The Broken Journey

Book excerpt: Olaedo is seventeen years old, tall, black, intelligent, and very beautiful. Her name personifies beauty. While others were created, she was moulded by God Himself on a Sunday when He was most happy and pleased. Born into an affluent family, she is the only daughter. Olaedo’s birth brings immense joy to her mother, who bore five sons before her. So when Olaedo arrived, she was a bundle of joy and a jewel of inestimable value. Her beauty is a blessing as well as a distraction. She finds it difficult to walk the streets and constantly receives embarrassing stares from admirers. Fights break out among those seeking her attention. She becomes the legendary tall and beautiful tree that can never hide itself in the forest. It is said that her charm and beauty would make a eunuch renounce his vow of celibacy. As the beautiful Olaedo grows up, and boys will not let her be, she is determined to remain chaste so she can become a nun. But her mother, who missed the opportunity of studying to be a lawyer, insists that her daughter must become a lawyer since she missed the opportunity herself.