'Ordinary Black Woman' By Lazarus Ogbonna ...Book One Chapter One

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It was four years after her graduation from the university; Oluchi has not been able to secure a good job. Moreover, her mother, a woman who had paid through the skins of her teeth to see her through the university years, now lay critically ill. She could not afford to take her to the hospital for proper medications. However as fate would have it, hope came her way a few days ago —in form of an advert on a newspaper which demanded as criteria for a job offer all she had acquired academically.
The last time she attended a job interview was when her mother's illness was just at its beginnings. She almost got the job then, save for the fact that the interviewers had demanded for a certificate of computer knowledge. Of which though, she had basic computer knowledge of computer appreciation but there was no certificate to prove that. So in order to avoid the absurdity of a university graduate without a computer certificate repeating itself in another interview, she had spent the last three months attending a computer course on desktop publishing. At the end of the three months course, she was issued with a certificate that certified that she had successfully attended a computer course.
Two days after she had read of the job offer in the newspaper, she woke up as early as 4am; woke up her sick mother and little brother James— to brief them.
“Mama, I am so sorry to wake you this early,” she had begun, sitting by her mother on the edge of her sick bed.

Her mother seemed not to have been in deep sleep at that moment as she rolled on her side to face her daughter with eyes wide-awake.
“God is surely on his way to us Mama, so I want you and James to pray with me before I go out.” She looked at James on the floor —who seemed to have returned to sleep almost immediately after she had woke him up.
“James wake up!” she said a little louder.
Her little brother forced himself to consciousness and leaned weakly on the bedstead. Seeing that her brother had woken, Oluchi turned towards her mother who had all the while been staring vacantly at her.
“Mama, are you OK?”
“I have been awake all night, I didn't find sleep,” replied her mother.
“Sorry Mama! And the pains, had it at least subsided?”

Her Mother nodded and continued to stare at nothing.
“I would be going out in an hour’s time for a job interview; hopefully I’d be getting it this time. In fact, Mama, I will be getting it this time because I have all they asked for in the job advert on the newspaper. All I want now is that we pray together so God would grant us mercy.”
A sudden grin graced her Mama’s vacant face and seemed at that moment to have overwhelmed the grief that had been her usual countenance. James on his part had obviously fallen back to sleep. Her sister looked down at him from where she sat on the edge of the bed and decided to let the poor boy be. The little grin on her mother’s face was all she needed to leave the house with —that little grin was hope restored on the old woman who grieved more for her daughter’s inability to secure employment than for her deteriorating health.
It is a fifteen-kilometer journey from their house to the venue of the interview, so actually there should be no course to be worried about the early morning traffic of which the city of Lagos was renowned, but Oluchi could not take chances. So the short prayer said with her mother and half asleep brother, she left the house as early as 6am. To make sure she would be at the venue by 6:30am, though, the newspaper said applicants are to be at the venue by 7:30am. But then what is one hour of waiting if only to secure an employment in the end? She thought to herself on her way to the bus stop.
By 6:35 am, she was already at the venue and was the first of the applicants to be there, besides the security men who had been there all through the night. By 7:am the interview venue began to swell with youths, each with their own certificates and qualifications tucked to their armpits, while the young women had theirs popping from their handbags. Some of the young men applicants at the venue were seen dressed —as most directors would do— with fine portfolio and briefcases to compliment their chances.
The number of the applicants began to grow by each second that ticked on the wall clock, which hung on left side of the walls that make up the main hall. At first Oluchi was trying to count the numbers but when she got to about six hundred and yet people were still coming, she gave up the count and began, rather, to calculate her own chances of beating all comers to the job. Those of the applicants who came as early as between 6:55 am and 7:10am all had seats to seat with; but unfortunately for those of them who arrived the venue later than 7:15am had no seats to sit with —and so some of them took the spaces between the chairs while the rest of them leaned against the wall.
The number of the applicants in the hall was beginning to affect the circulation of the air that was coming from the ceiling fans. While the air conditioners that might have done better than those fans had been switched off by the security operatives who cited flimsy excuses as management directive. The applicants on their part could not dare to put on the air conditioners nor did anyone of them bothered to complain about the suffocation. It is the norm here that whatever one was met with in an interview could constitute part of the interview process itself. Therefore the suffocation that Oluchi and the rest of her co-applicants suffered and endured hours before the arrival of the interviewers, was considered by the applicants as part and parcel of their interview and test.
Soon, some of the applicants —mostly the young men— began to gather in little groups, those who were standing drew closer to those on the seats and soon they began to chat in very low tones.
“What’s happening men? Don’t you think there are so many people for the interview,” said first applicant.
“I am beginning to calculate my chances here. We are such a crowd,” said second applicant.
“But, how many people would the company be employing?” asked first applicant.
“Maybe eight at most; One of my guys back home said he was here last year when the company was employing as they would be doing today. He said there were thousands of them that appeared for the interview then and in the end the company said they only have thirteen vacancies,” narrated the second applicant.
“Whoa! But why would they interview thousands of graduates when all they needed was just thirteen people?” asked first applicant.
“That’s why my guy said he wouldn't be coming this time... Well, I told him I have to try my own luck this year just as he did last year, or what do you think?” asked second applicant.
“Well, a man must always try, after-all, what else can a man do in life? We can only try and once we have tried we must leave the rest to providence,” said first applicant.
“How do you mean by providence?” asked second applicant.
“By providence, I mean God’s grace, destiny, fate and chance,” said first applicant.
“I believe in providence which is meant by the grace of God but I don't believe in destiny,” said second applicant.
“So then you don't believe in God or fate or chance or luck,” asked first applicant.
“You are mixing up the elements; you're beginning to put different terms and entities together. I said I don't believe in destiny, not God,” said second applicant, gesturing with his hand towards the rest of the applicants to draw support.
“But they all go together man! God, providence, fate and chance and destiny, you can't remove one from the other,” the first applicant insisted gesturing towards the other applicants too to seek support.
The audience by now was divided along the two lines of argument; each group nodding their approval to the argument that suited them most. But it was obvious that most of them could not really get to grasp with whatever was the core of their argument but as was common with the public they each nodded their support for whomever they liked better. And considering the tension their waiting for the interviewers had generated, the argument between the two men had come to serve as diversion and relief.
“So if you go into this interview hall now and was asked by the interviewer to explain destiny, you would tell them that by your definition destiny is same as God?” asked second applicant.
“No, I will not tell them that destiny means God but I will tell them that it is not possible to remove the one from the other,” said first applicant.
“You are not making a point man, what is ‘can't remove one from the other’?” asked second applicant.
“Like I said before, they all go together, God and providence, chance, fate, luck and destiny,” said first applicant.
“Honestly, if this is how you are going to reason with the interviewers when you go in to meet them, then I would advise you to go home from here and not bother yourself with the stress of having to sweat before interviewers in your attempt to associate God with such superstitious lazy beliefs as destiny,” Said the second applicant.
“No, it is you who will have to go home from here because as I heard, these people are Christians and will not be employing heathens and atheists,” the first applicant retorted.
“What is heathen about a man who simply said no to destiny? I don't believe in destiny. In fact, I don't believe in any religion at all. But I do believe in God and I believe in providence; but as to destiny, I said no, I don't and will not believe in such a lazy thought,” said second applicant with an air of confidence.
“Anyway, I have not come here to engage myself in any sort of brawl especially with such people like you who always think that they succeeded purely on their own strengths and endeavours. I am here to be interviewed and I shall do my best and leave the rest to my God, and destiny will be done,” said first applicant as he began to move back to lean against the wall where he had been before he decided to drew closer to second applicant for  chat which have now ended in a disagreement.
“That goes for me too men! I have not come here to exchange words with people who think they could just wake up in the morning —and instead of going to work to look for what to eat— will lay back on their beds and wait for destiny to prepare their breakfast and have it served them while they lay and sleep away in their beds. I will go into this interview and attempt to out-perform any of you. If in the end I did not get a job offer, it will not be because I was not destined to get it but rather because one way or the other I was out-performed by someone who did better than I had done. That’s it,” the second applicant said to the hearing of those of them around him as the man he was arguing with had left to his old place in the hall.
Oluchi did not deem it necessary to talk to any of her fellow applicants, to her they do not have any business been here. They should have understood the fact that her mother was ill; and for that singular reason, she needed the job more than any of them. She thought that if these applicants do really have human feelings they would be kind enough and began to dissipate from the hall one after the other until she was the only one left. But whenever she opened her eyes, after her thoughts, she still finds all her fellow applicants seated in their seats as though some glue had been applied to their seats. And each time she had that thought the number of the applicants seemed to add a number.
By 8:30 am at the dot, the interviewers, who had arrived a little earlier before now and had been sitting in an adjoining room to the main hall, came out one after the other and stood on the raised platform that served as podium. There were nine of them in all, and without much ado, one of them began to address the applicants....

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...a random extract....Lazarus Ogbonna

...Maduduko, perplexed, confused and frozen in pious homage to grief, thought perhaps it is all in a dream. So finally he moved at last, raised his hand above his face, and dealt himself a resounding slap. And of course he felt the pains. He was now certain it was not in a dream, not even close to a dream. So he decided to take a look once again at his side, being certain things would not stand the way they were before he stirred and slapped himself into this damned consciousness. But of course Maduduko was wrong, because when he looked again, right there beside him....

...thought I should stir your consciousness with few lines from a yet to be titled book of mine.

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'Ordinary Black Woman' By Lazarus Ogbonna [Chapter Two of Book One]

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Chapter Two

The next morning Oluchi was at the interview venue at exactly 6:am on the dot. She thought that with what had happened yesterday, many of her fellow applicants would be at the venue much earlier today than they had been yesterday. And she was right because though she was still among the first to be at the venue, she had hardly sat down a couple of minutes before the rest of the applicants began to arrive in droves. Soon the hall was filled up; but there was no need to worry —as there was now seat for everyone unlike yesterday when those on standing had outnumbered those on seat.
By 7:30 am, the interviewers had all arrived and they wasted no time before they began to invite the applicants into the inner hall, one after the other according to their time of arrival which had been written down on a log book by the applicants. Since Oluchi was the third to arrive, it soon got to her turn.
“Sit down, Miss,” said a female interviewer.
The chairs and tables in this inner hall had been arranged in an oval pattern, whereby it had been ensured the interviewee is seated sandwiched in the middle, facing the members of the board of interviewers. So once you had sat down you would found all eyes directly staring at you. It was made this way as part of the tactics to intimidate applicants —as only a few people would be bold enough to stand their grounds when being confronted by several questioning faces at the same time. And it also serves to weed out timid applicants, since boldness is one of the cardinal qualities required by most employers.
When she had sat down, the interviewers allowed a few seconds to pass before they began to put questions across to her. An interviewer asked questions at any given time and when he or she was done another interviewer would take over from whence the other stopped. Oluchi kept a steady mien through. Though the stare and cross-questions from the interviewers had threatened her initially but she was soon to regain herself and affront them with unflinching composure.
When all of the interviewers had taken their turns to ask their questions, the potbellied head-interviewer then took his turn to ask the last of the questions. From the expressions on his face throughout his session with Oluchi, she could almost be certain there was no cause to be worried about this man who seemed to have the final-says on the fates of every applicant. But then that was only an assumption which only time would prove right or wrong.
One after the other, the interviewers questioned all of the applicants in the same manner they had done with Oluchi. But there were some instances where they did not spend as much time with some of the applicants as they did with the rest. And before noon they had been through with that face of the interview and so it was time once more for them to address the applicants and make their fates known to them.
“We have been able to go through the collation of all your performances,” one of the women among the interviewers was the one who took the microphone this time.
“But as you can see the day is already far spent and some of you live very far away from here. So we have decided to let you go home in time; the rest we shall continue  tomorrow, that way we shall be able to ensure that only the best of you are employed.”
Loud murmurs erupted from the applicants, prompting her to stop her address.
“However,” she continued when the murmurings subsided.
“It is the policy of the company to conduct interview and make the results known to all within a very short period of one day, but the number of those of you who came for the interview this year was much more than we had anticipated. Tomorrow I will be expecting all of you that are here now to be here at exactly 8:am. Thank you for your understanding and performances, and safe journey on your way back home.” She rounded up and the interviewers disappeared back into the inner hall.        
When Oluchi got home that evening, her mother was lying on the bed while Martina, Oluchi’s friend, and Udeji, Oluchi’s father’s younger brother, were busy trying to administer her with some herbal medicine. The two were busying themselves administering the herbal medicine to her mother, forcing the liquids into her mouth, while James, Oluchi’s younger brother sat on the floor. None of them seemed to have noticed Oluchi’s entry into the room until she spoke and startled them.
“Good-evening Sir,” Oluchi greeted her Uncle.
No one responded to her greeting, save her friend, Martina, who managed a subtle welcome. Her mother lay on the bed groaning so loudly that anyone could hear her even from the distance. Oluchi dropped her bag on the floor and leaned closer to the bed, calling on her mother as though to bring her back to the present.
“Mother, mother,” She called, but her mother was unconscious.
She simply lay on the bed and stared at nothing in particular while Udeji and Martina continued on their efforts to get her to swallow some of the herb concoction.
“How long has she been like this, James?”
“Since morning,” said her brother.
James was busy wiping out the remains of tears on his face with both hands.
“I came to check on you this morning and found her like this; she was just screaming from pains and James was here crying. So I decide to go look for your Uncle,” Martina was saying but then she stopped, because at that same moment there was a movement on the bed and so everyone in the room stopped to see what it was.
It was Mama, who seemed to have moved an arm. They all stared at her for few minutes waiting to see her move again but she did not.
“So,” Martina resumed.
“When your Uncle came and saw her like this he went and brought the herb we are now giving to her.”
“Thank you Martina, God will reward you for all you have been doing for me,” Oluchi said without taken her eyes off her mother.
“Soon she will be able to speak, that herb is a potent pain reliever,” said Udeji.
“Thank you Uncle! Before now, she was not like this but since yesterday afternoon, she began to go unconscious at intervals. I was so scared yesterday when I thought she was already...,’’ she could not finish the sentence.
“I became confused and not knowing what to do, I began to scream and call on the neighbours,” Oluchi was saying.
“You were calling the neighbours when you should have run to your Uncle,” Udeji snapped.
“Uncle Udeji I was just confused, I didn't know what I was supposed to do at that material time. To think of my mother being at the point of death is unimaginable. And you could imagine how hysteric I was; I can’t even think straight.”
“I can understand how you must have felt, seeing your mother in such condition. But you must always remember that your father was my immediate elder brother. So I do have much responsibility here. Therefore, you must remember that since your father was no longer with us now I am the next in line. I am father to you and your brother James and I am husband to your mother. Whatever happens to any of you, our people will ask me what I know about it and what I did about it.”
“Uncle, see, she is beginning to move again,” Oluchi said, pointing to her mother who stared at that moment.
“I told you, she will be fine in no time,” said Udeji.
“Mama,” Oluchi called.
“Oh! You are back,” said Mama as though she had suddenly recovered.
“Yes Mama, I am back”
“And did those people give you the job?” She inquired.
Someone who had not been in the room all the while would never thought that the woman who was now talking, had been lying unconscious since morning. The sight of Oluchi had suddenly brought her back to life.
“Mama, don’t worry they are going to give me the job; but you must not let it bother you at all.”
“How are you feeling now?” Udeji was asking.
“I am better now,” said Mama as she rose to rest her back by the wall.
“Well, we must thank God and we must also thank Martina, it was she who came to look for me. When she came to check on her friend and found you unconscious,” said Udeji.
“Thank you my daughter! Who knows where they were taken me before you came?” she said to Martina who only smiled back in response.
“Mama, do I get you something to eat?” Oluchi asked.
“No, she can’t take anything now, that herb is still working and eating any other thing will interrupt its mission,” said Udeji.
“I am not bothered about my health anymore. What has being keeping me sick is the inability of those people to give my daughter a job,” said mama as she gestured towards Udeji.
“How about the place you went for interview today, have you been offered anything yet?” Mama asked again, looking at her daughter.
“Mama, I went well, there was so many of us, a lot were sent back home but I was among those that were asked to come back tomorrow,” Oluchi had sat close to her by the bed.

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'Thank God I am a Grave Digger' By Lazarus Ogbonna

He took out a bottle of dry gin from one of his dirty trouser pockets; held it up to his face and admired it as though he was checking for some particles. Then he screwed the cover, and downed half its content in one single gulp before handing me the bottle.

"He died six months into his marriage," he said into my face, and taken two steps away from me, he began to dig.

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'Thank God I am a Grave Digger' By Lazarus Ogbonna

He took out a bottle of dry gin from one of his dirty trouser pockets; held it up to his face and admired it as though he was checking for some particles. Then he screwed the cover, and downed half its content in one single gulp before handing me the bottle.

"He died six months into his marriage," he said into my face, and taken two steps away from me, he began to dig.

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