Rebellion

25. Rebels

“Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity’s door, if you ardently wish to enter.” – B.C. Forbes.

•••

“Yes, I’m fine. Yeah, him. Please, could we just postpone this talk to when you visit later on–NO! Yeah, so? No, it–Anjola, I swear to God–”

Dayo couldn’t help his state from morphing into that of an amused one, as he listened to Tiolu speak over the phone in fragments. A couple of minutes ago, they had both left his house and were now heading to her apartment, which wasn’t so far away at Magodo. He figured he’d usurp the opportunity to call in on his folks after dropping her off at home. It was going to be quite a long day.

This was the end.

The forecasters had predicted that the disaster would span at least three days, but yet – here they were after just a day and everything was back to normal. The clouds had taken off back to the skies, and moderate temperature and humidity had also returned. After such state of emergency, one wouldn’t have anticipated that the road would have attained a high level of activity and life, but it had.

Lagos life.

“No, it was great actually. Yup, nothing bad happened to me initially. I’m okay, really.” He stole a cursory glance at Tiolu by his right, chanting away profusely into her cell-phone and narrating her ordeal to whomever was at the other end of the line. He could sense she was trying to be as subtle and discrete as possible, so he wouldn’t catch on to hints of the information being dispersed but even a deaf man would know that they were talking about the activities they had undertaken as a result of circumstance in the past day.

“Yeah, I’d call you when I’m home. Chill, you’re heading there already? Okay, I’d see you. Later.”

She hung up finally, and slid her phone into the bag perched on her thighs before turning her gaze on him. “You know you really don’t have to take me home, Dayo. I could have taken a bus or something.”

“In this madness?” His attention on the road was undivided, but his nose scrunched. “Just take a look outside, and see how everything is going down. Believe me, if you join the queue of people to get on a bus, you won’t be on board until maybe tomorrow. So no, I can’t allow that happen. Besides, it’s not like your house is far anyway. It’s just an half-hour drive. I also want to use the opportunity to check up on my parents.”

“Oh, okay.” She reclined into her seat, and an awkward, uncomfortable silence descended. His body tensed as a result of the enigmatic calm in the car. The memory of what almost transpired between them both in his study was still fresh in his head, and he could affirm by her comport and composure that the same went for her.

They had almost kissed.

He didn’t exactly know if he felt broken or relieved as a result of the turnout. If they had kissed, well he didn’t know where that would place them but he knew that their current situation wouldn’t be less awkward than it was currently. But not kissing on the other hand, raised more questions than it answered. Questions that it would seem none of them wanted to address.

“Why did you move, though?” He enquired, in a bid to break the uncomfortable silence. “Of course, if the question is imposing you’re free to discard it–”

“No, it’s nothing.” She shrugged, brushing a stray strand of hair on her fore-head apart. “Last year, I was busy with something at my folks place. And I wasn’t permitted by my mom to stay at their place, so I had to get an apartment of my own. I paid the rent for the entire year, and it can’t be refunded. So, I decided to stay there until its expiration before moving back to Ikoyi with Anjola, or not. I don’t know. Anjola got a big-ass promotion, and can now handle the rent all by herself, so she doesn’t exactly need my help on that front. And I think the both of us have begin to cherish each other more, now that we’re apart. I don’t know if you understand–”