There was a time when I was a young, naive teenager who knew nothing about life or experiences because my eyes were veiled by the comfort my mom provided me with. Life was enjoyable then as I had no worries or pain, but all that changed when I lost everything because of Bidemi. My only crime till this day was because I dared love someone who wasn’t meant for me, for every day I spent in exile I always cursed the day I met her. But she made me feel some type of way that I can’t fully explain. I couldn’t help but still think about her even after all these years apart, I also think about my daughter, I mean our daughter who I’ve not met or I’m not sure if Bidemi told her about me. Still, I looked forward to seeing her someday. I’m sure I would make an outstanding father.
I had promised myself long ago that I wouldn’t be like other fathers, I would be present in my child’s life because I knew the effect that lack of a father could cause in the upbringing of a child, I was often called a 'bastard’ because I didn’t know my father, and bullied excessively as a result, at first I was depressed by this, but later I learned to toughen up and fight for myself, my mother, on the other hand, did her own best, I couldn’t judge her, because she was great, even when we had little she made sure I was satisfied, but her attention diverted from me when she met my stepfather, the man did everything possible to strain the cord between myself and my mother, he was indeed an evil man. There were times when he paid my teachers to fail me in school to convince my mother into accepting to withdraw me out of school and instead learn a trade. I often always wondered what it was I did for the man that made him resent me so severely. But that was between him and God.
The next few days marked some level of intimacy between myself and Simbiat; I found myself developing some level of emotional feelings towards her, but I mostly shrugged them off as probably pity because of the secret she had told me, since the night she told me what Baba-Toheeb did to her, I’ve been feeling some level of bitter rage towards him. However, he was dead. I wished upon him every morning I woke up that he rots in the hottest area of hell, he was such an insensitive soul, I found it unbelievable that I even pitied him in the first place. I remember the conversation I had with Simbiat 2 nights ago after several rounds of sex when she had asked me about my plans, I had been almost tempted to tell her about my past, but I didn’t want to bother her with my troubles and the less she knows about me, the better for her, on the other hand, she had told me she wanted to become a world-class chef, and how she had been saving and doing odd jobs to be able to pay for her classes, I started to see Simbiat differently from that night, she was someone that was honestly speaking I always considered an 'NFA’. Still, from the conversations we had that night, I could only realise that I was the one who was the NFA because aside from the plans to exert my revenge, I had no other plans concerning my life. We were inseparable and became a couple again instantly because we did everything together, for a while I forgot about my goals and Bidemi, it was as if Simbiat had just frozen time and in all the time I spent with her, I had no worries.
Last night something spectacular happened, and as it were, Simbiat told me she was craving suya. So I had to dash out to mallam Shura’s place to get it, as it was my ritual I never rush when I get suya because the mallam always had one funny gist of talking to me about, from sports to politics, to women we spoke about everything except meat, and that’s because unlike everyone else I got twice the value of my suya.
Whenever my guys and I were broke they always forced me to go and get suya because they know I’d surely get more than enough to satisfy our hunger with a bowl of garri, don’t ask how we drink the garri because it’s usually a slaughterhouse, ‘Baptista’s style’ as he calls it, it’s him getting a large bowl, pouring garri into it, and allowing it swell for a few minutes then drain the water, and putting a little amount of sugar by his standard garri with too much sugar is adulterated, the garri must be sour to enjoy then after draining the initial water he adds enough fresh water. We all dig in, the last person to finish the garri washes the bowl, well let’s assume I’m usually the last, I love taking my time when it came to things like food and nacks, at least I’m not a one minute man like some people * whispers * 'Baptista.’
Mallam Shura is a staunch Arsenal fan, so I already figured what today’s gist would be all about, Arsenal lost, as usual, time for some severe lamentations. When I got there, I met a crowd of people patronising him, while his generator was hiccuping like it's about to die a slow, painful death, but that’s how it always has been, he didn’t even notice me, as he was busy negotiating the size of meat. At the same time, he sliced through the hunk of beef. It was going to be a long night, I thought to myself. I waited till the last person had left, and made my presence known, he was quite excited to see me, the thing about my dear friend, mallam Shura was that don’t ever go to him when Arsenal loses any match he’d sure sell the worst amount suya for you, it was an unspoken rule everyone who had stayed long on the street knew. But to me, that was different. After our usual pleasantries he began lamenting, ' walahi, my cow for Katstina sharp pass Lacazette, you no fit tell me to say that guy no be barber, let him just focus on barbing and leave football, let me not even talk about Auba, there’s a reason he’s getting bald already, Arteta will kill him, that guy is just a fraud and Bellerin walahi I swear on my cow's breast I’ll kill him’ I was already laughing seriously by this time, the thing about listening to Shura’s Arsenal’s rants is that they’re so hilarious that you’d forget that he’s also speaking from a place of pain. He continued ranting till he was tired, I never disturbed his rant, then he squeezed a sachet of pure-water into his mouth and poured the remaining into the fire, I moved back a bit, to shield myself from the flames and smoke, he then asked 'How much suya you want?’ I replied, '300 Naira’ well I knew he’d sell '600 Naira’ worth.
On getting home, I started hearing loud voices of people screaming at one another. First I thought, 'who magun don catch again?’ but as I got closer to my room, I saw that the noise originated from there, my heart skipped a bit, I was wondering what was wrong, my neighbours already lined the passageway trying to get a glimpse of the action inside the room, as they saw me I could see all of them looking at me judgmentally. Still, as I opened the door nothing could have prepared me for what I saw, Iya-Toheeb and Simbiat fighting one another fiercely, I thought to myself, 'which kind wahala be this?’
Wahala don wear waist beads😂😂
😂😂😂, this guy and trouble are like 5&6. I was expecting this