Blackman

Chapter One: To Die or Not To Die?

Starz Gym,
Industrial Projects,
Alimosho, Lagos.

"'I'm a Nigerian eagle, in London smoking illegal', that Skepta is a dead guy, he stole that line from me." James started his usual evening banter as he strapped on his boxing gloves "l mean, do you know how much he gets from that song alone, that line's sick and he didn't even credit me, mtcheeew" he hissed "dead guy".
Niyi was in the ring already, jumping about, getting warmed up for the fight "Yeah yeah, stop talking and come get your ass whupping."
James raised an eyebrow "Come get your ass whupping?", he repeated mockingly, Niyi stopped jumping and looked at him, he went on "What is 'ass whupping', oh you think you're still in Jand abi? I'm coming, lemme enter that ring first, I'll beat your daddy." I smiled, I was at the other end of the gym, practicing with a speed bag. I owned the gym, James and I coached heavyweight classes but Niyi was head coach, and for good reason. Niyi trained me, he did for seven years to make me the National Champion I am now, so yes, I'm fairly certain James would shamefully lose. He continued his banter "But seriously, I'm not supposed to be here, how much do I make in this job?" I pay him 750k a month "I should be on TV screens, I should be a celeb."
I'd had enough "Because of one line?"
"One mad line." He corrected.
"Fine, one mad line 'Nigerian eagle, in London smoking illegal', you don't smoke, can't smoke actually. Get into that ring and do something you actually can, waste of a man."
"This one is mad o." He murmured as he bent under the ropes and stepped into the ring. I smiled, walked closer to watch the fight.
The fight started, James had successfully landed the first punch, followed with a series of fast punches and ended the combo with an uppercut. Niyi staggered a lot before he found his footing. "Whup my ass koh? I'll show you who's boss, come up come up." Niyi got closer, James sent a punch, he dodged, James punched again, missed again, missed again and missed again. Niyi landed a clean left jab on his face, sent him staggering to the corner of the ring "That hurt." Must he talk? Niyi dominated, or rather was dominating the rest of the fight, James was getting his face bloodied, until that unmistakable voice pierced the atmosphere.
"Niyi!" She screamed "Niyi! Where's that fool? He'll die today." The voice was getting closer "He's mad." Niyi's wife, Jane came into the light, she didn't stop walking.
"Babe, what's the problem?" Niyi asked confused.
"You're mad!" She went on and the switched to Igbo, ranting and cursing in her native tongue as she stepped into the ring. Note this, once a Nigerian woman switches from English to cursing in her native tongue, just know you've entered another level of wahala. She pounded on his chest, pushed him, she was crying now "How could you do this to me? I trusted you? How could you?" Niyi held her hands trying to calm her down. This was happening, I saw it coming, I warned him.
"Baby, I didn't do anything, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you."
"No, no, you did." Her voice was shaky "Baby, you did and you slipped up." She wiped tears from her face with one hand and pulled her phone out from her pocket with the other and showed it to him "You slipped up babe 'Your ass, this morning, was the best breakfast I've had in years'." She read out the text on her screen "l'm pretty sure you didn't eat my ass this morning while I was away from home, at your mother's place with our daughters." Niyi pulled the phone from her hands and stared at the screen in shock "You slipped up babe, you sent the message to me, instead of the woman who's gon' be serving you 'breakfast'" she air-quoted " from today, 'cos guess what, I'm leaving you."
"Oh no baby, you got it wrong." Niyi began, I started shaking my head and then buried it in my palms "That's not what happened." Jane gave this Really? face "I sent that message to you," he pointed to her, emphasizing the 'you' to tell you what I wished we'd done this morning."
She got really infuriated just about then "'the fuck?! Think I'm wearing Pampers? I'm your wife, you idiot." She started walking into him, he took steps back "A grown ass woman, don't fucking treat me like a child." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down "I'll be leaving with the children, all five of them, I'll be at my mother's place so don't go around looking for us, don't come around either or call. I'll tell you when I'm ready to talk. Take care of yourself." She started to leave, he caught her arm "I'll tell you when I'm ready to talk." He let go and she stepped out of the ring. She took a few steps and turned back to face him "You fucked up, love, you really did."
I looked from her face to Niyi's, the disappointment on her face was killing him. She turned to me, her facial muscles loosened up and formed a smile "Komé, I'll be needing someone to warm my bed soon enough, will you be up to the task?"
That shocked me, why would she say that? I didn't want to be caught in the middle of this mess. Then I saw it. I saw a tear escape the pool she'd been holding back and roll down her cheek and I understood. She didn't mean what she'd just said, she just needed...consolation? No, not consolation, compensation. She needed some form of compensation, something that got to Niyi, something that would pass as some sort of win.
"I'm sure I will." I smiled, I gave her the win. She smiled back, thanking me with her eyes. I watched her leave, deciding not to look back as I could feel Niyi's burning gaze on the back of my head.
"What was that?" He demanded.
I sighed, turning to face him "Relax g," I gestured for him to calm down "you know she didn't mean that, she would never hurt you like that" his head dropped in shame. I was beating him up, I didn't want to but I felt it had to be done. Jane had just put to birth, a real fine baby boy they were both grateful for. Niyi just had been missing sex for months now and he finally broke. Even worse, he did it with a girl also named Jane, big fool he was, I mean, how wasn't it going to fail "You just had to fuck things up." I couldn't do the beating up thing, it wasn't my thing, I decided to lighten the mood "Plus she's older than me and I can't handle that in bed." Well, he didn't smile at that. Surprise, surprise.
"Hmm," I heard someone say, and then I noticed James had been quiet through all this, I didn't know him to be that mature, if only he remained quiet a little longer "she's not older than me and I'm very capable." Stop already, you fool "I can handle her." It didn't even take two seconds, Niyi lifted his head and in one quick swipe, sent a punch to his face and knocked him out immediately.
"Well, that shut him up" I said. Niyi was looking at the unconscious body on the floor when he suddenly turned alert, shocking me.
"Did you hear that?" He asked. I listened, then I heard it. It was faint, sounded like whimpering. Before we could make out what it was, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot silenced it. My eyes met Niyi's in shock as I started to run to the exit Jane had gone through a few moments ago. Pushing the doors open, I stopped in my tracks as I saw her body laying helplessly on the other side of the street, the pool of red around her increasing by the second. 'No, not Jane', was all I could think of.

So, that's the first chapter of my first official work, wheeew, I'm glad I got it all down.
Really hope you enjoyed it. To fellow lovers of grime music, I don't know if Skepta stole any line o, I just really love that line and Skepta's music.
Following the steps of my good friend @moyoakinlawon, I'll add a glossary below for the non-English Nigerian 🇳🇬 words. Our slangs are really catchy and effective, start learning, lol.

GLOSSARY
Jand-used to refer to countries overseas, mostly the U.S. and the UK
abi-pretty much used the way 'right' is used in rhetorical questions - you think you're still in Jand, right (or abi)?
beat your daddy-simply means 'really beat you', no parent beating is actually involved here.
wahala-trouble, serious trouble
Pampers-a diaper brand