“We can’t destroy the earth, if we don’t live in it” – TARIKU NEGASI

What a silly thing to say! What’s more important – the earth or the lives on it? Today is one of those days where I just keep thinking about how it all started. It was on a day like this in 2052, when the internet collapsed for the first time. I had tons of content I had already shot to upload that morning – my birthday morning.

Everything after that happened so fast. The memory is all a blur Until DEV – the promise of a perfect utopia. At first, it felt like a rumor, something that’ll pass over with time. Then it was obvious, it was no rumor. It was happening.

Only a crazy person would be interested in that, I thought. I mean who would want to be in a place where everything is just perfect. It made no sense. If there were no bad days, then what makes a good day? Then the 1% of the 1% in Nigeria started to leave. The politicians, oil magnates, business moguls, the rich among the rich. I understood that – I mean they’ve done all that could be
done here so it makes sense why they’ll want to go somewhere else. Then the middle class too started to leave, and then came the wave of desertion.

It was bizarre, but I didn’t care. They could all leave if they wanted to, perhaps the world would be a better place without them. Everybody could leave but not you Arinze.

I remember the look on your face when you came to tell me you already got your pass. I remember it like it happened yesterday. What happened to Arinze and Ada forever? What happened to us going to law school together and becoming a badass power couple? Our dreams were perfect. Not DEV!

It makes me wonder. Was your life so terrible, that you wanted a way out so bad? Was the love we shared so superficial that it couldn’t stop you from leaving? You never even tried to convince me to come with you. I wonder if it was because you knew I wouldn’t or because you wanted to be as far away from me as possible.

How’s DEV? Is it everything you imagined? Or are you sick of living in a world that’s all rainbows? Do you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of happiness, and secretly crave something more meaningful? Has your life become too predictable, with each day blending into a never-ending utopia? Do you miss my Saturday akara? You used to love it a lot. Or was that all a lie as well? I don’t make it anymore. The last time I tried, it tasted like dust. It was more than the taste on my palate. It was feelings, memories, unsaid words crumbling in my mouth, too bitter to swallow.

There’s news that they are making a way for us to send letters over there. I don’t know if its true, but if it is, I want you to know this. You broke me into tiny little pieces, then spread it all over, in places too far for me to reach and collect them. If it never gets to you then maybe you’ll find your way back here somehow. Perhaps I’ll be long gone by then. It’s the year 2095. I turn 43 today. It’s been fourteen years since you left. I was diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer a month ago. I know I don’t have much time left. All the good doctors are over there and the hospitals are filled with amateurs. Still, never has it crossed my mind to move to DEV. I don’t regret not moving sooner. I was created human, I will live and die human with my consciousness in me not stored in stacks.

Still, I wish you were here Arinze. I wish you were here to hold my hair back when I puke. To help me
shave what’s left on my head when I start chemotherapy. To hold my hands, look in my eyes and tell me it’ll be fine. Maybe we would have had a kid or kids by now. But I guess that’s the whole beauty of being human – the uncertainty of everything.

We cannot be human if we don’t exist in the ecosystem designed for humans!

Ada Obasi

Written by Kalu Esther Nkechi