4th January, 2010, I bade my uncles goodbye and went to the park together with my young niece, Blessing. I was leaving Zaria after a very wonderful vacation and I had nothing but kind words for everyone one of them.
I sat beside this tall, light-skinned Igbo lady with fine dimples and the lady look just awesome. Of course, it was natural that I tried to strike a conversation with her and it was natural she ignored me, completely.
“Well, it’s not a big deal” I told myself and proceeded to bury my attention into one of the books I brought along with me.
Since then nobody said anything to each other and the ride looked like a very normal ride until we got to a town, Saminaka, not too far from Jos.
Here things changed almost dramatically, to my own delight. Another fine young lady joined the bus and almost like some magic, I felt a serious attraction to her.
Even though she was seated behind me and both my niece and the Igbo girl, we soon got into a conversation
“Were are you coming from?” she asked me
“Zaria”
“Oh, I see”
“And we are returning to Bauchi” I added
“Together with this girl?” she asked holding unto my little niece Blessing
“Yes, together with her”
“That’s good”.
We kept talking and trust me; I shifted slightly to the left so I could see her face well. As we talked, we will occasionally smile and there was no shred of doubt that we both were going to be friends after this ride.
“My name is Dorcas, by the way” she introduced herself
Oh, well that’s about a nice name”
“You didn’t even ask what my name was when I started talking with you. What bus boy are you?” she joked and we laughed
“Oh, well not exactly, I was just taking my time”
“Really?”
“You know, I’m a kind of a guy that take things one step at a time”
“Good for you. So what’s your name?”
“I’m not going to tell you” I resumed the joke
“And why not?”
“It's going to cost you”
“Naughty boy, you name it” she demanded and we laughed
“So tell me, are you from Saminaka?” I asked
“Yes, that’s my town”
“It’s a beautiful town; I will really like to be there someday”
“You will be welcome” she promised as a matter of fact
“So, where are you going exactly?”
“Jos, I lost my grandmamma”
“It's okay, the old lady has had her time and she died at a very old age, past 90 I guess. So it's nothing, thanks anyway”
We were quiet for some time, I was at loss as to what to talk about next, but fortunately, the girl being more straight forward than I was, continued our gist.
There were two guys in the bus, obviously far older than I was, who kept asking for her number
“Just what do you want my number for?” she dismissed them
When they persisted, she told them to ask me and when they foolishly did, I gave them my aunt’s number and only God will help them if they eventually call her.
“Hehehe, you’re a bad, very bad boy” Dorcas had said when I whispered to her what I actually did
“Serves them right”, I had laughed back
All along the ride, the Igbo girl by my side never said a word to either of us, she was just giving Dorcas a bad look and Dorcas was responding with equal coldness.
At some, she asked me to lean backwards, and I did
“Is this girl your girlfriend?” she asked in a whisper
“No, she’s not”
“Then why has she been giving me that cold eye, like I’m bothering you or something” she sounded annoyed
“Oh, really, I didn’t even noticed”
“Shut up”
“But you’re not disturbing me, “I assured her. She hissed and it made me laughed
When the Bus got to Jos, we exchanged contacts.
“Please, call me tonight”
I nodded in the affirmative and shook her. I almost didn’t want to let her soft hands out, but I did eventually.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the park in Jos, where we were to get another bus going to Bauchi, the Igbo lady who had hitherto not said a word spoke to me
“Say, are you going to Bauchi?”
“Yes, I’m”
“Oh, really, I’m going to Bauchi too” she said smiling
“Wow, that’s interesting
“And I’ve never been there before" she added “in fact, this is going to be my first time in the far north”
“There’s always a first time to everything, you know”, I said philosophically
“What about you, is this going to be your first time too?”
“Nah, I’m from Bauchi”
“You can’t be serious, you don’t sound like it” she said with doubt
“How am I supposed to sound?”
“Well, I don’t know but…..” her voice tailed off
“There are bright people from Bauchi” I said with a little grievance with the way she sees us from Bauchi
“I’m lucky, by the way” she said with a broad smile revealing her open-tooth accompanied with those dimples
I looked at her closely again, in surprise. I mean, she really baffled me, because even when I tried to rub her into our gist, back in the bus to Jos, she had ignored me. Now here was she, all smiling and all friendly. Hmmm, ladies never cease to amaze me.
What she did next was very surprising- she bought food and drinks for both me and my niece.
“Come on, you didn’t have to do that”, I protested feeling a little awkward
“hey, don’t give me” she fired back” or we are going to have a long drive to Bauchi”
“Oh, well thanks”
While waiting for the vehicle to get filled up, she suddenly became alarmed and visibly shaken seeing how Muslims were rushing moving to a particular location.
“Oh, my God, what’s happening?”
“Nothing”
“What do you mean by that? Look at all those people running up and down”
“If you are attentive, you can hear something” I said calmly
“What’s that, I can’t hear anything?”
“Today is Friday, and these people are not running up and down as you put it. They are going for prayers, you can hear the imam calling for the prayers” I explained with some sense of pride that I had become a teacher to this girl
“Oh, really. You know this is Jos, and I heard that’s how crisis starts”
“Come on, sit back and relax. You are safe”
I assured her that I’m going to be her ears and her eyes, and I was honest about it.
By the time we got to Bauchi, we had laughed at each other’s silly jokes more times than I could count. We agreed to hook up through out her stay in the north eastern town, and I promised to show her around town. I then made a mistake that became my undoing- I gave her my number (I actually learnt that from movies) but didn’t take hers.
“I’m going to call you tonight” she promised
“I will be there to answer”
I got home feeling top of the world haven made two great friends that could doubtless take care of my boredom and may be even…………well, never mind.
However, as fate may have it, that night, my younger brother literary “chewed” my Sim card
“I’m going to kill you today!” I raged as I chased him round the house, but it was already over- I never got to hear from the Igbo girl again- ever!
Months later, I lost contacts with Dorcas as well to cap a heart reining period , for me.
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