Today, I got ready for work early. Instead of taking a shuttle to the bus stop, I decided to trek and save my ₦100. After 21 minutes, I arrived at the bus stop with a smiling face; the first bus was still loading. I headed for the back seat, but my legs refused to settle in. Finally, I settled for the front seat, very close to the driver and passenger's seat. At first, I wanted to get out my phone to fiddle, which I knew would involve me in frivolous chatter, but I thought otherwise. I was going to people-watch, listen to snippets of people's stories, and be present.

Just after making this resolution, my eye fell on the phone screen of the person seated in the passenger's seat. He was about to make a post on his WhatsApp status. A few minutes later, after thinking, he came up with these words: "If only you knew that a woman's past is as important as her future, you would keep your body in one place," ending it with a pointing finger emoji. Sent.

Even as I write this, I still can't make heads or tails of those words.

"What message was he trying to convey?" I queried myself.

I kept watching his screen, maybe to get a glimpse of who he was. Watchman, choir, Forex trading, no sugar challenge, Architecture... These were the WhatsApp groups he was in. My eyes left his screen and fell on his left ear. The superior part of it was chopped off, like when you cut a tiny slice from a loaf. What accident could have caused such a little, but demeaning thing? Well, only he knows the answer.

As all this was happening, the woman sitting beside me was telling her friend, who was behind her, about her daughter's academic excellence.

"You mean she passed? Ah, thank God. When next I see her, I will give her money for malt," her friend said.

"Yes, thank God," the woman repeated. "You know her peers always tease her for her devotion to God and the fellowship. Thank God for the grace to handle both effectively."

"Exactly, God never forsakes those who seek him diligently," her friend said.

"What a proud mother," I thought, hoping her daughter keeps excelling, as my eye went back to the guy on the passenger's seat, whose face I could now see clearly through the side mirror.