A tale of Laziness – Peter Ababyeyi

A TALE OF LAZINESS AND WASTED POTENTIAL

Once upon a time, a young girl was on social media chatting with her friends! She looked so attentive, like someone who was running late and waiting for a keyword for opening up a door behind which they would get a surprise. 

She looked like someone who continuously received news and created conversations with friends, and they seemed to be private! She liked to look at and search for smart people and would take them as her role models. It was her dream to be a successful person! She perceived the poor people as the ones who do not know how to go about things in life and told herself that she cannot be or behave like them!! She was so proud to be with people she considered smart!

Two years ago, she had a plan of having a small business, which would help her to progress in her journey of following her dreams. But two years passed by without her starting her own business, which would have included buying and selling school bags. Instead, she spent her time on social media watching news, keeping up with others’ new posts, chatting, and all too often checking if there was something new!

One day, the internet was interrupted for a week and she felt so bored. She lacked something to do, found herself missing the brightness of social media and felt somehow isolated too! Thus, she started to be angry with everybody who tried to order her what to do; like doing house chores or going shopping etc.! 

The girl’s mother, who lived alone with her daughter, was always busy looking for opportunities to feed themselves and to be able to support her daughter in the future too! 

During the interruption of the internet connection, the girl used to linger in their living room or in her bedroom, trying to enjoy downloaded videos or pictures, and sometimes even asking herself about what better things she could do. But all her thoughts always ended up in her feeling bored due to the lack of internet access! 

One time, finally, the girl was walking around and enjoying the day! It was a Monday at around 9:00 am that she was telling her rejoicing heart: “What a beautiful day! I see the sun is shining nicely, and I feel the beautiful wind blowing! Mmmmh and it is peaceful, the beauty of real life! But…” Her mother interrupted her inner dialogue with nature by passing by her and assigning her with the tasks of cleaning dishes and preparing food for lunch. The girl told her heart: “…but I am always ordered to do things I don’t like!” Eventually, the mother left her to go search for a job, and the girl continued walking outside around their house and enjoying the day!

Later that day, she entered back in her home and tried to find an occupation. However, doing housework bored her a lot! In her heart she complained: “How much am I going to be paid for this? Is this going to bring back the internet connection? No, it is only good for making me tired and bored!” Suddenly, her phone rung and she hurried to see what had happened. It was a monthly alarm to remind her of her plans to accomplish her dreams! And she exclaimed: “Ah, it is so sad, now I see that my dreams might always remain dreams! What may I do, Lord, to make them become real?” Frustrated, she remained sitting on her bed, when finally, she remembered what her mother had asked her to do. And she lifted herself up from the bed immediately, to start doing what her mother had asked for, for the first time in a very long time. 

However, when the mother returned, she surprisingly found nothing done in the household and started complaining to her daughter and asked her: “What happened, my daughter? Out of all the things I have asked you to do, you did not even do a single thing!” “Mama, I was not feeling well,” explained the girl. “Why not? You are supposed to try at least, daughter!” “It was so boring, Mama… And you do not pay me either! But do not worry, Mom, I really was trying to do what you have asked me to! So, what is the problem then?”, the daughter replied. Her sassy replies angered the mother, who exclaimed: “If you feel that way, why have you not spoken to me about it earlier? Why didn’t you refuse then?” 

The mother looked so tired, suddenly started to lose her equilibrium and was about to fall to the floor. When her daughter saw her Mom’s condition, she came immediately to support her by holding her. But the mother chased her away by saying: “Leave me quickly and go away, I do not need you right now,” and pushed her daughter away. “I am fine, go and finish what I have been asking you to do. When you are done with it, come back to me – I have a small gift for you, alright?” “Okay, Mom!”, the girl responded and hurried to do her assigned tasks whilst her weak mother remained to sit on the sofa with closed eyes. 

Only a few minutes later, the daughter was in the kitchen cleaning dishes, when she heard something dropping to the floor. When she checked the living room, she found her Mother laying on the ground, bleeding a lot from the nose and a wound on the back of her head that was covered with coagulated blood. The scared girl hurried to call their neighbor for help, who lived quite far from where they lived. On her way there, she did not look out for traffic and suddenly a car hit her. She tumbled and fell but immediately rose up again and kept running like a crazy! But the driver of the car had stepped out of his vehicle and rushed after the girl, saying: “Hey, hey! I am very, very sorry, I did want to hurt you! But please stop, why do you keep running from me? I am not going to hurt you!” “I am looking for help…”, the girl told him. “Looking for help?”, the driver pondered but then left her alone, he did not understand what the girl had meant with her words, returned to his car, and started the engine again. 

After driving a bit, he came across the girl again, which he found seated near the road and hiding her face between her knees, soil and dirt on her clothes like someone who had fallen to the ground. He approached her quickly but gently and asked her what had happened, and the girl replied with sadness: “My Mom is dying, she is bleeding a lot at home. I want to ask for help from our neighbors and friends!” The driver asked her: “Where do you live? May I help you and take your mom to the hospital, so she can receive all the help she needs? Please…” “How much are you going to charge me,” the girl asked him, knowing well that she could not afford a cab ride. “No, lets save your Mom’s life first!”, replied the driver. “Please come and see her!” The girl’s face lit up when she dashed a hope.

The two got into the car and when arriving at the home, they found the mother shaking and trembling a lot, laying down with a puddle of blood around her head! Upset and scared, the girl closed the eyes while the driver compassionately carried the girl’s Mom into his car. The girl followed and together they hurried to the hospital. 

“My daughter! I apologize to you about being angry at you all the time. Being angry was involuntary, I was just upset about you limiting yourself and wanted you to see the reality behind social media and how alone it was making you. Being alone without considering other peoples’ needs will eventually lead you to misery, because people live with and for each other! When someone suffers, the whole word will be affected by it as well. The truth and reality hurt more than my anger, and the truth does not reveal itself clearly, instead, it appears wickedly and falls on someone like an ambush, leaving serious pain behind without showing mercy. You can compare it to an eyeball that is being removed from the body – at first the body fights for it – but when it is fully removed, it is no longer of use for the body and thrown away where ants and soil surround it.” 

“Mom, I don’t understand, what are you trying to tell me?”, the daughter asked. “Society needs you, my daughter. Just try to be a good mother to everyone.” “But how, Mom? As you know, I have nothing yet! How can anyone need someone like me?” “You are already needed, daughter. Everyone is waiting for you, but many do not know you yet! So, do not hide yourself from the outside world and wallow in laziness. Do not let something engulf your creative mind or make you defiantly cross your arms. Look around yourself, daughter”, her mother advised her. 

Thus, the girl started looking around herself and suddenly found herself surrounded by people in need raising their hands and begging her to change her ways. They were surrounded by spiky walls like prisoners in jail. The girl continued looking and spotted a cultivated field full of crops ready to be harvested. And there was a little baby from the crowd of people that approached the daughter and insisted that she would harvest a mango for her. The girl suddenly realized her power. She ran to the mango tree to harvest some mangos for the younger kid! But when the daughter tried to reach for the mangoes, she found herself being to weak to climb the tree. Despaired, she felt the look of the sad eyes of the baby that was sitting alone on her. 

The daughter asked herself what had happened to her, when she heard the voice of her Mom saying: “My daughter, as you were buried in your social media activities, you lost the ability of using your body like you used to. When you are asked to do something, it is an occasion for you to train your consciousness of your body and to activate your various abilities. And do not stop to keep training yourself.” 

When the girl looked well behind her, she saw a gate to another field covered with grass, as if it would not have been opened in a very long time. And behind that gate she spotted some fallen mangoes, so she attempted to pass through the gate in order to get them, although the little kid insisted on her to get her a mango from the tree and not from the ground. The girl pushed away the kid violently and asked it: “Did you not ask for a mango? Then this is a way for you to get one.” She pursued to enter through the gate and grabbed one of the mangoes from the ground. But when she tried to eat it, she that the supposed mango was not a mango indeed, instead a clot of dirt shaped like a fruit. And immediately, she heard a scary laughing voice and saw dark shadows coming up her way! She threw away the clot of dirt and started running back to the crowd of people, trying to call for help. But her voice was muted, she screamed without making any noise. And just as the dark shadows were about to catch her, she woke up with a loud scream. She had been sleeping and had had a nightmare, her whole body was trembling, and her bed soaked with sweat.