From Nigeria with Love
By
Kayode Odusanya








Chapter 1


May 29, 2015


Abdul felt like empting the bottle of water he held in his hand on his head. The midday sun was always at its hottest this time of the day. A couple of teenage kids rode pass him on their bikes and he felt a wave of fresh air hit him; it felt refreshing. Refreshing like the change that had been sweeping over Nigeria ever since Buhari won the Presidential elections against Jonathan two months ago. The phrase, ‘the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom’ had somewhat become popular. It seemed everyone wanted to get their act together before the General assumed office to avoid going to jail.

A park of girls were walking towards him from the opposite direction, whispering something within themselves, and they all started giggling at the same time. They went silent as they passed by Abdul, and then started giggling after passing him by. His pretty boy face, with his hulking body always had that effect on women of all ages. The recent power outage and fuel scarcity all over the country had brought girls out in droves, and most of them, who would rather be on Twitter or Facebook where looking for any kind of fun they could find in the real world.

The old man in the kiosk beside his house said something to him, and laughed; then the rest of the men in there also laughed. Abdul just smiled, and collected the key. He was too tired to stand around the old men who were always looking for some company. He noticed Wole’s Mazda was not parked at the usual spot as he walked into the compound. His guess was his friends had driven to the Mall, probably gone to look for fuel to buy.

Of the two rooms at the boys’ quarters; one was used as their bedroom, and the other as a living room. He used his right foot to move a pair of rubber slippers to the side as he turned the key in the door of their bedroom. He was hit with a strong aroma of a sweet smelling air freshener mixed with cigarette smoke. The smell was very fresh, and he concluded that they couldn’t have been away for more than a couple of minutes. After carefully placing his bag in one of the wardrobes, he did a free fall on the mattress with his face to the ceiling. Just as he was about to get lost in his thoughts again, a knock at the gate and a simultaneous ringing from his phone brought him to alertness. He reached in his pocket for his phone, and pressed the mute button before heading out.

“The Hulk is back!” Wole shouted out as Abdul let them in. He was about 6’1, but his chubbiness made him appear a lot shorter than Abdul at 6ft2. His white t-shirt got caught by the metal bolt of the gate as he tried to pass the little pedestrian opening of the gate and he got snagged back. He unhooked his shirt, and punched the gate twice, before reaching out to greet his friend with a shake and a hug. Abdul was let out a tired laugh. Wole had always been the funny one. Lawrence on the other hand was the weirdo. Without saying a word, he lifted his eye lids in greeting to Abdul and was worked past him.
“So, what’s up?” Lawrence said and started nodding his head like he was listening to rap music. He was the shortest, standing at about 5’8; dark skin, and a goatee that gave him an evil look. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of Squadron rum and tossed it at Abdul. Abdul caught it, quickly uncapped it and took a swig from it, screwed up his.
“Let’s go inside.” Abdul said before throwing the bottle back at his friend.
“So, how did the meeting go”? Wole asked Abdul as he dumped his full weight on the only couch in their living room. The chair made a creaking sound, and they all laughed. He switched on the TV, and Buhari came on screen, taking his oath to office. “So…you saw him right?” Wole asked again. Obviously anxious to get information concerning where Abdul had gone.
“Yeah, I saw him.” Abdul said as he sat on the stool close to the wardrobe. He scratched his head for a few seconds before continuing. “He gave us two options; one not too dangerous, but boring. The other would help us with what we want to do, but very dangerous.”
“Hmm” Lawrence exclaimed, turned his head to the left, then to the right to reduce tension. He then started rocking in the white plastic chair he was seated in. “Skip the bullshit; just tell me about the dangerous one.”
“Hmm! We’ll talk after the inauguration.” He said and shifted his stool so he could face the TV. “What I have to say has a lot to do with what is going on right now.”

Cool but didnt potray a fiction-like work. Next time i urge that you not to use real character atributes, create your own characters.

stuff46:
Cool but didnt potray a fiction-like work. Next time i urge that you not to use real character atributes, create your own characters.

Okay sir.