I am a dreamer, always have and probably always will be.
I was on my way to see a friend of mine who was planning a seminar and needed my professional expertise and opinion on how best to create awareness and publicity for the seminar, you see I’m a brand and communications expert and publicity awareness and creation is my field, and to a large extent I guess that is why I am indeed what I am, a dreamer because in my line of work you need to dream a lot and dream big.
Let me deviate a little and talk about myself because in other to understand my story, you need to understand me.
You see I am a very conservative and reserved fellow, How can that be if I am a brand person right?
Well it is very much possible, my professional and personal lives are two separate and distinct entities entirely, and I am one man at home and another when I am in the office.
I come up with ideas best in the atmosphere of solitude and work environment because growing up I didn’t have much friends and the few I had always ended up trying to take advantage of my goodwill and so I had to be my own friend if not only friend, guarding not just my heart but my psyche as well from unfriendly friends who are out to deceive and manipulate and leave, and so I found solace in the privacy of my thoughts and fantasies.
Back to the story, I boarded the bus from my bus stop, and sat at the first available seat I saw next to a middle aged man and was followed behind by a large lady with two kids who each sat on her very large laps. Shortly after the bus moved, I noticed a very young and attractive lady sitting right in front of me but not directly in front, that was a position occupied by a young man with awful dreadlocks and ear rings who I noticed was dumbstruck by the beautiful lady sitting beside him, I envied and pitied him too as he tried in vain to start a conversation with the lady who ignored his every tactics with the expertise of a general and not even when he offered to pay her fare to the conductor did she lower her guard, she politely declined by paying for herself and lowering her head to focus on her novel which she placed on her lap.
I was about travelling into my dream world when I noticed she turned and stared at me, for a second it seemed like she smiled a faint smile when I stared back or was it just my imagination playing tricks on me, I kept on thinking about that smile wondering if it was me it was directed at so I could act on it or if it was even a smile in the first place, when she turned a second time again I was confused as to her reason for turning back. Maybe I thought she was trying to catch a glimpse of the drama happening at the back of the bus between an old woman and a young guy who wouldn’t adjust for her claiming there was no more space and asking her to use Uber or Taxify if she needed comfort amidst curses rained on him by the old woman, telling him to tell his mother to give him a proper home training.
Or maybe it was the young guy preaching in the midst of the noise while adding to it and screaming how hell fire awaited those ladies who put on make-up and trousers to seduce young innocent men and who wouldn’t cover their hair when going to church, and young guys who fornicated with these girls instead of marrying them and raising a family.
And so when she turned a third time, I smiled and to my greatest astonishment and joy she smiled back but the feeling was short-lived as she was not the only one smiling but half of the passengers in the bus just because a young girl asked the preacher while he was focusing on women putting on trousers and not covering their hair when there was a young man in the bus putting on earrings and dreadlocks, and he replied that it was deliverance those kind of guys needed as they were possessed with evil spirits and demons.
Now I didn’t know if she smiled back at me or the joke or if she even knew I was smiling at her or reacting to the stupid joke.
This was indeed messed up for me, I was so angry I didn’t hear the guy in question react and respond with hostility to both the young girl who asked the question involving him and the preacher who he felt insulted him with his obnoxious answer.
At that instant, I did what I did best, I zoned out of the noisy and chaotic atmosphere. I was in a world of my own with not a care to the word or even my immediate space in the bus, just sitting waiting for the bus to get to my destination and I would have been that way not until I caught her turning again and fixing her beautiful eyes on me and without wasting time or even thinking about it for a second I grabbed her chin with both hands and with a voice I couldn’t even recognize as mine I spoke up saying “Sweetie are you Medusa because I can feel my heart turning to stone with that stare.”
At that she laughed and at that moment nothing sounded more beautiful than that angelic voice which drowned out every other voice in the bus and kept it that way until minutes later when we exchanged numbers and alighted at the same bus stop. That was the beginning of a love story that lasted for decades birthing generations and causing changes to lives and destiny affected and involved one way or the other.
I ended up not going to see my friend and instead followed her home, where I met her wonderful roommate who couldn’t believe we just met few minutes ago and playfully chided her for bringing a total stranger home, the seminar became a huge success and all those who were involved experienced some dynamic changes to their careers as it catapulted them into levels they never imagined, I was not involved so I didn’t share in the glory or the reward but I didn’t mind too much, I met Irene Ibrahim and shortly we were married and with her help and connection, I was able to set up my own brand and communications firm with my friend being my first and major client and soon success started coming with a brand new car, a house of my own and 3 beautiful girls who were the center of my world.
Irene was indeed the catalyst to my success because it was Irene I saw whenever I looked behind and indeed I realized how true the saying is ‘behind every successful man is a woman’ because Irene is my pillar and backbone.
30 years later our love is still waxing strong even as she is driving me to the marriage ceremony of our 3rd and last daughter Alice who is getting married to a Calabar man she met during her NYSC and who I felt was the right man for her probably because he too is a brand personnel like me and who I have offered a job in my firm which has grown to be one of the most successful in the country. I looked at her and then she turned to look at me and smiled that beautiful smile I saw the first time I saw her over 30 years ago and then she opened her mouth as if to say something but instead screamed Oshodi! Oshodi!
The shout jolted me back to reality, I was still in the bus and yes it was actually me the beautiful lady was staring at smiling and as I pressed forward to ask for her name and number she opened her mouth and said in a beautiful gentle voice “Oshodi Owa o” to the conductor and so immediately the bus stopped and she stood up and made her way down while I stared open mouthed in disbelief as few passengers alighted too including the guy on dreadlocks who I watched as he followed her closely and brought out his phone smiling while she mouthed what I believed to be her number, I was still staring open mouthed from the window when she turned one last time and seeing me staring waved at me probably to say, yes idiot it is you I have been smiling at. Just then the bus started and the driver drove away with me sitting inside pondering whether to jump out of the bus and run after her so I can turn my dream into a reality or sit still and continue daydreaming from when I stopped.
THE END
Kingdavid Chinaeke Ofunne
Authorpreneur
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