Untold Stories of Me: Episode Six (John Displays Emotion)

JOHN DISPLAYS EMOTION

I got the shock of my life. Escaping death and seeing the lifeless body of my friend sent me to places beyond this world. It was like a scene from a nollywood movie. The crowd surrounded us, shaking their heads and exclaiming, “Chai!” “Ewo!” “Blood of Jesus” and other words that I didn’t pay attention to.

I felt something wet trickling down my cheek as I remember these events. It’s chilly outside and the sky is dark, the moon is out and it’s crescent. The chilly wind blows past me reminding me that I’ve stayed out for too long. I don’t even notice the sun set and the sky turn dark. I was so engrossed in my reminiscing. Another cold wind breezes by and I’m forced to go inside.

I walk past the living room to go to my room when I saw my dad and John chatting and laughing at each other’s jokes. A memory from that day hit me.

“Hello Mr. John, this is Mr. Shola. Your sister got involved in an accident but she’s fine, we cannot allow her go home by herself so we decided to call you to come pick her up. I am a supervisor at her workplace. We’d be expecting you soon”.

One of my supervisors at the office, Mr. Shola took it upon himself to call my brother John to come pick me up because I was in a dire state. I wasn’t myself and definitely not capable of transporting myself home with what had just happened.

I couldn’t comprehend what had happened even after the ambulance had come to carry her body, she was covered with my favorite scarf and taken away. Once the ambulance left, it dawned on me that she was really dead and I broke down into uncontrollable tears. It flowed down my cheeks like a river and I couldn’t stop.

After several minutes, John came, It was 8:25pm. The accident happened around past six that evening. He met with my boss and thanked him and told me to let’s go home. I can’t really remember much but I remember I kept blabbing words, and the tears didn’t stop. At about 10:17pm we were home. My dad opened the door and the first thing I did was hug him tightly and cried into his embrace.

On our way home, John called my dad to tell him what had happened and that he was bringing me home. I hugged my dad so tight, I can’t remember ever hugging my dad up until that moment. He let me go and told me to stop crying. John went inside and didn’t come out again.

I left the living room to go to my room to change when I heard sulking. My dad was with me, he was helping me walk to my room when we both heard the sulking noise. We turned to the room where the noise was coming from and it was John.

He was crying. In my almost twenty-one years of existence, I had never seen John cry the way I saw him did that day. He was weeping like a woman who had just lost her husband.

“John?” my dad called out to him. “Are you crying? Come on! Why will you be crying?” He asked John. “Why won’t I cry? Why won’t I cry daddy, I almost lost my sister today, my only sister” John said, his voice trembling as tears rolled down his cheeks. “What would I have done? How will I cope knowing she’s no more?”

These words from John just made me cry the more and I could not help it. I fell to the ground and cried like I have never cried before. Seeing John cry made me realize the severity of the situation. I had escaped death! I narrowly escaped it but my friend didn’t, Tomisin didn’t. All these thoughts made me cry all the more. My dad was quiet for a minute then he spoke.

“John, you shouldn’t be crying rather we should be grateful and giving thanks at this hour. Thanking God for sparing the life of your sister, although it’s quite unfortunate what happened to her friend but we cannot question God.” My father gave more advice but I was zoned out to keep up. I just picked myself up, went to my room and lay on my bed.

I cannot remember what happened after then…