Thorns In My Boot - S01 E30

Story 2 years ago

Thorns In My Boot - S01 E30

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 30

Amaka did not return to Abuja after her

three months maternal leave, she resumed

at her Chambers in February 2000, there

were so many rumour about the year 2000

that we had to hold on and see whether the

world will end truly on one hand or if all

Computers and electronic devices

worldwide will become obsolete and useless

as it was rumoured with the millennium

bug.

The Office is at the top floor of Heritage

Super market Building at Upper Chime

Avenue New haven Enugu “Amaka Ojo

Solicitors” was conspicuously written and

hung from the third floor . The Chamber was

an instant success as all the Clients she had

handled for her father and for Gani

Chambers automatically became Amaka Ojo’s

Clients.

The Office was originally a four bed room

apartment but we partitioned it into

different sections for the Company use. Six

graduates were employed for marketing

and office administration and three young

Lawyers also as assistants. She reserved a

room from the flat for personal use because

of the Baby and for her rest.

She is currently heavy with my second Child.

The scan result showed that it is a male

child.

We also relocated in the year 2000 to a

rented Bungalow at Nwodo street New

Haven, it is fenced and we occupied the

whole building. Amaka’s niece moved in

with us and we enrolled her at in a private

secondary school not too far from the

house. I also sold my first Bike and bought a

brand new one. I built a poultry inside the

compound because it was very spacious. I

started with a thousand Chicks of Broilers

and a thousand of layers and after six

months, eight hundred layers that survived

started producing a minimum of forty crates

of fresh eggs daily, nine hundred Broilers

grew matured and we sold them off at

Christmas before replenishing the Stock. The

layers are replenished when they are

eighteen months old and by the time they

are twenty four months old, they are sold off

as old layers while their successors begin to

lay eggs. The business blossomed and I

wake up early daily and open the gate to

attend to women who had come to carry

the eggs booked for the previous day. I did

not need to go and canvass for buys, they

sought me.

My parents have also moved into their

private apartment at Nkwagu near Abakaliki

town, Ekundayo is five years old and had

two younger brothers. Baba Dayo called me

and reported mama to me, he said I should

talk her out of her idea of wanting more

Children after three, he also said mama had

forbade him from using Condoms on her. I

called mama and tried to make her see

reason but she bluntly refused, she said it is

only menopause that would stop her.

She claimed she had suffered a lot in the

past and it is now she is leaving her life

afresh so no one should stop her, after all

they can afford to take care of ten Children

now. I called Baba Dayo and told him that

we should pray that menopause takes its toll

on her since she was already above forty

five years of age but Baba Dayo expressed

fears that mama seems to be as fertile as a

teenager.

My Friend Ayo the Barber also graduated

from I.M.T and went for this national youth

service corps at Anambra state, he was

eventually posted to Girls secondary school

Unubi as a teacher, that is Amaka’s Village,

the school provided him with

accommodation but he chose to live in

Amaka’s fathers empty house. He said he

would have married from that town if not

for the fact that he was already engaged

with a girl they schooled together.

My performance at school was excellent; I

was aiming for a first class grade. I was still

the course representative till my final year, I

was advised to participate in the

departmental politics as I was a viable

candidate for the position of the

departmental president but I declined. My

hands were too full already.

An incident occurred in 2001 that made me

to stop riding Okada at night. It was a busy

Friday night and a young man in blue jeans

and black leather jacket had stopped me at

Rangers avenue, he said I should take him

to a hotel at Obiagwu. We agreed on the

fare and he climbed the bike. We had ridden

for about twenty minutes when we

approached a railway crossing and I had to

slow down to cross the rail but to my

surprise, the passenger grabbed my

shoulders from behind and pushed me off

my bike, as I was going down, I stretched

my hands backwards and pulled on his

jacket so we all went down together with

the bike. We started to wrestle on the

ground and instead of passersby to come to

my aid; they ran away from us while

oncoming cars that slowed down to cross

the rail line were cheering us on. They did

not know the duel was a matter of life and

death.

The man was on me with hands on my neck

squeezing life out of me. One of his fingers

strayed into my mouth and I chewed on it, I

heard the bone cracked and the criminal

screamed and released his grasp on my

neck, I rolled over and ran to the tools box

strapped to the side of my Bike, I opened it

and pulled out a fourteen inches long screw

driver, the thief charged at me and lifted me

off the ground with the intention of

slamming my head on the tarred road, that

was when I buried all the blade of the screw

driver into his neck behind the Collar bone,

he shouted, Ye! I pulled the blade and dug it

into his head twice before I fell on my back,

ye! I don die! He shouted; na wetin you take

shook me so? He screamed.

He held onto his neck as blood oozed out

from his neck and head. Ye! I don die! I don

die! He said as he ran blindly across the road

into the bush. I quickly lifted my bike up and

raced home to narrate my experience to my

wife. That was the night that I stopped

using my Bike for commercial purpose. I

focused on my poultry farm.

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