THE NAIJA HUSTLE

ONE

TEN YEARS EARLIER

   ~CHIDI~

Life was going well. I lived in my small home town, surrounded by all the people I loved. It was so peaceful, well that was until three weeks ago.

Well my story begins in a period that is normally known for it's festivities, Christmas. This period in my small home was normally filled with joy and happiness. The birds of the air sang cheerfully, jingle bells rang from the Church, people finally wore the new clothes they had been gathering all year round, noise from beer parlours, restaurants and of course my favourite, rich returnees trooped in with different cars and attires. It was beautiful to watch and be part of, how I love Christmas

I never knew that things were about to change. It was three days to the 25th of December and I was woken up by the shout of my father, whom recently has been in quite a mood.

For weeks he has been shouting at me, comparing me to other people telling me to go and hustle like my mates, make money and take care if them. It was either can't you see what this person is doing for his father or what that person bought for his mother

To be honest if it was just my dad making all this noise, I would have just written the matter off and concluded that he was just an old man making noise but it wasn't. People around the village also made it worse, infact there is no manner of insult my friends, Emeka, Chinedu and I didn't receive

We decided manage to swallow all the insults, the way one swallowed hot tea and endure it all. Well that was until Emenike came back driving a land cruiser and splashing water on people he saw on the road just to show that he had a car. ( I mean who does that right?). Yeah this was the final straw.

I thought that they were rumors though, that a human being could not be so shallow until one day when Emeka and I experienced it first hand that's when I understood the saying " To see is to believe

Our encounter with Emenike took place on a Friday afternoon when myself and Emeka were coming back from the football field where we usually went to train. We were casually walking under the blazing harmattan sun on Chief Uchenna road, the dustiest road in our community, discussing  the latest happenings when we heard a car honking behind us.

"Ahah who is that one now?" Emeka said, only to turn back to see a black land cruiser coming in our direction with full speed. When the car got closer, we saw who the driver was from the partially tinted glass, it was Emenike.

He drove as if he had intentionally avoided the good side of the road and like the mad man that he was drove into the pot holes just so he could splash water on us, then in the blink of an eye Chidi and I were covered with muddy water.

"Are you blind, can't you see where your driving to again or do you just refuse to have sense?" Emeka shouted in anger and honestly I don't blame him because prior to the splash, he was wearing a white jersey which people admired not just because it was white but because it was a Real Madrid jersey which people knew was expensive, but now that it was covered with mud.

I think what infuriated him the more was the fact that he knew after he washed it, it will have that off white colour people called 'it was white'.

"I'm not sure hippo go wipe this one."
(If you don't understand ask a Nigerian nearby)

The only thing Emeka could really do was reign insults on Emenike, then the car suddenly stopped as if Emenike heard the shouting and insults.

He came down from his car in slow motion like he was a celebrity about to enter a red carpet event, wearing a white Caftan with that cap Hausa people liked wearing ( from what I saw on Television in mama Obinna's joint) with white shoes that looked incomplete at the back because I could see his heels. He had really changed since the last time I saw him.

Seeing him made my mind drift down memory lane when we were still in school. Well back in school you know that guy in your class that is always in vogue fashion wise, always seems to have money but is always at logger heads with teachers, that's Emenike. Back then was a scrawny looking boy who believed he was handsome. He and his crew chased girls but was always rejected, always failed his assessment.

I remember our math teacher Mr James telling him after giving him a serious thrashing once that he will never be successful in life. If only he could see him now

Back to the present

He took two steps forward moving away from his car and shouted

"Bia Chidi and Emeka, so you are still in this village?.I'm sure that Chinedu too is still here". Well as you can see I have made money" then he stopped talking and brought out a few five hundred Naira notes and fanned himself with them, then he continued talking " You see all this money, don't think I will waste my time giving you oo, I'm not like that I can't give my money to unfortunate homo-sapiens like you, I don't want you to stain my money with bad luck biko".

After the humiliation he turned to make his way to his car laughing then turned again and said we should tell our mothers to vacate their position as markets leaders because they were wretched so people like his mother who had money to take over.

As I watched Emenike enter his car and drive off I was speechless. Watching him I clenched my fist in an effort to stop myself from crying, telling myself that I was a man and men don't cry. Then I turned to Emeka to find comfort because he had a way of hiding his emotions and keeping calm when in distress but now even he seem to want to cry. We just continued the rest of our walk to my house in silence.

When we got to my house and sat down on the porch I looked at Chidi again but his face was in his palms so I just sat quietly like a small child who was severely beaten by an elder. We waited for Chinedu to come so we could analyse our mistakes in training as we always did so we could become better, we had started this in our secondary school days and it had become a ritual since then.

Chinedu came about thirty minutes later singing Phyno's 'Fada Fada' in a very loud voice ,probably because the coach gave him maltina as a result of the goal he scored today. Then he saw our faces and asked what happened. Then I narrated the story to him because I saw that Chidi was in no mood to talk.

"Emeka he really did that chai, that guy is lucky I was not there if not I would have changed it for him, is it because he has money now that he will not allow someone to have peace,ok we shall see."

I just looked down and said nothing hoping that this was a dream that I'll wake up from, hoping that everything will be better but what I didn't know was the worst was yet to come.

Translation

Bia- come

Biko - please ( in igbo language)

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