Americana's Diary III: Not Too Late
Mr. Bodmas as he was popularly called by us when we were in Secondary School those days has travelled out of the country called Nigeria for quite a while, the news I had about him was that he has been secretive and discretional in given out his phone numbers, even to some of his one-time closest friends.
Why was this? It was due to the fact that he was yet struggling in the States, he was yet to find his feet there. He therefore considered it that giving out his mobile phone number to his one-time close friends who may wish to call “hala” (means phone him) him at any time will put him at risk and this may also turn him to a liar before those people because of his instability. This instability has made him to be on his toes in the States moving from a place to another until he set things right, having a residential permit there.
Having heard this from his sibling, I cannot but take his matter off my heart and joined others to pray with him that God prospers his way.
Not long ago, I saw an old secondary school mate, Dee, who told me that Mr. Bodmas is in Nigeria and specifically in the town. He thus wants us to visit him, and relive some of the pasts together. That is not a bad idea after all I said to myself.
We agreed on the time to pay him a visit, which was the following day.
I quickly look at my calendar and schedules for the following day and discovered that all of my program is in between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. in the morning. We are scheduled to take off around 10:00 a.m. so that we shall get there around 11:00 a.m.
So as not to disappoint the person whom we are going to Mr. Bodmas house together I ensure that I attended to the early programs and the program that I ought to attend to around 10:00 a.m was cancelled because there is no way I could finish the program by 10:00 a.m. neither few minutes after 10:00 a.m. so that I won’t keep Dee waiting, because I do not like people keeping me waiting too, I have to reschedule the program till another date.
The person I wanted to see was an understanding one, he understands with me and another time was fixed for meeting with him.
At 9:30 a.m., I got out of my place walked to the main road to get a taxi that will take me to where Mr. Dee works. After about 7 minutes waiting for a cab, one arrives and fortunate for me he was heading to where I was going.
10 minutes to 10:00 a.m., I got to Dee’s working place.
He asked his secretary to go and usher me in from the receptionist’s place.
I was about to sit on the chair at the receptionist’s place when the secretary came out, greeted the receptionist and walked to me and asked politely, “sir, are you Mr. Segun?” I straightened my torso, looked back to where the question is coming from before replying, “Yes, I am darling”, I am now standing upright before her. “Can you please follow me sir? Mr. Dee asked me to usher you to his office”, she replied. “Oh that is nice of him.” I said as I started following her.
Within fraction of seconds we have gotten to his office as the secretary opened the door for me to enter, “please, go right in sir”, she said and turned back as I walked into Dee’s office and closed the door behind me.
“Good morning friend, how was your night” I asked
“Cool oh, Sege, and how was your night too and the family?” Dee asked looking up from behind the table that he has been sited.
“We are all doing great oh Dee”, thanks for asking
“I ought to come out and take you from the receptionist but I was two pages off finishing the file before me that was why I asked my secretary to come and usher you to my office”, he said, please give me some seconds I would be through with the files I just need to read through and add one or two points to it and signed it for her to take it to the welfare department”, he enthused bending down his head again to see to the file before him.
“That is no problem, that is very good of you. One needs to do the right thing at the right time and above all since you have not gotten another job, it is quintessential that you do not play with this that you have, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush” is that not what the grammarians say?”
“Uhmm mm”, he whispered and continued to write with red coloured pen on the paper inside the folder file before him as I continue to talk
“I have not been to any of the offices here before today I do not know this is how the architecture of your office is like.” He was nodding his head to what I am saying but not responding, I guess he does not want to make mistake, I thence stopped talking not to cause him to make mistake on the files until he is done with writing into the files. About 10 seconds later he finished writing and closed the file.
“I am sorry, I could not respond to all your comments”, he pressed a button on his table and another second there was a knock on the door to his office, without waiting for answer the person knocking entered who happened to be Dee’s secretary, “Sir?” she said
“I am through with this file, you will have to take it to the welfare department. As I told you before I will be going out any moment from now, I hope you are almost through with the manuscript I gave you to work on, type and edit?
“Yes sir”, she responded, “I am left with about 5 pages to be through with it”.
“That is great, you should have been through with it by the time I return”, Dee said while the secretary nodded her head in agreement to what her boss has said as Dee pushed the seat he sat on back and walked out of where he was, turning to me, “Sege, we can now leave”
“Alright.” I said as I stand up from the seat I was and Dee opened the door, we walked out of his office and he said we shall take a bike to the place because if we take taxi we may enter into traffic and I would not want us to get there late because I still have to return to the office before the office is closed to vet what my secretary is doing.
“That is okay by me”, I replied as we continue to walk to the main road where we shall get a bike. Not long after, we got a bike that carried two of us and we headed for our friend’s place.
When we got to his father's house, there were people outside, visitors who have come to rejoice with his father on his son's arrival. We left them and entered into the living room where we met his father with some other visitors, we greeted the old man, after greeting him, he called his junior brother who also happened to have come home with his wife to spend the weekend with their father and obviously to play with his elder brother who happens to be our friend.
He was called out because they thought he was the one we have come to visit because it has been a while that our friend left the shores of this land and his father was not even thinking he would have a friend around because he was in another state working before he travelled out of the country.
His junior one on seeing us instantly recognized us and having paid obeisance to us from the entrance to the living room he just turned back to call out our friend for us.
"He will soon join you sirs", his junior one said to us as he turns back to go and call him out to us.
"Thank you sir "we chorused
About 60 seconds after this our friend, Bodmas came out
“Sege! Whao!” he bellowed, “Dee did not tell me that you will be accompanying him" as he stretched out his hands and we hugged ourselves
“We want it to be a surprise ", Dee said.
“Uhmn, it is really a surprise" he replied as he shook hand with Dee, using his left palm to pat the right palm of Dee,
"You are glittering like gold," I said as we all laughed, I can hear his father saying to his friends who have come to greet him that "my son will come out of his shell today, because of his friends, since the time he arrived he has kept to himself"
"Is that so?" One of his daddy's friends asked.
"Yes oh", he replied looking at his friends.
Another friend said, there nothing like good friendship
"Human beings are our cloths, our covering", another added a Yoruba proverb
"When my first son who lives in London also returned home, he was not himself until Elder Aduralagba's son who is his friend came around”, one of his friends also shared the experience of his son with them as they keep talking while Bodmas said to us, "shall we go to the balcony to give our parents some privacy"
“Oh yea", I said, he was actually not waiting for our response because he has opened the door. "Shade "he called his junior sister
“Sir" She responded from her room, “on my way big brother”
“Please you and Tee should get my friends and I plastic chairs, table and wine
"Yes sir" She replied.
"Can't we take chairs along instead of waiting for them" Dee said pointing to some empty plastic chairs
"I think it is a good idea", I said as we walked back to the living room pulled out three plastic chairs while Shade went for the drinks.
"I have been thinking of tracing out your Daddy's shop today or tomorrow, because I was told that you have relocated to another state. I said when I get to Daddy he will give me your phone number because I was unable to get it from our friends" Bodmas said as we put the chairs down to sit while Tee and Shade bring out the table and drinks
"Thanks" Bodmas said turning to Shade as we continued with our discussion.
"Dee branched at my place yesterday and told me that you are in town, although he has informed me earlier that you send message to him on whatsapp.com that you will be coming home and I told him that he should keep me in the loop when you arrive so that we shall come and see you together", I replied
“I am verily elated seeing you around” he said as he opened the Chivita fruit juice poured it in the wine cups for the three of us, taking a sip, then said, "em, tell me something why are you in town?"
"That is a million dollar question" I replied, throwing some chinchin into my mouth while Dee sipped his drink laughing as well as Bodmas and I
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