The article was initially published on [url]TheNakedConvos.com[/url] by the same author (that's me by the way). Read away. I put just a part of the article here. To read the full article, click [url]thenakedconvos.com/sunset-at-noon[/url]. Thank you.


It was a typically noisy Wednesday afternoon at the north wing of the enormous Oba market, just like every other. The air was still, nature was calm, like a lioness surveying a prey. People continuously moved to and fro, looking like an endless stream of ants collectively working on the carcass of an antelope. Trees swayed gaily to the rhythm of the wind while birds of various kinds, despite the relentless opposition, treated themselves to the wares of the tired-looking traders. The sky was darkening in the distance. It was going to rain. That, however, did not deter the people as it was the least of obstacles an average ‘Naija hustler’ could ever hope to meet in their search for daily bread. Money had to be made, no matter what weather abound. It was now even more important to do so as the weight of the economic recession increasingly snuffed precious life out of the teeming populace nationwide.

The bus I was seated in seemed to be taking forever to get filled. It was annoying, to say the least. I needed to be at Third East Circular by 5pm for Midweek Meeting in church but that was just my own headache to nurse. Nobody else’s business. I sighed deeply, knowing the situation was beyond me at that point. I took one long look at my watch, hissed and finally raised my head to look out the window. It was 4:28pm and I already had a feeling I was going to be late. So much for keeping to time. I wheezed loudly as I watched little children carrying trays of sachet water run to and fro, trying to keep up with thirsty throats in different red-and-yellow colored buses on the other lane. Where are their mothers? I thought to myself. My eyes kept following the children and rested for a while on one that didn’t look a day older than eight. She was very frail, like she promptly needed blood transfusion and had this very sad look on her face that quickly resonated to my emotions. Her clothes needed an urgent change and her feet could use better shoes, even her hair was in total disarray. How could a mother in her right senses allow a girl this vulnerable to be out in the wild? It just didn’t add up.

For five to ten minutes, I watched her compete with her older and much bigger counterparts, to no avail. I felt sorry for her, really sorry. It seemed like the universe was against her. Refusing to quit, she made one more swift move to catch up with a buyer and against all odds managed to sell this time. It was victory for the both of us, against the entire world. In that moment of discreet mindless jubilation, my eyes caught four figures wearing long caftans and scarfs around necks on the sidewalk behind the little girl, doing what seemed to be an ablution ritual. One of them held a green plastic kettle and poured water from it to his hands, muttering words to himself. Faithfuls; they never stop, I thought to myself. Just then a woman entered my bus with a baby strapped to her back, totaling the number of passengers the driver had been waiting for. Finally we could go. I took a quick look at my watch one more time as the bus began to drive off slowly. It was 4:52pm. Just great. It was certain then that I was going to be late.

With only one-twenty-three seconds of motion gone, the next thing that happened was to be the most shocking occurrence in my entire life. Shock or pain from impact, I couldn’t tell which had a more major role to play in momentarily paralyzing my entire body. Trapped in the back seat of the bus I was in, for an entire minute, I found myself looking at a world that had suddenly gone haywire all around me. Everybody was running helter-skelter, children crying as they looked for their mothers, mothers screaming, trying to find their children. Blindness-inducing dust had whirled up and covered the entire atmosphere, bringing visibility down to a zero-point-zero level. My ears were ringing from the impact of the loud explosion. I was scared, confused and paralysed.

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