BY EBELE ORAKPO

The Mile-Two bound commuter bus was moving smoothly this Monday afternoon, so smooth in fact, that commuters were a bit apprehensive at what awaits them ahead.
”I can’t believe this is Monday,” declared Ife.

“You can’t believe what? That the road is a bit free at this time? Why do we find it difficult to believe good things? We are so used to the negative that when something positive happens, we tend to disbelieve it. That’s not the way to go at all. Why should the exception be the rule?

It’s just like what we do with electricity. When we have light for 10 hours uninterrupted, we begin to say that something must be wrong as if we are meant to live in darkness!” said Ugo.
“Some things are too good to be true jare,” replied Ife.

Suddenly, an elderly woman asked the conductor to change the torn N100 he had given her as her balance and like a man stung by a wasp, the conductor shouted: “Madam, abeg, no disturb me. After all I asked you to enter with your change. Give me N100 and take back your N200.”
“Did I give you tattered naira note?” asked the woman.

“Na me manufacture that one? No be another passenger give me?” asked the conductor. “If you don’t want it, throw it away. I don’t have another one.”

Thereupon, the woman launched into a long diatribe, calling the conductor unprintable names. “You are a useless man. You will die a pauper. Good for nothing fool. You will never end well. In fact, this vehicle will kill you,” on and on she went like a tap without control.

“Madam, it’s enough. Haba! All these curses on one person?” commented Joe.
Surprisingly, the conductor was just saying ‘AMEN’ to all the curses.
“That is a good one,” noted Mercy.

“How do you mean? That is foolishness. Someone is heaping curses on you and you are agreeing with the person by saying amen. Amen means “let it be so.” Doesn’t he know it will affect him?” asked George.

Replied Mercy: “It is just a way of disarming the woman. When she sees that her words do not hurt him as intended, she will lose steam and stop. Her intention is to hurt him and if she is not succeeding, she will stop but if he shows that he is being hurt by the verbal attack, it will ginger her to continue.

The Bible says in Proverbs 26:2, “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.” So if he has done nothing to deserve the curse, it will not affect him. I like his spirit though.”

Continuing, Mercy said: “I remember the story of an African President who was being blackmailed by an Oyinbo man. He had sent a photo to the president in which he was shown sleeping with a White lady. He asked the president to pay a huge amount of money into his account or risk having the photo in the public domain.

Trust our people, the president simply laughed and asked him to go ahead because his people will be proud of him.

“Of course, you can guess the end of the story. That was a very bad market for the blackmailer.”