"If there is one thing Jennifer Emelife communicates in this short piece, it is that the book and language present us with possibilities, and when we tap into these, there is no quantifying the fulfillment we experience nor is there any limit to our growth." - Editor's note.
Guest Writer: Jennifer Chinenye Emelife
I grew up in an environment where Literature was a wandering young pregnant lady with an attractive face but no home. People saw her on the streets, greeted her with a quick smile and even quicker steps. There were only a few young people enthusiastic about writing, and they didn't show it. But I had a number of friends in secondary school who formed a small reading circle.
Ramatu was the one who always had all the books. Amarachi somehow knew how to get them from her. I usually saw big Nafisa fondle one or two books during assemblies and each time it got to little Rafat's turn, I knew they were soon coming to me. That was how I got half the books I owned then.
