DUSK TO DAWN…

The face didn’t come out clearly before she screamed in her dream, in the process waking up the man that was half-awake by her side. They both echoed a soft ‘sorry’, at the same time.
‘Am sorry, please’ she repeated certain that she was to blame.
The man nodded an acceptance of apology, now certain that the lady sitting by his side was to blame for the disruption in his slumber and not he for hers. He shifted more comfortably in his not-too-comfortable seat of the tightly packed luxurious bus that was travelling night-time from Port-Harcourt to Lagos. They were half-way through the journey and the time was half-way to dawn.
“Where are we now?” she asked, turning her pretty face towards her travelling neighbor. They had not said anything to each other before the soft jointly-echoed sorry. And in that split second before he answered and before she turned away after saying a thank you, the dream flashed through her mind at a dizzying speed, again. But she didn’t scream this time. Because she was staring at a set of the most tranquil eyes she had ever seen in her entire teenage years. Not even in her dreams. They were a pair of eyes that were the exact opposite of what she had just seen in her dream. So instead, she lingered after he told her that they were at Ore. She decided to make conversation with her neighbor to prevent her from falling asleep again. She wanted an escape from the dream. Or so she told herself. So she asked another question.
‘When do you think we will get to Lagos?”
But the voice didn’t come out right again when the young man replied that it would be just before dawn. His voice sounded croaky and he appeared to have a mouthful of saliva. He excused himself and leaned over her towards the window. When he had relieved himself of the saliva in his mouth, he took out his handkerchief and dabbed at his mouth. He cleared his throat and even she could almost feel the pain that racked through his body as he did. And he tried again at talking.
‘We should get there just before dawn.”
‘Are you okay?’
‘Throat cancer.’ And he said it so quietly like saying it out loud would bring the pain back and harder. He lowered his head, perhaps in shame, perhaps in pain. But it was shock that made him raise it again and turned it at his neighbor when she said and loudly too…
‘Breast cancer.’ And she lowered her head, neither in shame nor in pain but she couldn’t meet the stare of the young man no more. With her head still lowered, she continued.
‘I was just fooling around three days ago in front of my mirror… just playing, that’s all. I had just gotten out of the showers and I was taking my time with my cream on my breasts when I felt a lump… here.’ She touched her left breast with her right hand. ‘I was just playing…’ And the tears came.
‘Doctor says I am lucky… early detection is the key or something like that was the last thing I heard before I fainted. It was his face that I saw in my dream that made me scream.’
Because he didn’t know how to console a young pretty lady that had just been told she has breast cancer, he narrated his own story instead, hoping that would console her.
‘It started harmlessly with a sore throat that wouldn’t heal… doctor says it’s throat cancer after test. I will have to go under the knife.’
The big luxurious bus paused; the driver made some friendly banter with the absent-minded police officers at the checkpoint and picked up speed.
They would tell their children sometimes later in life how cancer had brought them together. How they had fought it together with the help of their family and friends. How, trying to be of help to other unfortunate victims of this killer, they had started a non-governmental organization, EARLY DETECTION FOUNDATION. The road had been dogged with both human and non-human obstacles as they would say to their children, but it had been worth the trouble as the main vision of the organization-awareness- is being realised.
But for now, they will just hold hands and cry.

By Muyis Adepoju