Love Literati Contest: ‘Hyacinths and Memories’ by Victor Daniel

Love literati contest - elsieisy blog

HE MET HER three times in his life…

       The first time was in the hallway of the hospital, sitting a little distance away from him. There, on that bench she sat, wearing a blue gown that extended just below her knees, staring at the red hyacinths pitched in a verse just in her front. The hyacinths were beautiful. They gave a splash of red to the white walls of the hallway which was already illuminated by white fluorescent bulbs. However, there was only one thing more alluring than the flowers in that hallway, and it was the girl staring hopelessly at them. He liked the sight— of the girl staring intensely at the verse of flowers in front of her, as if she were jealous of it. If he had his way, he would pluck a leaf out of the flowers and give it to her, but he couldn’t. The lurking eyes of the stern-looking attendant in blue khaki uniform told him so. So he recoiled.

He would see her again a week later, sitting in the same hallway he had seen her before, donned in a red t-shirt and a Jean, staring. This time, she wasn’t staring at the flowers, but at the white, empty wall. At the far side of the hallway sat the flowers she had been so engrossed with just over a week ago, and now she suddenly had absolutely no interest in them. Instead, her gaze was pinned to a massive space of white concrete, as if it were some amazing piece of art.

Feeling mischievous and fueled by the desire to create a conversation, he walked up to where she sat and mouthed—

“The hyacinths are still as beautiful as you are. The walls are as blank as I am. Why then has the flower lost its allure to a blank wall?” He joked.

What he didn’t know, was that just as the wall, the hyacinths were blank to her too. Everything was, in fact, for she had been blind since the day she was born. But she looked at his direction, and smiled, and said to him in her enchantment of a voice—

“Just as you, and as the wall, the flowers and everything else has been blank to me since I was born.”

It took him a while to get what she meant, so he stood there, like an irresponsive teddy bear, his wide grin slowly straightening to a clueless blank stare. She might not have seen him, but she could tell from his sudden silence his dilemma. So she went under the bench and pulled her guard-stick out, then his mouth flew open.

“If you can hold a conversation without lacing it with pity and unnecessary empathy, you could sit with me and let’s gist.” She announced gleefully.

So he sat, with the guilt, shame and self-resentment that suddenly clogged in his throat. He sat, just beside her, heart in his mouth and bum at the edge of the bench. He sat, and while he searched for the words to say, she started: “So my name is Sally…”

SIX YEARS LATER, at the intensive care unit of the same hospital their fairytale started, he woke up from a coma. She was beside him, not as the random blind girl from six years ago, but as the other part of him that had said the vows while standing opposite of him in a church two years ago. A fairytale cut short by an accident that sent him struggling for his life in the ICU, she had been there, beside him, crying and praying. She sat behind him, her hands on his, when his eyes shot open. She felt it, so she called his name, and he made a sound. Everyone leapt for joy. She hugged him and kissed him, but he was cold and irreceptive. While she basked in the joy of her husband getting back around, she did not know, or was she prepared for the new reality— that it was not her husband who woke up, but a man who has become a stranger to even himself. For when he could finally speak, he acknowledged everyone in the room — His parents and siblings — but he looked at her, and the words that would change their lives forever rolled off his mouth: “Who are you?”

“Dissociative Amnesia”, that’s what the doctor called it. The man who had been the love of her life had woken up from coma with an amnesia that took away the last ten years of his life from his memory, so once again, she was a stranger to him. Once again, like it was six years ago, she was the random blind girl in the hospital room to him. There, when he woke up from that coma and saw a random, blind woman hugging him, was the second time he met her.

THE PICTURES, THE diary entries, the videos and every other means they tried to help his memory with only proved one thing at the end: that it was gone forever. So, like the two young, strange people in an arranged marriage, they lived together, yet they were worlds apart, like estranged housemates. Eight months had passed and she would give up trying, determined to live the rest of her life like a replay of fairytale movies. However, on that warm evening, while she sat in the yard, staring aloof and bleeding inside, he walked into the yard and saw a beautiful woman staring at the hyacinths planted in the yard, and he walked up to her and said—

“Hyacinths are beautiful, and so are you.”

There, he met her again, anew, for the third time. There, he would start to learn to fall in love with her all over again.

 

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158 comments

    1. “Nice one” Victor Daniel(S).. Just remembered someone will tell me I am mad this night. Erm Amazing as always!!

    1. This is indeed a lovely art work. The story is worth reading over and over. He talked about love in a dynamic way. Even disability couldn’t restrain the love. Weldone sir.

  1. Wow. Love overlooks. That crooked teeth, that annoying habit, that small breasts(considering he’s a lover of big boobs), that disturbing snore, and surprisingly, that deformity. Who would have thought a blind would find a love so true? I love love! Nothing feels better!

    Good one, Victor Daniel. Brought a tear to my eye.(the left one I think?)

    1. One of the best you have written. You just keep improving with each word you pen down. I just wish you had painted the scenery a little more. I think you meant vase (container for flowers) not verse.

  2. Victor Slim is a lot of things but a bad writer! His concept usually takes my imagination on a stroll to unknown lands and I rarely wish to be returned to the present!
    Nice piece as always…well done!

  3. Best story every told, i have always believe in your creativity….. good one bro

    Victor Daniel Ipemide has done it again…. jah bless your knowledge.

    Gracias

    Ogbeni Imanuel says so

  4. Awwwwww…..this is so emotional. I was already scared, that love was too beautiful to be blown away by amnesia, but the end….perfect. Great job Victor.

  5. This is good,
    I said good because I’ve looked for a better adjective to characterize this work and my search comes back blank, something in common with Sally’s Sight.

    Do more of this bro, well done sir.

  6. Wow.. The depth of this story is wow! I have no words. Absolutely unpredictable. This Is a wow story man

  7. A perfect piece, Great assembly of words, and a beautiful storyline. am more than impressed… great one bro….

  8. This is a beautiful one.victor has a way of casting an uncanny spell over his readers as be brings his characters alive.
    I loved reading this!

  9. Indeed an amazing piece, i could completely picture it all in my mind..you should be given an Oscar award for this!!!! like wow
    hope you consider writing a book someday!! You’re really talented. Keep up the great work..

  10. Wao! Am lost in words
    So real! What an amazing writer you are. Looking forward to more of this.

  11. The sweetest love story ever. Love is a beautiful thing.

    His writing has a way of getting in your head and you can imagine yourself in the situation.

    Good job Victor

  12. Beautiful story lines…..emotional, enthralling… Cant stop reading it….???…nice piece….want to keep reading more of these victor daniel…??

  13. With the way Victor Daniels delivers in his writings, I won’t hesitate to vote him if he decides to be a politician tomorrow.
    Because, delivering is his weakness.

  14. True, a conversation without pity and needless empathy is a great balm for the soul.
    Love can be so true that nothing can ruin it. Not even a “rebirth”. Nice one Victor. Coconut milk dey your head.

  15. Oh what a good writer you are. This is indeed a wonderful piece. I love everything about this story. Victor you’re the best writer I have known

  16. What an insightful step staying with him.
    I definitely know she prayed it should just be a phantasmagoria but utterly real and happening. How he started loving her a third I love so much.
    I have read this over and over and over again, of a truth I LOVE THIS.

  17. *Lick lips* This is so captivating. Beautiful. Awesome. Deep. After reading I pursed for a while and almost tear up. I always look forward to read from you. You’re a Great writer and your stories always look real. I salute you Victor Daniel

  18. Awwwn,dis is jst too real,Hycacinths and memories,very good………Lots of love in d air

  19. Wow….. Look at how you make me picture the scenario in my head like it was a nollywood movie I was watching on my dad’s TV. Victor Daniel I must confess you are very good at what you do.

  20. The manipulation was cruel yet beautiful, so was the suspense…as I read I was praying “God pls do not let this happen to her,do not let her give up,do not let them lose this love”
    .
    ..love found and regained by the Hyacinths..beautiful love it is

    Victor Daniel a name to remember

  21. This is such a beautiful story but then I expect nothing less than beautiful from Victor Daniel

  22. This is an exceptionally awesome story with a perfect plot, catching beginning, firm middle and a wonderful ending.

    I admire the way the writer displays his literary prowess by embellishing the story with suspense in order pique the interest of the readers. I also applaud his appropriate use of diction weaving the the story to a clear and distinct ending. He is indeed an artistic writer.

    I admire the creativity of the writer. As a lover and detector of good story, I have always known Victor as a man who who likes treading the literary path where no writer has ever trodden. He likes breaking fresh ground. Even though love stories have been told severally, this aspect where one forgets the one whose heart palpitates and pines for because of loss of memory (amnesia) has been almost always neglected.

    This is indeed a love story with difference.

    I like the way he links the plot of the story with the ending. Not every writer can do that.

    On the whole, this a good story seconded by non at the moment!

  23. Beautiful…. you don’t just tell a story, you make us actually visualize it like we were there

  24. “Just as you, and as the wall, the flowers and everything else has been blank to me since I was born.”
    But love found it’s way… This is beautiful Victor.

  25. Now, start saving up to pay for these tears.
    Only a lady can make them drop.
    Omg!
    When I get to heaven
    I will tell God…
    “If you ever need to create another world, let Victor do the writing, and you do the speaking”.

    I hope to write with such one day.

  26. Sorry, I won’t make heaven If I do not comment on this superb story again. I just had to. I think a movie should be shot out of this fine piece. This is it! I rate it 101%. I give it all to Victor Daniel when it comes to writing. He is a Prolific writer. High-five buddy!

  27. Captivating, the way you’re able to use words to capture the most complex of emotions is really out of this world. Keep up the good work

  28. I always love your write up
    Just like a movie I enjoy reading your article..
    Keep it up brother

  29. wow this story is really good the story line is simple but u made it perfect..I love u slim I really do forever your biggest fan

    1. Sometimes Love is blank and blind, you just have to stare to understand.
      Victor Daniel is a very baaaaaaad writer by the way.
      Vase and Verse are parents of the same children?

  30. The images and metaphors in this story are graphic. The story draws in the reader, right from the first line, drives you through the lives and times of the characters in the story, with a burning curiosit: where does it all end?

    It is almost a tragedy, but the deux machina saves it and reignites his love for her. The beginning of a beautiful love story.

    Decent diction. Nice story-telling style.

  31. A beautiful piece. So loving how it ended. Haven’t read something this pleasant in a long while. Well done Victor! Looking forward to reading more of your work.

  32. Love, love, love the story!!
    Not your cliché love story….. Beautiful!
    I love how it flows, you are dragged right into the story
    Within a short while you are already feeling sad for Sally’s loss…. And then at the end you’re overjoyed because there’s hope.
    Once again Victor, you leave me in awe.
    Thank you for this.

  33. I basically don’t tell you how good I think you are, I remember how we started writing seriously a while back, we’ve both grown but you are no longer in this realm brother, I appreciate you big time, keep the fire bro!

    Take note that i said this today bro,
    18|02|’17
    “YOU HAVE A PLACE IN THE STARS”

  34. The way you deal with one’s mind with your writing is superb. Great piece. ??

  35. The story is so so fascinating, makes me feel crying, lols. Love could be so weird attimes but I know for sure that Love in it truest form is the best, no matter the million times that it seems lost or the circumstances that tries to pull it down, where two heart are meant to be one, Love still happens in a different scenario.
    Beautiful dear, it is a story well-written.

  36. Victor Daniel is one gentleman whose plots, twists in tales spells awesomeness. His writings is a stimulant that makes reading his scripts unstoppable. To see him top the peak in his literary venture is a realizable dream.
    He is a master in the game.

  37. Wow! This is a wonderful piece,well articulated. I felt like I was the one experiencing it, tears rolling down your cheek as I read her experience on the second meeting if only she can ask for something impossible, I’m sure she would ask His memories restored.
    This is the first time of reading your write up and you made my day.
    I can now go to sleep.
    Thank you!

  38. Hyacinths are beautiful and so is this piece of art.
    The world would be blank to me if, there wasn’t great piece as this to reflect it’s beauty.
    Everything is beautiful with love.

  39. So so captivating. ..
    I read this piece at the edge of my seat…
    I really love the twists and turns. ..
    well done writer…
    keep writting ..

  40. Victor this is an amazing piece, well articulated, and the twists is really interesting. Well done…..

  41. I was transported to the ephemeral moment and in my head is a picture of Sally that i can’t shake. A wonderful work of art, I was not expecting less. I loved it, I’m still a big fan.

  42. Wow! I Love happy endings!!

    Love is indeed a beautiful thing and you pen it down so well as always Vic. I can’t stop reading from you cos you’re an inspiration.

    Keep writing, I can’t stop reading…

  43. Wow….I’m touched by this piece of words, Love is a beautiful thing and so are all your writings.

  44. death to coma n blindness..
    Vic love, u’re amazing n u know it.
    nobody needs to tell u that
    Amazing piece of art.
    keep it up love

  45. When I gathered that the story was love-centred, I was a bit reluctant to read cos I’m no fan of cliches and most love stories these days aren’t far from that.

    Now I’ve read this and I can only say thank you for this, Victor Daniel. The story got me glued.

  46. Awwww,sometimes life can just dish out situations that will alter our happiness.
    This is a nice story but it is sad too.

  47. …The narratives are simple and relatable..
    storyline= beautiful..
    Well done Victor..

  48. That third meeting… The story is beautiful and captivating. Got me reading till the end.

  49. daniel you are Good, for this piece is so very awesome, i just learnt a lot from it, keep it bro! More Greese!!!!

  50. Suspense in the most exciting way ever.
    The flow is out of the world.
    I totally love.
    Can someone please love stare at like Sally did to the hyacinths? I love good memories.
    Wonderful piece Vic.

  51. I usually don’t know what comments to make whenever I read ur stories Victor, cus they are always too perfect. Some make me smile & some leave me really sober . But I’m glad ds ended well for them; her especially, ….. he met her again, anew and fell in love with her again….. My wish My wish

  52. Wow, awesome story Victor! Love wins in the end no matter what. I think a part of his brain still recognised her. But errm, shey you have turned neologist ni because I don’t understand why vase is verse. Nevertheless, good work.

  53. Quite gripping, deep and emotional. It started on a freaky note then transcended to a solemn note and quickly radiated to intense passion romance and love and at same time it flowed back to grief, pain, emotional trauma… I was anticipating a long sad end, but instead they lived happily ever after tall of chain reaction.

    I enjoyed this story Victor. I love the use of simple languages, terms and dictions. I really enjoyed the flow.
    It was quite unpredictable.

    Welldone!!! ?????

  54. Victor you know you’re the best.
    Your creativeness is outstanding..
    I’ve always wanted to be like you…
    But I can’t keep up..
    KSU is proud of you.

  55. Wow this is amazing,such a beautiful piece..it revived the inner me,I love this,can I rate it over a 100 please??so sleek!!

  56. This story was beautifully knitted and flawless..and yes! I would love the happily ever after where the beautiful girl can see …Victor Daniel you are the best writer in the world! Wait for ur Nobel..#winks

  57. I love the allusions to hyacinths — which added a sense of symbolism to the romance. The narrative hits all the right notes in its emotional appeal and adherence, and I appreciate the fact that while the love wasn’t ideal, the ending gave us reasons to believe it could end well. Which is a positive considering the experience and nature of the two characters involved. Victor is good, and so I’m really not surprised by the quality of this story.

  58. Hyacinths are beautiful,so is this!

    The story is a riveting one. It’s easy too. I love the way I’m taken on a smooth and unforgettable sail in it.

    Absolutely lovely!

  59. Wow this is so touching and deep,the writer has a way of connecting directly with the reader’s emotions

  60. Awwwn this is beautiful! but there’s something peculiar about this.. keep imagining every bit of it.. keep it rolling Slim!!!

  61. Nice One!Am a writer myself and am even astonished by the way Victor converts a good plot into a much better one. The story is laced with all the ingredients of a literary work. The story is touching and deep almost feeling as if i was involved in it. Once again Kudos. Am lost for. Words.

  62. Amazing plot. Really beautiful. As always, you weave a picture agog with emotions and this time, hope. May your ink never run dry.

  63. this is lovely…… youre making wish i was her….. lol… am jealous right now…… nice 0ne vic

  64. Just can’t express how envious I am right now…. Am motivated…. I love it… Waiting for more

  65. You’re.just as amazing as the words which you always pen down. You’re a “true definition of pen is mightier than sword”

  66. This isn’t just a story, it is a fine web woven by a true master.
    From start to end I had an enthralling read and found myself feeling everything the characters felt. I need to read this again just for the thrill

  67. I brought tears to my eyes
    .but I’m so happy it ended on a very beautiful note..please avoid all negativities and soar on high.

  68. Wow… Lovely read. Victor, you were born to write. The story was well captured. Brilliant article.

  69. This right here, is art in its truest form. Beautiful craft of words. Outstanding plot. Poetic and mesmerising flow. Victor Daniel has done again what he’s always done; blown minds.

  70. Ah ah! Where is this writer coming from? What kind of head do you have? This is one rare and brilliant piece.

  71. love is never a hopeless situation. This is splendid Victor. your dexterity with the pen in this piece is outstanding. Your choice of words carry the right touch of emotions, I felt every bit of it.

  72. Let us all rise and give a resounding applause for the pulchritude encapsulated in this piece.

  73. You just shoot a 120min love movie in few writings, a master piece that drops you into the world of imagination of there relations. Thanks and also to Teedy Debby kenny who share this to me.

  74. This is really nice,beautiful n captivating

    can’t believe I read this thrice.. felt the emotions behind Every line…. nice one Hun. ???

  75. Victor Daniel, you are a beast when it comes to writing! Every piece from you is the best.

  76. Awwwn…. Am lost for the words to comment here…
    this is a really beautiful piece of art..thumbs up dear☺☺??

  77. To the writer of this wonderful piece, I was filled with butterflies in my belly. This piece reminds me of how my dad encountered my mum and they fell in love… When dad was acting strange, mum only reminded him of how they fell in love and that was all… Keep the good work bro..

  78. First, this is genius writing. The imagery was spot on. I’m in love with your ability to describe things. I could go on and on but pardon me I’ve got to go back to reading it again so I can find the right words. But for now, I’ve just one word.

    BRAVO!

  79. Powerful one Victor.

    The emotions almost broke my heart literally.

    Good job. Twale!

  80. Powerful one Victor.

    The emotions present in this work is marvelling.

    Good job. Twale!

  81. I can imagine. Reminded me of a friend who also suffered from amnesia years ago. This is a very beautiful yet sad piece. Great piece worth reading over and over again

  82. This is just beautiful. I’m not surprised that Victor Daniel wrote this. That end was everything.

  83. A job well done bro..I applaud your brilliance and level of intelligence in composing of such piece… keep up the good work

  84. Awwwn its a very beautiful and sad story..I love it…its very good to keep trying even in hard times, one day,you might get what you want..very very nice..

  85. Blind and Blank.
    Wow.

    Victor Daniel is a bad writer?. He brought this story in 7D. I saw myself in the Story, I felt every damn thing. crazy…

    “Hyacinths are beautiful, and so are you”

  86. Though the beginning was as uncertain as he was, the story blossomed into a heartwarming tale. Mixed metaphors and some typos, otherwise it flowed as easy as her self-awareness.

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