The Lonely Heart (Finale)
By Samuel Sebbowa Bunnya, Uganda
She soon stood right in front of him. Isaac could tell that she was livid. Her big beautiful brown eyes were narrowed into slits. Her straight nose was slight furrowed and her dark brows were furrowed in frustration. Isaac knew the fire he saw in her eyes.
“Hi, I am Birungi.” Birungi seemed oblivious to his angel’s dark mood.
“I know who you are.” Kirabo crossed her arms over her ample chest. “How many glasses of wine did you have?”
“One since I got here,” Birungi offered cheerfully.
“I did not ask you.” Kirabo’s usually sweet and soothing voice was laced with fury.
Isaac swallowed hard. “I don’t know,” he whispered.
“What do you mean you don’t know,” Kirabo snapped. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “Isaac what is wrong?”
Isaac remained silent until he felt Birungi’s hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her. From the corner of his eye he saw Kirabo’s brow furrow a little more.
“Tell her what you told me,” Birungi urged him.
“What did you tell this woman?” Kirabo demanded.
Isaac could see that she was holding on by a thread to her temper. “You are cold towards me. You hardly talk to me anymore. You seem not to find me attractive and I do not know why. I feel so lonely of late.” He saw the realisation in Kirabo’s face. He knew he had to tell her everything. “I feel so lonely. You have abandoned me.”
Kirabo remained silent looking at Isaac. After a few seconds she looked at Birungi. The anger was gone. “Is that why you sent the video?”
“Yes.” Birungi removed her hand from Isaac’s shoulder. “I realised that you were letting the world and its cares take your man away from you. I just had to give you a good scare.”
Isaac was confused. The two women talked like they were old friends, and yet he knew that they were not.
Kirabo laughed. It was the first time in a long time that he had heard her laugh. “Well Birungi…you did give me a good scare.” She raised her hand and let the lights reflect off the stones on the ring Isaac had given her two months before. “I thought that this idiot I want to marry and spend the rest of my life with was cheating on me.”
“See,” Birungi smiled at Isaac. “You were over thinking it.”
Kirabo grabbed Isaac’s hands. “Isaac I would never abandon you. Without you, my world will collapse…and we would not want that, would we?”
“No.” He looked into her dark eyes that had so much love in them. “But you were hardly talking to me.”
“Isaac a woman has so many issues and sometimes we take them head on so that our man cannot feel the pressure.”
“I told the fool,” Birungi quipped.
She called the bartender and ordered for another round of drinks.
Isaac felt some bit of relief. He looked at Kirabo’s slender hands that were holding his tightly. He realised that he had been wrong. Kirabo would never abandon his lonely heart because she knew that if she did, he would die of loneliness. Isaac was grateful. He squeezed her hands not believing the warmth he was receiving from them. His heart that had been shattering was slowly mending itself.
