IFY - A Romantic Thriller ****CHAPTER 3 For most Christians in Nigeria, most long distance journeys normally start with someone inside the bus requesting that other passengers should join him or her in prayers to ask for God’s mercy and protection from road accidents or something of that nature. One woman in the bus who was also travelling with a man who could have been her boyfriend or husband started it for us. Soon a lot of people joined in the chorus and praise singing. I am not a strong believer so I don’t normally join in such long prayers which I even considered oftentimes to be quite superfluously frivolous and nothing but an unnecessary display of religiousness on the part of the people, and I hated such pious displays with a passion but then, what do you expect? Nigerians are so good in freely displaying their religiousness for anyone who cared to see. But I am always like why are you praying now? [i]Didn’t you pray in your house before starting the journey[/i]? Oh I get it, because you don’t want to die in a road accident because you like this life so much and you want to enjoy your life, huh? But all the same, it gives the passengers the opportunity to get to know each other, their religious background—and bias, as well as their supposed closeness to God which they unabashedly show off when some of them even start speaking in tongues. But as for me, it gives me something more. Since most people closed their eyes in prayers, I often take it as an opportunity to really look around and study them more closely. You see, I love watching and studying people. I often pride myself that I can tell a lot about a person just by mere looking at them and trying to see if I could read them. When the prayers and the praise singing was finally over, some of the passengers now started the normal ritual of initiating new relationships by exchanging of pleasantries and sometimes, shaking of hands. This was the part I liked most. The best part of any relationship is when people start to break the ice. I always enjoy watching their awkwardness as they try to break out of their comfort zone which is normally ruled by shyness and self consciousness into a new familiarity zone borne out of the fact that they will be providing each other company for the next six to seven hours to come. “It’s like you don’t close your eyes while praying?” the girl beside me quipped. I turned and gave her the are-you-talking-to-me look. There was that smile on her lips which set off her dimples in a manner that made me think of stroking her cheeks for her but I restrained myself. She was still a stranger, for all I care, and I don’t know how she might take that, although I knew I wouldn’t have tried that anyway. Well, sometimes, I just love kidding myself thinking I could do such things. [i]Anyway, it would surely come as a great shock and surprise to you if you know the things I always think about[/i]. “But how did you see me if yours were closed?” I countered. “Didn’t the Bible say watch and pray? How can you watch with closed eyes?” she said and then we broke into laughter. It’s like she had a sense of humor, a good one for a girl, as a matter of fact. “I used to close my eyes while praying until the day I accidentally caught my younger brother exchanging the meat in his soup with mine which was bigger than his while we were praying over the food,” I told her. So many people joined us in the laughter this time around. I loved the environment now. It was supercharged with excitement. “That your brother is a very sharp guy,” the young man who sat beside me said. “He reminds me of me!” There was another round of laughter. I liked the guy immediately for his wittiness. He also looked sharp and seemed enlightened and I really dig such people. Soon our discussions changed over a wide range of matters. As usual, we started with Nigerian politics and the so many problems and challenges facing us as Nigerians. Then we talked about some places in Nigeria. Some other passenger soon joined in our discussion and used the opportunity to show off how much they have travelled around the country with their own detailed stories. Then we discussed academics. I found out he was a student. He told me his name was Paul. We talked geography and about some important places and landmarks in the world. Later, we talked American politics. Like most guys, he was a soccer lover so he brought up that subject too but he had to drop it when he found out that I am not an ardent fan. But we still managed to touch on WWE and we shared our individual views on whether the show was real or not. Then we discussed religion. This brought out a lot of reaction from other passengers in the bus because; Nigeria being a very religious country, most of the passengers felt compelled to argue against my freethinking views. I purposely brought up issues on gay marriage. I enjoyed the heated debate and their reactions so much as they defended their strong Christian and homophobic views. [i]Who would have told them that I always enjoyed playing the devil’s advocate[/i]? ***to be continued...
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 12:46:19 +0000
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