Though He Slays Me

Jessica is elated, as her relationship with Gideon is renewed by his sudden homecoming. Although he looks all manly now and had behaved a bit differently towards her this last visit, but that laughter in his eyes - that playful laughter - reassures her. Without dread, she visits the young soldier in his hometown only to realise that the Gideon of her childhood years is gone. Jessica finds in his place a man who makes it plain that he yearns for more. He wants her for keeps. Jessica sees herself grappling with emotions as strange as they are pleasant and frightening. Then she melts once more into Gideon's embrace. But a civil war erupts in their country following a secession, leaving uncertainties hanging over their unfolding passion. Gideon dons fatigues for the East Central Region, Biafra. As the federal troops sack their town, her own soldier seems to vanish into the enveloping dark clouds of the raging conflict. Suddenly, the vexing civil war screeches to a halt, but her young man appears to linger somewhere beyond the horizon. Somehow, she appears to believe that her nostalgia had pulled him home before - that last time when she first thought she'd lost him for good. In despair, she wonders whether this time her longing is strong enough to herald him home again from the fields of battle. With her eyes fastened on the threshold of their compound, she wonders if she will ever again see the face of the young soldier who had wooed her with kisses and laughter in his eyes.