Whiskers

Whiskers

It started with the industrial action
it was suddenly announced somewhere
Labour was downing tools
Schools were shutting down
The Labour Union was fighting for something
The Federal Government was stalling over something
Someone had made a promise and broken it
Someone had taken someone else's sweats for granted
When two elephants fight
The grass bears the brunt!
The exodus was what followed 
Students moving back home from tertiary institutions
Nobody knew how long the impasse would last
one thing was sure
They would negotiate
Labour would Kick
Government would threaten 
A compromise would be reached
Students would cheer at the news
Lost time would be what it was
Some students would make it back
Some would make it back pregnant
Some would have lost interest totally in education
Some would have gotten married
Some would have travelled abroad
Some would be in police net for armed robbery
Some would have made money
and some, of course, would be dead!
He left campus immediately the strike was announced
He stayed off campus
his parent's house was about 20 minutes 
away from his school
When he was in 100 Level, he stayed on campus
But the hostels were reserved mainly for freshers 
and final year students
He could have squatted with some friends on campus
But squatting has its own disadvantages
Plus he liked his space and didn't really 
fancy sleeping on a bunk 
His mother was glad to have him at home
She tried not to intrude on his freedom
He goes to church when he wanted to
he goes to class when he wanted to
He stays with friends on campus when he had to
He wasn't given any rules whatsoever
He was naturally brilliant 
He liked to study and didn't need to be encouraged
He also had some social habits
He smoked (A stick, at most two) every day
He drank, also socially (Not more than two bottles a day
He had issues with his sinus and alcohol inflates something 
or the other when he had it in excess
He doesn't drink every day, but he smokes daily 
on campus, the Student Union building had a bar
He does most of his drinking there
But when he was not on campus
There was a guest house about five minutes walk from his house
He would hang out there with his friends
As soon as he left campus, he realised he couldn't go home
What would he be doing with all the time
He decided to go to the guest house close to his house
he would chill with friends till later in the evening
As soon as he got to the guest house
He saw the familiar face of the barman
They greeted each other with a hug!
The barman was also a student at the Polytechnic
He tended the bar by night and also doubles as a 
housekeeping staff for the hotel rooms 
They talked for a smile while he started smoking
Then came in two other guys
One a Student of the Polytechnic of Ibadan (Saki Campus)
The other a student of the Polytechnic of Ibadan (Eruwa Campus)
They started talking about the strike
The Saki guy said he heard about it the previous night and 
took the first bus back to the city to avoid the rush
The Eruwa guy said he was already on his way to town to see 
his parents about some need when he heard about the strike!
The Saki guy bought them a bottle of beer each
They chatted for two hours about all sorts
He had a girlfriend who was schooling at Eruwa
He knew she would inevitably be back in town
later that day
Suddenly the strike didn't feel so much like a bad thing anymore
he would get to see his babe and hit some soft targets
He was smiling to himself
Lost in the thought of whatever pleasure he was looking 
forward to when one of the guys suddenly screamed
"Whooooooaaaaaaa! Hahahaha"
What's that? He asked
The guy brought the thing out of his pocket
It was a half-smoked roll of marijuana rolled in Jumbo style
They all screamed!
He was not a marijuana freak
he had tried it once or twice and found it very unnerving
Apart form the catarrh that he got automatically after smoking it
He didn't like not being in charge of his own faculties
The feeling of floating or running away from reality
He believed marijuana was meant for miserable people
He liked his life, why would he want to miss a minute or two to
being light-headed, red-eyed, words slurring and irrational
His friends used to say "It made them eat very well"
He found that excuse ridiculous!
The only thing he found to be somehow positive was the 
sexual experience
All the  senses were heightened and the release was "BOMB"
But even after having such an experience once before
He would still not trade being sober for becoming addicted
to Marijuana
It had too many negatives and almost zero advantage!
Somehow the conversation gravitated towards smoking
that half-smoked marijuana
They had been in the guest house for almost four hours and
none of them wanted to go home yet
The barman told them they couldn't smoke marijuana within
the premises of the Guest House
He was also interested in smoking
He told them he would take them to a "Dagba" (A place
where they can relax and smoke) without any disturbance!
They all dropped their travel bags behind the bar
The barman told his assistant that he would be 
gone for a few minutes
They set out!
He didn't really want to smoke but he didn't 
want to look like a chicken
He would have to sit alone while they were gone and 
he felt they would just see him as a weakling
So he decided to go with them
Just a few puffs and they would be back to the Guesthouse
Just as they got to the gate
His phone rang!
It was his mother
He was sure she wanted to ask why he was still on campus 
He picked the call
His mother screamed "Come home now, I am dying, come home now"
He instinctively started running homewards
He didn't even bother telling the guys what happened
He got home within two minutes
He was panting and heaving when he got to the sitting room
He saw his mother
Her glasses were drawn halfway down her nose
Eyes looking through the glasses to a hymnbook 
Melodies of heaven coming out of her mouth
He went mad for a second
"Mummy, why did you call me like that?
why would you say you were dying?
I had to rush home thinking you were really hurt
How could you do this?"
His mother looked at him and said "Would you have rushed 
home otherwise? I was praying here and 
I suddenly sensed you were in danger
The Holy Spirit told me to call you and I did so
immediately! What I said practically jumped out of my mouth!
He couldn't believe it
His mother "The Born Again" lied and was covering
it up with the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit put the lie in her mouth?
Spoke it for her?
It was why he never bothered about church
The complexity of religion is galling and baffling
He sat down for a few minutes
He was raging like the sea
Boiling with anger
He stood up, went his room, changed and walked out
He didn't even bother telling his mother where he 
was going' he just slammed the door
He walked back to the guest house as briskly as he could
He was hoping the guys would have finished smoking 
and returned to the bar
When he got close to the Guesthouse
he saw a crowd
"What could have happened?" he wondered!
He saw a black truck with the Inscription "SARS"
on it 
He saw policemen
People were talking all at once
He got to the crowd and looked at what they surrounded
It was three dead bodies!
His friends!
The guys he was supposed to accompany to 
smoke or share a smake with!
The SARS guys were taking pictures of the corpses with
AK-$&s and other big guns on their chest!
They claimed the guys were armed robbers
They claimed the guys were the armed robbers that
had been terrorizing the community for several weeks
He couldn't make heads or tail of the story
He was feeling cold from within
He was shivering badly
He didn't get the gist
He saw an elderly man and asked him
"Sir, please what is going on?"
The elderly man told him that for several weeks
armed robbers had been terrorizing the community!
The community leaders wrote a letter to the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad of the police about the development
The SARS took up the case and positioned themselves
in the possible hideouts of armed robbers in the community
The young men that were killed were the armed robbers
The SARS people shot them dead at a spot
where people smoking Marijuana frequents close to
the guest house!
There was an exchange of gunfire and SARS triumphed!
WHOA!
He could barely swallow the lump in his throat!
These guys didn't have even a pocket knife
They all dropped their bags in the bar
Where would the guys have seen AK-47s?
The barman walked up to him with tears in his eyes
The barman said his supervisor arrived and he couldn't go
with them again
So he just pointed them to the spot and returned to 
his duty post
That was how he escaped death!
He cried all the way home!
He never told his mother what happened because
she would have seen it as a license to restrict his
movement but he learnt his lesson!
He also came to respect the power of the Holy Spirit
It took him some years, but he also came to know the 
Lord Jesus and started walking with the Holy Spirit!

PS: In memory o
 Lati (Saki guy) and Fatai (Eruwa guy)
and a third guy who joined them, whose name 
I couldn't recall!
I remember them every April
They make me acknowledge that God gave 
me many chances
A dead man can never fear death again!
I am fearless and full of the Holy Spirit
I live that I might let others have the eternal life
There is nothing as precious as a praying mother
If you are not a praying mother become one today
Your child's life might one day depend on it!
This event happened around CUTE GUEST House
Agbowo, Ibadan (2001)