₦airaland Forum

Roy, you made me shove my Dan Brown's DIGITAL FORTRESS I'm spending my xmas with and ravenouly digging this scrumptious meal you're dishing out here.

I read the prequel and your submission in the short story competition, believe me guy, you're very bokoharamic in your sizzling story weaving. You're the bomb, man.

I will appreciate the following titles. Tanx

The firm - John Grisham

The Street Lawyer - John Grisham

The Innocent Man - John Grisham


Master of the Game - Sydney Sheldon

Nothing Lasts Forever - Sydney Sheldon

If Tommorow Comes - Sydney Sheldon

The Otherside of Midnight - Sydney Sheldon

Windmills of the gods - Sydney Sheldon

My email is patogbu@gmail.com

"Goodmorning Bros".

I turned from the bed where I slept last night and greeted my brother who was already up. He sat by the edge of the bed and was dusting his football boots. He had his Chelsea No 11 jersey on, I could see his room mate from where he laid on the mat with a blanket covering himself properly. He was preparing to go for a morning training. The time was 6:00am.

They had come back last night with a loaf of sliced bread, sugar cubes, milk and bournvita satchet with which they quickly made hot tea. They had their stove outside the room at the corridor. I was woken up by their chatter and joined them as we drank the tea with the bread. Then bed time and we all slept.

Now I had just woken up and suddenly remember my cousin, Topher who lived in Abuja. I had racked my brain all nigh thinking about my life. I needed to know my next step since it had appeared that staying with my brother was going to be tough. How long was the remianing monies I had in my pocket going to last? So I had better start making plans of survival unless I wanted to join my brother in his footballing career with no money realized and wishful thinking. I was going to look for Topher and I needed his address to meet him. Perhaps I might stay with him while I think of what next to do or join him in his shop. He dealt on building materials. At least l could get some good food living with him.

Topher was my cousin from my mother's side. He had been in Abuja since 1999 and had a metal-container load of goods he used as his shop at a mini-market at Jabi motor park. He previously had his shop by the road side, but during the mass demolition of illegal structures the former Minister El rufai undertook which saw many people scampering to the suburb where the demolition exercise would not reach. Topher had spoken to some officers of the demolition and had given them some huge amount of Naira notes which then got them to use their bulldozer to lift and convey his container shop from where I stood and placed it just by the fence of jabi motor park. He continued his business and now doing fine at his new place.

My brother had narrated the ordeal they went through relocating to their new place when I asked him that morning how he had been managing and about Topher. He had given me his phone number and I called him.

"Hello, Brother Christopher". I said on the phone when he picked on the second ring.

"Who's this"? He responded, obviously showing that he didn't have my number on his phone.

I quickly introduced myself and told him I was on my way to Abuja, that I would want to stay with him to look for a place for my Industrial Training. I deliberately lied to him to get him to comfort to my request. He couldn't have told me that he was out of town since to him, I had already boarded a bus on was on my way to Abuja. He seemed to have made some ruffling sounds and asked why I didn't tell him before now that I was planning to visit him.

Sorry guys. Yesterday was my birthday and it was the bomb.... I had fun that would last me a life-time... Have truly delayed in my update...

A long update on the way!

Typing....

Typing..... Update at 11am tomorrow

How can I forget that morning I left my family behind in search of succour in Abuja, the Nigeria's Federal Capital Terriotory.

I had called Ada the night before and informed her that I had gotten back home safely before going to bed.

And that morning, I had woken up early and had my bath; went to my parents' room and bade them goodbye. My mother had told me to call her when I arrived Abuja. I knew my mother. She worried too much especially if one was on transit. Part of the reason I didn't tell her I was going to Enugu to see Ada. I had told her I was going to see a friend on the next street before she left for shop that morning.

I arrived at Ifesinachi Mass Transit at Upper Iweka on a bike, paid the bike man and headed towards the cashier section where I bought my ticket and waited in the bus assigned to us till it was full. Then the journey began at around 8:00am.

We waded through pot-holes and bad roads that characterized the route. I had not been on transit for long hours since I rarely traveled barring the to and fro of Onitsha-Enugu express road when going or returning back from school on vacation period. So it was a herculean task to me enduring the gallopings that the bus made as it jumped pot-holes I wonder why the only motorable road that lined one from the Eastern part of Nigeria to Abuja was left in such deplorable state.

I had not been to Abuja before. The only images of there I had on my mind were the ones I saw in Nollywood, the Nigeria's Movie industry. Beautiful greenery streets, high rise buildings and mansion, exotic car and wonderful vegatations. I braced up for beautiful sceneries upon my arrival.

The mountains that adorned Kogi State and the Lokoja bridge fascinated me though, as we sped pass on the commercial Bumber Bus.

We arrived safely, disembarked and I dipped my hand into my side pocket and called my Footballer brother. He came immediate signfying that where he was when I called him was very close to Ifesinachi park in Jabi,Abuja.

He thumbed a taxi, negotiated with the driver and we entered. The cab driver stopped us at where he lived with his friend.A twenty-seven minutes drive from the part. He had taken a route that cut off the traffic jam on the road. A mud house that was well plastered with cement in a local village at the suburb of Abuja city. He must have noticed my disappointment when he said that the former Minister, Nasir El-rufai had demolished the house he and his friend used to stay in.

I felt disappointed. The room was not even habitable. Its ceiling roof was made of cartons, the curtain tied to the ceiling as nail could not stay on the wall because it was not strong enough. Eight inches foam laid on the floor with mattress that was redolent of dust. The rubber carpet on the floor torn here and there and one could see clearly that the floor was not cemented. Who would do a good plaster of walls of a house and leave the floor poorly splastered, I thought as I used my palm to clear a portion on the bed where I sat down and looked up to him and his friend.

They were now pulling their shirts and had raised the curtain over the door cos there was no fan in the house, no television and no radio. I regretted coming down to Abuja that moment, but where I had come from had no future for me. Should I go back and take up Ada's offer? What a world!

I had thought I would be ushered into one of the mansions I had seen in Nigerian movie, I had thought the envinroment I was soon going to be driven into would depict wealth. Aren't footballers supposed to be rich in Nigeria like other countries? My thoughts were killing me and I had no one to help me with answers. God have mercy.

I knew my feeding was going to be another problem to me. Why did he allow me to coming in the first place? I was never going to go back, I made a resolve within me to succeed in Abuja. Whatever it would cost, I was ready to pay the price. Taking to crime was an exception though.

I bought out my phone and called my sweet mother who had prayed for me before I left. I told her I had arrived. She was filled with joy and asked about my elder brother of which my response was that he was doing fine. She again advised me to be focus and not look at my present condition that everything would be alright. I believed her, said my goodbyes and cut the phone.

Who was the next person to call? Ada. She answered and said she had been worried about me. Asked if I was alright? And also prayed for me on the phone. Amen! I chorused at her prayer and blew her a kiss, cutting the call in the process.

My brother and his friend had left the room for God-knows-where before I made the calls. I dusted the bed and laid on it. My tomorrow was so bleak, yet a bright hope glowed somewhere in it. I closed my eyes and snoozed.

*****************

I was driving in a Toyota Carina II, playing Don Moen's 'Thank You Lord' track and was singing along with its chorus. I had paid in a Hundred Thousand Naira to my Dad's Union Bank account and heading towards my self-contained apartment in Utako district when I spotted her by the bus stop along Area 1-Begger route. She looked like Ada. I doubted so. What would Ada be doing in Abuja? Wasn't she supposed to be in Enugu working?

I drove straight to where the lady that looked like Ada from afar stood with an umbrella covering her from the rain. It was actually raining. And when I drew closer enough, alas, it was Ada. I pulled over beside her, wound down the door glass and called her. She looked up and smiled with surprise written on her face.

I didn't mind the rain. I ran out of the car to hug her and usher her into the car. I was drenched.a particular spot on my body kept soaking water as I held her in an embrace. And....and....

I woke up hugging tightly a smelly pillow I had unconsciously picked while I was sleeping. It was raining outside and the roof was leaking water, an explanation to why I had my jean trouser wet.

I couldn't believe it was all a dream. It looked so real. Dreams sometimes are a source of motivation. I resolved to put an end to the misery I was into.

My stomach had begun rumbling and I needed food. But I was all alone in the room. I knew no where so It meant one thing, I had to wait till my brother comes back. I picked up my phone that lay carelessly on the mattress and began playing its default game. My tomorrow was still unclear.

Hmmmm! This chenna guy eh! Did all this for you just because of your kmomo? Never end shall wonder..

I was to travel the next day so I had no need for chit-chats our neighbours and I usually undertake in every night. We would gather and share stories of the events of the day and laughed at jokes till deep in the night before we would all desperse to our various rooms bidding one another goodnight.

Our compound housed four flats. It was a bungalow occupied mostly by trader in Onitsha Main Market. So whenever we had no electric supply, virtually everybody would come outside to take fresh air and escape from the hot temperature the rooms often emit.

I had come back from Enugu at around 7:00pm, journey which would normally take two hours, took our drive almost four hours as one of the head lamps of his bus was bad. He used one head lamp and sped very sluggishly. I alighted at Zik's Round About bus stop by Omagba axis and took another bus to Venn Road North street where we lived.

My first task as my instinct led me was to check if the cloths I had spread on the rope before I went to see Ada had dried. There were cloths I bought in preparation for my journey to Abuja. One black plain trouser, one jeans trouser and two stripe T-shirts. I unpegged them from the wire and headed straight to our room. We lived in two bed room flat. My ever loving and hard working mother had ensured that the rent was paid on time since my father fell ill.

My father's ailment wasn't as a result of break down of body system. He was poisoned at our home town meeting in their end of the year party. This was the second time he was being poisoned. The first was in 1993 after my kid sister was born. He had started building our house in the village when the fool that poisoned him got jealous. Why would he build a house before him, the fool must have thought and wanted to stop him. It was one tuesday evening, I can still remember that day. Mr. Nweke had run into our house with his two children. Nkpor and Ogidi, the two neighbouring villages close to Onitsha had begun killing themselves in a land dispute. He lived in Nkpor. The fight had gotten to where he lived and he had left his house and shop and fled to our house in Onitsha. He sold palm wine and bush meat every evening at a shop that was very close to where he lived. So he had quickly seen this to be an opportunity to execute his evil plans in my family.

He had come carrying four litres filled with palm wine and had bush roasted meat tied in a nylon. We whole-heartedly welcomed him and made room for him to stay with us till the killings died down.

After taking his bath that evening in our house, he had brought out the palm wine to our sitting room. My dad and mum were watching NTA news and my siblings, his two children and I were in the room eating our dinner. Mr. Nweke had come and joined my parents, soon they started drinking from the tumblers my mum had quickly gone to bring from the kitchen.

The fool had fetched from the wine container and drunk. This was usually a way to show that the wine he was about to start fetching for others was healthy. But in the process of filling the glass with which he would serve my dad, he dipped his thumb finger into it. His thumb had been rubbed with white substance that quickly dissolved in the wind. Some quantity had poured on the table and the rug.

He then handed my dad the poisoned wine and he gulped it down.

My mum declined drinking. The fool wanted to clear my family. God saved my mum as she didn't drink. She then ran to the kitchen and came back with a rag to dry the wine on the rug and table.

Having executed his evil deed, Mr. Nweke had woken up the next morning and said he was going back to his house that he had gotten a news that the fight had died down around there. We rejoiced with him and bade him goodbye as he left with his children.

A month later, my Dad was diagnosed with typhoid.

He had woken up one morning with a piercing pain in his two lungs. We rushed him to the hospital two kilometre from where we lived. The doctor there ran a quick test on him and began treating him with fever medicine and pain killers. He was discharged the next as the pain had subsided. He had come home and colapsed again on the floor. It took God's grace for him to still be alive as he was left alone at home on that day, although that was two weeks after he came back from hospital.

God had mercy on him as he vomitted the concoction which had formed a reddish ball in his stomach. This was possible after he was taken to a herbal home on Nsukka,Enugu state and had started taking the traditional liquid medicine that was administered to him there.

He had woken up one morning in the herbal home and felt nauseated. And soon, the poison was purged out of him by God's grace. But this was the first time he survived poisonous substance in his system.

This time, he had gone to our home town meeting, and same producure they used in poisoning him in 1993 was also used. They rubbed the whitish substance on the Kola nut to be given to him. They ensured he was the last person to collect from the tray that was used to serve them. The person had exchanged the last kola with the poisonous one amidst chatters and laughter from other who had collected theirs and were munching. So no body noticed. He had quickly proceeded to where my dad sat and he had collected without any suspicion. Soon, he was again hospitalized.

*************

Now, he laid on his sick bed and my mum sitting on the edge of the bed, blowing him breezed with a hand fan. That had been her nightly duty whenever Power Holding Company decided to with-hold their electric supply.

I joined them in the room, carefully dropped my dried cloths on the stool near the bed and stood beside my mother looking at my sick father sweating profusely.

"Patrick, you'll be leaving for Abuja tomorrow, abi?" Mum said looking up at me from where she sat. " See your father, only God knows if he will survive this. Please, don't forget the family you came from. God'll help you and you shall see favour in Abuja". She finished amidst tears, using the tip of her wrapper she wore to wipe off loose tears that trickled down from her eyes.

I couldn't bear to see my mum cry. The woman who had been the bread winner of my family weep was something I knew brought pain to my heart. She had paid my tuition fees in school and fed my father and my two younger ones at home with her measly income realized from food provisions she sold in Ose Okwordu market in Onitsha. Right then and there, I swore within me not to disappoint her and my father who was well-to-do before being milked of all his resources. He sold his car and every other property that worthed money just to pay his bills in the hospital.

" Take". Mum stretched her hand asking me to collect squeezed Naira currencies.

She decided to make her finally preparation to aid my logistic tomorrow by giving my transport fare. But I refused to collect the money, telling her I had enough for my fare. I still have the five thousand Naira Ada gave me with some little "change" left from my labourer work I did days before that day. If at all, I was supposed to be the one giving her money.

"Mum, it's ok. I have some money with me. A friend gave me some money, the one I went to see in the morning". I said.

"Even if you have a truck of money, I still want you to keep this, add it to what you already have. God is with you. My God will never let you fail". Mum had stood up and held my hands in hers, squeezing the money into it.

I collected the money, uttered my thanks and bent down towards my father, placed the back of my palm on his neck to observe his temperature. Satisfied that at least, it was not as hot as it used to be.



Please comment, comment and comment is all I need.... What am I not doing right....this is my first literature work ever.

Encourage a brother!!

Hi vic, this's just how it all started...grab ur seat belt for a good ride...this story is going to be very didactic and full of lessons...

Hugs...no Homo!

"This was not what we agreed on Pat. Why would you leave me and go to Abuja? I've been there several times and I know what those ladies in Asokoro and Maitama are capable of when they see a promising young man. Please don't go. Wait let me call my brother, I know he would have...."

If there was any peageant called world jealous lady, Ada would clinch the ultimate prize. She was more jealous than the word jealousy. I recall the day she saw me hug a female course mate in school, the words that left my mouth that day in plea, regret and explanation could write a book as voluminous as the oxford dictionary. She had confronted me with it labelling me a cheat when she visited, so I reeled out all the "Abeg" left in my mouth to placate her.

So when she talked about ladies in Maitama and Asokoro, I knew I had triggered her jealousy and its antidote was reassuring her of my love for her.

"Sweetheart, you know you're my world and nobody is like you. The gigantic mansion I built for you in my heart has only your tag on it and no one can fill its big space except you". I leaned over across the table drew her face closer and perked her on her fore head.

"Please don't ever think that nothing would come between us even in a billion mile away from each other. I'll always come back for you, my love". I was looking her straight in her eyes as I uttered those words.

Intimate emotion washed through her as she fixated her gaze at me. She didn't say any word but I heard all her unexpressed feelings. I wish I would stay with her but I had made my plans and had already told my brother that I would be on the transit to Abuja the next day. So there was nothing I could do. I had to face my future squarely and not wait for a woman to be catering for me. I would live in her house, eat her food, wear cloths she would buy for me and have some little "change" in my pocket; but that ain't the life I knew awaited me in Abuja. She would be good when I'm gone, I know, cos she has always been good and beautiful; perhaps she might find love from someone else when I'm no longer around. But I doubted that. I 'll always have my place in her heart. How wrong I was.

"I just came to see you as I can't afford to leave without seeing you as the whole thing came impromptu. Just know that I love you where ever I go. You are the best". This time I was kissing her as tears flew down her cheek. She made me shed a little tears too.

I wished I never left cos her kind of love might not be found anywhere else. A lady who cooked for me, gave me money whenever she sensed I was getting broke, took me out to Crunches at -Independent Layout on uncountable sunday afternoon and gave me her heart all for free, was someone to love forever. But destiny must be fulfilled, when the wind of life starts blowing, many things do change. Mine was to leave my love and travel to Abuja for the greener pasture.

**************

I left her office at 3:15 pm and took a bus to Ogbete Main Market, Enugu. I alight at Onitsha South park, got my bus ticket with five thousand Naira Ada stuffed into my back pocket when I was climbing into the L300 bus that conveyed me to the park.

She had seen me off to the bus stop that was opposite her Bank and we waited till a rickety bus stopped before us at the bus stop the conductor was busy shouting;

"Ogui Road, Main Marke".

I hugged her and bade her goodbye and ran towards where the bus parked. She followed me on my heels and squeezed some Naira currencies into my back pocket.





Please dear readers, this is my first attempt at writing a story. I need to know what I'm not doing right so I can improve on my subsequent updates...

Please don't read and jump over... Motivate a brother...

Mod,

Please I have an on-going story on literature section titled FCT-Fake Cultural Territory...

I want to change the title to "Journey to Abuja"

Pls can you help me do that?

"Don't mind me, I was thinking too fast. What can I get you? I said fixing a gaze at the TV, afraid to look at her.

'Oh God, what a beauty'. I thought.

"If you don't mind, I'd want to have a vodka". She smiled picking up a jotter chuma left carelessly on the rug.

"Sorry i'm afraid, won't be able to find that around here"

Truly, getting a vodka would require me to trekk to a wine shop down the street. I didn't even know what was a vodka but suspected it to be a wine.

She laughed at my sincere comment and urged me to sit that she was fine. She was actually testing to see if I actually would want to get a stranger a powerful alcoholic drink in my house.

"Do you take alcohol"? She had paused from thumbing through the text book she had picked which had diverted her attention. I wondered what written there that engrossed her as such.

"No I don't". I confessed

"Why".

"Because it wouldn't help in my studies as I kind of have a small brain. An in-take of such would kill off the little sanity I have left. And I don't want to go mad."

"Who told you that alcohol can make someone mad"? She had dropped the text book and now fixated her stare at me, making me more nervous.

" Nobody, just that my body system abhors it and I learnt it makes one dizzy. Please I'm a teetotaller." I had now started fiddling with the remote controller I held in my hand.

"Do you take alcohol"? I asked, waiting for positive answer as she had requested for one earlier.

" No' I don't".

"But you requested for...."

Just then chuma and Ifeoma opened the door and entered the room. Ifeoma went straight and sat on chuma's laps who had already jumped to the bed and laid beside me.

"Pat, do you like my friend,Ada?" Ifeoma quickly asked me running her finger down to my back region.

It was then I realized I hadn't asked her her name. Though the inroduction ifeoma made earlier did not include exchange of name. She just said;

"Pat, meet my best friend" and quickly ran out with chuma. What they went to do outside still remain a mystery to me till date.

Her question itself got me puzzled. I fought for an appropropriate answerm within me. Should I say 'yes' outrightly? No, this will project me to being not man enough and I hate being a weakling especially before woman.

" She is a nice person and a good company too". I responded after seconds of rumination.

Then we became a quadruplet. We were always together in school, sat on the same row in class and did virtually everything together. Soon Ada and I created a bond as our likeness for each other grew and we started dating without me doing the asking out thingy.

*****

"Ada, I will be going to FCT-Abuja to stay with my brother and possibly get a job for my IT".
I spoke sombrely.

Ihad smiled at Ada when I complomented. She said nothing just smiling as well and winking at me.

I knew what that wink meant.

She wore a grey coloured corporate suit with a white camisole. A gold neck-lace dangled around her neck. She had added a little weight. Her hair cascaded down her shoulder. Her lips glistened with oily red lipstick with a thin aquiline nose that accentuated her facial beauty. Her cheeks made obvious two lovely dimples whenever she smiled. I loved her more when she smiled cos she had a rare kind of beauty that I wondered what it was about me that got her started doting on.

Her office structure was compacted in five cubicles that ran parallel down the right passage of when enter the banking hall. She had desk computer on her table with money counter on a smaller drawer beside her desk. I could see wads of Naira notes properly arranged underneath her desk. My eyes kept drifting to where the money laid.

She lifted the intercom connected to her office and spoke to a female colleague to attend to other customers whohad queued up behind her office door in wait that I had gone in to do transaction and that I would soon be out.

I had called her when I alighted from the bus that took me to Enugu. She told me where her branch was located and said she was expecting me.

I asked the security officer I met in the banking which was full of people queued up at every section, where I could located Ada. He was very friendly and pointed at the second door on the row that had five cubicles.

I thanked him and forged towards the door. I lucky as there were only three people wait for her to attend to them. I joined them. In no time, it was my turn to see her, I knocked, twisted the knob and pushed the door open.

"Oh Pat dear! how have you been? She asked flinging heself on me.

"I'm super good dear". I whisper to her ear as I held her.

Now we had settled down and I had composed myslef to tell her what brought me. I knew she would not take it likely. She had hoped I had come as we agreed the night before on the phone. She had proposed that I come stay with her that she knew some people who would get me a place for my IT. Staying with her meant we would be living together, it also meant sex or perhaps unwanted pregnancy. I never dreamt of being a father at a younder age. So I would really need to get hold of myself and move on if I didn't want her to trap me with a baby. I loved her but not ready to marry yet. I still had year ahead of me and things I wanted to achieve before marriage. To her marriahe was everything now as she had begun to attend to series of ashebi of her friends and colleagues.

She also spoken of going back to school to get a degree as we were both ND holders. Her brothers had quickly gotten her the bank job immediately after our finally exams without her being interviewed. All she needed to do was to report to the bank and her post was reserved for her.

She was the only girl among six brother of which two of them were mega rich and had accounts in the bank. She was well taken care of.

I met Ad from chuma's girlfriend Ifeoma. I was in the room I shared with chuma one saturday afternoon when Ifeoma enter the house with her. I kept staring at her. I liked her already but the liver was not there to ask her. Isn't liver supposed to come along with swag? And swag is accompanied with some "baff ups". I had no such "baff up" or say nice cloths to earn me a swag so I resolved to an introverted kind of life. Having just a few friends and conservative too. But I had quick intelligence that usually attracted me to the female folks. I had one secret admirer I never got to know till date.

Ifeoma had quickly introduced us and went outside with Chuma. I began to sense a plan work. Chuma must have told Ifeoma to help hook me up with one of her female friends.

"Hi". I said to her moving towards to the rack to turn on the fourteen inches television on it. I turned it on, collected its remote controller and went to sit on the ten inches foam on the floor.

She had taken the seat offered to her by Chuma- a white plastic chair we kept outside in our corridor.

"Hello". She responded.

"You're Ifeoma's friend"? I asked an obvious question.

She smiled sensing my nervousness. And asked if I wouldn't offer her anything in my house after nodding her head affirmatively to my question.

"Oh, sorry" I made to go outside to get her a soft drink but she said I didn't ask her what she wanted.

I was already enjoying the whole tricky conversation. Ifeoma must have told her I was shy around ladies so she was doing a good work getting me chatty. Perhaps she liked me to have indulged herself.

"Pat,what are you going to do now since you've not yet gotten a place for your Industrial Attachment".

My girlfriend, Ada asked after we had hugged in her office at GTBank Enugu.

I had been brooding over my future, feeling very dejected as in all my calculation and assessment of things around me; I saw my future very bleak.

I was tired. My parents were too. They had thought that at least I would get something doing to lift certain burdens in the family. I was the third child and had two elder brothers who were not stable in their endeavours. I am very careful not to use the word business cos they had not started doing any. One was in Cameroun as an apprentice with hope of owning his own shop someday-a hope that never came to life. The other one was in Abuja. He loves playing football and very prone to fantasies of playing in English premier League. He had not started earning anything in the football club he was playing for in Abuja. It was not actually a club; they were bunch of overzealous guys with common goal and belief that someday someone would pay for their trip to abroad for trials. They were blind to the fact that Nigeria was not colonized that way by the British. They thought Biblical mannas still fall like in it did in the bible with the Israelites. At least they should have known that it fell for the Israelites and not for the Nigerians as I'm sure that during the period of this event that some people were alive in this part of the world and no manna fell for them.

My brother in Cameroun had not started selling in his Oga building material shop. And he was not well educated to know that one could wire money to his younger brother who's very broke in IMT and only depended on friends to feed. Each time he called, he would give off false hope and ask about our welfare. That was all. The only thing he was kind enough to send was his pictures. The one he shot leaning against the wall of his Oga shop and another one with a friend.

So there was no hope on his side now. I was so afriad of the future, scared that I wouldn't do well in life as I had no uncle nor cousin who cared to ask of me. I was all alone in this world and my parents had begun to lash out at me on any slight mistake I made in house chores. But I had Ada, my sweetheart. One who saw everything I never saw in myself and was will to go all the way with me. She believed in me.

So that morning I entered her office, she smiled the world sexest smile, clinging tightly on me in a hug. She was a cashier in the bank and there was a cubicle structured as her office shielding her from the intruding eyes of her colleagues, giving us the room to cuddle for what felt like eternity,but truly it was just like two minutes. I had missed her and being in her embrace was like a day in paradice and she loved it too cos she made no attempt of leaving me before I broke lose of her tight grip.

I had left my parents house that morning in Onitsha and gone to see her. I had taken to labourer work, mixing cement and gravel for the mason at a site I discovered out of idleness in housing estate around GRA onitsha. I made like seven hundred naira daily after the day's hard tasking work of carrying cement up to the second and third floor respectively. I would eat garri in the afternoon and continued with my work joyfully. I was happy that at least I had begun to bring in some money home for my illing father.

"Ada, you're looing good". I said in utter amazement at her beauty after breaking loose from the hug and had taken the seat she offered facing her, held her hands in mine and began fiddling with her fingers.

Truth be told. Ada had grown more beautifully than she was when we finished our ND program. We were in the same department of two thousand six hundred and fifty two students. That was how populated we were in our department so students made friends in groups cos there was no way we would know the faces of all the students in our department and level.

I had made friends with a course mate of mine I met during registrations and carrying of green files in and out of every office that required the man or woman behind the office table to sing on our files. His name was chuma. He's from Anambra state and had a heart of gold. His humane character was nothing of this world. So we quickly matched and parleyed pretty well that we were always seen together in school. He was fair and I was dark in complexion otherwise people would have thought we were twins as we had same facial structure and kind of looked alike.

Ifeoma was also a friend chuma met during his registration and soon they became pretty close which generated to some students making jokes that they were dating as they normally visited each other at the houses after school. They were both grown enough to that there was nothing like best friends with opposite sexes. So when the feeling and the urge were right, they quickly consummated their friendship and became lovers.


To be continued...

Please I need constructive criticism...but any tongue-lashing would also be accepted in good fate..

"The land is greener at the other side".

Whoever that agreed to this cliche must really be needing a shrink.

Well, I guess I needed one cos I fell for this cliche when I bagged my National Diploma program studying Mass communication in institution of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu,Nigeria.