Yinka sat by the water side on Alpha
beach having a deep thought under a very hot sun. His unbuttoned beach-shirt
and 3-quater pant allowed enough air to blow over key areas of his body; but
that didn’t help; he was very hot inside his heart. His life was similar to the
situation of that beach: The beach was beginning to overflow and cover the
surrounding land-his problems were beginning to overflow and cover his life too.
He has been full of various miseries lately: jobless, sick, abandoned by the
remaining people he could call family. Well, that may be because they see him
as a lazy young man: “After struggling to help the orphan through school, he couldn’t
even get a job.” One of them once said.
The only set of people he could call
family now were his two jobless friends, Elechi and Cyprian, whom they used to hustle
together.
Together he and his friends have
tried so many things, but they never hit money. Being an artistic person, he
was the one who made more money, making art works and selling them. But the
market has not been favourable on him. Every other option of making money
failed woefully. And he didn’t want to consider the last option that came to
his head; suicide. He used to see those who commit suicide as weaklings-why
should such thought be coming to his head now?
While growing up in the ghetto the
slogan of him and his peers was “Get rich or die trying.” He really wanted to
die trying and not die committing suicide.
Something pitched in his thought
and he looked up: There was commotion on the beach.
Some people were running out of the
beach side while some others were running towards the water. He saw a woman
crying so hard. She was tearing her cloths while threatening to jump into the
beach. She would have fulfilled her threat if not for the ladies who held her.
It was then that he saw a young boy being drawn away, far into the water.
Some men quickly jumped into the
water and swam towards the boy. By the time the boy was brought out of the
water he was dead. All effort of the good Samaritans to revive him failed.
Within a while everybody, who were
supposed to be having a nice time at beach had disappeared. He just sat down,
definitely thinking about his own problems. He didn’t realize on time that he
was the only person remaining on the beach. The other people around were touts
who take gate fee from those who come to the beach.
“What is wrong with all these
people?” He heard the voice of a young boy beside him.
He turned around and reflexively jumped
to his feet. He was the boy who drowned!
“Gosh! You are dead!”
The boy just stared while he stared
back in shock. The boy’s shirt was no longer on him, having been removed after
the drowning. He had just his shorts on. Sand and water spread over his body. “Why
did they even come to this beach anyway? Didn’t they know this water is cursed?”
He said as if in agony.
A cold chill ran through Yinka’s
spine and settled on his legs. He wanted to run, but he could not. He also
wanted to cry for help, but looking around, not even the touts were around
anymore. He turned to look at the boy again but he was no longer there. A
bigger level of fear gripped him like a Christmas chicken who realized the killer’s
knife was being sharpened.
By the time he turned to run towards
the exit gate, he saw his pastor staring at him.
“Brother Yinka,” He said, shedding
tears himself. “WHY?”
“Why what?”
“See what you have caused upon
yourself…” He pointed to the beach.
When
Yinka looked back at the water, the level has risen as high as a ten story
building and was beginning to fall on him.
“Aaahhhhhh!!!” He screamed.
And he woke up... It was a dream!
He knew the meaning of the dream as
soon as he woke up. But he could not tell the concerned neighbours who ran into
his apartment after hearing his high pitched scream. Worse still, Elechi and Cyprian,
his confidants were not around to witness the nightmare; they went out in
search of jobs since morning.
He checked his time and saw it was
6:30pm, the day he finished Aro’s job.
weldone bro,more grease 2 ur elbow and more annointing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymously. :)
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