Wild West of the Heart
EIGHTY THREE

"Are you back on your hormones Obi?"

He looked to her, slouching her back against the door. He was reluctant to give a response and Hassan just lined her lips. "You haven't?" He left an iota of doubt in his tone. Obi shook his head.

"But you helped me though, you helped me realize that i was non binary" He replied and Madu raised her brows. "So you go by they them now?" She asked.

"I don't know he, they?" He said in a questioning tone.

"But which do you really want, Obi?" She loved calling his name, in a way that made him feel calm. He shrugged his shoulders. "Both are pretty cool in a way that isn't really limiting you know" He replied. "I hope you're not just doing it because of where you are this place" She said.

"Toning yourself down?"

"Because this place might never change, so don't you ever feel you should be the one to change" She continued and there was a smile at the corner of Obi's lips. "I think i'm still fine with the he right now. It's not as if i'm going through all those changes like before-" Obi looked at him.

"Do you want to?" Madu asked.

"Sometimes i think about it. I think about that part of me that once yearned for something different. That would stick the syringe in my arms and then look in the mirror every five seconds for the littlest change" Obi said. "I try to remind myself how much i wanted this before. Before Jazz and before life happened and the last few months"

"But then i remember how when i finally got it, i got scared and i got confused-"

"Transitioning isn't no way as linear. It isn't one straight line or one straight path. Especially transitioning as a non binary person" Madu whispered to him. "I know but it's like i lost that part of me in that fear and maybe when i get them back, i would consider getting back on my hormones"

"If you ever want to talk, just know i'm here. And i'm thinking of running a research for people like you, people still trying to replace themselves in this lousy dependent world. A research that gives you that control over your body and your transition. Unique to just you alone" Madu whispered and they locked eyes with each other.

"What are you saying?"

"One word. Micro-dosing. Transitioning on your own terms. With your control, in your dosage. It allows attain that balance, the level of equilibrium between the genders. You could embrace your facial hair, and also your effeminate voice. Both, no choices. No choices at all. It's about expanding gender affirming care options for non binary people and you inspired you to come up with that. After our last conversation on Christmas" Madu smiled. And Obi did as well.

"There's alot of things to talk about with you. Whenever you have the time, i'd love to take you along every step of the way" She smiled, reaching for his palms. "I meant what i said earlier, about me being there for you" She whispered. Obi wanted to ask why, what he did to receive this much generosity from someone as famous as Hassan Madu, or even a stranger to begin with. But instead, he just grinned, squeezing her palms. "Thank you" He muttered. And even that sort of felt underwhelming for how much she'd done.

Especially in that single day- He looked to the book in his hands, that was just some escape for him. Flipping through the last pages now, he exhaled. He could finally see a life after this, after maybe everything, including Hillway High. And he wasn't the only one.

Mary herself had been giving her future some thought, especially after her session with Phil. And Titi was beyond glad that she'd done something, perhaps small, to help.

She sat into the chair with hot cocoa in her mug, and taking a sip, she looked to Mary who seemed to be lost in her thoughts. Titi waved her hands in her face to drift her back.

"You want cocoa?" She asked as Mary held a thin paper between her fingers. She froze, as if something went through her mind and Titi just shrugged. "You could just say a no thank you" She rolled her eyes. "No"

"No, it's not that" Mary shook her head, sitting forward. "I've just been thinking about all of what Phil said. He asked me what the plan was and i told him of everything. Including becoming a nurse and then he said what changed and i couldn't even answer that, no matter how obvious it was" Titi looked to her. "You got married?" She replied.

"I got lost" Mary whispered. "I got lost in everything, everything except what i wanted. I was living my husband's dream and i was about to make Ola live mine"

"What i'm saying is i feel the nostalgia. So much that i've been thinking about going back-" She closed her eyes and Titi awaited her next words. "Going back to nursing school" She completed and her sister's jaw dropped. "Are you serious, Mary?" She chuckled, with a smile on her lips.

"It's just a thought but i guess, it is a plan. It's something i really want to do and you know that. Nothing has changed"

"Mary-" She called while she wiped her eyes. "I've never in this life been more proud of you" She nodded as Mary walked to her, immediately holding her in for a hug. So tight that the mug spilled some tea on the carpet and they burst in laughter. "Oh please. Leave it. I don't care" Titi waved as she held Mary tighter.

"Mo nife re arabinrin mi" She whispered into her ears what was roughly translated to i love you my sister. Mary smiled, whispering back the only right response. "Mo nife re—"

-

Olamide's phone lit up beside him, and he reached for it to see the email the heading, which immediately caught his attention.

THE JOHNSONS SCHOOL OF CREATIVE WRITING.

He gasped, immediately clicking it. His eyes immediately scanned every right word, and when he got to the last part, an exhale immediately escaped his lips.

we would love to schedule a meeting with you to discuss some of your hopes and aspirations, some of which would help us determine whether or not they align with the requirements for joining our college after the school year. His eyes settled on the very last word of the letter.

YOURS TRULY,

THE MANAGEMENT.

He could finally breathe. Resting back into his chair, his eyes went to the piece he had been working on for the last few months-which he only recently brought out. He had a pen in his hands and he held tight to it. He could see it. He could finally see it, his future-grinning back at him.

But that isn't such way to end. I'd rather go back to the very beginning, where we left Mira and Silva in that room.

Everything was about to change.

"So when did all of this begin?" Pam crossed her legs, looking to Silva. He cleared his throat before leaning forward. "Actually-" He started, remembering the words he was supposed to say but he shrugged it off. All of it. "Actually, it started a few months back" He rephrased. "I lost someone, who all of you may have seen once, but who none of you actually knew. Her name was Jazzlyn Pius- And she was a writer, she was a transwoman, she was a role model. She was brave, and she was a lot of things. But she was never one of the things you called her" He added.

Mira squeezed his knee where he held her hands.

"And she deserved a life. She deserved to still be alive, to still hope even in this cruel world. She deserved to be treated normal, the bare minimum but instead she was killed maliciously by someone out there that is out for people with this disease. And instead of helping ourselves, we're doing the very opposite" He continued, looking back at Mira. "When we started this, only a few had died"

"But now, here we are. Thousands of people are dead, with more and more dying each day. Some to the disease and even more to murder? Gruesome murder and what did we do to ever deserve that" Pan eyed Jacob who rested back. This was the live broadcast to over five million homes across the nation. Which meant no better time to speak all he wanted, alongside Mira. "We wanted help, we wanted cooperation. We wanted peace and every normal thing. But it's like each day, it's another terrible news to befall us-"

"I'm saying enough is enough" Silva stood, and Mira filled her lungs with air. "Enough is enough. We won't just sit back while we're all dying. Everyone is dying and if you've seen half the many gruesome awful things that i have, you would open your eyes. You would finally see that we have done nothing wrong. We have done nothing but live our lives and we are hated for merely existing" Mira said, raising her right arm.

"Enough is enough. That is why we would be taking to the streets tomorrow at exactly five pm and we ask, we beg of you that if you so much as have a heart or a conscience that you join us" She cried.

"That you join us in asking and protesting for our rights. We want our lives back, we want peace back. And the only way we can fight this disease is together because everyone is dying from it. It's not just gays or transgender people or cross dressers-it's everyone. And it might be you next. It might be me next. It's what we've been saying since but no one. No one has been listening to us" She raised her voice as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"We would be saying their names from Jazzlyn Pius, down to everyone for you to see that their actual people, with actual families. The Enough is Enough protest is a fight for our rights, it's a funeral, a vigil and it could be anything you want. Just come, just come out of your houses and join us-whoever you are and no matter how old. This is a fight for the Nigeria we want, the Nigeria of our dreams."

"Where everyone is happy and where we aren't stupidly killing our own people" She tossed the mic off her chest as Pam stood, speechless to the camera. "Five pm tomorrow" Silva yelled, before trailing behind Mira. "What was t―" He scoffed, running in front of her as they walked out of the building. "Fuck it" She yelled. "Fuck it, they left me with absolutely no choice. We're done asking for freedom"

"We take it" She grabbed his hands as if arm-wrestling and she was fuming for her ears, veins protruding through her neck. "We take it. And we fight until my last breath" She shook her head. "Tomorrow" He nodded. "Do you think that people would show up?" Silva exhaled from his lips.

That was a question not of them could answer, but it didn't mean they didn't have that one shred of hope left in them, for the world. And for the whole country. "I hope-" Her voice went low. "I really hope, Mira"

"And right now, it's all we can do" Silva coughed into his arms as Mira let go of him. His arms fell to his knees before he turned away. "Are you okay?" She asked him.

Covering his arms, he nodded. "Of course i am" And that was the biggest lie he'd told his best-friend. "We need to go back home to prepare for tomorrow" She walked past him and he faced her back with blood on his lips. And tears in his eyes, knowing from that very moment-

-nothing would be the same anymore. Absolutely nothing.

To be continued...