Caught In A No U -Turn

It is a Friday; it a market day; of course, for the security officer. He must find something to treat himself well for the weekend. This is Ghana. One must cry his own cry.

His woman is always on point in the cookery department. The soup is always colourful and inviting; and the meat and all the assorted fishes would be well present in the pot.

The garden eggs; the mushrooms and the fat that boils on the surface of it, tells a masterpiece of fine cookery.

A man deserves to be treated well. He must eat and eat. Before his scrotum is emptied later in the day, the stomach must be well fed.

A man should be treated well; especially, that man who works hard enough to bring cash to the house. He is a responsible man.

And the man must work to earn such privilege in his own home. A security officer should be able to meet his domestic expectations.

If the soup has to be rich with all the delicacies this weekend, someone must bring in that which would be used to afford the things that are good; and that befit the man of the house.

And so naturally, on a Friday like this, a security officer standing at the traffic light has an ultimate objective apart from the society's call.

He isn't a wizard that prays for some bad omen to befall someone on the street.

But surely, some one would flout some street regulations that would call his attention.

It is in performing this duty that his personal desires for the weekend is served.

It is not evil to think this way against your fellow man. It is in the human nature that one would break the law.

And on a typical Friday, the normal person would want to hurry with some stuff in town before retiring home in preparation for the weekend heavy social engagements.

I hurried to the bank to cash some few CEDIS. I came out quite fast to my own surprise.

How on earth is it that the bank is not overcrowded on the last working day of the month? How come only a few of us are in the bank trying to cash out our pays on a pay day?

Is it that we who are in the bank are the only people whose income cannot get us pass the fifteen day of the next month?

I checked myself among comrades who are in no mood to indulge the bank to have their pay sit in the bank's vault for even one day after pay day.

We are the special ones.
I hurried to the street. I moved into the inner lane. I wanted to make a U- turn heading towards some place before getting home .

I had taken this U- turn a couple of time without being stopped by a law officer.

I did it smoothly; then he stopped me. He came to me as I parked at the side with a friendly smile.

I knew the meaning of the smile. It is not about the offence. It is about the fact that I have at that instance become his lucky gift .

God helping him, had brought me to that point as answer to his prayers.

He feigned a tease with me. He called me ' Driver P'. I had a provisional plate at the front and back of my car.

I also feigned a smile and innocence. I casually asked him whether I had committed any offence. He in- turn informed me I had flouted a no U- Turn rule.

I playfully mentioned to him that there wasn't any mandatory sign post there indicating such. He agreed with me.

As at this time, he had asked of my driving licence and had gone away for a while.

I had decided as at then that I wasn't going to part away with anything as the tradition of the street demanded.

I had a funeral to attend; and that was taking so much of me for the month.

He came back. He saw my walking stick. This bad leg I carry around somehow get me of the hook occasionally.

I gave him some information on where I worked and where I was heading to.

It had worked. He had seen my walking aid; he had seen some few things in the car indicating that I was possibly giving him the truth about myself.

He gave me my driving licence card; I felt his disappointment.

The thought of the daily experience of a hunter in the wild came to me. How does a hunter feel when he attends to his trap set for a game only to find that the trap has caught a sick game?

I thought that the hunter would be deeply disappointed in himself .

It is tough for everybody; even for the Friday traffic light stationed security officer whose only prayer is to get his wife's approval as the man of the house by providing the ingredients for his woman in the kitchen.

It is the only experience of the woman that makes her feel useful in the man's life.

For the woman to exhibit her best in the kitchen, it would depend on the ingredients provided by another.

A security officer can't disappoint his own woman this way.

At least, the soup must not disappoint itself by not having the different sort of fishes and the meat that lose itself in the heavy fat that filmed atop the soup.

Never mind the health personnel's talk about cholesterol and its effects.

A man's soup must be packaged attractively. The bane of a man!

A pity!
PAUL ZOWONU
TUTOR - ACCRA
#TALKINGBLUES
30/06/17: 16:45