Due to the fact that Cynthia stays at the outskirts of the town which is very far from her place of work, she wakes up every weekday by 4 o'clock AM, stays in bed till 4:30 AM. Immediately she gets off bed, she starts preparing for work. She normally leaves the house at 5 o'clock or a few minutes past work. Where she stays, if there's no gridlock, is about one hour, thirty minutes drive but if there's a gridlock, she will be in the gridlock for three to four hours. To avoid the gridlock, that's why she always makes sure she leaves the house early enough. Cynthia is staying that far because rent within the areas close to her place of work is relatively higher than her salary and she can't cope, so she went far to where her salary can conveniently cover the rent and still have a little change for upkeep monthly. She can only salvage the gridlock in the morning, no matter the time that she leaves work in the evening, she will always end up in gridlock, unless she decides to leave work around three or four in the afternoon which is not possible. There was a day she left work exactly at 5 o'clock in the evening and got home a few minutes past 9 in the night. Not that she branched somewhere before heading home but there were gridlock at different spots on the way home. At one of the spots, a trailer fully loaded with fruits fell on the road and before the road safety could move it off the road, it took over an hour. The car she took could not turn back to take another route because the car was already at the center of the gridlock.
Although the timing may not always be accurate, she always makes sure she leaves the house before 6 everyday. On this particular Monday, since she woke up from the noise her landlord and his wife were making, she couldn't sleep again. She finished preparing for work a few minutes to five. By 5:05, she leaves the house. She walks a distance, past the corner that leads to the church she attended the previous day. She keeps walking till she gets to a junction. She waits there expecting to see cars going to town so she could flag them down and ask if they are going towards her direction. She got to the junction by 5:20, by 5:35, she could see a car driving towards her which she flags down.
'Banex?'
'Yes, come inside,' the driver replies.
'How much pls?' Cynthia asks before entering.
'Just five Cent.'
Opening the door, 'alright.' She enters the back seat and moves to sit directly behind the driver. Usually, the private car owner going to town carries either one or two people at the front seat and four at the back. In the back seat, the person sitting beside the door, especially the door behind the driver, is advantageous. When Cynthia takes a ride to town, she'd drop at Banex, climb the bridge, then look for another ride going along the straight road from Banex overhead bridge, drop at Four road and walk the remaining distance to her place of work.
Few distance from where the car picked up Cynthia, someone, a guy flags down the car. The car stops to pick the person. The person enters and sits beside Cynthia at the back but the day is still dark, Cynthia can't identify who the person is not the driver and neither can any of them identify her yet. As the car is about to move, another person flags down the car.
'No, there's someone here already. The person is waiting for me at the junction,' says the driver to the mildly thick woman that wants to sit in the front seat.
'Oh, alright, Sir,' she replies and goes to sit at the back with Cynthia and the other guy.
The driver drives off. He switches on the radio so as to keep up with what's going on in the area which is beyond his eyes. Cynthia rests her head on the head rest and closes her eyes but she's not sleeping. Just at the junction leading to the express, the driver stops to pick three other persons, two of them go to sit at the front while another person, a man joins them at the end. At first, it is a difficult for him to fit in into the small space because of the thick woman but the three of them already in the car adjusts their sitting, the third person which is the thick woman have to come out a bit on the chair, with that, enough space is created for the last person to sit on. He closes the door and the driver drives off.
As the journey to town continues, the day becomes brighter, Cynthia decides to open her eyes to even see those she's in the car with.
'Jesus! Oh God! What kind of thing is this now?' Cynthia screams in her mind when the first person she would see beside her is the same guy she saw and got her attention in church the previous day. She looks round and discovers that virtually all of them in the car except the thick woman are members of the church this guy greeted in church when he entered.
'What kind of rubbish is this, this early Monday morning? When I thought this guy's issue had been done and buried within my mind, we suddenly entered the same car into town and he's seated right beside me. Gosh! Just kill me now, ehn.'
With a broad smile, 'I don't even know you are the one sitting beside me. Good morning,' says the guy to Cynthia.
'Not this smile, not this smile again.' 'Good morning, Sir.' she quickly replies and now her head to greet him too. 'God, pls now. Can't you just shut up? Must he greet me?'
'Truly, darkness is no man's friend,' says the guy generally to everyone in the car.
The driver replies, 'my brother, the proverb that says darkness has no regard for any honorable is very detailed.'
'Hmmm! That's true. I had no knowledge that virtually all of us are all church members, it's now that the day is getting clearer that I can see everyone,' says the guy.
'Really?' says the driver as he looks round the car, 'but these two women seated beside you are not our members. I don't think I've seen their faces before.'
'That lady beside him…' Cynthia smiles bluntly as she's pointed to, 'was in church yesterday but I don't know this other woman.' says one of the people seated at the front.
'Yes, she was around yesterday, although she didn't finish the service,' says the guy. Starts whispering to her, 'why didn't you finish the service yesterday? Hope no problem.'
'Nothing, I just had to go and attend to something as soon as possible yesterday,' she replies.
'Ok.' he faces the front. Shortly after, he looks at her again…
'Guy, can't you just shut up? Pls?'
'Was yesterday your first time because I don't think I've seen your face before in any of our services,' he asks.
'Yes, yesterday was my first. Is anything wrong with that?' she tries to be blunt and just shut him up. The guy gets the signal, she just shakes his head and faces the front. 'That must have been too harsh on him.'
'You work in town?' she asks him.
'Not really. I work everywhere. But I'm just going to town today for a seminar,' he replies.
'Ok but I don't understand the 'I work everywhere'. You don't work or what?'
'Why not? I work. I work with international companies and I'm even one of their Directors here in the country,' he replies.
'Ok, that's good. What's your company into?'
'They are pharmaceutical companies.'
'You are a pharmacist, that's good. What type of drugs do your company produce? Maybe there can be some good for me or my Mum.'
'My sister, their drugs are good. I've gotten from them for my wife and I could see the changes in her health,' the driver quickly chips in.
'You see now. Sure. But you know what, let's exchange numbers, so I can send you everything you need to know about the company, the drugs and everything about them probably on WhatsApp or something.'
'Ok but I hope this company you are praising like this is not all this networking stuff whereby you bring two persons, the two people you brought you'd bring two other persons and it continues like that. If it's that one, pls, I'm not interested,' says Cynthia.
The guy smiles, 'no, this is not like that.' They exchange phones and enter each other's number, they enter their numbers and return the phones. 'What's the name pls?'
'Brr. Cynthia. Just put Cynthia.'
'Oh, you are a Lawyer.'
'Yes, I am. Your name?' Looking up at the road, 'Driver pls, I will be dropping at Banex.'
'Alright,' the driver replies.
'Ambrose, my name is Ambrose.'
'Alright. I will message you.' She brings out her money and hands it over to the driver. The driver collects the money from the front, parks and Cynthia alights from the car. The car drives off and Cynthia walks to climb the bridge.