Sent by God

Picture used for illustrative purposes only. Photo credit:Unsplash

I have often come across stories of how people had supernatural encounters with human beings who may have been angels and sometimes they sound unreal or just ridiculous. I am a firm believer in angels, they really do exist.

It was the eve of Adamma’s wedding and just like every bride she wanted to look beautiful. In those days, the bride had to go to the hair dresser, the queue in the salon on that day was long and so Adamma had to wait for a long time before it got to her turn.

All her plans to storm her husband Dickson’s bachelor’s eve came to nought, when the hair dresser finished with her hair, it was almost midnight. Dickson had told her he would ask one of his friends to pick her up from the salon and so Adamma wondered why no one was around to get her.

She wasn’t sure what to do at that particular moment and if you are wondering why she did not put a call through to her soon to be husband, there were no mobile phones then and it makes me wonder how people coped then. It was in the days of NITEL when the only landlines were for the rich.

When the hair dresser couldn’t wait with her any longer she had to ask Adamma to please wait outside so she could lock up the salon. Stepping out onto the streets Adamma could immediately tell why her driver for the evening did not get to her. The only car entrance into the street was locked and if there was a phone, he could have called to let her know that he was there but couldn’t gain entrance.

It was really late and the street had become like a grave yard and the lights were going off in various homes, she looked at the salon lady till she vanished into the night. Adamma had to take a decision immediately; she decided to walk home, it wasn’t too far any way and she knew her way around Lagos reasonably. 

She attended the prestigious Queens College and although she schooled in far away North and was born and bred in the eastern part of Nigeria, Lagos was going to be her new base and she had to brace up for the challenges of this huge city; finding her way home in the dead of the night was one of them.

With her tall frame, hair wrapped all up and looking like a beautiful ostrich, Adamma hit the road. She had no care in the world, tomorrow she was going to marry the love of her life and that was all that mattered. Sadly she wouldn’t be at the Bachelor’s eve anymore but she would make Dickson spill out all that transpired at the party. 

Those were her thoughts as she walked in the night and suddenly she heard someone’s voice, she wasn’t sure if the elderly man that she saw sitting in a taxi park was actually trying to get her attention. She did not even notice him until he spoke, she acted like she did not hear him at first but when the man kept shouting, she couldn’t pretend anymore. “No be you I dey call?” she responded “Wetin?”

The man went on to ask her where she was headed, “I am going to Kpako” “you dey go Kpako by this time?”  The man stared at her with shock and continued reprimanding her. “You be JJC? Nobody dey go Kpako by this time even Police no go try am and I no go allow you”.

This stranger asked Adamma to sit down; he spoke to her in such a controlling voice that she found it hard to disobey him. She sat down beside him and he told her to sleep if she wanted to but that one thing he wouldn’t do was to let her venture into the dreaded area that night.

Adamma sat up all through the night, she had heard of how special the night before the wedding was for a lot of other young ladies, some spent it partying with friends, others, in the church or even with family members. 

The night before was meant to be filled so much laughter and fun. She imagined that Dickson was at his party with friends and even ladies committing his last atrocities as a bachelor maybe. 

She thought of her mother who could be worried sick and prayed that her friends would be able to manage her disappearance well. She knew that that they would have discovered that she wasn’t at home or in the party and would panic. The thought made her smile in mischief and she prayed that she wasn’t in fact in the enemy’s camp.

Adamma sat on a pavement and watched the day break in a taxi park with a stranger who forced her to sit down and who also kept her company all through the night; he did not stop talking and telling her of all the sad events that had happened in the area that she wanted to tread alone in the dead of the night. 

As soon as it was bright enough, the stranger who had become a friend walked with Adamma past the dangerous area till she was a safe distance close to her home. He said goodbye and wished her a happy day.

A few days after her wedding, Adamma went back to the taxi park to find her friend who she spent the eve of her wedding with. She described him to the drivers and all who worked in the park but nobody knew who he was. They told her that there was no one like the person she described there, nobody stayed in the park after it is locked.

The person whose turn it was to lock the park on that day confirmed that there was absolutely no one left in the park when he left.

It could have been anybody, a mad man, a tout, a lay about, obviously a homeless man or even a spirit but one thing is certain, that night he was an angel; sent by God to a lonely street to ensure that nothing stopped a certain young lady from being a bride.

PS:Fictitious names have been used for privacy sake