EPISODE THREE
(SEPTEMBER, 17, 2010. LOCATION: On a Journey At a friend’s wedding)
Bayo had been calling me weeks before his wedding, reminding me of how to execute our plans for his wedding. He selected me to be his “best – man” for that day and I have been running around to make sure that I prepared very well for the event. I had to disturb my tailor for weeks and reminding him of the occasion I needed the clothes for before he could finish up with my suit. Just like the usual traditional way of dealing with Nigerian tailors, I lied to him about the date and deducted three weeks from it and he handed over my suit to me a day before the fake date I told him that I would be travelling.
I just finished my NYSC during this period and I didn’t have much money on me because I couldn’t save enough money from my little job at that time. I managed to arrange 15,000naira which I travelled with. Bayo was someone I was so closed to, he has been my best friend right from University days and I couldn’t despise him when he told me that I was going to be his best man, I had no choice than to inconvenient myself and squeeze out the money to foot my expenses.
He wanted me to get familiar with the occasion, the family, the bridal train and all other things and as a result of that, he begged me to come over to Jos about three days before the wedding so that we could plan things together. Four days to the wedding, I have arranged my portable travelling bag and was set to travel to Jos where the event would be holding.
I got to the park very early in the morning, asked of the price of the Bus fare and I made my way to the back seat. About 15 minutes later, a beautiful dark slim lady arrived at the bus stand, I was listening to early morning news from the Fm stereo of my phone when she came and the “Agberos” took her bag to the booth of the bus. She stood at the entrance of the bus and was staring at everyone as if we were kidnappers. Few moments later, she made her way to the back seat and sat down beside me. The adrenaline in my body system was so swift that I became confused on how to start a conversation.
“ Hi, good morning” I greeted.
“ good morning” she replied with a killer smile.
I became restless and I couldn’t concentrate on the news I was listening to again as I was watching her pressing her phone and sending a BBM chat message to someone saying
“Dear, just entering into the Bus, I am on my way to Jos” and the recipient replied saying “ok dear, missing you”. The chat between them continued and I was trying to figure out more details about the conversation as if it was my business until the driver came over to disrupt my reading enjoyment.
“uncle, please”
“ Aunty Please”
He said to both of us and we were wondering why he was begging. He told us that he wanted to place a load at the last seat on our row because we were supposed to be three on the seat but someone paid to put a load carton on the seat. As a gentle man which I was forming to be, I replied the driver saying “ no problem” but my seat-mate bluntly disagreed. She began to shout and ranting saying the driver wanted to inconvenient her. Due to the fact that the driver didn’t want to lose a passenger as the bus was almost filled up, he turned to me and said “Uncle, please help me talk to “baby” to be patient, I guess he thought we came together, before I know it, the girl bursted into laughter and saying “Baby kee??, am I todler?”, the other passengers in the bus also joined the humour and they were adding effect to it. The driver further added to the humour by saying in Yoruba “uncle, Ejo e ba wa be iyawo yin”, meaning; “uncle, please help us beg your fiancé to let us comply”. We both laughed and she agreed in the process, this added more sauce to our conversations along the journey.
As the bus was moving, she caught me staring at her and when she turned to look my face, I would turn my face away out of shyness and she would smile. After several minutes into the journey, I was having a low battery on my phone and I brought out my mini laptop from my bag to charge my phone with using a USB cable. As I was about plugging my phone, she cut in
“ excuse me, please can I get a free port on your system to plug my phone using my cable?”
“ yes off course!!!!” I replied with anxiety.
I collected the USB from her and plugged it into one of the ports of the system while she plugged the other end into her phone and said “thank you” . This gave me a lead into having conversations with her after few minutes of summoning courage.
ME: HI, I am onihaxy
HER: HI, I am Adeola.
ME: nice meeting you Adeola
ADEOLA: you are welcome.
That was how I first met Adeola on my journey to Jos……….