A world without us

The Dawn of the Voyage

"It is pretty easy locating this address, the Google Map is a true superpower," Feolu said, as he stepped down the front passenger's seat of Otos' Hyundai Nexo SUV car, and closed the door behind him. Otos stepped down from the driver's seat of the car, looked carefully at the white steel paint-coated car shelter, underneath which he had instinctually halted and parked his car. He pocketed his car keys after he had locked his car door.

It was exactly 10:00 am on a Tuesday, when they arrived at Glorious transformation Hub, as indicated on a nearby medium-sized standing rectangular billboard, just some days after Feolu received a strange call from a strange voice. The sky was cloudy, rendering the whole environment breezy and soothing. The atmosphere brushed their nose with fresh green plants' scent that suited a forest front area, which was located at the heart of the developing posh area of Agidingbi, Lagos.

The area looked remote, driving from the main road through the untarred road leading to the harmonized landscape area took about 10 minutes, there were buildings around, but very few. The area looked like a developing estate that accommodated different people with absolutely contrasting tastes in property and designs.

 There were strikingly many pawpaw and perm kernel trees scattered around. The developer of this estate must be some climate change advocate or highly oriented towards it, good! Otos wondered, smiling upon the thoughtful idea of the estate.

 There was a building to which the parking shelter was closely attached, enabling the duo to conclude that the building must be their point of destination, especially after they had identified the name mentioned during the phone call on the billboard, that stood directly in front of a building that shared with the logo on the billboard same white and orange color. The building looked like what the modern world would call a modern office lobby or an innovation hub.

The wave of the cooling gentle breeze softly massaged their skin and blew their clothes. Otos was dressed in a well combined burnt sienna and burgundy colored senator kaftan, matched with dark chocolate woven cross slippers made by one of the top Nigerian fashion designers. He wore a wristwatch that apparently would not be worth less than 100,000 naira. Feolu was dressed in a grey and sky blue patterned long sleeve shirt, with sky blue trousers and a plain black cut-off sandal. Feolu had a black leather purse hung on his index finger.

The front glass door that read 'You are wonderfully welcome,' opened, and out slipped a young lady, apparently in her early twenties, quite attractive, she played it down by wearing no make-up but a bit of nude colored lip gloss, and an English gold plated earring, a plain silver silk shirt on a high waist Ankara made pant and flat shoes. She was on a traditional hairstyle known as shuku banana apparently made with her long natural hair. On her left wrist was a blue wristwatch that matched with her pant.

 "Hello Otos, hi Feolu, welcome to Glorious Transformation Hub, I am Elizabeth Ayoola, I am the welfare officer of the Hub " she was all smiles as she approached the two men who were stauntering side by side toward the building, but had to pause upon the arrival of the lady "I suppose you can conveniently share that your trip is perceived as a piece of cake, by extension, I hope your journey to this place" gestured to the ground, "was more stress-free than not," she cast a smile, glancing at both of them.

"Of course, thank you, Miss Elizabeth. Your directions were very clear. This is a lovely space you have here by the way. Looks...I mean it's remarkable," Feolu nodded in delightful admiration, "It is a pleasure getting to finally put a face to the voice."

"Ah yes," pointed her right finger up to buttress her point complementing with a smile "no feeling could possibly beat that feeling of finally getting to demystify certain mysteries life present to us, right?" a soft chuckle escaped her lips. "I am sorry I am about to burst your bubbles though sir, I am not that face, you will soon meet the face originally attached to the voice of reference..." adjusted her standing posture to stand erect. "I am readily available for all your inquiries, concerns, or needs that might surface for both of you in the course of this 1-day program" she affirmed, softly but eloquently.

"Erm..first of all, I am still trying to wrap my head around the exact nature of this whole program thing. Secondly, I am struggling to embrace the reality that I am presently standing in the middle of this..., erm..apparently a jungle, in the direction of some strange voice. It is looking interesting but you will agree with me that, this is absurd and we are even weirdos to follow through with the absurdity."Otos let out a loud sigh and paused, then continued, "I am sorry if that was a little bit insolent but really I am still processing the whole thing in my head, like what are we getting ourselves into or...better to say, what have we gotten ourselves into.." He let out a smile finally.

"Oh okay, okay, I need to get this clarified, I mean...I..I..need you to help me get this more clearly, you ain't the person I’ve been talking with over the phone?" Feolu allowed himself to catch some breath. "I see...hmm...I see." Kept nodding as he adjusted his shirt sleeve he had unconsciously tampered with while listening to both Elizabeth and Otos.

 "Time is not on our side, we should get on in heaps and bounds already, again welcome and thank you for honoring our invite," she led the duo, toward the glass door she came out from. "You look ravishing Miss...I mean...Mrs. Elizabeth." Feolu gave compliments. "Thank you, Feolu, Elizabeth is fine actually.. .please feel free to call me Elizabeth."

They all strolled straight into the unfenced landscaped surrounding of the Hub, there at a corner of the landscaped surrounding were a man and a woman corporately dressed, far away to get to receive a hello from visitors or passers-by, they appeared to be in the right position to restrict anyone who was transgressing in the hub environment.

They continued to walk through the automated glass door on which there was an inscription 'be mindful of you, to attain beautiful living' into the exquisite waiting room of the Hub, designed to suit well into a modern business office interior. 

The entire wall of the space was painted white. There was a black and white central cooling unit attached to the wall causing the entire room to be pleasantly chilly upon entering. They felt the friendly music fill up the room, the source of the music was not overt, there were two squared shapes plastered on the wall that showed the sound system was most likely embedded in the wall, it was a song that fell well in the category of soul music genre, the tune flawlessly combined elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm, blues, and jazz. "This song that is playing is a powerful trigger for the release of pleasure hormones, it sure is giving a quality feel of delight., Otos murmured as he could not help but linger on his mind formation of him exchanging with the song his classical dancing moves. Upon entering the room, every built-up tension dissolved just because they found delight in what their ears were currently consuming. The weave of the music was hypnotic, swinging from domestic tranquility to party groove. 'What ensues can almost cause both of us to sit here all day long, not caring for a second, why we have chosen to be here instead of burying our heads in the preparation for the upcoming International tour.' They both could not help but imagine."Please, guys, help yourself," she smiled while pointing to the sofa right behind her, about four steps away from the glass door, in the right corner of the spacious room.

"You may ring that bell..." pointed to a green button, sealed to the wall, behind the sofa, "whenever you have needs to meet while you are here, such as taking tea, water, coffee or anything. The restroom is over there, " pointed toward a white door labeled Be at ease. She stood there, waited for a few seconds in anticipation of any more clarification.

"Thank you Elizabeth...but please, do we get any magazine or pamphlet or just about anything that will at least decently acquaint us with what this is all about and the mission we are here for," Feolu said, walking towards the available sofa to take a seat.

"Oh, about that, that will be me jumping the g*n, you need for now to just take some time, you must be tired from the drive to this place. If you will excuse me..," turned to leave then paused "remember to..." gestured to the green button, "if you have any need and.... just in case, the restroom is just across the room," pointed towards the door to the restroom. She proceeded to majestically walk down the corridor next to the doorway, from which emerged a LED flashing waving light revealing less of the corridor setting or contents but despite that, it could be fathomed that it was, just like the entire building and the waiting room, aesthetic and modern. The white walls and waving light that apparently made up the corridor gave joy to the eyes