Must Read: Awkward Ways I Met Girls

7 years ago

Must Read: Awkward Ways I Met Girls

Karma is a bitchh. Many people would argue. Yet, interestingly Ada would hold slightly different curiosities as I would find out.

While we were at the hospital, we saw someone being rushed into the emergency where the little girl was being treated. It looked like there had been an accident. And it looked serious. Those that helped bring the victim had said it had happened nearby, the brakes had failed.
As we drove out of the hospital, Ada asked
“Are you in a hurry?”
“No. Not exactly”
“So you can get home maybe two hours later?”
“If the two hours are worth it, I won’t complain”
“Then let’s eat first”
She went towards the post office and to MMIA two. Just at the forte-oil refill station there had been a little traffic. As blue car was dented.

Looked like it had run into something. No occupants. Apparently, the accident had happened not too long ago and Lagos State Traffic Management Agency had managed the situation. They were preparing to tow the vehicle away and as she drove past, we heard an official reporting to his superior who had just arrived that the driver had been rushed to the General Hospital at Ikeja.

Something about the car struck me but not able to place it yet, I shrugged. Until Ada asked
“Do you remember this car?”
“Isn’t this the car that hit the little girl?” I asked as it suddenly hit me.
She gently nodded.

“Isn’t Karma just a Dam?”
The hit and run driver just got served! Hell yeah!

Imagine the little girl in the ER of the hospital with the driver that had hit her. Though oblivious of it, its funny how things work. Doesn’t that serve him right? But is ‘natural justice’ another form of jungle justice?
She parked and called someone on the phone. She simply had said
“Hello? I’m around. Meet me there”
A moment later, a mallam came up to her side of the car as she whined down. He greeted her in a very familiar way and handed her an envelope.

A little weighty. I didn’t need to be told that was some hell of money. She brushed through the tip of the notes
“You sure say its complete?”
“Haba madam, gaskia!” He replied in his very strong Hausa accent, raising his two hands as he said the ‘gaskia’. Gaskia means ‘truly’ or ‘honestly’ in Hausa language.

Ada opened her bag and pulled out some Pounds notes and handed him.
“Are we okay?”
He briefly looked at it and smiled broadly.
“Haba madam, I can not doubt you madam”
He thanked her some more before going away. We came down and went into the KFC eatery there.

After taking what we’d have and sat to eat, she asked
“Do you really believe in Karma?”
“Do you have any different opinion?”
“Not really, I’ve just been very curious at that concept called Karma”
“How?” I asked
“Consider this: many little girls are being raped everyday across the world. Is karma supposed to make sure, the children of these rapists are also raped? If this happens, is it being fair? For the father’s sin to be pushed, another innocent little girl must get raped?”
I was silent. Considering what she had just asked.

She continued
“Okay, maybe that is far fetched. It satisfies our sensibility, our moral code of conduct and acute perception of how justice should be meted out especially when a weaker partner can not do anything about it. In this case, it is plausible that Karma caught up with the driver for running off after hitting a little girl hawking fruit to raise income for her family”
I just looked on at her while I chewed.

“But other principles could actually be responsible. If the driver was drunk while driving, he may have been involved in an accident not necessarily because the girl was hit. If someone did such horrible thing as to hit a little girl and had no remorse to say sorry, maybe Karma may be right afterall to get him involved in an accident almost immediately too.

Okay, away from that, think of how many women get cheated on even when they. Never cheated their partners. Some single ladies being disappointed by their fiances just a week to their wedding, only to run away with another and get married. Is this to mean she had also disappointed another before? And getting paid back in her coin? Think about it Stag. Karma seems like it exists. A universal superstition but like every superstition, a little more enquiry into it will show its inconsistency. Or maybe we need a 21st century Socrates to help with this philosophical topic. Gravity is consistent the world over. Every morning the sun doesn’t disappoint, the seasons come and go with precision. Basic universal laws. What happens to helpless people who get killed for ritual reasons? The culprits are caught, arrested and jailed. Is this justice for the dead? In prisons, some people are framed and in jail for thirty years and counting, how does almighty Karma resolve their cases? Does it remain an eye for an eye, what you sow you shall reap kind of law that a husband beats his wife to death. He gets jail term but she doesn’t live anymore. Tell me Stag, I’m curious”
I couldn’t talk. I had no response. Even though some may call me Mr Poirot of Agatha Christie’s series or a Sherlock Holmes, I nor be Aristotle, Eryximacus nor Plato.

Considering these things was beginning to make Karma look just like an urban myth. Normally, a drunk driver is inclined to accidents, if the driver hit someone and tried to run away, most likely over-speeding to get away, over-speeding is accident prone. But because we need justice for the little girl, our emotions would like to attach the whole scenario to Karma. I remembered being robbed at gun point. I remember my handset being lost. Why didn’t Karma get the person to return the handset like I would return other people’s lost but found items? Or does Karma intend to tell me I had robbed someone at gun point too?

One thing I am sure of is this: any natural law remains constant at all times, everywhere.

I inclined to disagree with her curiosity but I couldn’t find an answer for the example of a man who rapes a little child. If his own child gets raped years later, we can definitely clap for Karma, but how do we classify his young daughter’s side of the experience? Hmmm…

This Karma of a thing needs serious debates o. Because across the world, there are examples to justify and argue for. Yet, there are obvious loopholes in it. Or perhaps, if you believe it, it works for you. If you don’t, it doesn’t.

“Some food for thoughts you are feeding me with” I said
“Not really. I have always believed Karma as we all are made to believe by convention. But somehow, the equation doesn’t balance.

So I’m seeking answers too. I’m just as confused about it. I thought you could present points in favour of it.”

“Hardly a thing I can respond to with all conviction now. Maybe we may attend to it later”
But the fervent way she put across her points told me few things. For one, she must have been thinking long and hard about it. Today’s definitely not the first time such thought is crossing her mind.

A second thing is that I could almost sense its something personal. Could a hurt be smouldering and she hoping on Karma for justice too?
Well, for the rest of the evening, the mood lightened up as we gradually shifted the day’s events behind. We had a meal together and she noted that we had only spent thirty minutes of the two hours. Funny, but what else did she have in mind?

We left and went to somewhere else in Ajao estate. A quiet place. We had drinks and chatted the evening away.

By the end of the evening I had more questions about Ada than I have found out about her. I also found out she stayed somewhere around her in Ajao estate.

We talked more music, celebrities and movies.

Ada was really a very contemporary woman.

Up to date in happenings and sound in logical thoughts.

I had a very good conversation with her and by the time we left, I had had a very good evening.

Now, I didn’t have any reservations about taking her number and by the time I asked for it, it sounded long overdue. I prefer it so. Patience.

Out, I hailed a taxi and got a fair bargain for N2,000 from there to my house.