Thanks a lot Thanks a lot

Thanks God bless you.

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Running from the pit. A Poem by Joshua Idowu



Filled with pleasure!
A trap for Leisure!
King David couldn't resist
but he did persist
So inviting
the savour is so commanding
a trap filled with Sin
to fall is as easy as picking a pin
How dangerous!
Certainly not Prosperous!
Oh LORD keep my weary soul from falling.
Help me to start running
help me to start burning
I lift myself to you LORD
Let me encounter your Mercy Oh Lord God.


By Joshua Idowu
Source: http://joshuaidowu..com

Making a headway by Joshua Idowu ( Series 1)



Making a headway in life could be called a choice, a choice you make but you are probably not sure you made it because it is not just about saying it. Everyone wants to make it but not everybody is ready to work towards making it, Thomas Edison was determined to make it and he kept trying because he wanted to get it, he did not just attempt, he kept on trying. SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO FORGE AHEAD EVEN WHEN KICKED OUT WOULD RISE 7 TIMES STRONGER. It is a choice!!!!!!!!!! Believe me!
It is one thing to have a plan it is another thing to see those plans working, First of all you need GOD. God is the one who parts the Ocean you encounter and it is like oh there is no way here, a fascinating story is that of Pastor Adeboye who was facing a mathematical equation and then he was confused but GOD asked him to divide just like parting the ocean and at last, he got it. The first thing is that you need GOD! Surrender to him and see him work wonders.
Hard work is also important !!. IN PHYSICS WHEN THERE IS NO FORCE IS APPLIED ON AN ELASTIC MATERIAL, THERE CAN BE NO SUCCESS, LIKEWISE HARDWORK, THERE CAN BE NO APPRECIABLE PROGRESS WITHOUT HARDWORK. We can only stand before kings through Diligence!!!!!!
Benjamin Carson is the role model of many but few are ready to pay the price of hardwork and commitment. Making a headway in life requires GOD partnering with you.
Your Part of course is Diligence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't miss the next series and tell others about this and let them be blessed and inspired!!!!!!!!!
source: http://joshuaidowu..com

Pls tell me what you think about the story

pls read comment and be inspired

Pls Read comment and be inspired!!!

This is a great writeup pls comment thanks

“The patient emitted explosive inarticulate vocal sounds expressive of amusement.”


I pondered on this sentence for a moment trying to understand the subtext of its ambiguity. I mean. I understood the writer’s intentions but what I couldn’t decipher was why he had to take a simple statement and transform it into a complex one (for no just reason), one almost abstruse. If I were the writer in this case, I would have simply said “The patient laughed”. Sounds a lot better doesn’t it? After all taking away the first two words in that sentence; the rest of it can be interpreted as “a laugh”. It’s that simple.


I closed the book. There was no way I was generating my ideas from a complicated writer. I needed something more subtle. So this was how I painstakingly analyzed every thoughts and words in every psychology book I found in a bid to develop a lecture note for my presentation during an event; one which later turned out to be a fiasco! Well now you know how it ended, let me tell you how it all began.


My mum is a very proficient psychologist so therefore she was always invited to give one lecture or the other depending on the organization involved. I think it’s safe to say that this makes me an involuntary patient. I have stressed and complained about how much I wanted to be treated like an adult and not some insecure, attention seeking teenager. To every opportunity that came my way my mum always said the same thing. “Honey, believe me when I say you are not ready for the responsibilities that come with being a grown up. There is a certain age and time when you would be wise enough to make your own decisions and that time is not now.” She always ended it with a smile-one I found too often very annoying. It almost made it seem like she was happy ruining my life, or so to speak. She seemed to think she knew everything about me just because she is a psychologist.( I later found at though, that all mothers know their daughters ;psychologist or not).


After much debate and constant quarrels, she decided to give me a shot. P.s: Another rule to follow when training your teenage daughter; “Sometimes, when the going gets tough, you might just want to let her experience things herself cos until she does, she would never understand.” “The Emotional Economy”. I was in my room that beautiful afternoon contemplating on my next plan of action to make her life miserable enough for her to “free me”, when she entered. That smile again. Oh God! I grinded my teeth and maintained a straight face. She handed me the letter and waited while I digested the contents. My heart swelled within because I already knew where she was heading with that. She had to travel to attend a cousin’s wedding and she wanted me to deliver it on her behalf. I took one last long look at the letter and finally, there was a smile tugging at my lips. Instinctively, I jumped into her arms and gave her a warm hug. She laughed heartily and then went on to give me a detailed explanation of what I had to do.


Piece of cake I thought. Although. This wasn’t exactly the kind of adventure I had in mind but it was a step forward and I liked that. Making public appearances was already a part of me so I knew talking to a bunch of youths would be easy pie. On that fateful morning, after finally developing a good speech and trust me, I know it was a good one cos I emailed it to mother and she gave me a thumbs-up and two smiley faces. Anyway where was I? Yeah that fateful morning, I jumped up from the bed (n action caused by the ringing alarm clock) wondering why it was so loud but of course the more you ignore it, the louder it becomes. Yawning, I pushed the stop button. Oh no! I leaned closer to be sure I wasn’t misreading. 8:30? A wave of panicked gripped me as I raced to the bathroom to have my bath. How could this happen? How could I have overslept? Not today of all days! But seriously, you can’t have much control you’re your “rising” time when you decide to go to bed by 2am, the morning of a big event as this one. I punched myself. I had watched a movie late into the early hours of the morning without even taking into consideration, my presentation. What was it mum used to say “Prioritizing takes you places…” wow, I can’t even remember that. Well it’s not like that is going to change anything right now anyway. I managed to get dressed in 10 minutes and by 9:03 I was already on my way to the event centre. I went over my notes one more time just to be sure although I was already destabilized from all that rushing and all I wanted to do was get in, and get out. I stumbled backstage just in time as my name was being announced. My name? of course it had to be my name. There is no way I would try to pretend to be mother, for one thing I was way prettier besides we didn’t even look alike.


“Miss Abby, err…now would be a good time to start talking.” The anchor guy whispered to me. Oh! I blinked twice and realized I was standing on the podium facing about two hundred youths…wait! These are not youths, I thought mum said youths. Youths were almost like teenagers right? maybe with a few years older but these…no, youths could be young adults too. Oh boy… I struggled to maintain my composure even as different thoughts danced in my head. I swallowed to clear my windpipe cos it seemed the words had gotten stuck somewhere in my throat. Nevertheless, I proceeded to give my speech. At a point, I looked up at them only to notice the significant increase in number of audience. Where did all these people come from? Worse part was that they were all staring intently at me as if I had grown horns or something. Suddenly my hands started to quaver as I gazed at the unending eyes looking at me. Simultaneously, their heads started to bloat up one after the other and I could see some eerie movements amongst this same audience. I was confused. There seemed to be some kind of genetic mutation thing going on and I think I was the only one who could notice that. Was that truly happening? Nah, it had to be the lack of sleep. Yesterday’s movie was really scary so…I’m just going to shake it off and proceed. So I did that and it worked and the lecture started to really well until I got to an example of how “human emotions could be contagious”.


“So,” I said. “let us assume that a patient “x” laughs… or as one writer said emits explosive inarticulate vocal sounds expressive of amusement…” honestly, I don’t know what came over me or why I said that(grinning like an idiot by the way) and realized a little too late that I was the only one who thought that to be amusing. They all stared at me with blank faces and I just cursed my luck for coming out there that day. I mean it was bad enough already, this wasn’t funny anymore. But I had to finish this, I could still turn things around so I cleared my throat and did a quick untangling of the wire below-for the microphone; it was getting all tangled up. I think I must have “over untangled” it cos the next step I took landed me flat on my back. Yeah, that’s right. I slipped and rolled down the podium in the most embarrassing manner. That seemed to wake my audience up because they all suddenly exploded in fits of laughter as I managed to get myself up. The security guys rushed over to help me out of the hall but I didn’t mind really, there was actually nothing left to say. I just kept saying to myself you fell, you fell, you idiot you fell.


Actually now that I think about it, saying it was a fiasco is a complete understatement, it was a catastrophe! An adversity, a nightmare or in this case, a day mare. Why did this have to happen to me anyway, I was just a kid and all I wanted was to prove to my mum that I was ready for adulthood; turned out I was far from being ready. Food was not even on my list of worries when I got back home (and I was pretty hungry). All I wanted was for the earth to open up and swallow me. Mother called me later that evening, she was due to arrive the next day. I didn’t bother picking up the call, I just didn’t want to hear it. It sucks when you realize that your parents were right about something discussed earlier but it sucks more when you have a permanent horrible memory to keep reminding of how right they were. The next day, as soon as she came, she walked right into my room and I remember thinking oh well, so wcs: she kicks me out of the house, I end up on the streets and by 30, I’m a single baby mama with a fairly paying job. How bad could that be? She found me sitted on the bed, head hung down in shame. The minute I looked up at her, I broke down in tears telling her how sorry I was for messing things up and thinking I was all grown up and how I would do anything to make it up. Guess what? she just smiled at me. Oh! That smile. I take what I said back, I love that smile, it was just what I needed. At least then I was sure she wasn’t kicking me out. I remember clearly what she said to me. “I don’t think you messed up because you are not capable of delivering a lecture on my behalf because you are my dear. You can do anything once you just believe. I think you messed up because you were just too in a hurry to prove me wrong and that made you overlook some little things. Yeah, remind me next time to check the definition of “youths” I am your mother and I love you and when I say you are not ready, then you should know I mean it. You are not just another one of my patients uh-oh, did I say that loud? You are my daughter and you are the smartest, sweetest and sharpest daughter in the whole world. You are going to be just fine.”


It was all I could to nod and embrace her. I had definitely learned the hard way.


Author: Abby


“The patient emitted explosive inarticulate vocal sounds expressive of amusement.”


I pondered on this sentence for a moment trying to understand the subtext of its ambiguity. I mean. I understood the writer’s intentions but what I couldn’t decipher was why he had to take a simple statement and transform it into a complex one (for no just reason), one almost abstruse. If I were the writer in this case, I would have simply said “The patient laughed”. Sounds a lot better doesn’t it? After all taking away the first two words in that sentence; the rest of it can be interpreted as “a laugh”. It’s that simple.


I closed the book. There was no way I was generating my ideas from a complicated writer. I needed something more subtle. So this was how I painstakingly analyzed every thoughts and words in every psychology book I found in a bid to develop a lecture note for my presentation during an event; one which later turned out to be a fiasco! Well now you know how it ended, let me tell you how it all began.


My mum is a very proficient psychologist so therefore she was always invited to give one lecture or the other depending on the organization involved. I think it’s safe to say that this makes me an involuntary patient. I have stressed and complained about how much I wanted to be treated like an adult and not some insecure, attention seeking teenager. To every opportunity that came my way my mum always said the same thing. “Honey, believe me when I say you are not ready for the responsibilities that come with being a grown up. There is a certain age and time when you would be wise enough to make your own decisions and that time is not now.” She always ended it with a smile-one I found too often very annoying. It almost made it seem like she was happy ruining my life, or so to speak. She seemed to think she knew everything about me just because she is a psychologist.( I later found at though, that all mothers know their daughters ;psychologist or not).


After much debate and constant quarrels, she decided to give me a shot. P.s: Another rule to follow when training your teenage daughter; “Sometimes, when the going gets tough, you might just want to let her experience things herself cos until she does, she would never understand.” “The Emotional Economy”. I was in my room that beautiful afternoon contemplating on my next plan of action to make her life miserable enough for her to “free me”, when she entered. That smile again. Oh God! I grinded my teeth and maintained a straight face. She handed me the letter and waited while I digested the contents. My heart swelled within because I already knew where she was heading with that. She had to travel to attend a cousin’s wedding and she wanted me to deliver it on her behalf. I took one last long look at the letter and finally, there was a smile tugging at my lips. Instinctively, I jumped into her arms and gave her a warm hug. She laughed heartily and then went on to give me a detailed explanation of what I had to do.


Piece of cake I thought. Although. This wasn’t exactly the kind of adventure I had in mind but it was a step forward and I liked that. Making public appearances was already a part of me so I knew talking to a bunch of youths would be easy pie. On that fateful morning, after finally developing a good speech and trust me, I know it was a good one cos I emailed it to mother and she gave me a thumbs-up and two smiley faces. Anyway where was I? Yeah that fateful morning, I jumped up from the bed (n action caused by the ringing alarm clock) wondering why it was so loud but of course the more you ignore it, the louder it becomes. Yawning, I pushed the stop button. Oh no! I leaned closer to be sure I wasn’t misreading. 8:30? A wave of panicked gripped me as I raced to the bathroom to have my bath. How could this happen? How could I have overslept? Not today of all days! But seriously, you can’t have much control you’re your “rising” time when you decide to go to bed by 2am, the morning of a big event as this one. I punched myself. I had watched a movie late into the early hours of the morning without even taking into consideration, my presentation. What was it mum used to say “Prioritizing takes you places…” wow, I can’t even remember that. Well it’s not like that is going to change anything right now anyway. I managed to get dressed in 10 minutes and by 9:03 I was already on my way to the event centre. I went over my notes one more time just to be sure although I was already destabilized from all that rushing and all I wanted to do was get in, and get out. I stumbled backstage just in time as my name was being announced. My name? of course it had to be my name. There is no way I would try to pretend to be mother, for one thing I was way prettier besides we didn’t even look alike.


“Miss Abby, err…now would be a good time to start talking.” The anchor guy whispered to me. Oh! I blinked twice and realized I was standing on the podium facing about two hundred youths…wait! These are not youths, I thought mum said youths. Youths were almost like teenagers right? maybe with a few years older but these…no, youths could be young adults too. Oh boy… I struggled to maintain my composure even as different thoughts danced in my head. I swallowed to clear my windpipe cos it seemed the words had gotten stuck somewhere in my throat. Nevertheless, I proceeded to give my speech. At a point, I looked up at them only to notice the significant increase in number of audience. Where did all these people come from? Worse part was that they were all staring intently at me as if I had grown horns or something. Suddenly my hands started to quaver as I gazed at the unending eyes looking at me. Simultaneously, their heads started to bloat up one after the other and I could see some eerie movements amongst this same audience. I was confused. There seemed to be some kind of genetic mutation thing going on and I think I was the only one who could notice that. Was that truly happening? Nah, it had to be the lack of sleep. Yesterday’s movie was really scary so…I’m just going to shake it off and proceed. So I did that and it worked and the lecture started to really well until I got to an example of how “human emotions could be contagious”.


“So,” I said. “let us assume that a patient “x” laughs… or as one writer said emits explosive inarticulate vocal sounds expressive of amusement…” honestly, I don’t know what came over me or why I said that(grinning like an idiot by the way) and realized a little too late that I was the only one who thought that to be amusing. They all stared at me with blank faces and I just cursed my luck for coming out there that day. I mean it was bad enough already, this wasn’t funny anymore. But I had to finish this, I could still turn things around so I cleared my throat and did a quick untangling of the wire below-for the microphone; it was getting all tangled up. I think I must have “over untangled” it cos the next step I took landed me flat on my back. Yeah, that’s right. I slipped and rolled down the podium in the most embarrassing manner. That seemed to wake my audience up because they all suddenly exploded in fits of laughter as I managed to get myself up. The security guys rushed over to help me out of the hall but I didn’t mind really, there was actually nothing left to say. I just kept saying to myself you fell, you fell, you idiot you fell.


Actually now that I think about it, saying it was a fiasco is a complete understatement, it was a catastrophe! An adversity, a nightmare or in this case, a day mare. Why did this have to happen to me anyway, I was just a kid and all I wanted was to prove to my mum that I was ready for adulthood; turned out I was far from being ready. Food was not even on my list of worries when I got back home (and I was pretty hungry). All I wanted was for the earth to open up and swallow me. Mother called me later that evening, she was due to arrive the next day. I didn’t bother picking up the call, I just didn’t want to hear it. It sucks when you realize that your parents were right about something discussed earlier but it sucks more when you have a permanent horrible memory to keep reminding of how right they were. The next day, as soon as she came, she walked right into my room and I remember thinking oh well, so wcs: she kicks me out of the house, I end up on the streets and by 30, I’m a single baby mama with a fairly paying job. How bad could that be? She found me sitted on the bed, head hung down in shame. The minute I looked up at her, I broke down in tears telling her how sorry I was for messing things up and thinking I was all grown up and how I would do anything to make it up. Guess what? she just smiled at me. Oh! That smile. I take what I said back, I love that smile, it was just what I needed. At least then I was sure she wasn’t kicking me out. I remember clearly what she said to me. “I don’t think you messed up because you are not capable of delivering a lecture on my behalf because you are my dear. You can do anything once you just believe. I think you messed up because you were just too in a hurry to prove me wrong and that made you overlook some little things. Yeah, remind me next time to check the definition of “youths” I am your mother and I love you and when I say you are not ready, then you should know I mean it. You are not just another one of my patients uh-oh, did I say that loud? You are my daughter and you are the smartest, sweetest and sharpest daughter in the whole world. You are going to be just fine.”


It was all I could to nod and embrace her. I had definitely learned the hard way.
Your comments would be encouraging. Thank You.


Author: Abby

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PART 1- WEIRD DREAM



When I saw the movie Final Destination, I became vey intrigued and couldn’t wait to see the next part(s). Unfortunately, I only got to watch part five and when I did I was heartbroken especially when Sam and Molly ended up being passengers on the same flight 180 that started the whole cycle. I made up my mind to confront Eric Heisserer (that is, if I ever got the chance to meet him) and get him to do something about it cos that was just unacceptable in my theory of movies. However, nothing prepared me for what happened exactly two years and four months after.

It was a public holiday and I was in school. I had just eaten an interesting breakfast and I decided to take a nap. I switched off my phone and lay down on my bed. The image of my bookshelf was probably the last thing I saw. The next time I opened my eyes, I was home alone and slouched on the couch. Someone was knocking on the front door; apparently that was why I woke up. I opened the door and a tall, heavy built guy walked in. He had on a brown uniform and he held a bag of tools. My guess was that he fixed things. He went straight into the kitchen and began working on the gas cylinder. I think I was expecting him because I smiled at him and told him to call me if he needed anything and I went back to continue my nap. Suddenly, I felt the urge to use the toilet so I had to drag myself to the bathroom. As I walked past the courtyard, I perceived an all too familiar scent but I was too pressed to give it a second thought. While in the bathroom, I observed the house was quieter than usual and then I remembered the tall guy. In a split second, I raced to the kitchen only to discover the guy was nowhere to be found. I found a small note plastered on the kitchen cabinet saying he rushed back to his workshop to get some things and thought not to wake me up. Well, that explains it-actually that didn’t because there was still the issue of the odor. One quick sniff at the dismantled cylinder told me there was a leakage. The gas cylinder was completely pieced so I had no idea on how to turn it off or trace the point of leakage so I went looking for him out of fear. As I approached the corner of our street, I noticed a traffic build up. That meant I had to take a shortcut to his workshop. Someone was saying that a fuel tanker had broken down just in front of the street gate causing the buildup. How convenient! Some ruffian boys were smoking at an unreasonable distance from the breakdown site. I hissed in disgust and wondered how stupid they were. I mean what if something went wrong and the whole thing just explo- , suddenly I heard a very thunderous bang and I was hit by a force so strong that it threw me into the neighboring street. The next thing I remember was seeing the whole area go up in ranging tongues of fire and that was when I realized, I had spoken too soon.

“Abby! Wake up.” I fluttered my eyes open and saw all my roommates staring at me with frantic eyes. According to them I had screamed loudly in my sleep. My sleep?, for the first time that day I said a quick prayer and rebuked the dream. Phew! That would have been close. I grinned at the idea that maybe God was trying to punish me for not having my devotion that morning. Well, whatever, it was only just a dream. It couldn’t even happen anyway, I was in school and we didn’t even use gas cylinders at home. Electricity supply was amazing in my area. That weekend, I went home feeling very normal and happy as I was looking forward to the weekend family dinner we always had every Saturday evening. My brother and I would sit with my parents and we would talk and gist about our week so far and then later in the evening, we would have a sumptuous meal courtesy of Mama and me. My mum was very excited to see me and as usual, she cuddled me fondly checking to see if was okay physically and mentally. I noticed the living room was darker than usual and I asked her about it.

“Oh that. The lights have been out for some days now; the transformer is faulty so we might just have to improvise for a while.” She replied. That was odd. Anyway, it was bound to happen sooner or later. We still live in Nigeria and to be honest, we didn’t expect the light to be half as good as it had been over the years. The next day, my brother David and my dad were on their way from the former’s school; he was also coming home although David isn’t exactly the family type, he just wanted to meet up his appointment with the dentist later in the day because he had a throbbing tooth. I went to help my mum in the kitchen but to my dismay, when I got there I saw a rusty looking gas cylinder just by the cooker. I stared at it with so much emotion that everything in me failed at that moment. Still completely shocked, I asked my mum what it was doing there. She looked at me and then at the cylinder and chuckled. “The generator cannot power every appliance in the house and luckily your dad found this fine piece of steel in the store last night. Unbelievable right?” she sounded excited. I nodded strangely and managed myself out of the kitchen. “Shake off the feeling, it’s nothing.” I told myself.

Things went relatively normal the rest of the morning through afternoon and by evening, my brother was ready to go for his appointment. Dad offered to drop him off and I decided to tag along cos I had to do some shopping. Although deep down inside of me I just wanted to get out of the house; even if something was to happen, it had to start with me alone in the house. Halfway down the street, we could see a pile of cars stuck in what seemed to be a standstill. People left their cars to see what was going on. Dad also did the same and David and I remained in the car making light jokes.”What is wrong?” I asked my dad as soon as he returned. “Nothing serious honey, just a fuel tanker that broke down in front of the street gate but it looks like it’s going to take a while to move it off the road.”

Fuel tanker? Street gate? Pile of cars, traffic build-up? Okay calm down Abby, it’s just a mere coincidence. “Dad look, those ruffians boys must be headed there. Why do they always show up when things are not right?” David pointed out. The moment I saw those boys was when I stopped breathing- literarily and it wasn’t just because they were the same boys I had seen in my dream or because they wore the same clothes I had seen them in, but because two of them had cigarettes in their pockets. Instantly, I blurted out. “Dad! We are all going to die, those boys are going to smoke and the tanker would explode and the gas cylinder-’’ that’s it! Maybe if I could stop the cylinder from leaking I could help prevent this somehow. I yelled on as my dad and David panicked frantically while desperately trying to calm me down but I was no mood to calm down. I explained everything to them in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own. Finally, I was able to get them to understand-not that they believed anyway. We decided to call mum who was home alone to see if there was a problem at home. If there wasn’t then we could accept this as a mere coincidence. As soon as she picked up, she went on to complain about how dinner might be late and that she was frustrated because the gas cylinder was acting up. So she had to call the repair guy and in fact he was already around but just in case we should buy take out from an eatery when coming back and bla, bla, bla. There is only one word to describe how I felt during those 25 seconds of call conversation and that word doesn’t exist.

Dad must have believed me then because he set the car in reverse motion and maneuvered his way backwards heading for the house. The thing is, I didn’t even know if how the explosion happened in the dream because I couldn’t understand how the leaky gas affected the tanker which was far away. The tanker wasn’t leaking fuel and I’m not even sure the cylinder had enough gas to go round the house, let alone the whole street. As soon as we got home, I approached the man while my dad tried to explain things to my mum who was in apparent shock. Funny enough, this man looked nothing like the guy from my dream. We all waited with him as he dismantled and repaired the now popular device called ‘gas cylinder’. Luckily, he finished his job without any impending leakage threat (although, I think my dad hovering around him and the constant scolding did most of the trick). Whatever this thing was, I didn’t have an idea but what mattered most was that we were doing something about it.

My flood of relief came when David said the tanker had been moved; the road was clearing up and the cars were moving at a faster rate. I had never been happier in my entire life. I even embraced the repair guy who just stared at us in utter confusion, we were probably the most bizarre family he had come across; I wouldn’t blame him though, it was quite a scene at our house. Till today, I still have no idea if there would have been an explosion or not and if the cylinder had anything to do with it (we got rid of the cylinder later some days later), but we were saved, alive and that was all that mattered. By the way, I’ve still not changed my mind about meeting Eric Heisserer and now I have an extra reason to see him…I just witnessed Final Destination 6!
Author: Abby


When I saw the movie Final Destination, I became vey intrigued and couldn’t wait to see the next part(s). Unfortunately, I only got to watch part five and when I did I was heartbroken especially when Sam and Molly ended up being passengers on the same flight 180 that started the whole cycle. I made up my mind to confront Eric Heisserer (that is, if I ever got the chance to meet him) and get him to do something about it cos that was just unacceptable in my theory of movies. However, nothing prepared me for what happened exactly two years and four months after.

It was a public holiday and I was in school. I had just eaten an interesting breakfast and I decided to take a nap. I switched off my phone and lay down on my bed. The image of my bookshelf was probably the last thing I saw. The next time I opened my eyes, I was home alone and slouched on the couch. Someone was knocking on the front door; apparently that was why I woke up. I opened the door and a tall, heavy built guy walked in. He had on a brown uniform and he held a bag of tools. My guess was that he fixed things. He went straight into the kitchen and began working on the gas cylinder. I think I was expecting him because I smiled at him and told him to call me if he needed anything and I went back to continue my nap. Suddenly, I felt the urge to use the toilet so I had to drag myself to the bathroom. As I walked past the courtyard, I perceived an all too familiar scent but I was too pressed to give it a second thought. While in the bathroom, I observed the house was quieter than usual and then I remembered the tall guy. In a split second, I raced to the kitchen only to discover the guy was nowhere to be found. I found a small note plastered on the kitchen cabinet saying he rushed back to his workshop to get some things and thought not to wake me up. Well, that explains it-actually that didn’t because there was still the issue of the odor. One quick sniff at the dismantled cylinder told me there was a leakage. The gas cylinder was completely pieced so I had no idea on how to turn it off or trace the point of leakage so I went looking for him out of fear. As I approached the corner of our street, I noticed a traffic build up. That meant I had to take a shortcut to his workshop. Someone was saying that a fuel tanker had broken down just in front of the street gate causing the buildup. How convenient! Some ruffian boys were smoking at an unreasonable distance from the breakdown site. I hissed in disgust and wondered how stupid they were. I mean what if something went wrong and the whole thing just explo- , suddenly I heard a very thunderous bang and I was hit by a force so strong that it threw me into the neighboring street. The next thing I remember was seeing the whole area go up in ranging tongues of fire and that was when I realized, I had spoken too soon.

“Abby! Wake up.” I fluttered my eyes open and saw all my roommates staring at me with frantic eyes. According to them I had screamed loudly in my sleep. My sleep?, for the first time that day I said a quick prayer and rebuked the dream. Phew! That would have been close. I grinned at the idea that maybe God was trying to punish me for not having my devotion that morning. Well, whatever, it was only just a dream. It couldn’t even happen anyway, I was in school and we didn’t even use gas cylinders at home. Electricity supply was amazing in my area. That weekend, I went home feeling very normal and happy as I was looking forward to the weekend family dinner we always had every Saturday evening. My brother and I would sit with my parents and we would talk and gist about our week so far and then later in the evening, we would have a sumptuous meal courtesy of Mama and me. My mum was very excited to see me and as usual, she cuddled me fondly checking to see if was okay physically and mentally. I noticed the living room was darker than usual and I asked her about it.

“Oh that. The lights have been out for some days now; the transformer is faulty so we might just have to improvise for a while.” She replied. That was odd. Anyway, it was bound to happen sooner or later. We still live in Nigeria and to be honest, we didn’t expect the light to be half as good as it had been over the years. The next day, my brother David and my dad were on their way from the former’s school; he was also coming home although David isn’t exactly the family type, he just wanted to meet up his appointment with the dentist later in the day because he had a throbbing tooth. I went to help my mum in the kitchen but to my dismay, when I got there I saw a rusty looking gas cylinder just by the cooker. I stared at it with so much emotion that everything in me failed at that moment. Still completely shocked, I asked my mum what it was doing there. She looked at me and then at the cylinder and chuckled. “The generator cannot power every appliance in the house and luckily your dad found this fine piece of steel in the store last night. Unbelievable right?” she sounded excited. I nodded strangely and managed myself out of the kitchen. “Shake off the feeling, it’s nothing.” I told myself.

Things went relatively normal the rest of the morning through afternoon and by evening, my brother was ready to go for his appointment. Dad offered to drop him off and I decided to tag along cos I had to do some shopping. Although deep down inside of me I just wanted to get out of the house; even if something was to happen, it had to start with me alone in the house. Halfway down the street, we could see a pile of cars stuck in what seemed to be a standstill. People left their cars to see what was going on. Dad also did the same and David and I remained in the car making light jokes.”What is wrong?” I asked my dad as soon as he returned. “Nothing serious honey, just a fuel tanker that broke down in front of the street gate but it looks like it’s going to take a while to move it off the road.”

Fuel tanker? Street gate? Pile of cars, traffic build-up? Okay calm down Abby, it’s just a mere coincidence. “Dad look, those ruffians boys must be headed there. Why do they always show up when things are not right?” David pointed out. The moment I saw those boys was when I stopped breathing- literarily and it wasn’t just because they were the same boys I had seen in my dream or because they wore the same clothes I had seen them in, but because two of them had cigarettes in their pockets. Instantly, I blurted out. “Dad! We are all going to die, those boys are going to smoke and the tanker would explode and the gas cylinder-’’ that’s it! Maybe if I could stop the cylinder from leaking I could help prevent this somehow. I yelled on as my dad and David panicked frantically while desperately trying to calm me down but I was no mood to calm down. I explained everything to them in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own. Finally, I was able to get them to understand-not that they believed anyway. We decided to call mum who was home alone to see if there was a problem at home. If there wasn’t then we could accept this as a mere coincidence. As soon as she picked up, she went on to complain about how dinner might be late and that she was frustrated because the gas cylinder was acting up. So she had to call the repair guy and in fact he was already around but just in case we should buy take out from an eatery when coming back and bla, bla, bla. There is only one word to describe how I felt during those 25 seconds of call conversation and that word doesn’t exist.

Dad must have believed me then because he set the car in reverse motion and maneuvered his way backwards heading for the house. The thing is, I didn’t even know if how the explosion happened in the dream because I couldn’t understand how the leaky gas affected the tanker which was far away. The tanker wasn’t leaking fuel and I’m not even sure the cylinder had enough gas to go round the house, let alone the whole street. As soon as we got home, I approached the man while my dad tried to explain things to my mum who was in apparent shock. Funny enough, this man looked nothing like the guy from my dream. We all waited with him as he dismantled and repaired the now popular device called ‘gas cylinder’. Luckily, he finished his job without any impending leakage threat (although, I think my dad hovering around him and the constant scolding did most of the trick). Whatever this thing was, I didn’t have an idea but what mattered most was that we were doing something about it.

My flood of relief came when David said the tanker had been moved; the road was clearing up and the cars were moving at a faster rate. I had never been happier in my entire life. I even embraced the repair guy who just stared at us in utter confusion, we were probably the most bizarre family he had come across; I wouldn’t blame him though, it was quite a scene at our house. Till today, I still have no idea if there would have been an explosion or not and if the cylinder had anything to do with it (we got rid of the cylinder later some days later), but we were saved, alive and that was all that mattered. By the way, I’ve still not changed my mind about meeting Eric Heisserer and now I have an extra reason to see him…I just witnessed Final Destination 6!
Author: Abby
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