The Guy With The Diary

Chapter 6

BELLA

The female lecturer who taught one of the sciences was very tall. She stood well above everyone I had ever seen stand beside her. I couldn't say for certain how tall she was, but I knew she couldn't be anything less than six foot and three inches.

She had a leather purse in her hand as she lectured. For the life of me, I couldn't rationalise why she always had a purse in her hands during lecture. The woman never dropped it. Not even when she wrote on the board.

What stood out about this woman was her accent. Yes, it made it quite the task to hear the words she uttered, but somehow I think she had a way of keeping people interested in listening to her. Quite a skill, if you asked me. But then, it could just be the accent.

The lecture ended a little earlier than was scheduled. This was music to my ears because I had a lot to do. For one, my night was totally booked. I had to study for the oncoming test, and as with every test ever, I was nervous as hell. Also, I had to go to the bank and then meet up with Maggy later on. It was nearly 1pm already!

There was a little crowd at the bank as we waited to be attended to by the very few bankers at the desks. As I sat in the reception hall, I witnessed a man and a woman go back and forth with each other. When the argument started, I didn't think much of it. I mean, we are talking about human beings. People will always argue and fight for stupid things. I'm certain everyone around thought it was just going to be a few words thrown and chaos it ended being.

At first, the woman was clearly in the wrong. Everyone knew that. She sat on the part of the metal pew where the man was before going for a “quick piss”, as he repeatedly stated. When he saw the woman sitting at the spot where he sat before leaving for the bathroom, he asked the woman, quite respectfully, to go sit somewhere else. Well, the woman wasn't in the mood of being considerate, or just, you know, acting like a normal human being. She felt that she didn't have to stand for him as this was a “public place” and he didn't own anything there.

The woman, after listening to man b*tch very audibly for what seemed like a fortnight, was about to give in to the man's argument—if not for reason, she was about to give in because it was becoming clear to everyone that she was in the wrong. But then, he said something that touched the tail of the tigress in her.

He rambled on and and then said, “I wouldn't normally stoop low to argue with a woman but. . . .”

That was a need to say for him to tagged a “toxic man”, “bigot” and some other fancy words.

The table turned aroud faster than he could take in a breath. The woman repeatedly called him out for being sexist and primitive.

“You think you're better than a woman? What woman would even want to speak with a halfwit like you?”

“Leave women out of your and worry your receding hairline!” Another woman supported from behind. Whether she knew what had transpired between them was a mystery, but as long she heard that the man “spoke ill” towards women… she definitely was ready to wrap her weave up.

After a while, the bank officials separated the two people involved and everything ended there. I did all I wanted to and headed out of the bank.

The incident I witnessed at the bank came back to my mind as I walked. The part where the man said he ‘wouldn’t stoop low to talk to a woman’ especially. Sadly, it was evidently apparent that we haven't made as much progress as we think we have— as a society. To this day, there are men who wouldn't see movies with a female lead character. There are some who would never watch female atletes or sportsmen because they're ‘boring' and ‘have no talent’.

I remember Maggy showing me one as*hole on the internet who made a post that said, “Behind every successful man, there's a woman. She's his support system. But behind every successful woman, there's a man— he made her successful.”

I remember when my grandaunt told me that patriarchy was like weed, you can never get all of them out. If you cut them off, they grow somewhere else— or some time later. What's certain is that there always will be weed. She explained to me how the system of patriarchy was thoroughly placed in all parts of life and even in the most popular religions. I didn't believe this then because I felt it was ridiculous. I mean, the past has taught us something, hasn't it? Now I know that while experience is, arguably, the best teacher, it couldn't ensure that we learnt anything.

“You are always late,” Maggy hissed at me playfully. “At this point, I don't know what you learn from me.”

Ignoring her, I said, “What’s that?”, pointing to the paper she had in her fist.

“Oh, I didn't tell you? It's the address to some bar Phil wants me to help him run.”

“Phil? As in, party-hosting Phil?”

“Yeah, that one.”

I shot a wicked smirk at her and winked. “So y'all know each other?”

“Don't be weird. It's not that deep, I'm not even sure I'm interested.”

“Well, you're going so that's saying something.”

Maggy tossed a bit of her meal at me. “It isn't saying anything. I'm not even sure I'm going.”

“Some would say you're a little overdressed for the occasion.”

Maggy laughed hard. “You are something else.”

Quality friendship. Building quality friendships was another thing my grandaunt was so interested in. Even as a kid, I knew she put so much weight on us having good friends, and more importantly— like she would say, keeping those friendships. Whenever she visited us, she would talk to Maggy and I, and assure us that we could be friends forever. She would tell us she was still friends with people she went to school with about fifty years ago.

Maggy and I used to call her Mrs Rockybelly, and for the life of me, I couldn't recall why.

“Do you remember Mrs Rockybelly?”

I saw Maggy face get a big smile plastered on and then that smile grew into a grin.

“I can never forget that woman. She was so full life of life that it seemed unreal to me when I heard she passed away,” Maggy said, slurping down her milkshake. “May her gentle soul rest in peace. Rest in perfect peace, Mrs Rockybelly.”

I repeated the last statement Maggy made, but only to my own hearing.

I remembered one relationship I must not play with… the one I had with Luke. I had known Luke for most of my life and we fell in love with each other long before we knew what love was. I couldn't let one guy I saw once ruin everything.

Yes. Without any doubts, I knew there was something very unusual about that guy with the diary. But the same could be said about many other guys. Besides, I wasn't on the market and neither was I searching for a guy. I had Luke Gallagher and he was all I needed. I would never forget that. At least, not anymore.

With the many memories Luke and I had warming my heart, I texted Luke, asking him to meet up with me. And that I was sorry.