The Re-Union

… The following takes place between 08:25 am & 04:pm Thursday 19-09-2013…

Events occur in realtime

 

 

I was kneeling at my bedside (not praying though- my bed is most comfy when I kneel by it). I was editing some photos I had planned –for the umpteenth time- to send to TEE and a couple of other friends and my phone rings [strange number]. I answer, sampling a clean male voice.

“hello, good morning”.

“hello, this is BEE, we met over a hundred years ago, I gotchur number from CHEE……….”

I cut her off… not rudely oh! “are you done?”

“uh, yeah I’m done”

“I know who ya are, I’ve waited a long time for this call. How are you?… yada.. yada.. yada.”

A little small talk and we’re agreeing to meet up later in the day. (we had lost contact for over nine years).

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I’ll skip the part where I doze off in bed, waiting for her call because she decides to add a few more tasks to “I’ll just get ready and call you” (I know I heard ASAP in my mind).                         

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

I finally wake up and there it is, a text “Oga, I’m done o L”. I woke up a few minutes past the text- phew! Already dressed, I rinse and dry my face, put on some cologne, pick my other phone (that’s another blog post) all in one motion. …… 3rdpart has left the Cul de sac.

Somewhere uphill, I remember I didn’t ask for her address yet …. ‘oga, wetin u dey tink na?’. I ring her for the address and, “your call credit has been exhausted and your call terminated. Please load…..” “Oya ni ye ni? Right in the middle of the call?! Thank God there’s Ogechi’s house one block away, so I dash there, and save my pride (or did I?). “sorry, my airtime finished … bla bla bla”. She’s already walking to the road. I spot her about 300 metres to my 12”. My phone is now playing Kirk Franklyn’s ‘Now behold the Lamb’, but I waive the thought. “The Lamb nibo? Nine years don waka abeg. My lamb for don change by now”

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

      01:08 pm

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

We are strolling and chatting and catching up on old times (all of three days at the camp, where we first met), a little distance from the CIA plaza and …….. BANG!!!!!

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

My heart-rate boosts, the bus screeches to a halt a few meters from us. BEE is speaking many words very fast, or so I thought. The pain in my elbow begins to register in my brain. I’m hit ….. no, HIT! But I’m still standing. The bus’s side mirror and frame are shattered.

 

I slow my breathing, taking in all that has just happened. “I have been hit by a bus full of school pupils and it’s just my elbow” somewhere in my mind the song wells up ‘my god is awesome, he ca mooove mountains keep me in the valley, save me from the buuuuus’.

 

The bus driver and BEE interrupt my thoughts. I pat the driver, nod to his companions with the words, “take those children home safely”. BEE is shaken up and I really do not try to calm her. Rather, I let her take over the conversations as we walk past the bus to the AGES PHARMACY where I get cleaned up.  I never had an Iodine swab until then. Mind-over-matter, so d tin no pepper me.

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

     03:40 pm

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

|Back at home| chatting with TEE on Facebook

[Background] TEE and I have been friends for a good part of the last 2-3 years and I had told her about my plans for the day, to which she responds “God bless you” (that’s not all we discussed though).

 

I recount the day’s events and she gets in a mood- joyful/panicky/thankful mood.

“I prayed for you last night, had this odd urge to do so. Now I know why. Thank God for sparing your life.”

 

 

Thou I ain’t good enough, but HE STILL LOVES ME!!!