THE COVERT IDENTITY

The bus drove down the streets of Aguda in full speed. The shouts of the commuters brought back his senses. He sighed derogatorily because his thoughts were being disturbed.

  ‘Driver, why are you in so much a hurry?’ One of the commuters asked, tapping the driver at the shoulder as he was sitting directly behind the driver.

  ‘Haven’t you come across the slogan that says; there is no hurry in life? I beg you in the name of God; I’m not ready to die yet!’

The driver remained adamant and continued his driving. In a bid to remove his attention from the waggling commuters, he pushed his face out from his side of the window and blotted with his fingers on his nose as support.

  ‘This driver is everything but civilized. See the way he is even behaving rudely as if he is only carrying animals here instead of human beings,’ another commuter retorted.

Instantly, there was uproar from the rest of the commuters as each was trying his or her best to be heard simultaneously.

Justice, on the other hand, was sitting quietly at the rear of the bus. He had ensconced himself in that position to give him solitude for his thoughts. However, there is this figure of massive flesh sitting close to him.  He looked right beside him, she shouldn’t be more than thirty but excessive fat has made her look like a forty year old. She shifted uncomfortably and that attracted a corresponding reaction from the other two commuters who would not allow their space to be violated.  She pleaded with her eyes to them to allow her a little bit of space which proved abortive as well.  In her discomfort, she started emitting an offensive smell from her arm-pits. Justice could not bear this anymore and at that instance, he inadvertently grabbed his arm that was making contact with the woman.  He felt pity for her and wondered why some people could be so obese.

   ‘Woman, don’t push me again with your fat buttocks,’ one of the men next to her retorted.

   ‘Look at her so fat, I bet she eats too much.  Don’t disturb me here again.  If you want this bus all to yourself, next time you want to board a bus, pay for the whole back seat,’ another passenger snarled.

At twenty-four, Justice was still indecisive, how does he manage in life? The thoughts of this frightened him the more. At the moment, he seemed distant from the noise going on, on the bus.

He was sitting quietly but for the occasional movement of his body showing how restless he was.

   ‘I will soon reach home,’ he thought.

  ‘There is absolutely nothing to offer father and mother. How do I tell them that I was not paid today and that my fate of being paid depends extensively on my boss’ success in his new contract which he had gone for?

There is only but a five hundred naira (N500) left with me. If I pay one hundred and fifty naira (N150) as my bus fare from the Island to my destination which is in Aguda, I’ll be left with only three hundred and fifty naira (N350.00). Which meal can I prepare with this amount and how do we manage till Monday owing to the fact that this is actually a weekend?

My situation has really become a sickness which has only grown malignant from its benign state.’

The compact housing the commuters kept on moving on its wheels with reckless abandon. There was a momentary upsurge of noise from the passengers and it died sooner than it came.

  ‘Ademola-Oki bus-stop,’ shouted the conductor.

  ‘If you dey come down, come down quick quick…. Hey! Aguda Market, Aguda Market.’

He kept on calling on commuters to join the bus to their last destination.

This shout awakened Justice from his thoughts as he alighted from the bus.

He walked down the street and his tall frame did not fail to attract attention. His hazel eyes were fixed at a specific direction as he walked ignoring all the good comments from admirers.

Occasionally, his right hand would brush back his thick curly black hair; this gesture unknown to him had mesmerized many minds of the opposite sex as they bow to his total handsomeness. His light complexion seemed to be illuminated under the golden light of the evening sun.  Suddenly, he remembered his parents and took one long stride in a bid to hurry and co-incidentally collided with a young man of his age.  The goings-on in his life had made him so distant from happenings around him.

  ‘JT, what is the matter with you? You seemed so much engrossed in your thoughts that you seemed to have forgotten that you are really on the roads? By the way, you did not respond to my greetings.’

He touched his head as a mark of forgetfulness and unintentionally touching his thick curly hair the second time and then, extended his right hand for a handshake while the left hand tried to balance the bag he hung on his shoulder containing his lap-top.

  ‘Forgive me my brother; I was only carried away by thoughts,’ he said.

  ‘And you seemed so distant like that?’ His friend asked in surprise. ‘Well, you better watch it; you know…you are on the streets. Just be conscious of yourself and your surroundings.’

  ‘I will, my friend.’

He made to leave and stopped abruptly just as he remembered something.

  ‘Pardon me; please did you notice if my door was left open?  I mean were my parents at home?’ He asked.

  ‘Hmmm …,’ cracking his brain to remember and then snapping his fingers in confirmation.

  ‘Yes I think I saw your door opening but I couldn’t notice which of your parents it was that was coming out at the moment.’

  ‘Well, thanks a lot,’ he said as he shook his friend’s hands and walked away.

  ‘This sucks,’ Justice said aloud. He walked through a narrow path that was surrounded by buildings until he got to the end of the path, he turned right. He stopped abruptly. Right in front of him was a gigantic building that had stood the test of time. Apparently the owners of this house which they now share with other tenants must have abandoned it for some time, in fact; for ages. The house is obviously begging for a renovation.

As he walked towards the house again, he noticed that the zinc covering the interior part of their house had been blown open half-way. He shook his head in confusion.

He wondered how they could sleep there under this recent development and prayed that it shouldn’t rain that weekend.

He peeped through their open window to check whether his parents were in the living room, he found nobody. He made to step back from the window when a broken sharp portion of the window caught the sleeve of his shirt. It practically made a mark on the sleeve and tore it slightly.

He rolled up the sleeves to conceal the matter from his mother especially, because she would bother about the broken window hurting her only child. She would invariably demand for a replacement of the window, and as it stands now he could not afford a meal much more changing a broken window.

He walked towards the door, turned the knob anti-clockwise to unlock the door but the knob gave way and fell on the floor noisily making a shrill sound. He picked it up immediately and fixed it back. The noise made by the door-knob attracted the attention of his mother who called out immediately from the room.

  ‘JT, JT, is that you?

  ‘Yes mother, I’m here,’ he replied.

  ‘Well, come over to the room I’m right there.’

He pulled a glum face and walked towards the room. His mother was sitting on a sofa and knitting as she hummed a tune as usual. Her beautiful face glowed as she knitted.  Occasionally, she would use the hem of her wrapper to clean the sweat that was gradually forming on her face.  Her light complexion shone in the dimness of the room as she knitted. Immediately, she started, and went to him and held his face. ‘What happened to my ever cheerful son today?’ She thought.

‘What is the matter my son?’ She asked.

Immediately, Justice realizing that he had been making faces, brightened up his face and told his mother that he was actually having a slight headache and as a result, a change in his countenance.

  ‘Well, I’ve prepared something for you to eat,’ she said as she made to get his meal for him and then turned abruptly.

  ‘And don’t you worry about the money for the meal because I’ve been saving a little from the money you always give for the housekeeping and I had to prepare this meal from there.  My son, did you think I wouldn’t notice when you are passing through difficulties? I know everything, I’m your mother, you can’t run away from that fact,’ she said pulling his cheeks as her own way of showing her love for him.