"Some silence na curse"

My mum told me a silly story today while we were in the kitchen. I did the dishes while she prepared a kick-ass chicken sauce. Many a secret has been told & heard during those periods we often steal away to work together. I've always been a momma's boy.

Anyway, today wasn't secret-day. She told of an incident that occurred when she was much younger, living in Kaduna(northern Nigeria) with her mum and her elder sister (her dad was away serving in the military).
One day, she took her buckets to the general compound tap to get water. She was second in line, a lady stood behind her, supposedly waiting her turn. Much to my mum's amazement, immediately the girl in front filled her last pail, this lady behind her pulled a fast one and stuck her bucket under the tap.
Pause.
You know those 3 seconds of slow motion in movies where the main guy mentally processes the gravity of the insult meted out to him by his opponent and then chooses what kind of physical tsunami to unleash on the poor guy's face?
Right.

But then, you know sometimes it doesn't happen, right? Sometimes the actor just keeps silent, doesn't respond at all. Usually, he's preparing a special cocktail of torture for the guy.

My mum (and this is straight from the horse's mouth) was very troublesome growing up. She could stand 50 yards away and rile up a kid into tears and hysteria. She was gifted with the ability to contort her face into extremely silly and provocative grimaces and she used it ruthlessly to her advantage.
Plus, she never walked away from an argument or a fight...even though she wasn't umm...let's just say she wasn't a part of Mohammed Ali's bloodline.
Nonetheless, she had sharp wit and hot blood.

So (back to our story), suffice it to say that if she had picked up that lady's bucket and flung it a hundred feet away, it wouldn't really have been out of character.
But that day, she just wasn't in the mood. Plus, she knew nobody would believe she didn't go looking for this fight. Her reputation was a gleaming mountain of evidence that would've squashed her testimony like a bug.
So she kept quiet. Utterly silent...

The lady's bucket fills up, my dear mum tries to place her own bucket under the tap, knowing that the lady would have to carry that first bucket into her apartment before filling the second one, but the devil that was pushing this sweet lady was still at work. Our wonderful sister pushes my mum's bucket aside and places hers under the tap. Mum grits her teeth and keeps the tornado in check.
Lady fetches the water and goes away. Mum quietly fetches hers and that's the end of it.

Fast forward a couple hours later, my mum is sitting and talking with Grandma in front of their apartment and the lady comes up to them, starts telling Grandma that she doesn't like what her daughter did earlier.
Grandma turns to my mum like, "This girl, so you've gone on one of your sinister adventures again?"
She turns to the lady and asks, "What did she do this time?"
Lady narrates the story. Grandma is waiting to hear about a broken bucket or a bruised ego. There is neither.
Grandma asks, "So, what's the problem here?"
The lady is like, "I didn't like the way she kept quiet. She must've been invoking curses on me. Abi you no know say some silence na curse?"

I almost smashed a plate as I exploded in laughter.
Who says that?
"...some silence na curse."

It's 6 hours later as I write this and the humor of the statement has faded into deep thought.
Is silence always the best answer?
Fool or not.
How many relationships have been ruined because one person decided to keep quiet, dam the river of hurtful emotions and bottle up negative energy?
Probably thousands, if not more.

How many marriages have been destroyed because one person didn't call their significant other out on their misdeeds just because they want "peace to prevail"?
Probably thousands, if not more.

How many people have allowed themselves to be battered physically or emotionally by friends, boyfriends or girlfriends, family members and work colleagues, all in a noble yet royally foolish endeavor towards placidity?
I'd say millions, if not more.

Personally, I'd rather deal with a woman that'll yell & scream or try to fight me than one who broods and says nothing even when I'm literally slapping myself coz of the stupidity of something I did.
At least I know it'll end there.
What's your preference?

Seriously though, that lady in the story? She has issues.
"Some silence na curse"