part one
part two
...
until this time, all was quiet and calm except for the night cricket and the hum of the trees. the evening had a good aroma out of a tree that emits a delicious meal smell in the evening. seeing my antics, the small boys burst out laughing. my angel called out to me to remain calm so that i can resume my journey.

i carefully removed my shoes while lying on my stomach on the bridge while tightening my grip on the bridge even with my finger nails. i removed one shoe at a time and threw it across the bridge. i had to be careful lest i spin anticlockwise on the 'stick' bridge and make my experience worse. unfortunately, one of the shoes missed the riverbank and tumbled back into the water down the rapids giving a good example of what could happen if i lost my grip. i stuffed my socks into my packets. luckily for me, the saint guide had helped carry the package from my granny across.

i was getting numb and i had to get to the other side fast. i made an effort to re-balance myself on my two feet, but it proved to be a rope walking task and i gave up. i crawled my tense-self across the bridge to the much amusement of the kids and relief to my evening date. at least i made it across the river alive, otherwise i would not be blogging myself crazy.

reverends' daughters have good hearts and she made it easy for me all the way as i walked barefoot the rest of the journey home. reverends' daughters have dignity since that story never went past that evening. i never heard it doing rounds around the village and still got my moments of fame in the after-church parades. actually, i meant some reverends' daughters in the preceding statements. otherwise we believed the former in our growing up years. "jp, the reverend's daughter is looking for you" were statements that would make me spirit-filled back then.

after that, time went past as we went in different directions from the village in search of modernization and green pastures. distance drew a wedge to our bond and its been years since i heard from the reverend's daughter. last time i heard about her, she had flown to the u s of a. well, she could be reading this!