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.