So there I was, barely conscious, everything was black, darker than darkness itself, but I could hear faint sounds, little noises in the background, the noises were distant, and as any normal or rational human being would, I had questions. What’s happening? What’s that sound? Where am I? I asked myself, am I dead? No, I can’t be dead, not yet, I still have so much to do, laundry, a little kid to care of, bills to take care of, goals to achieve. I can’t die without securing the future of my child, as I was struggling to grasp reality the sounds in the background grew louder, at first I couldn’t hear a thing as it sounded as an unpleasant sound to me, I couldn’t make sense out of anything, but soon the sound became very loud and clear, and at that point I heard people talking, shouting was more like it, I heard words like “quick, get the doctor”, “she is losing a lot of blood”, “take her to the theatre and prepare for surgery” and a bunch of other statements as well but these were the ones that stuck out, I may not have been the smartest guy on the planet before now but I was smart enough to know that these were statements you hear in a hospital. Am I in a hospital? Why? What prompted it? More questions came, and then came that smell of antiseptics and drugs, it was becoming more and more obvious I was in a hospital but I still wanted proof, seeing is believing right? I needed to see for myself, at that point I only had two sense organs active (my ears and nose), and then I heard continuous beeping, wait, why is everywhere so dark? Why can’t I see a thing? Am I blind? I thought to myself, it turned out I wasn’t blind because at that moment my eyes were starting to open, at first I saw nothing because everywhere seemed too bright, first everywhere was too dark now it’s too bright, and then everything was blurry, few minutes later it all cleared up and the first thing I noticed was the ceiling fan slowly turning, I stared at the ceiling fan for a while feeling strange and then I turned my head to my right and saw that I had been placed on an iv (drip), it was clear now, am in a hospital with no knowledge of how or why I was there. Then the pain came, my legs, right shoulder and my head all hurt excruciatingly, and there was a really cold feeling somewhere, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact location, God I could really do without my ability to feel right now, I said to myself, then I felt a sharp pain of on my right shoulder, I tried to reach it and massage it with my left hand but my left hand couldn’t quite reach it, what’s going on? Did I lose my left arm? I tried again and that’s when I saw it, the cold feeling came from the cuff (handcuff) on my left hand, I was handcuffed to the hospital bed, but why? “This is surely a huge mistake” I said to myself, am not a bad person, and am certainly not a criminal, am I? And that’s when it hit me, oh crap I remember, something went down the previous day or so, something big.
I was just a normal guy with normal problems, feeding, clothing and so on, and as an unmarried dad at such a young age it wasn’t any easy, I did any and everything to make ends meet as I wasn’t going to let my daughter suffer. I graduated from the university about three years back and since then no job despite numerous interviews, it wasn’t because I wasn’t good enough but because I didn’t have the right connections or money to bribe my way through, so finally I had something to do, driving a taxi cab and everything was alright until my girlfriend from university delivered our baby girl, I won’t lie, I was scared when she first called me up and said she was pregnant with our baby, I even considered abortion but I never told her, I loved my girlfriend but I wasn’t sure I wanted a kid yet, and the fact that her parents were on my neck for marriage didn’t help either. The day my daughter Emily was born was the day I saw perfection for the first time in my entire life, something so small and yet so perfect, it was definitely the happiest day of my life thus far, she was so beautiful, everyone wanted her in their arms, and then came the struggle between my family and my girlfriend’s (Roselyn) family on who would have the baby, there was no way I was going to take my daughter away from her mom whom I love very deeply, since the decision was actually mine to make I decided to leave her with her mom with the condition that she brought our child to see my family as often as she could, everyone was cool with the arrangement and so life went on. Roselyn graduated same time as me, she and the baby stayed at her parent’s house, the baby’s welfare fell to me as the father though I was lucky to have people who wanted to help me out, my family, Roselyn and her family where such people, I even had friends that gave me gifts for the little one, I wasn’t really struggling but I wanted more, more than I got from driving a taxi cab because like every good father, I wanted the best for my child, the best clothes, the best baby foods, the best school when she comes of age, you name it. But I was just a taxi driver and as with most young drivers, I was really fast but what made people admire my driving skills was my cautiousness, I knew when to speed, when to slow down, when to overtake amongst other driver techniques, soon I was like the in demand taxi driver in a town where young folks went clubbing every night, lots of them had my number so they could call me when they needed to get somewhere, it was mostly from home to clubs or from clubs to home, so I was making more money than ever before in a line of work I never really dreamt of going into, business was booming and I was taking care of my daughter as best as I could, I was also saving money but I wasn’t satisfied, not yet, I still needed more, wanted more, so I kept searching for a decent job while I drove the taxi. Deep down I also had marriage plans, plans that I told no one about, so I was praying to God for a massive pay day and I thought God had answered when I met Charles for the first time in three years, Charles was an old acquaintance of mine from way back in the university, a very vibrant guy and energetic also, back then he had a strong affiliation with a group of cultist as his elder brother was a very respected member, back then he was regarded as a tout, on a different day he was the kind of guy I wouldn’t have anything to do with, but somehow we got along real fine, fast forward three years and he was really looking good, neat and well groomed, it was obvious something was working right for him and whatever it was I wanted in. Charles and I went out to catch up on old times and have some drinks, as we talked the issue of work came up and then he told me he heard that I was a driver and a very good one at that, it sounded really strange because he said it as if I had achieved my long time dream, he wanted to know more about me, my work, my life generally but I was reluctant to share every detail of my life so I quickly brushed it aside and focused on him, he told me he was a businessman and he moved a lot cause of business, I tried to inquire what kind of business he was into but all he gave me was a vague answer, he told me he was a contractor, when someone wants to buy a car, electronics, building materials etc he’s the guy they call. Don’t they know where to get these things? I asked him, they do but mine’s cheaper he answered, well if you have a job opening or need extra hands make sure you give me a call, I told him, of course he said and smiled. I’ve had people promise to give me a call if a job becomes available, but none of them had come through so I wasn’t expecting Charles to be any different. About two weeks later I got a call, it was Charles calling, we got the pleasantries out of the way, and then he told me he was in search of a really good and fast driver, I wasn’t really interested in being anyone’s personal driver so I was going to pass, but then he told me it was a onetime thing and the person could earn as much as #700k (seven hundred thousand naira), #700k plus my #400k savings was looking really good in my eyes and just like that I was in, Charles kept asking if he could trust me and I kept reassuring him he could trust me completely, we set up a meeting and then he ended the call, I was happy but still filled with questions, when we met I threw every question at him, what’s the job description? How long will I be driving? Where am I driving to? Where am I driving from? The questions came out one after another, calm down, he said to me, I’m setting up a new business and I just want to collect the capital from my uncle in his house, he said, that’s it? And I’ll be getting #700k just for driving you there? (I had more questions) weird, how much is the capital? I asked him, about six million naira, he answered, something wasn’t right but I didn’t get then, does your uncle have a bank or an atm in his house? He laughed and said, no he doesn’t, am just getting the cash from his home he added, I was confused, 6 million naira cash? Who does that these days? Hasn’t your uncle heard of mobile banking? Or any easier money transfer methods? I asked, my uncle is old fashioned, he told me, that’s why I need to know if I can trust you he added, if word gets out to the wrong people they could plan a robbery, and if that happens then we would need a really good driver he said, I told him not to worry that am the man for this job, I wasn’t really expecting anything to go wrong even though I had a feeling something wasn’t quite right, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong because whenever I tried to think, all that came to mind was the #700k I was going to get. Too be c8nri