The Case of Pious

Pious had always been a careful boy. Even as a kid, he had taken all the elderly advice to heart. He always looked left, and right, then left again before crossing. He never spoke to strangers, ignoring them as they called to him on the way to and from school. Even when playing “catcher” with his friends in school he never let people grab him, because of suspected germs. But he had one major flaw- nail biting. He just couldn’t stop. Even throughout his secondary school up until his university days. He just never could bring himself to use a nail-cutter; he chewed on his nail when he was scared, worried, hungry or bored. Pious had read somewhere about obsessive compulsive behavior. That must be what it is, that’s my OCD. He always used to say to himself. That all changed on the 26th of July 2014.

“Nigeria records the first case of Ebola” was the headline that jumped at Pious that morning. He had been following the news on Ebola passively for a few months. The deadly virus which had already killed 600 people was now in the Lagos, the most populous city in West Africa. This frightened pious. He spent days pouring over Wikipedia and other websites trying to understand this deadly virus. He understood that the virus originally originated in bats and that it had been contained in Congo and Sudan in the 1970s. How the hell did it they let it get here. Pious went into overdrive. He ran to the mall, bought extra hand sanitizers, gloves, Dettol antiseptic, soap and cream. The fear of the disease cured him of his OCD- he stopped chewing on his nails.

Every day he would scour the internet, searching for updates on the deadly Virus. On the 4^th of August, it was confirmed that the doctor who had had contact with the Liberian had been infected. On the 9^th of August, one of the nurses who had attended to him was confirmed dead. On 14^th of August, Lagos state sectioned off a ward in Obalende, specially for Ebola victims. Pious thought he wasn’t protected enough, so he stopped taking public buses and stuck to only “Keke” and taxis. Public places such as markets and bars were a no-go area. He was even tempted to join the craze of salt water drinking and bathing that swept through the country.

Then came the day he woke up and felt something wrong within his body. Oh my God, I have Ebola!! He thought frighteningly to himself. But the symptoms were not like any he had read about. He found it hard to breath, his heart beat faster than normal, he was losing sensation in his fingers and toes, and he felt dizzy. What do I do? What’s going on? Am I dying? Am I going crazy? Oh my God I am going crazy.

As soon as it was day break, he headed off to Ikoyi in a taxi to go see a trusted family doctor. Gbenga, the doctor laughed hard when Pious asked him if it was Ebola.

“You had a panic attack Pious…nothing to fear”. The Doctor said.

“Are you sure?” pious asked looking very concerned

“Trust me, my certificate is original, you are very much free from Ebola…you are just really stressed out”. Gbenga continued “I know the Ebola outbreak, if you can even call it that. Is scary, but you shouldn’t stress yourself over it”

“There are about thirty million people in Lagos and there have been only ten cases so far… I mean you should be very careful, no doubt, but you still need to be sure not to overwork yourself and your mind unnecessarily, Lagos stress is already enough to do that. I want you to take a day from work and just relax and enjoy life, you are too young to be having panic attacks”. Gbenga prescribed some drugs and sent Pious off on his way.

It took a while, but Pious did calm down. He even boarded a bus when going back. As he sat in the bus, he felt himself relax, his heart beat and breathing normalized. Me, panic attack? How? Pious thought to himself, am I white? I. was all he could do from laughing out loud. For the first time in a long time, he was aware not anxious of his surroundings. There sat by him a woman cradling her child to sleep. In front, the conductor was cursing at a passenger who had just handed him one thousand Naira bill. Pious looked outside the window, it was a beautiful day. It wasn’t too sunny, too windy, too cold or rainy. There were no extremes. The weather was perfect. He had been crossing the third mainland bridge to and from work for more than 3 months now, yet he never saw what he did today. For the first time he noticed the river which sprawled out on either side of the bridge. The river seemed so serene, so peaceful, so undisturbed, yet so powerful, so majestic. He felt humbled and uplifted at the same time. He took another deep breath.  At that moment, Pious remembered a statement he had read or heard somewhere; Danger is real, fear is a choice. He chose not to be afraid anymore- he felt freer, he felt lighter. He felt alive.

As the bus sped through to the end of the third mainland bridge on this fine Wednesday afternoon, there was a loud pop sound. Before anyone could phantom what had happened, the bus was swerving and spinning out of control. It crashed into an oncoming vehicle, before somersaulting violently into a broken down BRT bus. The scene is chaotic, with screech sounds coming from everywhere, everyone trying hard to avoid the crashed bus. After a moments passed there is just silence, people getting out of their vehicles moving closer to observe the horrific crash site. “No survivors in horrific bus accident on Third Mainland Bridge” was the headline that was carried in the Newspapers the next day.

Life is beautiful because it is ephemeral. Do not let fear stop you from enjoying the beauty of living.