Lenses
On the backseat of a rusty yellow bus with wooden benches for seats, I had my buttocks carefully perched on the firm rigid structure just right next to the intransigent and frosty window pane. I have had quite the interesting day transporting myself from one point to another through the chaotic, busy and traffic clogged Lagos roads in the turbulent Danfo buses that are unsurprisingly driven by impatient and hot-headed drivers. The nationwide lockdown had just been lifted and the mask mandate was still quite stringent. Many people in the bus hid the lower part of their faces behind masks of different fabrics and colors making the bus quite colorful, almost kaleidoscopic. In the same bus, there were people, quite a few though, who left their masks hanging below their nostril, plastered on their philtrums whilst others simply let it hang freely below their chin.
The heat inside the bus was unbearable and I could feel my face roast into crisp. Ventilation was particularly terrible in the bus because most of the windows were stiff and wouldn't just budge. So, it was with a heavy sigh of relief-into my moist mask, that I welcomed the short, yet satisfying breeze that blew in following the transition at the bus-stop where the bus pulled over to drop off some passengers whilst simultaneously picking up new ones. The first person who entered the bus to occupy the window seat just right before me was a dark-skinned little girl who looked nothing older than twelve. She was in a black sleeveless pinafore dress that stopped just right above her knee, underneath of which was a white, short-sleeved T-shirt and a red tie. She had on a green, surgical facemask which carefully hid the lower part of her face. Her short, black-brownish hair was plaited into ten, neat cornrows and she had a Peppa-pig themed backpack carelessly slung across her shoulder. At first, she looked just like the regular, carefree 12 year old and it wasn't until the bus found its way back on the road and was in motion that I saw the most beautiful, striking and enchanting pair of eyes I've ever seen through her reflection in the rearview mirror.
When interacting with strangers before the pandemic, I find it quite difficult to stare directly into their eyes. Difficult not out of fear or social anxiety but because I get easily distracted by the movement of their lips, paying some but not a tonne of attention to the details of their eyes. When people started covering the lower part of their faces with masks due to the pandemic, it became easier to pay close attention to the details of people's eyes in order to assess their affect and emotions. When I did see this little girl's eyes in the rearview mirror, they were nothing like any other pair of eyes I've ever seen. They were simply, beautiful.