Chapter 3

Four guys. Different attitude. Not much tattoos. I pretended I wasn’t seeing them and walked on. They followed.

I passed the nearest street and moved close to a corner. I stopped and glanced at the guys. I nodded in their direction.

“Talk,” I said.

“We want to collect money,” one of the guys said. “And we use POS,” he brought one out of his pocket. “And we also use force,” he brought a knife out.

“Okay. How much?”

Huh? The guys glanced at each other. Then I saw opportunity written all over there eyes, but they were worried, somehow, like they haven’t sure what this may lead to. But it will not lead to anything. At least nothing that had never happened before. They will all be fine, in the end. Maybe.

Another guy volunteered to talk.

“Give us ten K,” the new volunteer said.

No argument. I brought the money out but it seem like the money is more than ten thousand. So I counted it. It totalled eleven thousand seven hundred. I cut one thousand seven hundred out of it and threw the remaining ten K to the guy.

They laughed. One of the guy nodded to me and said, “I like you man, believe me. Anytime you’re coming to visit her don’t forget to bring us something.”

I smiled.

“I’m a nigga too,” I said. “Do try to make sure no other guy is chasing her.”

“We’re the street man,” the guy replied. “Rest assured.”

I turned around and walked on. I knew it will take them up to two minutes to realized what had just happened. It was the money in their pockets I gathered to pay them. And I got a profit of one thousand seven hundred. Not a bad deal. Seem like my grandfather didn’t lie to me.

That day he had said: Isaiah, always keep this with you at all time. At first I didn’t have interest, because it was just a cowry money, something that was valuable back then in the old days, but not at all valuable anymore. But the tiny white cowry just disappeared out of his hand into thin air and reappeared on my neck with a rope. The heck? So I decided to treat it with some care since then. And it had helped me more than four hundred times since that day.

Should I check on my junior brother on my way home? I disqualified the idea. All he knows how to do is tell me about all kinds of girls he just met, only to end all the stories in the same way: What should I do?

The time is going just as it normally does. But I didn’t know how to cook, and I wasn’t I interested in learning it, I felt it’s kinda boring, boring and repetitive. I bought one Fearless energy drink and one small bread. Not that I will eat the bread tonight, it is for the next morning. But I will sip from the Fearless energy drink, before falling asleep.

Most of my time is always spent on thinking. Then doing some little push-ups. I write too, but not always, since I will go a long distance jogging, almost every day. So mostly I am always silent, except my girl is around or the situation call for talking. My girl? I decided to think about it.

I graduated secondary school around 2011. No serious relationship since then. But I got a woman pregnant before leaving the school behind. I don’t know where she is now. Had she fallen in love with another person? She had to. It had been a long time.

The next morning I woke up and checked my messages. I felt like smiling. There was a message from Happiness, and then Oluwasikemi.

Happiness: “Hello handsome, good morning. You didn’t miss me too much right? Text me when you wake up.”

I replied her: “Good morning. Just woke up now. You want to check my tiny room when you’re free sometime?”

The message was delivered but not read yet. I checked Oluwasikemi messages. It was two.

She texted: “I hope you know that was not how they treated a woman?”

Maybe she was worried when she didn’t get a reply. Because her next message read: “Will you check me at school when you’re free?”

I don’t like playing game. I replied her: “It’s okay. You can only come if you want to.”

After texting the two of them. I did all my sluggish daily routine from brushing my teeth and taking bath but before then I already did some little push-ups and eat the bread and drank water then topped it up with the remaining Fearless energy drink before jogging to shop. I am helping a brother taking care of a liquor shop. But in reality, I was just there because it gives me peace of mind. And because it helps me to disguised people out of my mission.

“You came late today,” the lady opposite my shop said. “People already comes to buy market but left when they didn’t see you.”

I looked at her and didn’t talk. I came late? People already come to buy market? You could have broke the damn door and sold it to them, no wonder you’re here all your life and didn’t achieve anything. Idiot!

“Bro you’re here,” one of the guys that already knew I only open at twelve noon walked up to me. “I want you to check this ticket for me agba.”

“Is it a sports betting or lotto?” I nodded to him and said.

“Lotto is for mathematicians,” the guy laughed. “I don’t dare putting my hard earned money into that. It is sports.”

He handed his phone to me and I went through the ticket. It was perfect. I just removed two games I felt will likely not score enough goals. I gave the phone back to him.

“Give me X-MAN boss, I want to copy your style today” the guy said after putting money on the game. I wasn’t interested in knowing his staking capacity.

“X-MAN alone cannot make you be like me,” I said. “You will have to add Fearless energy drink and a little bit of water. You might die young otherwise.”

The guy laughed. “But I will still dïe either way?”

I nodded. “Yeah. You will dïe.” Then I bursted out laughing too. “I think we will all dïe.”

We both started laughing and the guy left after gulping down the X-MAN and transferred the money to me. He always makes me felt happiness is very simple. All the time I’ve known him he had never complain. Even if his betting ticket cut he’d just smile and look at me and said: Boss, another one got fired. We’d both laughed after that and then try some more tactics.

At around 2 PM both girls texted me, almost at the same time. And both of them was saying the same thing. They wanted to pay me a visit.