"So how are we handling this lady?" Abeedah asked, turning to I, Peter and Sola for ideas.
Peter scoffed "She can't be that bad. Maybe she's just misunderstood?"
I chuckled "Dey play. If even Mrs Shalom thinks she's feisty, she's feisty."
Peter pouted a bit and said "Okay then, what do you suggest?"
An opportunity came, I took it.
I turned to Sola, who as usual, remained silent through our entire conversation.
"What do you think Sola?" I asked.
Peter and Abeedah turned and faced him, as we all anticipated his response.
After hearing my question, he looked quite taken aback, as though it was the last thing he expected to happen.
His mouth dropped and hung open for a bit. He stared at us, perplexed.
I was lost at this point, "umm...Sola?"
"...Yeah?" He finally replied.
"You look like you have something to say, why don't you tell us?" Abeedah asked.
Peter added "You should really start suggesting in our meetings."
I expected him to defend himself or actually give his suggest, but contrary to my expectation, Sola was shaking very fervently. He looked as though a single touch could send him tumbling.
He was sweating, and was almost hyperventilating. His mouth kept opening and closing at intervals, with his eyes glancing between the three of us.
He looks as though he was going to faint.
"Sola?...Sola!" I called as I inched nearing very conscious of how fragile he looked at the moment.
Abeedah came to him and held him and softly repeated "Breathe...be calm...in...out..."
Peter was almost glued to his position and he furrowed his eyebrows trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. Then as though the gears in his head had worked, his eyes lit up in understanding.
He sighed and said "Let's dismiss the meeting here."
He remembered something. Something..probably something important.
He took Sola and separated from Abeedah and I.
"What just happened?" Abeedah asked.
"Actually, I have no idea, but I think Peter knows what made Sola react that way."
"That was just crazy though, I was so scared. What did you think?"
"In my opinion, he did not react that way because of something physical, it was probably that he saw or heard something that triggered him."
Abeedah took that in and looked around the room.
"So you traumatised our colleague?" Abeedah sarcastically asked.
I gave her a very bombastic side eye.
"Girl, come on."
It really was not funny though. I was trying to rack my head to think of what, why and how it happened.
About ten minutes later, a calmer, slightly embarrassed Sola walked in with a satisfied Peter.
"Yo!" Peter greeted.
"Yo? For this place? Dey play. How is Sola? "
"I am fine. Thank you Davina." He answered
I raised my eyebrows. Abeedah did too.
"Peter, what sort of miracle did you do in ten minutes? " Abeedah asked.
Peter chuckled "Wouldn't you like to know?" Very teasingly.
"Yes, yes I would."
"You guys are way off subject here. Are you comfortable with telling us what happned?" I asked Sola.
"Yeah, I figured you would ask that."
I sighed deeply and patiently waited for his explanation.
"So, I have this thing, I am not exactly sure what it is called but it's a bit of Avoidant disorder and conflict avoidance and probably also social anxiety. I am not comfortable with on the spot conversations like you did just know, the way you suddenly turned to me."
"Oh."
"Yeah, I don't like confronting people and all that, but I'm fine in other cases."
Abeedah was teaching callus right, I had traumatised our colleague.
I felt guilt and looked a bit dejected when Sola said "Don't worry, it is just a big stage fright." With a smiled.
He cracked a joke!
I laughed gently. How cute.
"Sorry to ask but, why then did Peter suddenly know? This has never happened." Abeedah asked.
"Ah, right. It has happened before though, once, during our first week in the office. We got employed around the same, so by circumstance, we were forced to become friends. It was then that it happened. It was really a lot. I was quite frantic then. It hadn't happened in a while so i kind of forgot. But Peter to the rescue! "
"Woah. Well, good job to you, Peter." Abeedah commended.
Peter was shocked but took the complement gleefully.
We smiled and chatted, while ask Sola to tell us a bit about his condition and his experience.
He also told us of how tough it was because our country people did not all have knowledge on mental health or the gravity it has on people's lives.
After chatting for a bit, Peter asked about our project tagert, Belle, and we switched over to business mode.
"Well Sola, are you ready to suggest?"