The Past and Its Troubles II

It began like a joke. I boarded a flight on IbomAir, and one of the air hostesses turned out to be my old classmate
We took pictures, and somehow it surfaced on social media
It got featured in some newspapers
Former classmates saw the picture and came up with an idea
Why not form a WhatsApp group for the old classmates, where we can chat and catch up
Nobody asked for anybody's opinion
I woke up one morning and found myself in that group
Other classmates that I have not spoken to in years were also in the group
I found it weird
Some of the most profound cases of infidelity that I had handled as a minister came from such groups
People who share a common past, pull themselves into the present and trigger dynamics that ought to have been put to bed
It's like awakening sleeping dogs and complaining that they were barking
Why not let sleeping dogs lie?
Two of my classmates were dating while they were in school
We all knew them as a couple
They parted ways after school and had both gotten married to different people who do not belong to our class WhatsApp group
The male started referring to the female as his babe
Some ladies in the group replied to him that she is now Mrs so and so and no longer his babe
He said as far as he was concerned, in that group, the lady was his babe
Everybody laughed
I was not comfortable with it, but no crime has been committed
It was just pants
Then my DM found itself accommodating a visitor, also from the past
She wanted to meet with me because she had a fibroid and was in some debt
I was not on talking terms with her when I was in school, so I really didn't recognize her
We agreed to meet
When we did, I realised it was a mistake
She was recently divorced after suffering from three miscarriages in a marriage of eight years
Her husband left
She ended up asking me to please book a room for her in the hotel I was staying at for the whole weekend so that she could rest her head somewhere and be doted upon by the staff because of the stress she had been through in that difficult marriage.
I told her I could not afford to pay for a whole weekend getaway for her at the hotel in the name of finding rest for her weary soul
She then took it further by asking if she could stay with me.
She said, "I just need to sleep, even if it is on the couch or on the rug. Let me just sleep here for the weekend. Since my divorce, I have had to move back to my parents' house, and it has been work, work, and more work from morning till night.
I just need a week of rest, spa, massages, and sleep so that this headache I feel all the time will be gone."
I cannot pretend I don't understand her request.
I was, however, raised in Ibadan, and we usually don't spend that kind of money on a woman where I came from without knowing we are paying for more than the obvious.
I could hear my mother saying, "Have you seen a dummy? Is it me you are cooking that kind of lie for?"
Even though I was unmarried at the time, I found the idea ridiculous, and I turned her down.
She didn't take it well, but like I said, I didn't really know her, so I didn't care
About a week later, my DM was invaded again
This time, by another old classmate who said she had a medical emergency and needed some financial support.
I did what I could
The next thing I saw in the group chat was her long letter of appreciation, hyping me for doing things
What followed was a message from another lady in the group asking me to give everybody "weekend" money.
Without saying a word, I exited the group.
Of course, some people called and asked me why I left.
I told them I don't belong in the group, and I couldn't see myself getting into anything other than trouble if I stayed in the group.
I will either spend funds I don't want to spend in the name of vanity or tell somebody off in an offensive way.
We were all different people from those who shared the same class twenty years ago, but staying in that group felt to me like pretending we were still the same folks.

Yesterday's Eyes

I was in LAUTECH once to visit a friend and suddenly I recognised a young man, seated among several other boys at a restaurant
I used to play football with this person at Akobo when I was a teenager, and at that moment, his name eluded me.
So I took a page of newspaper, rolled it into a ball, and threw it at him.
All I wanted to do was call his attention so that he would look my way and greet me
All hell broke loose
I found myself surrounded by over fifty boys who were willing to lynch me for daring to do something like that. Thank God the young man recognized me and told them to relax.
He had risen to the position of top man for a cult, and I had no idea.
He said to me, "That thing you did could have cost you your life."
I said, "I am very sorry, sir."
I added all the remorse I could summon to my voice.
He said you have to buy drinks for the boys for aggravating them
I emptied my pockets immediately and parted ways with even my transport money back to Ibadan.
When he smiled and said, "You can leave."
I literally ran.
That was my last day in LAUTECH to date
I thank God that stupidity did not cost me my head.

Yesterday's Life

A friend became a lawyer, secured a good job, and decided to go visit her mother at Ajegunle.
When she arrived in Ajegunle in her suit, with an official car and driver, she remembered there was a friend of hers who owned a hairdressing salon very close to her mother's house.
The hairdressing salon was a front in a sense.
When she was in school, she would go there and meet with other ladies for their "runs" assignments.
Her friend was lowkey running a local escort service, and she was one of the unofficial escorts that worked with her in the past
After her short stint with the services and all the experiences she had with different types of men, she told herself she was done when she returned to campus, and to ensure she wouldn't go back, she joined a fellowship and gave her life to Christ.
This was several years later, she was established, and her career was flourishing
What harm would saying hello do?
She peeped into the shop
Her friend was there
They hugged and exchanged a bit of small talk
As she was about to leave, her friend received a call.
It was from a military man who came into Lagos and was looking for a girl to spend the night with
Her friend told the man not to worry, she would send someone over.
As she was taking her leave, her friend asked her if she was going back to Lagos
She said yes
Her friend gave her the phone number of the military man. Her friend told her the man had a serious court case and had been looking for a good lawyer to handle the case for him.
She saw her mother, left as early as she could, and called the military man
She met with the man at a hotel
They talked for a while, and five years after she had said goodbye to prostitution
She found herself doing it one more time.
That day redefined her life forever
Like a drug addict taking just a sniff after years of abstinence, she relapsed and became the side chick of this man for over ten years.
By the time she was telling the story, the path she chose that day had redefined her life completely.

PS:
The past has a brutal effect on those who refuse to let it be.
Nothing good comes from the past
This is why the path of the righteous is always forward-looking
It is why we set our eyes like a flint
It is why we have set our eyes before us, not behind us
Let the past rest
You are a believer, and your reality is ever-present before God
Forgive and move forward
leave regret in the past and build a new future full of life and hope
Leave the past and all it's troubles alone.

-GSW-