Somedays are such as this!

It took about three quarters of an hour for me to realise I was reading the same line for the umpteenth time. It took a quarter of a second for me to realise I’d been asleep for the better part of that time. I felt heat creep up my neck and my ears started to burn, how embarrassing! Imagine falling asleep in the main hall of the library, in front of about a hundred witnesses! Thank God for black skin, else, I would have been as red as a tomato! I continued to stare pointedly at the very same line, not daring to look up for fear of catching someone’s eye and seeing them snicker at the silly boy who fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the library! Well, blame it on the classic Texas summer with temperatures soaring into the 90’s most days, I mean, who can stand up to that sweltering heat anyway?! Add to that the fact that I was operating on 18-hour days, juggling work and school, I really was beginning to feel the stress of accumulated sleep debts. That however didn’t mean that deadlines weren’t imminent or that my boss didn’t expect results! wetin man go do nah?!

Still staring at that damn line, I caught a bit of movement just out of the corner of my eye. I shifted slightly and stole a peek at the guy at the table to my right. My jaw dropped open. If I’d been embarrassed for myself before, I don’t know what to call how I felt for the poor dude! The guy had his chin propped on his fist and for all appearances, looked like he was studiously reading the tome before him. However, the line of drool leaking down one side of his gaping mouth said otherwise! As if that picture wasn’t bad enough, at the moment, the weight of his head seemed to be pushing the supporting arm to the brim of its equilibrium and in about five seconds, his head was going to crash into the tome! It was that movement that had caught my attention and in those few precious seconds, I wondered which would be less embarrassing for him: waking him up before his head made the crash landing or letting the crash startle him awake and pretending not too have noticed. I never got to make the choice. Halfway through the drop, a wild boar charged through the library, or so I thought, and its grunt snapped Mr Drooly out of his nap. We both started and turned toward the sound of the ‘charging boar’ only to realise it was actually just another poor soul like us, battling the July heat and Isaac Newton. At that point, I actually took the time to look round the room at the hundred pair of eyes that had apparently seen me make a mickey of myself and if I hadn’t been so tired and physically drained myself, I would have burst out laughing at the sight I was beholding! Almost every single person in that room was in one state of sleep or the other, most far worse than mine or Mr Drooly’s had been. Even with the ruckus the ‘charging boar’ was making, most continued to slumber on, un-aware of their surroundings and blissfully unashamed like I’d been. The few students who weren’t actually asleep looked like dazed zombies who would have been better off asleep. Choi! Na which kain thing be this?! I snapped my book shut and got up. There was no use sitting there for another two hours, fraternizing with the Slumber Brotherhood. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for myself, seeing as I had a paper due in two days, or the students I’d left behind at the library. I avoided looking at the librarian as I walked by her desk cos I was sure she had seen thousands of students do the walk-of-shame!

Stepping out of the library building, the heat slapped me in the face with a vengeance! Gee, and they say Lagos is hot!!! By the time I walked to the bus stop, my shirt was sticking to my back and my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I was beginning to understand why the other students had stuck with the Slumber Fraternity rather than venture out into the heat! Na me carry last sha! I jumped on the first bus to come along even though it was going to take a longer route than the one I usually took. At that point, the bus might as well have been carrying me across the Atlantic for all I cared! I just had to get out of the blistering heat! I was beginning to nod off again when the bus jerked to a halt and I started awake. I looked across the street at the crowd milling around the entrance to a  building and I got off the bus on impulse. Shielding my eyes against the blinding sun with my hand, I jay-walked across the street, not caring that the green man was red. I joined the crowd at the entrance to the building and inched my way into the foyer, breathing out a prayer of thanks when the whoosh of cold air from the air conditioning ducts hit my face. A smiling usher greeted me and handed me a tiny pamphlet.

            “Welcome to Lakewood Church!” She beamed.