First timer...


THE JOY I MET

2nd of January 2014, the phrase that filled the air was 'happy new year' it came from my neighbours and colleagues at work some of which I took out time to wish same and occasionally just muffled 'thank you' to those who I knew just said the 'happy new year' for formality, I got to work late that day and found out that most of the occupants Bupia plaza were still enjoying the new year break except for David the barber, x-ella the music producer and that annoying Roty-kunzults ltd secretary all of whom have never been to the plaza earlier than me for as long as I could remember. Not as if I just decided to go to work late on the first working day of the year, but it was either my alarm wanted to stage me by not ringing or it was the hangover that deafened my ears, I found myself awake and still lying lazily on the bed by 8:58am faced with a dilemma; I either had to start looking for panadol to calm the disorganized orchestras banging in my head or start performing a magic that awill get me to &&&& plaza before 8am, which was impossible. After a nanosecond of thinking I scrambled to my feet and I was at bupia plaza by 10:02am, about 2 hours late!
After I dusted and cleaned my confines, I was ready to attend to the customers who came in after very long intervals, the day was a bit uneventful to my advantage, I had time to think about how I happened to consume that large quantity of -OH functional group knowing fully well that the next day was a working day. I was still lost in wondering contemplation when I heard a pleasant female voice said ''hello'' I looked up and the face I saw rang a bell, not until she said she was looking for Michael(my colleague) I thought she was one of the girls from the previous day.
She narrated that she gave Michael a work to do for Her the week before and He told Her it was going to be ready by Monday (30th of Dec.) ,but due to some reasons best known to her she was not able to make it on Monday so She had come to see if she could get it, I explained to her that Michael's shift starts by 3pm and she had to wait for about 2 hours since it was just pass 1, she agreed to wait, probably because the work she gave Michael to do for her was more important than the things she kept saying she needed to do at home. She had this gorgeous smile which complimented her fair face and the long dark hair that stylishly flowed down her shoulders, I offered her a chair after She called my attention to the fact that my eyes where soon going to bore holes on her face. She sat on the chair which was slightly to my right and began to wait for Michael while scrolling through her phone, normally I would have started a discussion which will end with ''can I have your number?'' But on this occasion I had a big problem or so I thought, My problem was not remembering what happened the previous day, couldn’t remember how and when I got home, and why I slept with my shoes, wrist watch and trousers on, I was just about to pick up my phone and call Odogu to know if he could give me any clue as to how the previous day ended when I heard the lady whose name I later learnt was Joy said ''...so is this how boring this place gets during festive seasons?'' (if only she knew the kind of thinking that was going on in my head) I raised my head to look to her direction and said with a forced smile''...yea,it might be boring for you but it’s not boring inside my head''
She giggled and told me how it was nice of me not letting my mind be the idle mind that would become the devils workshop, obviously she didn't understand and I didn't bother to explain, it kept the conversation going. After our about 2 hours of chatting which was cut short when Michael arrived, it dawned on me that what I thought was a problem to me was not worthy to be called a problem compared to what she had faced and was facing.
She started by telling me how she was happy for me that my looks and accent didn't tell that I was from the eastern part of the country, she talked about how dubious and aggressive some igbo peepz can be and I couldn't agree less because of my upper iweka experience. She told that she was born and brought up in Jos and only left Jos to Benin in February of 2011 when she got admitted into Uniben to study Law and She had been in Benin ever since, that she just came back around Nov. 2013.
I couldn't help but wonder what she was doing in Benin during all the breaks between semesters and especially the ASUU strike, then my curiosity led me to ask her why She had spend such a long time in Benin without coming to Jos to see Her folks, that was when she told me what I didn't expect Her to tell someone she just met barely 2 hours ago, She told me that she messed up, that she made a very careless mistake in her first year, I was expecting the mistake to be a couple of carry overs or worst an extra year but I had to swallow back my heart and catch my breath when She told me She got pregnant towards the end of Her first year.
I was disturbed not because I have never seen an undergraduate get pregnant but because this particular undergraduate I was planning to chyke who I was sure was not more than 20 years of age had a 10 months old boy child at home.
She narrated to me her Ordeal, how she was pregnant for nine months without any of her family members knowing, coming up with excuses for not coming home for 3 years, She further told me about how sure she was that She was going to die but had a hard time choosing which means of death was best for her, she was either to let the stigma kill her or high blood pressure from too much thinking or even just let her Dad do the killing it manually or better still do it herself. Although she didn't spare me the details of how she was able to cater for the child, herself and her school at the same time but one can only imagine what she went through.
When she left after collecting her completed work from Michael, I thought about how she had gone through the whole stuff and still retained that brilliant smile and beauty that lit up the whole room, that was when I saw the truth in the saying that ''those who smile more have experienced the most pain''.
...the conversation didn't end with 'can I have your number', but it ended with me knowing that
'Nobody has it easy, everybody has issues, you never know what people are going through so pause before you start judging, criticizing and mocking others, everybody is fighting their own unique war'

jatjtgkat pgja

hmmm, nice piece, @mod. Front page plsssssssss!

Hmmm, dats true dear. People should quit judging people wen they don't knw much abt d person. Nice work OP.

noskyboy:
hmmm, nice piece, @mod. Front page plsssssssss!

Yea