The Optimist-5

“The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame.”  (Violence against Women)
― Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat

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“Did you just say you can never be bare? Be prepared never to get the world stare at you for a moment. In addition, that’s because your notion on bareness-nude-and empty is still very shallow. You’ve got a lot to learn” responded The Optimist.

In the city, there’s chaos. There are people who make a lot of noise. Some people have deliberately taken up the hearts of lions and sharks, but the brains of humans because they want to earn rubies and cowries and in the process engage in so many battles.  Meantime, The optimist although right close to Nahou who is walking back home, spins around, swirls, transforms into air and distorts the peace and calm once again of the city. His presence makes the clouds become duller, the clouds shade the sun, the temperatures drop, and on every lip, everyone but Nahou feels sudden gush of cold air-a very chilling feel. Some pickup temperatures as a result; others yawn, some feel the presence of a strange being, others just ignore the habitual and assume it is a temporal change. Some people hardly ever notice such changes as they grapple with the next big thing on their lists. Most minds wonder about the origins of such surrealism. As the people engage in pensive thoughts, The Optimist get to work. He transforms in to air and ensures that every breath taken allows him to gain entry into the persons’ brain. He is in search for one person; a successful person. He searches and in under a minute; he returns to say this to Nahou who is slowly walking home so he’d have enough time to digest what goes through the successful mind.

“opppppoofhhhh!!!” the optimist exhales. There is no successful person here. There’s technically none, and I am not surprised by it though.”

“What do you mean? Are you sure that all these people with posh cars and mansions with so much power aren’t successful? You must be mental. And please forgive me if that hurts.” Replied Nahou

“ Mere words cannot hurt me; what the French call ‘parole’ and ‘langue’. It takes much more than words to hurt my heart. In fact, I don’t get hurt. To suggest that I get hurt would tantamount to pain. Pain is something I have absolutely zero feel for, but I do see people cry and I understand that pain hurts.”

“What do we do now? How do we find someone who is successful? Asked Nahou. “I’ve got to learn and I’ve got to make it big in this world. There is no stop. The world has got to stop and watch me, or read me. I must assume that position of success.” 

“That’s the spirit Nahou. But talking it does not make you one. What resonates with the minds of everyone here is their constant quest to make it big, to be like those you consider/regard successful. Their problem is the talk. They are not thinking about ideas-they are not trying things out to see if it works or not. Their entire lifetime is trapped, almost enslaved. The Creator is pretty unhappy about people who just sit and talk and not think about ideas that could transform their working conditions because the Creator has equipped them with all that they need to evolve. I shall not speak on behalf of the Creator unless I consider it critical.”

As Nahou and the optimist discussed things, they walked past Naaah who was parking up her market items. Naaah had been selling vegetables, ‘bellicies’ (fruit used in cooking) and other cash crops year in year out with no change. Her routine for over 20 years was  the same, but nothing about her business had changed only that she was growing older and weaker. “Lenaaaaaaaaa” Naaah called out to the little girl-her grandchild. Come over here and park these stuffs with me.” She commanded. “I don’t want to be late for church.” Nahou and The Optimist could hear her, and what intrigued the Optimist was how incredibly close Lenaaaa was to Naaah, yet, Naaah was incredibly loud on calling her. “Has Lena got some ear problems?” The Optimist was not accustomed to obtaining answers from other people. He transformed into air and got into Lena’s brains. He got there just in time as Lena questioned and grumbled to her hearing alone, “Why is Naah shouting? For God’s sake I can hear you.”

In no time, the Optimist dashed into Naaah’s mind.

“What sort of cold air is this? Haaaa the weather here is so unpredictable.” Naaah complained. The Optimist could hear Naaah but he was on a mission to retrieve stored content from her brain. That would mean, Naaah would be too cold and the longer he stayed the colder she would become and could take ill before recovering. The Optimist's long stay in any person’s mind would bring a theatrical change in a person’s thoughts and behaviour. The Optimist was in search for data uttered two minutes ago. It was like clicking on a stored file, opening up the files, running through the list to find the second Naaah shouted for Lenaaaaaa to hurry and get her cardigan as she was running late to attend church meetings. He ran his eyes through faster. Naaah was getting colder and not staying quiet about it. She nagged-she called to have her thick Cardigan. Parking up her completely moved to the back of her cereberum, and she was now acting on her medulla which caused her to shiver. “The devil is a liar. I must go to church.” She said.

“Ahaaaaa! found it!” Said The Optimist. “Naaah wanted us to know she is a church person, and for us to think that she’s pious.” Explained the optimist to Nahou, that’s why she was incredibly loud. The Optimist left her; she became sweaty, pulled off the cardigan that was just brought to her and she appeared normal. “Hmmmm!!! what strangeness!” she exclaimed.

“One can easily get upset with the pettiness people concentrate on. People have the most incredible power bestowed upon them by the Creator. They have the power to overcome all else, to control all else, but they are busy chasing peanuts. In their pursuit of peanuts, they think little. Chasing peanuts is quite a laborious task. They’ve got such huge resilience to chase peanuts without change of condition. The problem is contentment. When you humans are content, not satisfied because to be satisfied would be to have it in abundance-and to be content would mean to make do with what one has. The brains that harbour content harbour no desire to move forward-no desire to progress.”Explained The Optimist.

“I wish I could have you forever, to sit here and think things through with me.” Requested Nahou.

“I am always here Nahou. You just need to ponder and wonder, to think things through, and I will come to the limelight.”

They were almost arriving Nahou’s house, and Nahou was desperate to find out just how he could become successful, how he could leave his space and travel elsewhere to make it better, and bigger.

Nahou, it is not the space that matters, it is the mind that matters. For I can assure you that I have seen a million people leave to make it better, but failed because their minds won’t let them. With time you shall understand.”  

A little pause as they approached Nahou’s house. The Optimist breaks the silence.

“Meantime, be good, and don’t fail to think, do not fail to try things out. Try one thing at a time, and failing once should never put you off, not even 20 times, for if you persist, you shall thrive. I have given you the clues to success. And use our discussions of becoming bare-nude-empty to become successful. You shall grow, and you shall know that the simple ideas are the most workable ideas. Remember that success is not something you don’t know already. Everyone knows much about success, but not everyone reacts to the message of success in the same way.” Nahou got close to the house he lived in.

There was a fight next to grandma’s compound. The eager muscle man was at it again, battering his wife, his children screaming for help, and passers-by in contemplation of whether or not to partake in their private madness.

“This man is mental. He’s lost it.”

Said a man and in a tone loud enough for Nahou and The Optimist to hear as they were now close to the house.

“Mental, and ‘he’s lost it’, are not the appropriate references. In short, “e don kolo” “E don kolo” (kraze-) it is left for him to start walking around nude like Ninong.  Another onlooker analysed the man’s act on pounding on his wife.

Nahou and The Optimist were now close enough to witness the scene. By this time, the man pulled on the woman’s hair, dragged her on the floor using her plaited braids some of which fell off. She screamed so hard that the scream pierced through Nahou’s heart so much so that without a second thought; he ran to the veranda where the man had pulled the woman to disgrace her in public. She was half naked, her clothes torn apart by the her husband. Bruised and bleeding, she screamed. By the time Nahou could reach the man, the man’s daughter came running with a huge stick in her hand. She took a split second to stare at the fight, then hit her dad so hard on the back that he immediately let go of his wife’s hair. He turned around very swiftly and furiously, too. He saw his daughter staring at him with frightened eyes, a baton in both hands as if she was ready for a fight. Ever heard of the story of David and Goliath? Her dad whose muscles were now visible from the inner wear he wore, groaned “erhhhhhhhhhmmmmm!” in a raging voice, he asked, “Na you hit my back?” (Did you hit my back?)

“Yes, and I will again if you use those hands of yours again on mama. What kind of big man and adult for that matter does not know that the solution into any problem does not get resolved from fights? What kind of man beats his wife? The woman he spends all his nights with on the same bed, the woman who cooks your every meal, clean your clothes, and looks after your children. Why do you want to disgrace this family? And you are the head.” The Optimist had taken charge of the girl’s brain and was now twisting the little girl’s thoughts for she was prepared to engage in a fight with her father. She was just a child concerned for the safety of her mother. She spoke wisdom; the father who had lost his temper and was ready to “kill” her was now seeing reason. He took a deep breathe, looked at the wife who was now up and ready to fall on him if he dared to hit the little girl. Nahou was also standing next to the man. It seemed as though he had not noticed the crowd standing in-front of his house watching him display his madness on his wife and to his daughter. He was bitter; he turned around and said to the crowd, “wuna comot for here sheeubu them. Wetin concern wuna? ” (get away from here. What’s your business?)

“Wandafoot!” shouted mami puff-puff ( a woman who fries dough and cooks beans for sale). “Na we you take call ‘sheumbu’? You di craze di hideam.” (You are mad, but you conceal it).

“Mami puff-puff na you come call me craze di hide? I go show you pepper today.” Responded the muscle man as he hurried towards mami puff-puff. Mami puff-puff’s two protective sons stood in the way of the muscle man. “You must pass through us to show pepper for wa mami” they both said almost simultaneously.

Nahou could not stand this chaos, the craze and the uncivilised behaviours. He walked towards the man and said, “takeam easy, mr muscle man takeam nayo. Everything is not power. Sometimes, you need to calm down, to calm down, and think before you react. See your wife, she is crying, your daughter is crying, your boys are watching you. They’d do the same to their wives; the men your daughters will get married will do same to your daughters. What kind of exemplary father are you? If you get angry like most of us do, do not immediately jump on your heels because you’ve got the muscle to silence everyone. Take your time, think. Take a walk or go somewhere quiet, exercise a little and think like a rational being not behave as animals would do.