That girl was her.
She left the blazer behind. She wore a simple kampala dress and rubber slippers. The flight to Port Harcourt was short, but the road to the village—Kporghor—was a battle. The asphalt ended three hours in. Then came the red mud. The driver, a young man named Tamuno, kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
But Ebiere wasn't thinking about spreadsheets. She was thinking about the photograph in her hand. It was creased at the edges, faded into sepia. A girl of about nine, wearing a yellow plastic bangle and a torn dress, stood in front of a thatched hut. Behind her, an oil rig burned in the distance—a flaring tower of eternal fire against a mangrove swamp.
Evi Edna Ogholi - No Place Like Home -
“ Ebiere! The little one who ran away to the white man’s school!” “I didn’t run away, Mama,” Ebiere said, her voice breaking. “I just… left.”
But Ebiere had listened too well. She had built a life where the water was clean, but her soul was dry. She had replaced the sound of village drums with the sound of Slack notifications. She had replaced the taste of fresh bush mango with the taste of anxiety.
She stayed for seven days. She helped Mama Patience mend the church roof. She taught the children how to read using a torn newspaper she found in her bag. She drank palm wine from a calabash. She slept on the floor. Evi Edna Ogholi - No Place Like Home
“Auntie Ebiere!” one of them shouted. “Is it true you used to live in a glass house in the sky?”
Lagos, 2026. Then Port Harcourt, 1994.
That girl was her.
She left the blazer behind. She wore a simple kampala dress and rubber slippers. The flight to Port Harcourt was short, but the road to the village—Kporghor—was a battle. The asphalt ended three hours in. Then came the red mud. The driver, a young man named Tamuno, kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror. “ Ebiere
But Ebiere wasn't thinking about spreadsheets. She was thinking about the photograph in her hand. It was creased at the edges, faded into sepia. A girl of about nine, wearing a yellow plastic bangle and a torn dress, stood in front of a thatched hut. Behind her, an oil rig burned in the distance—a flaring tower of eternal fire against a mangrove swamp.