“What time will you leave for work?” Kola asks his girlfriend over the
phone. She has been ranting and talking endlessly but the young chap doesn’t mind,
he’s even excited with the lengthy conversation he is having. He needs it to
keep awake while David drives him home.
“Babe, hold on for a second” Kola pats David on his shoulders. “Drive
slower bro so you don’t hit someone or something. Remember the headlights don’t
work.” Kola cautions David and returns to his phone call. “I’m back. What were
you saying?”
David has got the steering gripped tightly in his hands and his
foot against the accelerator. Ade would have driven them home since this was
his car but he had too much to drink and didn’t trust himself to drive home
carefully in the middle of the night with busted headlights.
At least, let people be able to
notice us. David
thought as he turned on the caution lights. He’s engaged in a verbal debate
with Ade about traveling overseas to obtain a Master’s degree.
“Do our universities and tertiary institutions promote themselves abroad
and encourage foreign students to come to here and school, similar to how all
these foreign universities encourage our student here to fly over there and
study?”
Ade bursts into laughter “Abeg guy, don’t kill me. How that one want take
happen?”
“But it’s a good suggestion; our institutions will be compelled to
maintain a high level of education integrity and improve security.” David
offers as he refocuses on the road ahead of him.
“Yes but still, would you like to come here and school if you were a British
citizen? I don’t think so.” Ade thought about the question a second time and he
couldn’t help but laugh a second time. With squinted eyes, opened mouth, and a
rumble in his stomach he was just about to say something.
All of a sudden, they
were gazing at an object so terrifying it paralyzed their bodies and reasoning.
Time paused. Numbness spread through every body and every ounce of high or
intoxication left in them dissolved instantly.
Ade was staring at a
black mini-bus that had appeared out of the blues. He was watching it fly out
of a corner just in front of him. The screech of brakes failing could be heard
followed by a loud thump sound as the black bus hit the ground. The bus driver
must have lost control of the brakes because in less than 3 seconds both vehicles
would collide.
Shiiiiiiit! Ade
thought. His world stopped. It seemed as though time paused because he was witnessing
everything play out in slow motion, a second seemed like a minute. It was the
longest seconds of his life. Pedestrians and street hawkers halted everything
they were doing just to catch a glimpse of this scene.
Ade thought of his
family, friends and he imagined a dozen ways this accident would play out. He turned his gaze towards his friends,
wishing he could do something to save them. Fear isn’t just the mind killer. It
can actually kill the body as well. The notion of being scared to death had
once sounded like a myth to him but right now he felt a helpless sensation he
had not felt in years. Total despair. Powerless and defenseless. Like the cliché
of one’s life passing before one’s eyes before death. In the final seconds
before collision, he did not imagine rescue. He was not hallucinating the warm
and comforting vision of hope.
David had made a snap
decision. Snap judgments are first of all, enormously quick; they rely on the
tiniest slice of experience. But they are also unconscious. David had hit the
brakes and was now swerving the steering wheel to the left.
“Hello, hello… Kola, are you there?” Even Kola had dropped his phone and
his jaw as he looked in awe at the horror movie playing out in front of him.
The sudden and abrupt change in direction of the steering wheel caused
the car to veer off an impending collision course. Time resumed at normal speed
and bodies became unfrozen.
Because of a snap decision and an instant action applied within a
fraction of a second, these men could laugh, curse and give thanks again. Life
never looked so precious.
“The blood of Jesus. Thank God.” David gasped
“The devil is a liar. See trouble o! Bad belles.” Ade exclaimed
“What just happened?” Kola asked, he had even forgotten his girl was
still on the phone.
Everybody had something different to say. But one common thing they shared
was appreciation. Everybody was grateful for life and for each other.
#Bless
Obinna Okpala | @Hobyner
Big shout out to @one_blvck_dude and @TheLawrence_. Let’s do this again another time.
Recommendations: Blink – The Power
Of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm
Gladwell.
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