Dear Diary,

March 22, 2023

The hands of God!

So, I stood near a girl waiting for my order at the Cafeteria. By mere coincidence, our hands were placed side by side. She is the whitest of the whitest girl I have ever seen in my life. Sooo white I almost compared her with a paper.

Before I start, the last time I wrote, it was about the Pink Street http://oluwatoyosiabikoye.com/shebi-i-want-to-see-pink-street-the-pink-street-saga/

Now, today, this is what really happened.

As I said, “by coincidence, our hands were placed side by side” as we both waited for our orders. That was the exact moment I was wondering that “ahan, Toyo, when did you become so black” because damn, my skin that on a normal day is not even black-black became pitch black (what a betrayal).

In fact, let me just be truthful. My skin was so black, it felt like I could literarily stain her with my skin. All my affection (yes, you read right, I don’t mean attention, but affection) moved to our hands. And I looked on. One thought just crept into my mind that “Ope o! this is not some 250 years ago – maybe this accidental hand-placement would have been a crime and them for just amputate my hand”. I immediately laughed out loud that Toyo, you have started again.

I think she was thinking along the same line as our colours are the classical example of the adjective “opposite”. Then she said very loudly, “oh, wow! You are so black!” I looked confused because I was like, am I supposed to be so white?

So I responded, making sure my voice matched the pitch of her voice;

“Looking at our skin, I just cannot but appreciate the intentionality of God, who is the KING OF DIVERSITY. He must love colours so much; he created man – white and black. Oh, my hands are so beautiful.”

Very loudly, she said again, “What do you mean, He created?” All the screw in my head left their compartment because my brain just went to the most extreme thought: “Alaye, do you mean you were created, and I evolved?” Now, nobody sent me this thought! Just like Mungo Park, my mind went on a frolic of its own.

So, I said, “God must have been so proud of black, He corrected all his errors of white in black. Black can withstand changes in weather, emotions or situations, and you wouldn’t even know. I bet your white can’t do the same. slowly, I bent to where our hands were and kissed mine with reverence, saying, “the hands of God”!

Suddenly, I realised everywhere was a bit quiet in the cafeteria, being that the two of us don turn agbero of humanity. My order was ready, I wanted to walk out with the attitude of “emi omo, bi Buhari, awa o ran Iyalaya – anybody!”

Then I felt bad. I had won a war nobody in this life sent me.

I collected my meal and smiled at her, and said “love your hands – they are the hands of God and are just as beautiful as mine”. She was dumbfounded (e no kuku hard for white people to be dumbfounded).
I thought to myself, WWJD? I dropped my food on the table and went a bit further, I took both her hands, bent my head as though I was reverencing Queen Elizabeth (God bless her soul), touched my forehead to her fingertips and kissed her hands. Her eyes almost jumped out of their socket. And I said, “bye”!

As I was leaving, she jumped to my front, and I was like, Baby girl, wor, jo! Jo! Jo o! don’t stress me. She said, do you know I never liked my hands? I thought they always looked very manly, and you, just like that, you took my hands and kissed them. No one has ever done that to me before. It was my turn to be dumbfounded.

I looked around, how this matter wan take end now?

She said can I take a picture with you? I don’t want to forget your kind heart. Me? Ha! Thank God I wore my best jacket today. “clicks” “clicks”. Another person came from the far end and said, I heard all you said. Are you American? I prayed in me, Oh God, grant me patience today. No! I’m not! Are you from Ireland? Before I would even explain where I am from, I heard, are you Brazillian? I just said, I am human; can I go now? Before I even said pimmmm – “clicks” “clicks”…I repeated to myself, thank God I wore my best jacket today.

Then I left.

What could I have done better? I’d like to know.

PS: no one asked for anybody’s name. Just random acts of madness in this world that nobody would get out alive.

Sincerely,