10:32pm
Work hard, Party Harder.
Isn’t that what they said? Well, that was the plan between you, Tosan, Jife, and Soji. You all worked hard, and you were going to party hard till Saturday morning; till mama calls.
Thinking of mama, she called you, and it was the same line.
“Sunmi, you’re not even saying anything about girlfriend. Should I be worried? Is there something you’re not telling me?’’
And your usual response.
“Mummy, don’t worry. God is cooking her specially for me and you. You’ll see. She’ll be perfect.”
And that seemed to work everytime.
Tosan turned on the radio. And the electric sound of Blinding Lights filled the car. Racing through Osborn to VI, there were so many lights. Lagos had so many lights in these parts.
Why did you keep going for these parties sef? You asked yourself. Truthfully, you didn’t enjoy them. It was an agony to you, but you couldn’t speak up to the guys. That was the ritual you all kept since Unilag days.
“How’s that babe sef?” The baritone voice of Dife interrupted your thoughts.
“Which babe? Me I no get babe na, you know.”
Everyone laughed. Tosan was a chronic womanizer.
“No be you I dey follow talk abeg. Na Sunmi I dey ask.”
Soji and Tosan burst into laughter.
“The babe don almost convert am. Na so I come from my pale’s house, I see Sunmi dey read Bible. Bible wey he keep for one year, he no open am. I con ask am say Sunmi, wetin happen? Why you dey read Bible? Baba say na that Eniola babe for work. E be like say she don put molly for his water at work. Any small thing, Eniola this, Eniola that. Your music is too loud. Eniola gave me this playlist. Let’s listen to it instead” mimicking her voice.
Everyone laughed again, including you.
“I believe he’s just trying to win her over jare. Sunmi no fit change to church boy. He just wan score with the girl.” Dife went on to say.
At this point, you had to talk.
“Naah, I’m not trying to score with her or anything. I genuinely want to be her friend. Besides, she already told me off. She said she wasn’t interested. She just wants to be friends.”
Tosan laughed. “When she knows you’re a bad boy na.” The three of them laughed.
Tosan continued. “As for me, I wan score with that new staff at work. Omo, that babe fineee.”
“Ehen, she dey give you signal?”
You closed your eyes and tuned off their conversation.
Eniola hurt you, bruised your ego, no lady ever said no to you. But you knew why. You weren’t her church member. She was very clear that she knew she was going to marry from her sheepfold, as she called it.
Thinking of today, she was gisting you of her woes with buff guys in Danfo buses.
“You know I’m slender, these guys will just enter the bus and take up all the space. I won’t be able to rest my back. My legs are squeezed tight. Infact, it’s like I’m the butter in a sandwich.”
You couldn’t control your laughter. “But you can’t blame them now. It’s the effect of their workouts. Even me, I want to be buff. At least, I won’t squeeze you if we enter the same bus.” you gave a wicked smile.
“You better not. Who even sent them to be gyming? Don’t they know that this body they’re building on earth will be useless in the world to come? When we get to the new heaven and the new earth, God will give us another body. So all the six packs and chest they have will not endure.”
This was one thing you liked about her. How she could switch conversations so easy to spiritual talk.
“Ehen, so you want everybody to be obese abi?”
“No, no, you know that’s not what I mean, Sunmi. I am not an advocate for obesity. Infact, I believe it is essential to exercise, eat right, live healthy. But you see ehn, the real building we should focus much more on is our souls. Do you know it’s possible for someone to speak evil all their lives on earth and carry it to heaven when they die? You know, we just think that when we get to heaven, we will become automatically perfect. No o. It’s what you did on earth that you will carry with you to heaven. So if you obey God’s righteousness, you will take it there. The things we will see in Heaven will shock us. People will carry their infirmities, their sin nature to heaven. Many believers will keep malice in heaven. Many believers will be proud and haughty. Many will be filled with hate for people they hated on earth. And you know the twist?”
You were so raptured by her voice when she entered her spiritual talk mode, like a lady evangelist, so convincing. You could listen to her talk all day.
“What?” you asked.
“They will still have those natures even with their new bodies. The nature that used to speak evil on earth will still manifest through that new body, through that mouth. It’s so scary. I don’t want to be like that. I want the nature of righteousness in my soul to control my body in the world to come. That kind of body will be higher, better, glorious. That kind of body will be like our Lord Jesus Christ. Because it allowed the sufferings of the Lord work on it through obedience while on earth. It allowed the dealings of the Lord re-configure the soul. That person learned to die daily; to lay down their life daily. Don’t you want to be like that, Sunmi?”
You were snapped out of your thoughts by Soji.
We’re here guys! Tosan shouted.
The time was 11:07pm.
“Work hard, Party Harder” They all said in unison.
You didn’t say it with them. You didn’t want to take party nature to heaven.
We’re slowly progessing through the moments leading up to Sunmi’s salvation. It’s been very hard for me to write these days. But ‘Tunde my colleague at work encouraged me to continue from the last story. Let’s hope I can keep up. Clap 10 times if you really loved reading this. I said really, lol.
