Love At First Sight: A Short Story

Tunde walked down the tarred road leading to the lake, he let  the cool evening breeze caress and cool his nerves.

He had been too far away from home for a while and often felt nostalgic. At the lake, he watched the birds fly towards the water and head up again as the sounds of gushing water flowing away to another river source added to the ambience.

NYSC had come late, he was posted with the second batch after being bored and sick of home. He first enjoyed his new home, but it soon got old as he was weary of its.

Stella had gone too deep into the act of being alone and she truly enjoyed it. Lately, she has been having the urge to bond with another person. As much as she had always loved being alone while having family and friends as her company, she was afraid to open up to anyone. Most evenings for her those days all led to the lake.

As tunde buried himself deep into his thoughts and breathed into the air of silence.

Stella laid by the bark of a tree and enjoyed the view of the lake and serenity of the atmosphere.

A tiny but piercing chirp came from behind disrupting the once peaceful ambience and serenity of the environment. 

Stella chose to ignore as she tried to tap into the peaceful and quiet atmosphere once again. Alas! the sound rang through the air this time slow and weak like someone in pain.

Stella hurriedly stood on her feet and followed this slow, yet piercing sound into the woods.
The sound gets weaker as she draws nearer, still no one in sight. 

She almost stepped on something small, not just anything, but a little bird lying in pain on a pile of leaves chirping low, deep in pains. 

Touched by the pains of this little bird, she hurriedly picked it up and discovered it had a broken wing.

"Where did this bird come from?" she thought out loud and noticed a nest high up on a tree.

"That's quite high" she said but the bird voiced again and she became determined to get it back to its nest.

Tunde had wandered deep into the woods, basking in the euphoria of its richness as he had familiarized himself to the surrounding.

 He unconsciously noticed something moving upward on a tree.

"It must be an animal" he thought. As he looked closer, he saw someone struggling to go up the tree. The person wasn't making much progress as she was always loosing her grip.

Stella had felt the sting of the bruises on her skin and pain rang through her like an alarm clock. While the busy Soldier ants matched on her body. Still, she was relentless but her will was cut short as her flesh betrayed her by its weaknesses.

Loosing her grip, she fell to the nature rooted floor with rough edges and dried leaves, an unfamiliar yet strong and steady hand pulled her on to him sending them both crashing to the floor but with her landing on him.

"Oh my God, are you okay?"

Stella asked worriedly.

"Yeah I am. I should be asking you that, you were the one falling down." Tunde said with a small smile.

"I'm sorry, I was trying to get this little bird up to its nest, seems it fell and broke a wing"

"Wow! all that for a tiny bird?. You truly love nature then"

"I just couldn't leave it down here to die"

" its mum would have found it then" Tunde replied.

"No I don't think so, it's evening and the birds are all going back to their nests with whatever food they could find for their chicks."

"She probably hasn't found it yet"

"I need to get this bird up there,even if its means falling again" she said with determination.

"I will take it up there then, my NYSC training involved alot of vigorous training which one of them is climbing tall heights" He said proudly.

He takes the bird from her and sets upward on the tree which each turn, he skillfully manuevers himself and is soon close to the nest as she watches him...

Skrrrrrrrrr!!!! a piercing sound shot through the air. Confused they both were, suddenly a matured bird charged towards tunde aiming for the chick.

Tunde perplexed looses his grip and begins to fall,but a familiar yet steady hand pulls him to safety.

Both breathing heavily, they see the chick now in its nest with the matured bird which is its mother.

"I think it's safe now, that was its mother, she must have thought you were trying to steal her chick" Stella said

"yeah I guess, oucch so much for nature and my broken bones"Tunde said, laughing.
"(Laughs) atleast the chick is safe now in its little nest".

"Yeah it is. Hi, I am tunde"
Taking his outstretched hand,their eyes met and the whole world seemed to be on hold.

" I'm Stella, nice to meet you"
"We should do this another time" said tunde.

"(Laughs),you must be crazy"
Spending the whole evening laughing about each others attempt to climb the tree and falling. They stared deep into each other eyes, the world felt alright as they both found peace in one other.

As it was... Love At First Sight.

~Andrè Writes