The Echo

His girlfriend was in a bind

She bought relaxer from someone on credit

Did her hair to look good for him

Expected some money to come in during the Christmas break

Money refused to yield

Time came for her to pay

She couldn't

Relaxer seller wouldn't take No

He arrived just then!

He saw his babe

Blouse locked by the creditor

What was going on?

Tearfully his girlfriend narrated her ordeal to him

He begged the creditor

'Please come tomorrow, i will have the money ready'

Creditor left

What was he to do?

They were both 17 and he didn't have any money

Oh Gosh!

He thought about it throughout the night

They were poor

He had no business having a babe

Much less one as sophisticated as this one

Early the next morning, he sneaked one of his mother's gas cylinders out of the house

He was going to sell it to raise the money

He would save her!

As he turned the corner off his street

Security men accosted him

Wetin you carry? Thief!

Serious slaps landed on his face

They talked about setting him ablaze!

'My house is over there, my mother sent me to get gas' he screamed

They followed him home

His mother saved him

Why did you do this?

He told his mother the truth

His mother cried

You almost lost your life because of a girl's vanity?

What if they had burnt you alive?

That afternoon, his mother gave him the money

Go and give her

He skipped like a deer

Got there in time

He was Superman

Whoa!

A month later he saw her in a man's car

His heart raced

He went to her house that evening

He saw the same man there

What was going on?

She told him bluntly

"He just moved into the neighborhood, he is my boyfriend now"

'She was your age but meant for older men' His mother said

Like two ships that greet each other with flashing lights and then sail off into the night, they went their separate ways

His pain gave him a telescope, he blocked out the moment and ran for the future

She forgot all about him too

He graduated

She graduated and got married

He started his own law firm

Prospered

Moved his mother out of the slum

Her husband died in a plane crash

She ran to his law firm

'Be my lawyer'

Her case had merit

He took it without a second thought

They had meetings, conferences, depositions

The case lumped their lives together

She drew close to him, fell in love

It was the natural thing to do

At first they met in hotels, then she moved in

He had a mansion.

She was his woman

His mother approved

Four years later, he won the case

As soon as she received her settlement he told her to go

The case was over

She ran to his mother

She didn't know what she did

Why he would so easily discard her

His mother went to him

What happened?

He: I am getting married Mama, it was her choice to move in and it is now my choice that she moves out

Why?

She is my age but meant for older men!