Light And Time

"You want to come down too?" I asked the lady I was with in the front seat of the bus heading to my destination in the bus station. She had been stretching her neck like an ostrich peeping here and there, probably quarreling with her mind whether to join the dismounted ladies without patience to see the 14 seater bus full. That type that suffers from Patient FOMO. They believe they are wasting their time waiting for passengers to come when they can trek a little and probably see almost a full bus that did not start its journey from the bus station.

"No. I wonder where they are heading to. If the five that was here had had patient, we will have left here since" she said eyeing me. "I see how you are undecided. If you want to join them i open door for you." I said while hoping that she will say no. I hate it after sitting and relaxing and suddenly some impatient animal is telling you to excuse her with reasons that the bus is still half empty. "No, I am sitting here. If they are in that haste, why didn't they come out by 5am" she said while still peeping. I shrugged, while at my phone. The weather isn't in its friendliest season in December. African winter known as harmattan is on each morning this time of the year and when you add the summer that blazes best soon follows before 10pm, you understand the task those women gave themselves. 

Not long after, the bus was over full even with about five extra passengers asking if there was still space for them and the conductor collected their fare, settled the park managers and we were on our way. About two minutes from the station where passengers  wait for faster buses, i saw two of the five ladies that came down earlier still waiting for faster bus that never came and away from that spot, i spotted a couple that had descended from the bus on excuse that the bus is still empty trekking almost half way to the main market they were heading to. I smirked to myself and turned toward the lady stretching her neck when they were coming down to see if she understood the joke. But she was meditating or half asleep.

I got to my destination, Sandon computers and alighted. The bus continued its journey to a popular market nothing ever considers downward journey, always upward. Prices of everything are in the iroko tree this December and I am wondering how those ladies that made up 85% of the bus passengers heading that way manage to return with bags full to the brim. Money seems to be available but worthless in relation to its fluctuating rate. 

The computer I bought just three days earlier without having time to put to work was malfunctioning the first time I put it to the test. The K kept duplicating itself like mad and even trying to waste all my effort that had gone 90% already. I halted it and went in search of the dealer. 

"Hello, how are you today?- this PC is giving me a headache. I don't know what is wrong with it. The K is duplicating itself nonstop and threatening to waste all my effort" I told the first staff there that met me. "Put it on, let's see what is wrong with it" , another cut me off from who I was talking to.  "Leave that guy, he is new here and can't help you with anything. Just tell me your problem."  I eyed the boy he was talking of, he is about 17 or 18 and looking lost truly. I turned to the interrupting voice and narrated my discovery again. I am not there to sandpaper any rough manners, not after paying that hefty amount for the fairly used computer. I needed good hands to look into it or might start thinking on a refund route. I sat and on the PC and the K was at it again, duplicating itself like mad. Bring it, let me see what we can do was what their boss or manager said and I handed the piece over and he went behind the counter that serves as a workshop and customers were trooping in like mad to my surprise. 

"I had been sitting here before any other customer started coming here and from the look of thing, i will be the last to leave" one man that said he is into betting business was lamenting. I eyed him and believed that they were the ones in the money judging from the way almost every household and all sex troop in to the betting centers these days. The man was looking somehow poor to me and computer dealers like that shop i was in were the ones i used to wonder how they survive. This city is not enlightened one and computers and its knowledge and importance isn't what people like the women i was in the bus with think of for any reasons. But i can see i was wrong. Far out of target. Infact after two hours inside there observing events, i figured out that people can be forced to learn anything if you the dealer plays your game well. About five ladies in their middle ages entered seeking for one app and one application that concerns their religious something, one program i wasn't able to place. I just knew it's like that all over the country. Priests and pastors directed one seminar on the net and asked everyone to have a PC and many of them went in search of a PC and carried it holy, holy as if God dwells inside it. It's the case with other items. If you are a seat belt dealer, contact police headquarters and drop a few things for them, tell them to run after every driver without a seat belt on and stock in your warehouse will be out within a month.  " Yeah, opposite the fruit tree after the general post office. That is where i am uploading mine and many of our people are upgrading theirs there too" one lady was on the phone inviting her friends and playing the good news of their luck forwards to more members. 

" How do I shift all the typing I have done with my phone and not only images to the memory cards I bought yesterday. Many kept telling me it's only images that can be forwarded to the memory cards, not written words. Is it possible to do that?" I asked the boss there. "Of course, we can do that. Let's finish with your PC first ", that was the boss assuring me. 

The more I sat there waiting for my PC to be ready, the more customers troop in there like bees and more money exchanging hands etc. After they were through with my PC, the boss asked one of the staff there to see my phone request and the guy was at it for long, trying this and that without making any headway and I decided to take my phone home.

I went to see someone owing me that isn't about a four minute walk from there and the lady was giving excuses that did somehow sound reasonable to me and I decided to revisit next time. "What happened to the PC?" I told her. " But I told you where to go and buy a good PC without this story you are rendering now, you see?" She blamed the PC. I was not in that mood because the hot season this year is somehow intense. Over hot, using my system as a barometer.

I spent almost an hour waiting for bus heading to where i came from. Almost all the buses were heading towards one route and passengers heading to my route were forced to improvised. I was quarrelling with my spirit whether to join them in heading north first, and then diverting back to my base from there. But i was teaching myself, my spirit rather the act of "one more thirty minutes" strategy that i found out wasn't in my system before. "Give it more thirty minutes" strategy. It worked. One bus came rushing our way with two seats free and I was one of the lucky two. Lucky as if I didn't pay the full fare.

The idea to rush and put my PC to test didn't work out considering the time i came back and i decided not to waste the day even though there was no light. Time and non availability of light made my decision for me. I used it to see off a short story prompt that came yesterday I was planning to see through tomorrow. At times, it pays to see through what you slated for tomorrow today.

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