BlessedNiel:
Wow wow wow
What a way to return!
Welcome back Mr. Centino

Thank you

cassbeat:
Yo!!! Welcome eyeneka @centino...

da! happy to be back o

sosongo

sampz:
the joy reading this story..
welcome back man

Thank you

YINKS89:
Mehn the wait was worth it we need to also renovate the house together... Guy u damn good... Centino mention people wey don forget make we continue from there now that the house is full ones more and we re expecting new tenants

guy no be lie. abeg help me mention dem. the thing dey put me for trouble for these mods hand. i want all my tenants back!!!!!

sheycrown:
Welcome back Centino, it's good to read from you again.

my sheycrown!!!!!!!!!!

happy to be back

miss those cupcakes

THE RETURN

The three months passed quickly. One morning, at the start of the fourth month, Alhaji Sirika pulled up in his red jeep and stood arms akimbo and admired his just completed project. It glistened with new paint, and the air around carried the giddying smell of fresh wood and cement. Number 225 Katakata street was now easy on the eyes. The Alhaji was pleased with himself.

What he had done was to convert the single rooms into twin rooms and constructed an additional kitchen and toilet on both floors. He closed up alternate doors on the corridor and constructed new ones inside linking the rooms. So instead of single rooms, they now had the rooms in pairs and would only be rented out at such. There would be fewer families in the compound now. And the additional kitchen and toilets would improve comfort and hygiene.

But it was still a face-me-i-face-you.

He turned and nudged Papa Efe who stood quietly by his side nodding as the Alhaji lauded the work done in the compound.

“Papa Efe. You are only nodding. What do you say?”

“Alhaji the work e good. But is not self contain.”

“I know. That plan would have almost meant pulling down the entire building. Do you now the plumbing involved to give the rooms separate toilets and kitchens? Or don’t you know what self contain means?

“I know Ahaji. Just that you promise us.”

“Oga this is the best I can do. Don’t forget that the building was sinking so I had to repair the cracked foundation as well. Didn’t you notice those pilasters? You know what those alone cost? This is better than what we had before and I will still make my money. Anyone that wants a fancy house can go and build their own or wait for their government.”

“Okay sir. So make I put signboard “To Let?”

“Let those who want to come back return. I guess nature already took care of the bad people. I want them to come and see that Alhaji Sirika is a man of his words. If there are rooms remaining you can then invite new tenants. I have built them a mansion!"

“Okay I go tell them sir. The mansion fine.” Papa Efe said.

*

Mr. Zubi did not like Enugu. He said to his wife almost every night. He whispered it because he did not want his children to know that he felt the same way they felt. New Haven where they lived was annoyingly serene. Abakpa, Obiagu, and Emene that mimicked Lagos still felt rural to him. There was no place like Oshodi or Mile 2. He missed the ragged red-eyed conductors who almost vomited their lungs when they contorted their faces like professional funeral weepers and bellowed out “oshodi enter with your change oooo!” Now he read that Lagos was very hot. He wanted to experience the heat.

He tossed and turned in bed and then heard his phone beeb. It was a ring tone he selected for the Katakatastreet WhatsApp group. It was Papa Efe posting.

“The house is ready. Alhaji said everybody can come back.”

Mr. Zubi sprang out of the bed with the phone in his hand. His wrapper fell from his waist and he was naked but he did not mind.

“Mama Willy-willy!”

“What is it again this man?”

“Pack your things. We are going back home.”

*

Achike did not move that far away. He was still on Katakata Street and knew about the progress of work at number 225. His new place was quieter, with no more drama than you would expect from a face-me-I-face-you inhabited by normal people. So when he saw Papa Efe’s message the night before, he was not sure he was going to heed it until the following morning when he saw Chisco tapping his mother-in-law’s bottom and the woman looked at his brother and smiled. It was not the smile as much as the fact that she did not look surprised that worried Achike. He thought about it, his wife was approaching full term, she would need her mother for what was to come, a focused mother at that. Achike knew that if he allowed Ogbu Agu to nye ya nnukwu amu that the woman would forget her omugwo role and leave him alone to bath his baby every morning and night while she sang hallelujah under Chisco. So he summoned Chisco.

“Ogbu!”

“Yes brother.”

“Did you hear that they have finished the house at number 225?”

“I hear, but this place better.”

“Why do you say so?”

“People wey their head correct dey here.”

“But the bad peope are dead at number 225 and the very poor dirty ones will not be able to afford the two rooms.”

“Brother make we stay here.”

“Erm Ogbu!”

“Yes brother.”

“I have an idea.”

“Okay tell me.”

“You see, as you have become a man now, it is necessary that you have your own place.”

“Wetin you dey talk brother?”

“I’m saying, I will take my family, which is my wife and her mother and go back to number 225 and you will maintain this room.”

Just then, Eyonyam passed in front of them. Now that Evae was heavily pregnant, her mother had become the cynosure of all eyes in the compound and the neighborhood. While they always knew her to be attractive, even in her late thirties, she had become even more wholesome since the death of her husband, Agbonyibo. It was as if her body had been re-chiseled to embody everything Evae possessed before the pregnancy and more. For one, her breasts were now fuller, to better complement the legendary round buttocks that ran in the family, and when she smiled, you would think that she was a career air hostess. Chisco noticed that his elder brother stopped talking and his jaw was hanging as his mother-in-law swayed past them. He coughed and Achike started.

“Ehen…Ogbu. I was erm saying…”

“Brother you talk am before say we no go go back to number 225. You say we go live here and you go take the money wey you for pay for number 225 settle me.”

“Yes I said so but you see ehm…”

Chisco again noticed that Eyonyam had returned from the frontage and Achike could not take his eyes off her.”

“Ehen…We will go and leave you here so that you will not be distracted.”

“Me, distracted, brother!”

“Yes. Live here alone and start life like I started.”

“Brother.”

“Ehn?”

“Brother.”

“Ehn?”

“Brother.”

“Ehn?”

“How many times I call you?”

“What sort of nonsense is that?”

“Remove monkey hand for soup pot.”

“What?”

“I say remove monkey hand for soup pot before monkey hand go turn to human being hand.”

“Gerraway!”

*

Irikefe hated Delta. He could not stop checking his phone for the good news from his father. Papa Efe had told him he had high hopes that the house would be completed soon and he would send for him. Irikefe had been working as a vigilante protecting oil pipelines in Ugheli South. While they were in the bush risking their lives, the repentant militants who got the contracts rode in Rolls Royce and threw parties every weekend and collected chieftaincy titles all over town. He hated all the fawning around these men he saw from the boys there. He missed the egalitarian nature of Lagos boys, who did not care if you rode a jet or a Lamborghini. You were not more important than the Keke driver! And they did not hesitate to make you see that. But there, they worshipped you and kept saying “God when” in the hope that one day they too would become important militants. Castro was the first person he buzzed on WhatsApp once Papa Efe’s message came through:

“Oboy you don hear?” Irikefe said.

“My papa jump up for night when Papa Efe message enter. Guy, this Enugu no be am.” Castro said.

“When una dey go back?”

“On Sunday.”

“Me I dey enter road tomorrow.”

“Wait till Sunday na, make we reach the same time.”

“I no fit wait abeg.”

“Omo! I miss Area.”

“No be small.”

“Abeg you know whether mama Kike go come back?”

“Wetin concern me with that one Castro?”

“I wan go complete the work wey I start for him pikin body.”

“Chai. This boy you never change o!”

“I miss Katakata street aswear.”

“So you mean say since you go Enugu nothing nothing?”

“At all my guy. Girls here wan fall in love, dem want make you carry dem go eatery, sing love song for dem, but for Katakata street, once dem take light, just blow whistle and person daughter go just meet you under staircase for vitamin D.”

“Chai Castro. In short I dey go moto park now. Before your papa and mama make up their mind carry you come Lagos I don share my own vitamin D finish.”

“Aswear once I return this time, my papa no go control me again. Meanwhile, stay away from my geh."

"Nobody get any geh for Katakata street. Ewu Gambia."


*

Josephine gazed down at the doctor on one knee and the ring in front of her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see bodies swarming around them and mobile phone lenses following her every movement. Then the inevitable “Say yes!” Say yes na!” “Aunty take the ring!”.

The mall was closing in on her. “Poor fool”, she thought of the good doctor who had been her only lover in the past three months. The reaction of the crowd was what he was banking on. “Aunty you dey think am? See this fine man! Why you dey waste time?”

When what was about to happen was becoming obvious, a girl in the crowd rushed forward and screamed “Give it to meeeeee! Oh Lord, why does this never happen to me! I am twenty-five and a graduate with AA genotype and I'm HIV negative and I will prove it!”

As she walked away she could hear the bedlam behind her. Good people always believed that good was always right. That was why they suffered heartbreak.

She had ignored papa Efe’s message from the previous night. Now it warranted a reply.

Dr Amobi trended on social media for the next twenty-four hours after it emerged that he had given the ring to the strange girl who had offered him her bosom to cry on and they had kissed and walked out of the mall hand in hand. Perhaps a fairytale was what he deserved.

“Good luck to you.” Nurse Jo said aloud.

*

Mr. Kingsley showed Sister Esther the text from Papa Efe.

“I am in the WhatsApp group. I saw it already.”

“I’m going back,” he said.

“You, or we?” She said.

“We already discussed it. This is now your place. Start afresh from here.” He said.

“I’m pregnant.”

“Jah Jehovah!”

*

Ndifreke dialed Maya’s number. It rang a few times and then she answered.

“I’m going back to number 225. The house is ready.”

“Can I come?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Your sugar mummy.”

“Not that.”

“You are ashamed of me.”

“Not that.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know.”

“The baby is yours.”

“You said so.”

“Jonjo is an ass-hole Ndi.”

“Surprise, surprise.”

“You are mocking me.”

“I’m not.”

“Please take me back Ndi.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Why did you call me then?”

“I don’t know.”

“Will you ever forgive me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You now what Ndi?”

“What.”

“Get lost.”

“Thank you.”

*

Mr. Cosmas received the news with glee. Indeed he was going to go back. 225 Katakata street was home, and clearly he had not completed his mission there. He brought out his phone and texted Papa Efe.

“I am coming back sir. And from I gather, most of the others are coming back as well. Please as they come, let them know that we must have a meeting ASAP. I suggest on Sunday. We need to catch up and set course for a new chapter in our lives. Crucially too, we have to talk about this coronavirus problem that has entered Lagos.”

“No problem." Papa Efe replied.

"See you on Sunday.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

visit katakatastreet.com for more

Not bad. Keep at it. Always nice to see the creative juices flowing. Ride on man!

Culin:
Thank God you're alright. Welcome back.

I'm fine thank you

genius43:


Happy New year boss. Make we dey expect?

Never stop expecting. I no fit live if I no write na. Na belle just dey get in the way.

damynj:
Wow!!!
It's so good to have you back Mr Centino... Wishing you a fruitful new year...

Thank you very much

pgodson7:
Happy new year Centino, I wish u greater heights this year. Hope u been good?

Happy new year man. Yes, I have been. Just the vicissitudes of life.

YINKS89:
Welcome back centino... I been think sey na update Sha.

Lol

Ann2012:
Happy new year Centino, may God's goodness be bestowed upon you.

Happy new year Ann2012. God's blessings on you too.

elpatron95:


Guess who's back,
back again,
centy's back,
tell a friend.....

nnamdiosu:



This is so thoughtful. Every other person is concerning with their own satisfaction. They just want him to come and continue the story let them read.
NO ONE BOTHERED TO ASK IF CENTINO IS FINE, SAFE, OK ETC.
May God save us from ungrateful and selfish followers.

Amen.

Centino just keep your head up, it will be over soon.
Safe my man

Thank you.

dinodesmond:
I just pray and hope he's doing fine. Don't blame him if he's not here but pray for him so that he can be fine to continue writing and updating.

Centino, be good. my best wishes.

Thank you.

BankyGee:

Bienvenidos hermano
Es muy bien a escuchar de tí

Es bueno estar de vuelta hermano

So this is it...

https://katakatastreet.com/2019/10/01/im-back/

Please bookmark. That's where you will find me mostly. This time around I will concentrate on building my own ministry. This thread is still open but subscribe to katakatastreet.com for the latest.

Nice to be back fam.

Ann2012:
Happy independence day to all my co tenants ooo

Oga Centino, hope you're good?

i dey kampe

Kaycee9242:
where is centino he should come and give us hope abeg

i dey here my man

efeteb:
Centino say something

Something

Holywizard:
I'm having a feeling that Centino will disappoint us.
I'm praying for the opposite though

hehe

Holywizard:
I've seen u email Centino.
I'm back!!!

Hope you've read the body as well. Some technical hitches meant it was off for some moments but the title could still be seen.

BS

nnamdiosu:



As i read the closing scene on our beloved street, i was moved to tears, sadness and an empty feeling. Ii never knew the end would be painful like this, but...

but as i got to the last line:


“If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello – Paulo Coello.

i smiled. Because indirectly or directly centino had just told me what we all needed to hear. Goodbye to our beloved street.

I know you've heard many praises before, so i wont bother reciting them again. I know you've received many accolades, so i wont bother re singing them. But i'll just say that, the glory of the sun differs from the moon and stars. You my friend are a sun.
because in your writing, you shone on love, philosophy, trends and human harmony.


Come and collect your bottle of krest later


P.S: please chat me up, i changed phones and lost your whatssap number sir.

My man!

Krest You want to abort the small sense wey I get?

Thanks for the kind words man. Will chat you up for sure.

Please see https://katakatastreet.com/2019/06/30/two-wrongs/ if you waited till today to visit so you can better appreciate this concluding episode.

It's July 1 and after carefully considering my options I decided to go with the original plan. Chances are that this is only the end of Season 1. If that is the case, expect me back on October 1. For now, I gotta take a break, guys. Thanks for the following these two years.

https://katakatastreet.com/2019/07/01/quit-notice/

extremelygolden:
July 1 is now a few minutes away. I am waiting for the thriller. May ink never dry on your pen, Centino.
You try wella.

I hope you read https://katakatastreet.com/2019/06/30/two-wrongs/

It's part of the closing episodes I decided to post first since yesterday was Sunday and Sunday posts are in my DNA.

July 1 is only a day away but then I thought...how about one last Sunday to remember? So I decided to post today. July 1 will still happen as promised so you don't have to wait too long. This is dedicated to my men BankyGee and EkopSparoAyara. Belated birthday greetings to you both.



TWO WRONGS

Ndifreke decided to have another bath. This time, he took his time and washed his scrotum and armpit with sponge and soap and rinsed with plenty of water. He returned to his room, doused himself with Brut body spray and brought out a new pack of boxers from his bag and selected a colourful pair. The tracksuit he wore only that morning still appeared fresh, so he put it on again, took a good look at himself and stepped out of the room.

He had succeeded in putting Maya out of his thoughts, but for some reason, he found that was not as excited as he ought to be at the prospect of going to be with the beautiful Elizabeth. Still, he would not be deterred. He reached her compound and went through the open pedestrian gate and stood at her groundfloor flat and pressed the doorbell. Elizabeth met him at the door herself.

Whatever doubt or fears he had haboured as he left his house vanished when he saw her. She met him barefooted in only a halter fishnet chemise that told him everything he needed to know about the goddess before him. Her fair skin was as unblemished as an incandescent bulb. Her already hard nipples surged out of the net she wore and as he tried to fully take in the glory of her perfect curves she embraced him and put her hands around his neck and found his lips on tiptoe. Ndifreke’s hand circled her waist by rote as he kissed her back. She pressed her body to his and guided his hand to her breast and he cupped one and kneaded without breaking the kiss. He squeezed her nipple and drew a moan before an alarm in his head made him stop.....

Oya, go continue here https://katakatastreet.com/2019/06/30/two-wrongs/

Kaycee9242:


this is exactly what I deduced from his write up but I'm surprised that ppl are saying that he is packing up after promising that the story can last up-to 4 years. I wish he elucidate that his write up.

okay, this is it guys...life actually caught up. e no easy mehn... of truth, this is a story that can go on and on. but the vicissitudes of life put my back against the wall and I considered ending it. any such ending as you can surmise will be rushed and contrived and unnatural to the flow of events. the next 3 months are packed with destiny changing activities for me in real life such that i can either end the story, or take a break from it for that period and return as a fresh season, or carry on albeit without a regular schedule. as things piled up for me in recent times I began to dread wednesdays and sundays because of pressure. if I am allowed flexibility, if y'all will understand and subscribe for notification when i publish, then it gives me the space to live normally and write on days i can and post, for the next 3 months after which i will be able to return to the regular schedule and maybe even add another day. but at the moment, what was a passion and something i did with joy is becoming a chore. and i have vowed to stop writing the day i am unable to stir the proper emotions in my readers. so guys, advice needed. i end it, or take a 3 months break, or post whenever i am able also for 3 months by which time i will be able to sort myself out and return to regular programming.

HelenBee:
I think he meant that he's writing the concluding part of this week's update. Everyone calm down first,until he says otherwise.

sis, you are right as always. i no know why una no fit understand simple english...i no tell una say the tory no go finish?