Written piece
Red Thread
Phoebe Nortey
Ghana
About this piece
The red thread of true love from the Chinese folklore finds itself around a Ghanaian woman's wrist one fine day. Who does she find at the end of this thread?
The thread was shinier today than it had been other days. Anticipation crept up her chest, today was the day.
The day she would meet her true love.Had she met him already?
She knew the Chinese myth about how the red thread connected you to the love of your life, but surely it had nothing to do with a person who taught primary school children English in Ghana, did it?
Looked like it did.
One fine Wednesday, earlier this year, the slightly translucent and mostly invisible thread found its way around her wrist.
It enthralled her so much that she had developed a semi permanent pain in her neck from checking to see if it was still there, day after day.
Brushing teeth. Peek at it.
Doing makeup. Peek at it.
As soon as she stepped outside her rented apartment the thread shimmered and then stretched itself, way way ahead of her; like a google map arrow.
She almost thought she’d hear “In 500 kilometers, turn right”
She waited, but nothing happened and she chuckled at herself.
The thread shimmered as if to remind her to get out of her head and start to follow.
A worried thought filled her head, suppose her true love left.
She started to walk, and then started to jog.
She ran and ran , pushing people left and right just to follow the shiny red thread .
Soon she arrived at the nearest Vida e Cafe . She took a deep breath and went inside and saw…
Herself.
She saw the 16 year old version of herself , crying in the cafe because a certain boy had told her she was ugly.
Selena remembered the memory with a bitter smile.
She took a deep breath and a wry smile crossed her face, she approached the table, the startled girl looked up, quickly wiping her eyes.
“Can I sit here?”
Selena asked her younger self
And as she sat, she thought to herself
“I guess I had already met my true love this whole time”