The Beautiful Time

Illustration. PC: RNZ

Our class closed at 3:00 pm right after we ended a set of tedious laboratory sessions. Mensah
and I were taking a stroll around campus to release the pile of stress that had accumulated
over the week. It was a Friday evening, and as usual, every corner on campus was lit up with
either a music bash here of a movie show there.

Lest I forget, it was Valentine’s Day--the day of love as it has always been believed for the years past. The zeitgeist of love could be felt everywhere on the half dark campus. We walked towards the half-filled library with a pair of earpiece stuck in our ears. The sounds from Mensah’s earpiece was just so loud that he was almost knocked down by an old fashioned Mercedes Benz lest for my timely intervention.

Mensah was the cantankerous type who always wanted to cry over spilt milk. I on the other
hand was the very reserved type who wouldn’t mind him when he cracked his humorous jokes.

As we crossed over to the other side of the semi-asphalted road that led to the various halls of
residences, Mensah whispered to me, “Kwame, I want to tell you something”. For a second, I
was quite surprised because the Mensah I knew wasn’t the Jesus clone who walked by my side. I
told him to try as much as possible to make what he wanted to say a minutia, I was already
exhausted and yawned like a ravenous wolf.

''How long did it take Akos to accept your proposal'', he asked. To be honest, I answered that
question unwillingly because getting Akos alone was like trying to download a 45 gigabyte game
with AirtelTigo; I really exercised patience and finally won her. He continued speaking but this time, he drifted far away from what I thought was going to be a relationship talk something.

He moved on to tell me about the story of a young boy at a bus stop awaiting his school’s bus. While the boy sat, he flipped a few leaves of his notebook since he had a very serious quiz that
fateful morning. This life or death quiz was one that was going to determine his promotion into
the next class and, as such, no lateness would be tolerated. As the boy flipped through his
notebooks he quickly stole a glance at his wristwatch and to his surprise it was just 15 minutes
more to the start of the quiz and the bus hasn’t arrived yet.

The schoolboy felt disturbed and started grumbling. Just then, a grey coloured Toyota pickup truck pulled up beside him. The driver asked if he would join him so he can drop him at school. The boy was thrown into a state of ambivalence, but he finally made a choice and objected to the driver’s
proposal and stated that he trusted and believed that his bus would be in very soon. The
impatient driver then sped off in fury.

A few minutes later, the school bus arrived and he got on board. As they moved closer to the schools junction, he saw a multitude gathered around that area. An accident had just occurred at the junction and death had laid its cold hands on a dozen of passengers.

Just when they were about driving past the incidence, the young boy lifted up his head and to
his dismay, he saw the Toyota pickup that tried to offer him a drive not long ago; crumpled as
though it were a piece of paper. The boy just couldn’t hold back his tears, he said a piece of
prayer to God for the divine decision he made a barely an hour ago.

“Mensah, what has this story got to do with the question you asked me?'', I interrogated. He
replied, “I want you to emulate the lifestyle of this young boy”. I was a bit confused but on
second thought, I realised he was trying to refer to the level of faith the boy had in his school’s
bus driver.

Mensah further buttressed his response with a popular quotation from the Holy Bible in Ecclesiastes 3:11 which reads, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from the beginning”.

He then asked me to read aloud two more quotations: “Jeremiah 29:11--For I know the plans that I have for you declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”, and ''2 Corinthians 5:7--For we walk by faith and not by sight''.

In few minutes time, I was done and was knocking on Akos’ door. She was glad to see us after a
week-long social distancing.

Authored by Nana Kwame. Published by TBC.

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