Ọmọ Akin—Son of the Brave
(Episode 2)
At about 7 p.m, I was in the midst of my friends when the blaring sound of my phone startled everyone. That was why I hated chinko phones. The vibration almost caused me a cardiac arrest. I completely forgot I had the phone in my b****t pocket all this while—a mistake I had vowed never to make again. I’d be fortunate if this phone did not kill me someday. But what was I to do when I could not afford a more befitting phone?
I moved away from the wisecracks of my friends to answer the call. It was Segun, my bosom friend. Segun almost burst my eardrum the moment I picked the call. He was mad at me. He had been trying to reach me in the last two days but couldn’t even after trying different avenues. Nonetheless, he sounded relieved but frustrated at the same time.
“Didn’t you get the email?”
“What email?” I was confused.
“The invite for an aptitude test. The Human Resources Department sent it three days ago.”
My head almost flew off. I had not checked my mails in four days, and my quarter-to-die chinko phone had been with Lasisi, the phone repairer in the past four days. I didn’t know whether to scream for joy or start running like a mad man across the street. This was the news I had waited for over a year now. However, I soon understood the reason for the frustration in Segun’s voice when he told me the date of the test—it was the following morning by 8 a.m in Port Harcourt!
The earth stood still. There was a big problem, but it wasn’t about money this time. Segun already took care of that. The problem was how to get to Port Harcourt before 8 a.m the next morning. Going by flight was not an option. The Federal Government had announced that the domestic wing of the Port Harcourt airport would be closed the following day to carry out some urgent repairs at the airport. That left me with only one option—the night bus—my worse nightmare.
Bravery aside, I loathed night journeys. I had heard too many stories about the mishaps of night travels that did not sit well with me. However, this time around, I had no choice. I couldn’t miss this opportunity for anything in the world. I knew how hard Segun pushed in the last one-and-a-half years for me to get this opportunity.
Segun was once my partner in joblessness. We attended the same school and roamed the streets together for years. I remembered that his red pair of shoes. God! I pitied those shoes. They would scamper at first sight of Segun if they had a mind of their own. They resembled a fisherman’s canoe with their tips pointing heavenwards as if crying to God for salvation. All of a sudden, Segun got an invite for an aptitude test in an oil firm in Port Harcourt, and his life changed. Since then, he had been pushing for me to join him in the same company, and now that the opportunity finally came, see where I found myself. I wiped the beads of sweat forming on my forehead in their numbers with a crooked finger.
God! How could I have put myself in this position? All this wouldn’t have happened if that big-headed Lasisi had not caused more damage to my phone than the problem I asked him to fix. How could I have expected anything better from Lasisi? Was it not the same Lasisi whom his master sent away for not grasping anything during his apprenticeship? Imagine! As big as his head was. What a waste of asset! But what could I have done if it was only Lasisi I could afford?
I looked at my watch and realised that the race against time had begun. I needed to act fast lest I missed the last bus to Port Harcourt.
To be continued … Watch Out for the Next Episode!
