My
friend Opal declared that she has had an eight years love-hate relationship
with this city. This, she acknowledged on our very first meeting; at the time I
thought she came out guns blazing because she was envious of my ‘self-assured’
attitude. Today however, I think her melancholic mood at has nothing to with
me, it is just that Opal hasn’t necessarily opened herself up for opportunities
to make friends, let alone make strides to fit in. So she was acting pitifully
just to get me out of her way or make me stay. It is always take it or leave it
with Opal. There is no grey in her world, things are either black or white.
To
tell you the truth, Opal is introverted but shrewd in her way of thinking
because she would never be the first one to strike a conversation with anyone
lest she be rejected. So she allows people to gravitate towards her first with
the hope that the friendship struck may be maintained. I have recently come to
accept that she used the same ‘underhandedness’ to get our friendship going.
For a
while I have been thinking that Opal’s little ruse wasn’t helpful at all
because she hasn’t won many friends except for me of course because I sort of
‘outmaneuvered’ her, since I am that kind of a person, a skillful opponent. I
discovered later that Opal allowed me to think I won; to this day she hasn’t
come out in the open with her deviousness. If I knew then that I was dealing
with a ‘pro’ I wouldn’t have been so big-headed about my Machiavelli skills
because I was the one outwitted. Instead I would have been more subtle, like
Opal. You see, my maneuver is simple and straight forward; be out there,
carefree and exceptionally self-assured. And I have been priding myself
thinking that it has served me well thus far, unfortunately Opal has proved me
wrong.
In
any event, Opal is my best friend. I met her for the first time at a bus stop
one rainy morning. She was there, misplaced and shaking like a leaf. And me, I
was out there, upright and having taken possession of the whole breathing space
under the shelter, yet feeling equally frozen. The people who joined us also
responded to me well, as if I built the shelter we were cowering under and they
were forever grateful for my thoughtfulness. “Morning Miss X, can you believe this weather Miss X, nice jacket
Miss X, has the 7h15 already left Miss X?” All the time, I kept bobbing my head
up and down, gesticulating, moving up and down, eyeing my watch and sharing
pleasantries with all and sundry.
Though
I was still making a fool of myself somehow I managed not to let Opal out of
the corner of my eye. As I had suspected, as much as she seemed isolated from
us or rather pretending to be detached, she was following our conversation
well. As if I needed that fact proven I
spotted Opal rolling her eyes over what I had said, and that goaded my
irritation of her! As soon as that registered in my mind, I got into a new game
plan; I broaden my shoulders a little bit to ensure that I am captivating, in
my fashion faux pas and false sense
of confidence, as Opal would later say. I was on top of my game and she was
stumped by comparison!
In
the bus nevertheless, we ended up by sheer coincidence next to each other.
Because I had ‘exerted’ so much pressure on her, with my confidence undeniably
so, the whole world seemed rested on Opal’s shoulders. She looked broken and
grim. “Serves her right, next time she will not roll her beautiful eyes on me!”
I thought. Even so, part of me wanted to reach out to her because somehow it
felt as if we were kindred spirits.
It
turned out that our sitting together was not coincidental, Opal felt sorry for
me. She told me this later when we had become bosom friends. She went further
to chastise me by mentioning that since arriving in this town, she’d come to
realize that people tend to act out what they are not, me included. The fact
that I was a ‘walking rainbow’ seemed abnormal and she knew there was more to
me that it meets the eye. “Because nobody can be that brave unless they have
been smoking something very strong” she alleged. That was the beginning of our
friendship!
In
fact, Opal and I are quite a striking pair; she is unobtrusive and petite,
light in complexion with deep penetrating eyes. Emotions are written all over
her beautiful oval-shaped face. And I am
this ‘sturdy’ woman with substantial
bounciness despite my excess skin and strange fashion sense. I’m also
multi-layered; you’ll have to chisel deep inside me to get a different reaction
from my avant-garde facial
expression. Opal says my noticeable persona is in reality a façade to hide my
despair. “To mask your sadness, you have become so pretentious that sometimes I
shudder in amazement because concealed deep inside you is an unassuming person
that is a no-fuss and no-gimmicky individual like me.” Opal would say.
Well,
you may wonder what happened to me, realistically speaking, between the
all-consuming urge to eat my ‘pretty’ self to distraction together with my
being a hermit I wouldn’t know what happened to me. I guess I’m just a ‘walking
rainbow’!
So as
the bus strolled with us to our areas of conscription;
I couldn’t stop myself from reciting in my head what I still remember of what I
read from our daily newspaper. It was some clichéd sweet nothings about the
rainy weather. “I bet those in love with the rainy weather haven’t witnessed
infuriating events that come with winter rains.” That was Opal’s ‘pick up’ line for me. I looked up and
smiled, “what are you on about?” I asked and a little surprised over this
sudden outburst, and the fact that we were almost thinking of the same thing.
She told me about this article she had read with the writer so passionate about
rainy days. “Oh snap! I read the same article too!” I thought. “This man was
rays of sunshine” Opal explained, “the kind of person that should be hunted
down and shot at for misleading us.” She continued unguardedly. A frown crossed
my face and she smiled. Immediately after, she told me that at first she
grudgingly ‘hated’ me because she thought I was a ‘happiness freak’ owing to my ‘colourfulness’ at the bus stop, and
that she was highly considering employing the same methods with me. She said I
have been saved by being able to sit and listen to her. I gasped, and we laughed together, like old
friends.
From
that day on it was quite easy to get her to my ‘happiness freak’ side, besides I thought she’d make a good friend
since she wouldn’t steal my shine since she is just a mouse. What I didn’t
anticipate was that Opal was doing some plotting of her own, to calm me down!
Anyway,
after our small talk Opal became a ball of fun and started telling her story,
about how ‘outcastish’ she sometimes
feels. She told me that she found this city strange and that she has felt that
way from the first day she set foot in this rainforest,
on a foggy and humid morning. We giggled over her play of words, and I said
“more like a ‘concrete rain forest’!”
And we giggled again.
The
sequence of Opal’s reluctant existence begins with the first person she met, a
strange looking individual who tried to make her feel welcomed. I guess his
efforts never sat well with her since she claims that his face was intriguingly
short and square with distinct jawlines, not a warm type at all.
Anyway,
this person turned out to be her neighbour. The neighbour invited Opal to join
him and his family for coffee. She says she took his offer up as soon as she
was settled in. I’m not sure what had gotten into her because she isn’t like
that, perhaps she was merely trying to be neighbourly. Whilst being or rather
planning to be a good neighbour, Opal’s neighbours never thought she’d
eventually show up. Unfortunately for them she was standing at their door step
one afternoon.
The
‘friendly’ gentleman welcomed her and introduced her to everyone in the house.
Everybody seemed equally friendly until she mentioned that she was joining them
for a cup coffee as promised. Apparently the three people in the house looked
this way that way and eventually told her that, they expected her in the past
week unfortunately they were by then out of coffee and sugar. That did not sit
well with Opal, she felt rejected because, in her point of view – no one would
be out of sugar, coffee and milk at the same time, “unless they just did not
like present company.” She said. And I gathered that the experience ‘scarred’
her for life!
I
tried unsuccessfully to mask my giggles as she recounted her experience and she
looked at me a little annoyed. I then explained that she needed a “City” manual
to survive. “My way of thinking” I said to her “is reject them before they
reject you.” In her case I said I would have been a ‘trooper’, that is, dash
back to my house and come back with coffee, milk and sugar. I would even bring
my kettle just in case they didn’t have it in the house! “I mean bluntly
speaking, they didn’t want you there; that man was making small talk with you,
didn’t you notice! So to rub it in their faces, you should have been
practically dramatic.” I reasoned. “Guess who would have been left with eggs on
their face then?” I asked with a glim of satisfaction shining from my face. She
laughed until we got off the bus.
“Is this where Miss X comes from?” she
enquired as we started walking for our purposes. I smiled and we carried on.
I
don’t necessarily want to talk about where Ms X comes from but it did, and
that’s all I have to say.
Anyway,
from that day onwards Opal and I were joined at the hip. She was my ‘Yin’ and I
was her ‘Yang’. As a pair we were solid, and individually we seemed solitary
and seemed to find everything around us a discord.
A few
days later, out of the blue, Opal told me that my methods of dealing with
problems needed a little innovation, because the way I would have dealt with
her neighbours would have given only instant gratification, and that she has
come to a conclusion that she is more a long term type of a girl. And this she
discovered after she reflected over my approach. She told me she knew that it
was now eight years later but has resolved that she will take matters into her
hands and has come up with a long term retribution plan. She said she was going
to once every month buy coffee and sugar for her neighbours. I wondered why
she’d do that, before even asking her, she told me that she wants to see them
lose face each time she delivers these items.
What
I think you must know is that Opal and I are not only different in
personalities we are also from different worlds, I come from a big city and she
comes from the countryside. That makes me what would be called a ‘City Sleeker’ and she, a ‘Bundu Baby’ but we are also alike at the
same time. I forgot to also mention her dark sense of humour and I can’t hold a
candle to her! I noticed her dark side when she’d reprimand me, often highly ‘aggravated’
because I seem to have forgotten that I am from the lower echelon and I was
becoming a wannabe Upper Class. “Remember” she’d say, “What is expected of you
is ‘intentional silence reserved for your Class’. Dumb it up gal and you’ll go
far!”
Our
similarities on the other hand are as colourful as my fashion sense. We both
belong to this group of people that think they’ve made it in life. I feel I
have to clarify that as much as we think we have made it, we aren’t as shiny as
our ‘Black Diamonds’ counterparts, hence our being ill-equipped for our new
neighbourhood. I sometimes fail to comprehend why Opal wouldn’t understand when
I become an ‘Abandoner’ because she is also a ‘wannabe’.
Nonetheless
we both chose to move to the suburbs because people in the suburbs are
‘polished’. People in the suburbs don’t bother you with small talk. Dogs in the
suburb don’t just bark! We really felt like we were Upper Class when we moved here!
What
is quite intriguing about this outlook is that, since we’ve moved here our
experiences have been nothing else but grief.
In the early hours of the morning, most weekends if I may add we often hear
screams from people who are either being robbed or have drunk themselves motherless from night clubs next to us.
As if that was not enough, you’d be sweeping your yard and a beggar would ask
you to talk to your ‘madam’ to offer
him or her bread. Bread can be anything, money or bread literally!
“What
is this place?” One day I complained to Opal. As usual my Yin explained that
she has figured it out that when we moved to the suburb we were in the dark
over the fact that there are different types of settings in the suburbia world.
There are rich suburbs which are reserved for the Upper Class, and
‘inadequately rich’ suburbs reserved for the Middle Class. “And where we are my
friend” she said, her voice full of wisdom “is the step sister of the meagerly
rich suburbs, translated the ‘working class suburb’ reserved for the poor. So
your frustrations, be prepared, will come in variations because you haven’t
left the township at all, we’ve just upgraded ourselves to township extension!”
I
guess Opal was right, as always .But, her judgment wasn’t amusing because when
we bought into this neighbourhood we were going for the ‘it’ status. “I thought
we’d made it.” I cried out aloud. Opal laughed mimicking my celebrated hearty laugh
and said “Gal here is a thing, borrowing of stuff is a norm here, I mean from
milk to money. The difference between where we come from than here is that
people were nice all year around back there, and here people are extra nice
when they need something from you. People embrace visitors back there and here
you will be looked down upon because your extended family members whom you see
once in a while have become persona non
grata because of their loud voices.” I was left dumbfounded because this
was deep even for Opal.
Her
outlook reminded me of one of my other ‘wannabe’ neighbours who once complained
to me about another couple that they should go back to the township as they
didn’t fit in with us. “They are so loud
and don’t speak well” she said. “These are the people who make us look bad.”
She continued. I was stunned because the people referred to have top jobs. The
cars they drive I can only drive in my dreams. These neighbours were well
mannered; their only sin was to slaughter a goat to appease their ancestors. To
top it all, they don’t bother anyone with small talk. “The only thing that
binds them to us is that they too thought they had upgraded.” I lamented
thoughtfully.
Anyway,
I am still disgruntled about the whole thing because there aren’t any
guidelines in place about atypical suburbs. I feel like I have taken myself for
a ride. Our neighbourhood is distressful. “How do we get to real suburbs?” I
asked Opal one day. “Bless the nice
aroma that clouds the air every afternoon though,” Opal chimed in. She cooed
first then told me that one of the ‘nice’ ladies that hang out with her
neighbours told her that the aroma is the result of dedicated begging while
using hired children. She also told me that the generous givers are mostly
‘upgraded’ idiots. She further mentioned me that the reason that she knew from
the beginning that I wasn’t completely ruined by the ways of this city, was
because I am not your typical ‘wannabe’. She talked to me about my attitude.
She said apart from my clothing being ridiculously loud, I still have to get
the correct attitude. When I asked what would that be, she said “It’s all in
the voice. You are not loud enough. And I don’t think you are a generous giver.”
The irony of this situation is that a mouse gave me life lessons!
