The Triangle
Three
Love is life and life in love. For life to live, it needs love and for love to be alive, it must possess life – Anonymous…
It was a big sigh of relief that Adeolu heaved when the cast of the movie began scrolling by. The film had ended. Time for the next stage of the plan. The lights came on and the beauty of the hall, which he had earlier taken in, came alive again. This is not the time to check out the hall for a second time, a more beautiful work was waiting to be done.
“Pretty, sorry I am calling you that. I can’t but say that because that is what you are,” Adeolu said as the other occupants of the hall begin to find their way out.
The lady looked at the disturbance beside her and thought of the best way to get rid of it – sorry him.
“What exactly do you want with me, please?” she said.
Adeolu knew how to deal with such women. They fall so easily after all. He had dealt with many of her kind – proving difficult to get but having interest in him – they believe their seeming hard outward appearances and actions will put an interested man off but they are often mistaken. Only lily-livered men back out after a façade of difficulty from a woman. He knew what to do – the soft treatment!
They were almost outside the waiting area of the Cinema and he stole a glance at the cashier, who was an indirect instrument of fate in the business at hand. He had no time to say goodbye or give a feedback of the movie he had seen. That can be done another day.
He knows he needed to get her to a seat for anything he has to say to have any effect. The lady was slowed down by the way he walked and both of them were reduced to three steps per ten seconds as they talked and walked. Adeolu needed to get her to agree to a seat before they descend from the elevator but; first of all, introduction.
“I am sorry Pretty, I do not mean to be a pest but one could hardly help oneself if one sees a quite attractive and well mannered lady – given that such are scarce in our present-day society. I don’t want much from you – rather I’d say I want a lot from you but only time and you will reveal it.
“Never mind my manners. The name of the trouble that has been pestering you in the last one hour – more or less – is Adeolu. I will only request for one thing from you. To seat over a drink. Would you oblige me that please?”
The lady wondered what was in Adeolu’s head but she could not place it. She thought she knew where he was heading to but she seemed to have lost it herself.
“All men are the same, they get what they want and leave you dry without getting home,” she thought to herself.
“He is looking for a wife and you are one of the targets. Better use your brain girl.”
As the thoughts battle in her mind, she decided to give a listening ear to whatever he has to say. At least one more friend today, will do her no harm. More so, she needed friends.
“What would we be doing over a drink, Mr. Adeolu?” she asked an obvious question with a very serious look on her face. By then their movement had come to a complete stop. They were standing just outside the entrance to the Cinema’s reception.
“Nothing Pretty. Nothing at all. We will just sit there and have the drinks to cool off from the effects of the movie we just saw.”
His face showed no expression. He was striking a cord. A wrong or right one, only time would tell. She paused to look at him and wondered if he meant what he had just said. They would just sit and drink doing nothing. But he had been talking without drinks. Could he be serious? She wished he had said something else. There was no way she would waste her time over drinks doing nothing.
“I am sorry. I don’t cool off over drinks with strangers. I would rather cool off at home and alone,” she said with a smirk on her face.
Adeolu was excited. He had gotten the response he wanted. She is more brilliant than he had thought. She was playing along and really trying to be tough.
“But really, why would a pretty Pretty sit on a seat alone in her house and cool off? Cooling off with strangers would do you no harm, rather it makes strangers become known.
“And if I checked well, I don’t seem to strike you as a stranger. You know my name and have met me for more than an hour. I think I am not qualified for the post of a stranger to you. You seem to be the stranger here Pretty.”
The lady still wondered what he wanted to gain from all these he was putting her through. He seemed to be right. She had made friends from strangers and no one would believe they weren’t friends from the way he had stood close to her. She is the stranger there truly – she knew his name and yet she had yet to give him hers. There was no harm in listening to him over a drink because she knew intuitively that there would definitely be talks. What an intelligent guy! He wanted her to figure out things herself rather than feeding her with words and details.
“Alright, you win Mr. Adeolu. I will have a drink with you on two conditions; we won’t be staying long and two I don’t sit in bars. Lest I forget, I am not Pretty, my name is Omolola. Friends and acquaintances call me the shorter Lola. Can we leave here please?”
“Another bravo for me! Thumbs up for me!” Adeolu said to himself.
Saturday 14 May 2016
Tuesday 3 May 2016
The Triangle
The Triangle
Two
When God wants to punish a soul, He removes the love of Himself from his heart – Anonymous…
The next customer, who had been patient enough to watch the drama between Adeolu and the cashier was fed up with the lady, who had become absentminded at work.
She said, “Will you kindly attend to me please?”
“I am sorry ma. What movie would you like to watch?” the embarrassed cashier blurted out.
Adeolu walked into the lighted movie hall. He surveyed the rows of seat arranged in beautiful rows, taking in their beauty. He didn’t know movie halls could be beautiful. He always entered the hall when it was two minutes into the movies he wanted to watch, so he had missed the sight he was just seeing for many years.
He carefully selected a spot in the back rows. He loved sitting away quite far from the viewing screen. He dropped the newspaper he was holding in the cup holder of the seat and went outside again to get his popcorn and drink.
The queue for popcorn and drinks were very long but Adeolu was not one to queue for a long time. He hated standing for a long time in queues.
“I can’t punish myself when I want to pay my money for a service you want to render for me,” he once said to Layi.
“That is the problem of Nigerians. You can’t stay for long in queues and that is a very bad thing because you are not doing the person a favour rather you are ensuring orderliness in things and getting things done in a quick manner.”
“Whatever you want to say, I can’t stay forever in a queue for as long as I can get my way around it. I have been doing it for a while now and I haven't regretted it. For short queues, I can wait. But for long ones, my friend, there is always a way to beat around it.”
That was exactly what he did on that bright Saturday. He jumped queue!
“Excuse me please, I have been on the queue for a while. I only stepped out to secure a place in the
hall,” Adeolu said as he squeezed his way to the front.
The murmur from those on the queue was loud despite the noise in the lounge – trust Nigerians, they hate to be cheated.
“How on earth did you get to the front?” one angry man said from the queue.
“It is not a thing that can be heard at all. You want to come from nowhere and claim a front seat in this queue. I won’t allow that if the others allow o,” another woman said right in front of where he Adeolu had squeezed himself.
He was used to such reactions but he was prepared for them.
“Gentlemen and ladies, will you calm down,” he said.
By then he was just three places away from the guy giving the popcorn and drink.
“All of you should check my ticket and see that it has been torn in halves. If I haven't entered the movie hall, how would I be having two halves? I am a man of honour here please and I hate to cheat people as I hate to be cheated too. Please we will all get out of here and meet somewhere we don’t know yet. So please, let’s have some peace in here.”
That said, the people on the queue seemed placated. He laughed deep inside of himself. He had gone through this once again. A success!
“Thumbs up to you Ade!” he exclaimed in himself.
He got the items and headed back into the hall after he had tipped one of the guards at the entrance of the hall, who seemed to like him. By then, the movie was ready to begin. The adverts, which preceded movies in cinemas, were rolling. He walked gingerly towards the seat he had reserved. His hunting skills at their best. He must get a lady or girl out of that movie hall today.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark hall, he observed that there were not much people in the hall – a maximum of fifteen people by his rough estimate. That seemed to be a perfect number for him! He observed that the hall had fewer couples in it. There were more of single ladies and guys scattered around the hall. The couples sat together as is normally seen in cinemas. They gave no chance for the ‘devil’ to make use of any one of them. Thereby ‘protecting’ their unions.
The movie began and Adeolu at first was watching with rapt attention. He had fallen in love with the interpretation of the Mandela role by Idris Elba.
“This man is just too good,” he said to himself. “ He took the role as if he was the one the story is about. How I wish there would be a vote to decide if he could be the next James Bond. I just can’t stop imagining him in the role of Bond. With all the instruments and the women; the near-deaths and the close shaves. Elba will kill the role of a Bond.”
There was no one beside him as he talked to himself. He didn’t care if he was talking aloud or if any other person was hearing his outpouring of admiration for the movie’s main act. The movie rolled on and on and Adeolu rode along into it. One hour, thirty minutes into the movie was when he remembered what brought him to the cinema. He hadn’t searched for any lady at all!
His bright predator eyes began searching in the darkness of the hall for a lady, who would be the prey of the day and will also end up being one of the victims of his playing escapades. He searched but he could only catch couples sniggling close to each other in the coldness of the hall. His eyes caught one of them as the guy was trying to clean the tears of the lady with his lips. He was virtually licking the tears off her face as she cried. She had been moved to tears by the sufferings faced by Mandela in the movie. Adeolu tarried a little more. He wanted to know what would end the licking act and he wasn’t disappointed. The licking became kissing and more followed. He took off his eyes and continued his search.
The eyes searched for ten more minutes before they finally settled on an angle where he had gloated over a couple of times. He had lost hope that he wouldn’t get a lady to talk to in the hall and was about to turn his attention back to the movie when he did a last turn at the furthest corner of the rows which were three seats away from his front. He saw that a lady was sitting all alone there nursing the straw in her bottle of drink. She was feeling the cold and had a jacket over her arms. Adeolu could see that she was focused fully on the movie and had been touched by the challenges faced by Mandela.
The search is over. Work begins. He got up from his seat and walked gently towards the rows where the lonely lady sat. There was no one closest to her on the row so he knew she came alone. As he approached the lady, his brain began to fear the worst – rejection.
He got close to the lady, who was dressed in a pink gown. Adeolu did a close survey of her but could see little from her sitting position, all he could say was that she was pretty. He did a quick brain scan of how to begin a conversation. Under thirty seconds, the plot was formed. All he needed was just to sit down beside her.
“Hello Pretty lady,” Adeolu took the first step. He was squatting to avoid blocking those behind him – even though a few people in the hall were watching the movie. Couples were doing what they knew how to do best in halls with little people while the single ones were focused on getting hooked like Adeolu.
The lady looked down at him and wondered who it was that had taken her attention away from the movie screen. She appeared to be engrossed in the film and doesn’t want to be disturbed.
“Hello stranger, what can I do for you?”
“I only seek to be in your company for the remainder of the movie. I could see that you were touched by the storyline and I foolishly thought you would need company. If you wouldn’t mind, may I be seated beside you? Or should I go back to my boring world at the back?”
The lady doesn’t want to be disturbed so she agreed – although reluctantly.
“You may be seated but please I will like to focus on the movie.”
“Thank you Your Eminence! I am most honoured to sit with you. Thanks.”
Yes! Adeolu enthused. The first step has been done and any rejection thereafter won’t hurt as much as it would have been if she had not allowed his first request. But he would give himself the best shot possible and avoid failure on this mission.
He took up himself from his squatting position and sat himself on the seat beside her. He pretended to watch the movie showing on the screen – the truth is that he had lost track of the movie but he was not one to take to failure in the presence of a woman. The movie was the last thing on his mind now. His face was on the screen but his mind was on the beautiful lady sitting beside him. He couldn’t wait for the movie to end. With the corners of his eyes, he looked at the lady who seemed to care less that he was there.
It was a big sigh of relief that Adeolu heaved when the cast of the movie began scrolling by. The film had ended. Time for the next stage of the plan. The lights came on and the beauty of the hall, which he had earlier taken in, came alive again. This is not the time to check out the hall for a second time, a more beautiful work was waiting to be done.
“Pretty, sorry I am calling you that. I can’t but say that because that is what you are,” Adeolu said as the other occupants of the hall begin to find their way out.
Two
When God wants to punish a soul, He removes the love of Himself from his heart – Anonymous…
The next customer, who had been patient enough to watch the drama between Adeolu and the cashier was fed up with the lady, who had become absentminded at work.
She said, “Will you kindly attend to me please?”
“I am sorry ma. What movie would you like to watch?” the embarrassed cashier blurted out.
Adeolu walked into the lighted movie hall. He surveyed the rows of seat arranged in beautiful rows, taking in their beauty. He didn’t know movie halls could be beautiful. He always entered the hall when it was two minutes into the movies he wanted to watch, so he had missed the sight he was just seeing for many years.
He carefully selected a spot in the back rows. He loved sitting away quite far from the viewing screen. He dropped the newspaper he was holding in the cup holder of the seat and went outside again to get his popcorn and drink.
The queue for popcorn and drinks were very long but Adeolu was not one to queue for a long time. He hated standing for a long time in queues.
“I can’t punish myself when I want to pay my money for a service you want to render for me,” he once said to Layi.
“That is the problem of Nigerians. You can’t stay for long in queues and that is a very bad thing because you are not doing the person a favour rather you are ensuring orderliness in things and getting things done in a quick manner.”
“Whatever you want to say, I can’t stay forever in a queue for as long as I can get my way around it. I have been doing it for a while now and I haven't regretted it. For short queues, I can wait. But for long ones, my friend, there is always a way to beat around it.”
That was exactly what he did on that bright Saturday. He jumped queue!
“Excuse me please, I have been on the queue for a while. I only stepped out to secure a place in the
hall,” Adeolu said as he squeezed his way to the front.
The murmur from those on the queue was loud despite the noise in the lounge – trust Nigerians, they hate to be cheated.
“How on earth did you get to the front?” one angry man said from the queue.
“It is not a thing that can be heard at all. You want to come from nowhere and claim a front seat in this queue. I won’t allow that if the others allow o,” another woman said right in front of where he Adeolu had squeezed himself.
He was used to such reactions but he was prepared for them.
“Gentlemen and ladies, will you calm down,” he said.
By then he was just three places away from the guy giving the popcorn and drink.
“All of you should check my ticket and see that it has been torn in halves. If I haven't entered the movie hall, how would I be having two halves? I am a man of honour here please and I hate to cheat people as I hate to be cheated too. Please we will all get out of here and meet somewhere we don’t know yet. So please, let’s have some peace in here.”
That said, the people on the queue seemed placated. He laughed deep inside of himself. He had gone through this once again. A success!
“Thumbs up to you Ade!” he exclaimed in himself.
He got the items and headed back into the hall after he had tipped one of the guards at the entrance of the hall, who seemed to like him. By then, the movie was ready to begin. The adverts, which preceded movies in cinemas, were rolling. He walked gingerly towards the seat he had reserved. His hunting skills at their best. He must get a lady or girl out of that movie hall today.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark hall, he observed that there were not much people in the hall – a maximum of fifteen people by his rough estimate. That seemed to be a perfect number for him! He observed that the hall had fewer couples in it. There were more of single ladies and guys scattered around the hall. The couples sat together as is normally seen in cinemas. They gave no chance for the ‘devil’ to make use of any one of them. Thereby ‘protecting’ their unions.
The movie began and Adeolu at first was watching with rapt attention. He had fallen in love with the interpretation of the Mandela role by Idris Elba.
“This man is just too good,” he said to himself. “ He took the role as if he was the one the story is about. How I wish there would be a vote to decide if he could be the next James Bond. I just can’t stop imagining him in the role of Bond. With all the instruments and the women; the near-deaths and the close shaves. Elba will kill the role of a Bond.”
There was no one beside him as he talked to himself. He didn’t care if he was talking aloud or if any other person was hearing his outpouring of admiration for the movie’s main act. The movie rolled on and on and Adeolu rode along into it. One hour, thirty minutes into the movie was when he remembered what brought him to the cinema. He hadn’t searched for any lady at all!
His bright predator eyes began searching in the darkness of the hall for a lady, who would be the prey of the day and will also end up being one of the victims of his playing escapades. He searched but he could only catch couples sniggling close to each other in the coldness of the hall. His eyes caught one of them as the guy was trying to clean the tears of the lady with his lips. He was virtually licking the tears off her face as she cried. She had been moved to tears by the sufferings faced by Mandela in the movie. Adeolu tarried a little more. He wanted to know what would end the licking act and he wasn’t disappointed. The licking became kissing and more followed. He took off his eyes and continued his search.
The eyes searched for ten more minutes before they finally settled on an angle where he had gloated over a couple of times. He had lost hope that he wouldn’t get a lady to talk to in the hall and was about to turn his attention back to the movie when he did a last turn at the furthest corner of the rows which were three seats away from his front. He saw that a lady was sitting all alone there nursing the straw in her bottle of drink. She was feeling the cold and had a jacket over her arms. Adeolu could see that she was focused fully on the movie and had been touched by the challenges faced by Mandela.
The search is over. Work begins. He got up from his seat and walked gently towards the rows where the lonely lady sat. There was no one closest to her on the row so he knew she came alone. As he approached the lady, his brain began to fear the worst – rejection.
He got close to the lady, who was dressed in a pink gown. Adeolu did a close survey of her but could see little from her sitting position, all he could say was that she was pretty. He did a quick brain scan of how to begin a conversation. Under thirty seconds, the plot was formed. All he needed was just to sit down beside her.
“Hello Pretty lady,” Adeolu took the first step. He was squatting to avoid blocking those behind him – even though a few people in the hall were watching the movie. Couples were doing what they knew how to do best in halls with little people while the single ones were focused on getting hooked like Adeolu.
The lady looked down at him and wondered who it was that had taken her attention away from the movie screen. She appeared to be engrossed in the film and doesn’t want to be disturbed.
“Hello stranger, what can I do for you?”
“I only seek to be in your company for the remainder of the movie. I could see that you were touched by the storyline and I foolishly thought you would need company. If you wouldn’t mind, may I be seated beside you? Or should I go back to my boring world at the back?”
The lady doesn’t want to be disturbed so she agreed – although reluctantly.
“You may be seated but please I will like to focus on the movie.”
“Thank you Your Eminence! I am most honoured to sit with you. Thanks.”
Yes! Adeolu enthused. The first step has been done and any rejection thereafter won’t hurt as much as it would have been if she had not allowed his first request. But he would give himself the best shot possible and avoid failure on this mission.
He took up himself from his squatting position and sat himself on the seat beside her. He pretended to watch the movie showing on the screen – the truth is that he had lost track of the movie but he was not one to take to failure in the presence of a woman. The movie was the last thing on his mind now. His face was on the screen but his mind was on the beautiful lady sitting beside him. He couldn’t wait for the movie to end. With the corners of his eyes, he looked at the lady who seemed to care less that he was there.
It was a big sigh of relief that Adeolu heaved when the cast of the movie began scrolling by. The film had ended. Time for the next stage of the plan. The lights came on and the beauty of the hall, which he had earlier taken in, came alive again. This is not the time to check out the hall for a second time, a more beautiful work was waiting to be done.
“Pretty, sorry I am calling you that. I can’t but say that because that is what you are,” Adeolu said as the other occupants of the hall begin to find their way out.
Sunday 1 May 2016
The Triangle
One
When you fall in love, things become relatively easy in your sight. It also goes a long way to show the feelings a man has for a woman, life becomes as easy as it ought to be – Anonymous…
Adeolu was a young man who never believed in love, he has spent the whole of his life as player – breaking hearts, minds and souls. He has never believed in the power of love for he believed only fools fall in love.
“How do you know that you are in love with something or someone?” he once asked his friend, Layi.
“I don’t think love is a thing that can happen to me. Maybe it is because of my view of the world and the people in it. My world outlook has let me know a lot and has let me experience a lot but I doubt if I can experience what love is.”
Layi looked at him and shook his head – more out of pity than surprise.
He then said, “Love is a beautiful thing. It is a thing that changes lives and makes lives straight. It reforms and shapes destinies and makes life interesting to live.”
Adeolu replied him, “Ola-yi-wo-inu-ola, the son of Ola-di-pupo-ni-ile-wa, I can’t believe that you are still with this school of thought that love makes life go round after we all know that the earth revolves around the sun with the motions that occurs among the planetary bodies. How is that related or concerned by love?
“Brother, you better wise up and delete the word ‘love’ from your dictionary. Paddy mi, ife n se were (Love is crazy). One of my favourite men of letters, Francis Bacon, once said ‘It is impossible to love and be wise’. So brother, love is for fools and idiots.”
Layi smiled and looked at his friend. He would never change. Adeolu has always been the hard-to-convince bigot and on this matter of love, he would find it extra hard to get him to change his mind except Adeolu experienced it and is convinced it is a reality.
But he still chose to give him another piece of his mind for the records.
“Ade-oluwa-ni-mo-de-s’ori the first son of Mr and Mrs Ade-la-ija-laarin-ebi-wa, the same wise Francis Bacon said, ‘Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it’. Didn’t you come across that when you were studying his works? Bacon himself was recorded to have gotten married and he didn’t marry without loving his spouse. That quote is self-explanatory.
“But my brother you intentionally chose not to understand it. You will experience love at your own time and will still settle down in marriage. By then, you will know the real meaning of love. US Poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson, also said ‘Love that's wise will not say all it means’. I leave you to digest that.”
But the words of Layi to Adeolu seem as one who left a bunch of fresh leaves outside in the dew and tied a goat close to it.
“Love ko, love ni.”
“I pity you my brother. Igbeyin lo ma n dun oloku ada. At the end of the day, you will fall in love and become so into it that you will regret ever using your mouth to say it doesn’t exist. What you need to understand is that love is beautiful and life is easy and nice when you have your loved ones around you.
“Your loved ones are not only limited to your family and friends but the woman who surround you and garnish your life with undying affection and care that makes you achieve dreams.”
Lola was one of the first set of culprits of Adeolu’s games as he searched for the reality of love. He was out of his house on a boring Saturday afternoon when his made up his mind to the drive to the Ikeja axis of Lagos after three hours of driving aimlessly around town. Layi had travelled – Adeolu hardly spend weekends alone except with Layi or one of his numerous girlfriends – and he was bored with the present hordes of girlfriends. He needed a new one to experiment if this love thing will really work for him and Layi being around would not have made that a possibility. This is his chance!
He drove past the Ikeja Mall, which houses a cinema, kiddies zones and many shops, where he could dazzle a woman with his spending prowess to bamboozle her into believing him and ultimately luring her into his bed. An idea struck him, he should see a movie. Yes! He needed to see a movie ASAP! Those movie halls which are not always fully filled. He needed to see a movie but not a popular and a blockbuster one.
By then he was almost at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa. He drove ahead to the next traffic light at Barracks and did a U-turn and sped towards the Mall after making sure none of the Policemen was watching. He drove into the parking lots and locked his doors with his keys – since he had watched a video on TV of robbers unlocking any car locked with the car’s remote control, he had always locked his car doors manually. Although the Mall boasts a good record in terms of security, he never took chances.
“I have never been robbed – not when I bustle and bust public buses in or outside Lagos – and I don’t tend to work towards being robbed now that I have my own four legs,” he told himself anytime he is parking his car or driving alone.
Adeolu walked towards the Entrance 2 of the Mall and the automatic sliding doors screeched apart a few metres away from him, granting him access into the inner recesses of the Mall. He was soon at the elevator, which slowly but steadily rolled him towards his destination – The Cinema.
“What movies do you have on for today please?”
“We have a variety of them sir. Some are already showing and some have been shown but we have other still coming up later in the day sir,” one of the attendants said to him.
Adeolu got into the queue of customers waiting to buy movie tickets. He unintentionally chose the queue in front of a lovely, smiling lady. He had forgotten what the lady, who sat on a tall stool behind the front counter, called her name but he remembered that she was beautifully made by the Creator – fair, plump, pint-sized and with an oval face, which complemented well with the beautiful arrangement of dentition in her mouth. He wanted to settle for her and not see a movie after all but he found himself changing his mind and sticking to the initial idea which brought him there. She is at work and he wouldn’t want to be a source of someone’s loss of job.
“I want a good one that is not a blockbuster, where the hall will have people but not full to the brim.”
“We have good movies you can choose from sir. Please go through our movie schedule for the week and see which one of them catches your fancy.”
He wasn’t ready for all the stress of deciding a movie to watch and there was no way he was going to plead with her to know which of the halls was less booked. He decided to use a little flattery to get his job done.
“I don’t want to be doing that pretty lady. I want to use your sense of expertise to guide me to the movie I’ll be seeing today. Can you do that for me please?”
It worked! He knew it wouldn’t fail him, especially with his charms turned on to their fullest and sending the strongest of signals. The attendant blushed and smiled. It was a privilege for her to be the Alpha and Omega for this handsome guy who stood in front of her. She would make sure to impress her this time to bring him back again.
“The action films we have surely draws a large crowd and they are booked for now. Do you like action movies?”
“Yes. I am a fan of James Bond and Idris Elba. You know I’ll like to see Elba as the next Bond – the first black Bond.”
“Seems we are on the same page sir. But I like a little more of romance and comedy films than action ones. I share your sentiments about Elba too. Then I will recommend Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom or 12 Years a Slave. The two are very good movies and they don’t draw a lot of people despite the publicity which greeted their arrivals and the promos we give to people. But they are almost two weeks old now, maybe that’s why the viewership has reduced.”
“I’ll settle for Mandela. I’ve heard much about the movie and Nelson Mandela is my hero. I want to see what they can say about the most important man in South Africa.”
“I bet you will enjoy it and you will come back to tell me your testimony. Here is your ticket sir. It will only set your pocket back by N1,500 sir. It also comes with a box of popcorn and a bottle of your favourite drink sir.”
“Thanks gorgeous. You are indeed an angel and I will surely give you a feedback in the next two hours. Lest I forget, you are really beautiful. Thanks once again.”
That said, he blew her a kiss as he turned from her to go into the cinema hall as the time for the movie was just a few minutes away. He knew the effect his words and action would have on her and he intentionally refused to look back but he felt her eyes piercing his back.
For the cashier, she was really taken to him and she blushed as he said his last statement. She was wondering what manner of guy he was. She had done her job as professionally as possible but this guy was just too good to reject. She wouldn’t have turned him down if he had made a move.
The next customer, who had been patient enough to watch the drama between Adeolu and the cashier was fed up with the lady, who had become absentminded at work.
He said, “Will you kindly attend to me please?”
“I am sorry ma. What movie would you like to watch?” the embarrassed cashier blurted out.
When you fall in love, things become relatively easy in your sight. It also goes a long way to show the feelings a man has for a woman, life becomes as easy as it ought to be – Anonymous…
Adeolu was a young man who never believed in love, he has spent the whole of his life as player – breaking hearts, minds and souls. He has never believed in the power of love for he believed only fools fall in love.
“How do you know that you are in love with something or someone?” he once asked his friend, Layi.
“I don’t think love is a thing that can happen to me. Maybe it is because of my view of the world and the people in it. My world outlook has let me know a lot and has let me experience a lot but I doubt if I can experience what love is.”
Layi looked at him and shook his head – more out of pity than surprise.
He then said, “Love is a beautiful thing. It is a thing that changes lives and makes lives straight. It reforms and shapes destinies and makes life interesting to live.”
Adeolu replied him, “Ola-yi-wo-inu-ola, the son of Ola-di-pupo-ni-ile-wa, I can’t believe that you are still with this school of thought that love makes life go round after we all know that the earth revolves around the sun with the motions that occurs among the planetary bodies. How is that related or concerned by love?
“Brother, you better wise up and delete the word ‘love’ from your dictionary. Paddy mi, ife n se were (Love is crazy). One of my favourite men of letters, Francis Bacon, once said ‘It is impossible to love and be wise’. So brother, love is for fools and idiots.”
Layi smiled and looked at his friend. He would never change. Adeolu has always been the hard-to-convince bigot and on this matter of love, he would find it extra hard to get him to change his mind except Adeolu experienced it and is convinced it is a reality.
But he still chose to give him another piece of his mind for the records.
“Ade-oluwa-ni-mo-de-s’ori the first son of Mr and Mrs Ade-la-ija-laarin-ebi-wa, the same wise Francis Bacon said, ‘Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and embaseth it’. Didn’t you come across that when you were studying his works? Bacon himself was recorded to have gotten married and he didn’t marry without loving his spouse. That quote is self-explanatory.
“But my brother you intentionally chose not to understand it. You will experience love at your own time and will still settle down in marriage. By then, you will know the real meaning of love. US Poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson, also said ‘Love that's wise will not say all it means’. I leave you to digest that.”
But the words of Layi to Adeolu seem as one who left a bunch of fresh leaves outside in the dew and tied a goat close to it.
“Love ko, love ni.”
“I pity you my brother. Igbeyin lo ma n dun oloku ada. At the end of the day, you will fall in love and become so into it that you will regret ever using your mouth to say it doesn’t exist. What you need to understand is that love is beautiful and life is easy and nice when you have your loved ones around you.
“Your loved ones are not only limited to your family and friends but the woman who surround you and garnish your life with undying affection and care that makes you achieve dreams.”
Lola was one of the first set of culprits of Adeolu’s games as he searched for the reality of love. He was out of his house on a boring Saturday afternoon when his made up his mind to the drive to the Ikeja axis of Lagos after three hours of driving aimlessly around town. Layi had travelled – Adeolu hardly spend weekends alone except with Layi or one of his numerous girlfriends – and he was bored with the present hordes of girlfriends. He needed a new one to experiment if this love thing will really work for him and Layi being around would not have made that a possibility. This is his chance!
He drove past the Ikeja Mall, which houses a cinema, kiddies zones and many shops, where he could dazzle a woman with his spending prowess to bamboozle her into believing him and ultimately luring her into his bed. An idea struck him, he should see a movie. Yes! He needed to see a movie ASAP! Those movie halls which are not always fully filled. He needed to see a movie but not a popular and a blockbuster one.
By then he was almost at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa. He drove ahead to the next traffic light at Barracks and did a U-turn and sped towards the Mall after making sure none of the Policemen was watching. He drove into the parking lots and locked his doors with his keys – since he had watched a video on TV of robbers unlocking any car locked with the car’s remote control, he had always locked his car doors manually. Although the Mall boasts a good record in terms of security, he never took chances.
“I have never been robbed – not when I bustle and bust public buses in or outside Lagos – and I don’t tend to work towards being robbed now that I have my own four legs,” he told himself anytime he is parking his car or driving alone.
Adeolu walked towards the Entrance 2 of the Mall and the automatic sliding doors screeched apart a few metres away from him, granting him access into the inner recesses of the Mall. He was soon at the elevator, which slowly but steadily rolled him towards his destination – The Cinema.
“What movies do you have on for today please?”
“We have a variety of them sir. Some are already showing and some have been shown but we have other still coming up later in the day sir,” one of the attendants said to him.
Adeolu got into the queue of customers waiting to buy movie tickets. He unintentionally chose the queue in front of a lovely, smiling lady. He had forgotten what the lady, who sat on a tall stool behind the front counter, called her name but he remembered that she was beautifully made by the Creator – fair, plump, pint-sized and with an oval face, which complemented well with the beautiful arrangement of dentition in her mouth. He wanted to settle for her and not see a movie after all but he found himself changing his mind and sticking to the initial idea which brought him there. She is at work and he wouldn’t want to be a source of someone’s loss of job.
“I want a good one that is not a blockbuster, where the hall will have people but not full to the brim.”
“We have good movies you can choose from sir. Please go through our movie schedule for the week and see which one of them catches your fancy.”
He wasn’t ready for all the stress of deciding a movie to watch and there was no way he was going to plead with her to know which of the halls was less booked. He decided to use a little flattery to get his job done.
“I don’t want to be doing that pretty lady. I want to use your sense of expertise to guide me to the movie I’ll be seeing today. Can you do that for me please?”
It worked! He knew it wouldn’t fail him, especially with his charms turned on to their fullest and sending the strongest of signals. The attendant blushed and smiled. It was a privilege for her to be the Alpha and Omega for this handsome guy who stood in front of her. She would make sure to impress her this time to bring him back again.
“The action films we have surely draws a large crowd and they are booked for now. Do you like action movies?”
“Yes. I am a fan of James Bond and Idris Elba. You know I’ll like to see Elba as the next Bond – the first black Bond.”
“Seems we are on the same page sir. But I like a little more of romance and comedy films than action ones. I share your sentiments about Elba too. Then I will recommend Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom or 12 Years a Slave. The two are very good movies and they don’t draw a lot of people despite the publicity which greeted their arrivals and the promos we give to people. But they are almost two weeks old now, maybe that’s why the viewership has reduced.”
“I’ll settle for Mandela. I’ve heard much about the movie and Nelson Mandela is my hero. I want to see what they can say about the most important man in South Africa.”
“I bet you will enjoy it and you will come back to tell me your testimony. Here is your ticket sir. It will only set your pocket back by N1,500 sir. It also comes with a box of popcorn and a bottle of your favourite drink sir.”
“Thanks gorgeous. You are indeed an angel and I will surely give you a feedback in the next two hours. Lest I forget, you are really beautiful. Thanks once again.”
That said, he blew her a kiss as he turned from her to go into the cinema hall as the time for the movie was just a few minutes away. He knew the effect his words and action would have on her and he intentionally refused to look back but he felt her eyes piercing his back.
For the cashier, she was really taken to him and she blushed as he said his last statement. She was wondering what manner of guy he was. She had done her job as professionally as possible but this guy was just too good to reject. She wouldn’t have turned him down if he had made a move.
The next customer, who had been patient enough to watch the drama between Adeolu and the cashier was fed up with the lady, who had become absentminded at work.
He said, “Will you kindly attend to me please?”
“I am sorry ma. What movie would you like to watch?” the embarrassed cashier blurted out.
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