Blind-view

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Life in Benin city is way different from living in Lagos. The first time Uyi came to this city was to write his entrance exams into this university, and he only spent two days, but now that he has spent almost two weeks, he has come to understand the lifestyle difference here. This city is more laid back and calm and its people live life with no fast urgency, unlike Lagos which is filled with fast hustle. One of the main cultural shocks for Uyi is the fact there is little to no traffic in this city, which is new to him as he spent tireless hours stuck in traffic in Lagos.

Even the commercial transport drivers are more lenient and more tolerant in their service, unlike where he grew up; Uyi's Dad is from this state but this is only the second time he will experience what living here feels like. He enjoyed the meal and found some time to visit the very popular museum here to see very old artifacts. The city is still developing, especially in the real estate sector. Unlike Lagos, it has been growing at a very fast rate since Uyi could even understand anything. One thing he noticed is that the people are welcoming, especially to strangers, and you don’t have to speak their local dialect to get around the city.

The school campus is huge with lots of faculties ranging from the arts to sciences to engineering. The school has two campuses, but Uyi’s department was on the Ugbowo campus. The buildings are sparsely built with different designs, from the library to the halls to the hostels. Uyi has spent a vast amount of time roaming around the school and getting used to the environment.

One of his best places to relax is in the car park of the school hostel, as there were lots of trees there to shade oneself away from the hot sun. Life here is different as he has come across several people from different parts of the country who are different in almost every way, from their thoughts to their beliefs to their ambitions here and after school, but it has been a welcoming experience so far for him and his best-friend Uwa.

He has spent countless amounts of hours preparing various documents to use for his registration as they haven’t been given a matriculation number yet as they were still going through the registration process. Uyi and Uwa have spent a vast number of hours going from one office to another submitting different documents. Yes, a whole lot of documents. To the extent, Uwa had to ask

“My Guy, when will this end?" They both laughed at this statement because this was what they both prayed for and here they were living the dream of schooling together.

Uyi has made a few friends, but it has been difficult as no one is fully settled yet because registration has to be done while Uwa has been making friends. Unlike Uyi, Uwa is a very social being who can get into a place and make friends with almost anyone. He knows how to get inside people's heads by finding a way to compliment someone by any means possible. He always tells Uyi.

“Learn how to throw compliments around and you will get into any building”

Uyi has been working on giving compliments a lot, especially to the non-academic staff at the records office, so that they can get some grace while doing their registration.

Today, Uyi accompanied Uwa to do some departmental registration at the department of psychology and on getting there, Uwa came across the longest queue the young man had ever seen.

“There is no way I’m getting in that queue,” Uwa said with a smiling face.

Uwa moved to the front of the queue, giving compliments to some girls as Uyi watched from a distance. He asked to join the line after some random talk with the girls who seemed to have been swayed by his regular gesture of dishing out compliments to anyone he wanted something from. He even does this for his family to get what he wants, but as they were about to let him in, A guy pushed him off the line. Uwa lost his cool immediately.

“Are you mad? How dare you push me like that”, Uwa said angrily while making a fist with his hands. Uwa hardly ever gets angry, so it was strange to Uyi to see him lose this calmness so fast. The guy who pushed him off smiled and replied,

“If you know you are a strong man, cut off this line again,” As Uyi looked from far, the guy was much bigger than Uwa in every way, size, and body. Believe me, this boy would weigh at least 150 - 200 kilograms, and if Uyi can remember, Uwa at least weighed 80 kilograms. Uwa could just be setting himself up to get beaten up but as he tried to cut off the line again, the guy pushed Uwa with more force and Uwa fell helpless like a fallen leaf on the ground. Uwa jumped up but Uyi rushed there quickly to ease the situation.

“Uwa, calm down, calm down, not here bro, do you want to get expelled even before they allow us in,” After hearing this statement from Uyi, he was able to calm down as he knew getting expelled also meant him getting disowned by his family. Uwa’s family is very serious about education as both parents were psychiatrists who ran a privately owned care home for people suffering from mental health issues.

At that crazy moment, Uyi caught the eyes of the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, but let's say the second most beautiful woman, as he sees his mum as the most beautiful woman in the world. Uyi got lost staring at her and forgot he had to comfort his friend who had just been embarrassed. She had one of the cutest smiles he had ever seen, white teeth that could possibly glow in the dark, perfect dark skin that shone in the sun, her hair was coral black and it crashed over her shoulders, she had quarter-moon eyebrows and seashell-shaped ears with a refined nose and a syrup shaped lips, she is indeed beautiful. She caught his eyes too. Then they were both looking at each other, lost in the moment, then Uwa stepped to his front view,

“Young man, don’t lose focus, have you forgotten why I’m here?” Uyi quickly recovered from staring and replied,

“Are you blind, can’t you see this pretty girl?” Uwa frowned immediately with a hissing sound like that of a serpent.

“I know her, she is in my department, her name is Anna. I think Annabel” Uwa told Uyi with no sign of concern in his voice. As they were still talking, the guy who pushed Uwa walked toward them,

“I’m sorry I pushed you off the line, it is just that a lot of people have been cutting off the line all day,” the guy said with a calm voice and a pleading face, but Uwa had no interest in forgiving him as he just embarrassed him in the presence of the whole classmate.

“Take your sorry, eat it and continue to gain weight,” Uwa said with a mildly angry look, but Uyi quickly intervened, “Uwa shut up your mouth, forgive my friend, he is having a bad day, he has an ulcer and he has not eaten all day". We were hoping he could finish up the submission fast so that we could go grab some food,” Uwa was shocked by this statement coming from Uyi, as he knew perfectly well that he was no ulcer sufferer,

“My name is Shola but you can call me Ola and I can help him get back in the line,” Uwa quickly jumped up from where he was sitting with a smiling face,

“Sorry about what I just said, it’s my ulcer that’s killing me, my name is Uwa and this is my friend Uyi.” They all shook hands with a smile on their faces. As they were throwing around compliments, Uyi quickly turned his focus to the beautiful cute smile he had seen earlier but she was no longer on the line. He quickly excused himself and ran towards the direction he believed she must have disappeared in. From a distance, he saw her walking hurriedly away and he chased after her like a man who had just seen his lost long love.

“Hey wait-up, Annabel,” He finally caught up to her, bent down to take a breather from all that running and then he said,

“You took something that belongs to me,” Annabel was shocked by his statement, as this was the first time she had come across Uyi in her life, then she replied with a concerning face,

“Excuse me, I don’t even know you, have you ever seen me,” as she tried to continue speaking, Uyi caught him off, “Give me back my heart, you took it, where did you keep it,” from nowhere she burst into laughter, her hair hovering over her shoulder, batting her eyelashes repeatedly, it was obvious now that she was really blushing from what Uyi just said,

“How many girls have you used these pick-up lines on?” Uyi started smiling sheepishly at her as he was carried away by her laughter. It was pleasant to hear “just two women, my mum and you,” she smiled even more at him, “my name is Annabel, what is your name?” and Uyi quickly looked directly into her eyes and stretched out his hands for a smooth handshake. “my name is Uyi and please let me have your phone number, I want to be your friend” she immediately accepted called out the number and Uyi pinched the number into his phone and saved it,

“I have to go now, I hope we see you again,” Annabel said with a soothing, calm, and attractive voice. Uyi smiled back, “Yes you are free to go and we will see you again definitely. I will even call you as soon as I turn to leave”. She started laughing again and walked off hurriedly. Uyi stood there and watched her walk away as she continued to turn back to look at Uyi. Uyi immediately turned back and dialed her number but he got a response that was shocking to him,

“This number you are dialing does not exist, please check the number and dial again,” he checked and dialed again,

“This number you are dialing does not exist, please check the number and dial again,” for the third time, he checked and dialed again,

“This number you are dialing does not exist, please check the number and dial again,”

Uyi turned immediately to go after her but it was too late. She was already on a school shuttle bus and the vehicle sped away, as he stood there sweating from his forehead to his chin having several thoughts. Did she just intentionally give me a shady mobile number? Uyi was standing there feeling like the world he built as a king with a queen had been ruined by his own hands, blaming himself for not dialing the number before he allowed her to leave. He felt careless but was hopeful that he would meet her again, but in his heart, he had doubts because he knew how everyone was still not settled into the system yet and how it might be too late for him to get into her life if another boy was able to win her heart before him. This thought saddened and unsettled him. He walked back to his friend Uwa, feeling defeated and weakened,

“Why is your face like this bad weather?” Uwa said as he saw his friend looking sad. “Did you get her number?” Uyi was a little bit surprised that he knew what he went after. “Yes I did but I’m just sad to see her walk away” Ola still standing and chanting with Uwa both burst into laughter and Uyi had to fake a smile as he just lied to his friend about the outcome of his failed meeting with his run-away queen,

“Don't be sad, she stays in Hall two, the school hostel” Ola said with a convincing voice. Uyi quickly gained strength and interest with this new information he had just received from his new friend. Yes, his new friend, as this information just made him pass his friendship test,

“How do you know this?” Uyi asked with an inquisitive look at Ola, “ I live in Hall three, the boy's hostel. I have been seeing her come out of there regularly and she has an identical twin sister”. This made Uyi pick up more interest as well as Uwa. “ Are you serious right now?” Uyi asked with a stern face, looking to get more information out of Ola. “ Yes I’m sure. Even yesterday, her sister came here with her. I was sitting in the lecture hall, and they both walked in and caught everyone’s gaze because there is no way you can tell them apart.”

This new information drew the interest of Uyi even more as he started wondering. Hope I don’t run into her twin sister and think it’s her, but Uyi didn’t care as long as this will get him to find her, but how will I be able to tell them apart? This thought filled his mind.

“Do you know her exact hostel room number?” Ola and Uwa burst into laughter again, holding each other's hands and laughing uncontrollably,

“Young man, slow down for a minute, do you want to kidnap her?” Ola said with a smile all over his face, still giggling with laughter, “I like her and I don’t want to waste time getting to know her before these hungry lions get her before me,” Uwa walked closer to his friend, placed his hands on his shoulders,

“If it’s meant to be, no one can stop it from happening”, but Uyi wasn’t interested in Uwa's many wise sayings. He quickly turned to the direction Ola had gained interest in because he held so much valuable information that was very important to Uyi,

“Ola, Do you know her exact room number?” Ola was quick to reply “No I don’t, but trust me, I can get that for you. I have some female friends who can get her exact room number for you". Knowing this made Uyi smile immediately, knowing that at least he had some hope to rebuild his fallen castle with his run-away queen,

“When can this happen?”

“Whenever you are ready” Ola replied with all certainty, “but there is a time interval every day when male visitors are allowed into the female hostel, I guess you know this?” Uyi and Uwa had no idea as they both lived off-campus. Uyi was living in a gated real estate that was still under construction as the buildings were sparsely lined. Two bungalows were lined side by side with a short fence and the next building was built several kilometers away. Uwa refers to the real estate as a “Ghost town” as there was hardly ever anyone.

Uwa lived in a different place, but at least about a ten-minute ride to Uyi’s “Ghost town”. He was living in a private hostel with over one-hundred and fifty rooms, which was a four-story building. He lives alone, his place is very comfortable and Uyi sometimes goes there to pass the night as his place was closer to school compared to his uncle's house, nicknamed “Ghost town”,

“So you guys don’t know this, do you”? Ola asked, they both shook their heads to affirm they didn’t know about the visitation rules.