Black Pelican

09-04-19

I woke up and opened my phone. It was 6:30 am. A panic rose in my chest. I was to attend prayer by 5 in the morning and I was late! I jumped out of bed, wore my bra and my gown, took my Bible and wrapped my black and white scarf around my head, and whispered a silent sorry to God.

I felt so terrible. I always do when I fail an appointment. I washed my face in the toilet and briskly left the house. I didn't even bother greeting anyone. I was late. After enduring a flight of stairs, I found myself on the familiar path to the chapel, this time by my department.
Should I follow this road? Will someone from school see me?
I worry about stupid things sometimes.

I had not taken my bath but that didn't matter. What mattered was getting there before the prayer ended.
I'm the GPT sectional head. I'm also an executive and a worker. The pastor told us yesterday night that he needed us to be there early. I would have failed him and God by coming late.
I utilized my best walking fast technique but it was practically me dragging myself there.
They were done by the time I got there. Pastor was just addressing everyone. Many people turned up. But I came late. That struck me hard.
Why did I oversleep?

I managed to slip in unnoticed. Pastor talked about a couple of things before he let us go. Another matter pressed on me. Bro Jerry has assigned me the task of paying for the banners to be signed by the school office.
He called me yesterday while my headaches were at their peak. He started with his characteristic 'How is your day?" and I gave him my characteristic "I'm fine" through clenched teeth so that I wouldn't shout from the pain that my headaches were giving me.

It's not his fault I feel unwell. And it's not his fault that he doesn't know. But I wanted to get to the root of the matter without delay. When he calls like that, something is up. I'd rather just get to it quickly than waste our time with whether I feel well or not. He told me about the banners and how to pay for them. I was halfway listening and half smiling at the jokes Tomiwa was telling me. I needed something to distract me. So let myself get distracted with Tomiwa's conversation and I put Bro Jerry on hold. Imagine.
After a while, he called back and I walked out to receive his call. And that's how I became the woman for the job.

I met with Yemisi. She was instrumental in helping me. She always did. I couldn't access Bro Jerry because he was having a meeting with Pastor. So Yemisi and I sat down to crack the code. Not literally.
I was still confused about the entire thing and I was at the edge of snapping because none of my team members could show up to help and my morning already seemed bad enough. We managed to get to the website of the payment and I told her that I'll do the rest myself. She had a morning class and she needed to go.

I walked back to the house(not my house), took my bath and managed to spend an hour looking for what to wear. I always do that. I packed my bag together and did a little prayer. Then I stepped out. I was thinking of taking a cab but when I saw the line, I redirected my footsteps to walking down the infinite road of being at the sun's mercy.
Getting the banner was an okay task for me except the fact that I was a wreck and the woman at the counter in the bank was already getting frustrated with me.

I got to the cash office for payment and found them celebrating their colleagues birthday. After praying for him, the women shouted "Iya Moria"! Instead of cake. It was really amusing. So people love Iya Moria's food like this. Iya Moria is a restaurant in school that serves homemade food and is famous for their amala and ewedu soup. I guess adults and teens are really different. I would pass up Iya moria for cake anytime, any day.

I was still panicking about class because it ended up being earlier than I expected and I'm a sucker for being early in class. But as fates would have it, nobody wasted my time. Bro Emmanuel even called and told me he was on his way. That made my morning.
I went upstairs to get the banners and I used my small soft girl voice to greet everyone and state my purpose. It worked well. I gave one of the tall, lanky men the receipt and he showed me the banners. We took them out to be signed and that's also when Bro Emmanuel showed up. He's an amazing person yunno. He's one of the most hardworking members in GPT.