Chapter three

He knocked and there was no answer. He knocked persistently.

‘O boy, let it not be that I’m a bit late,’ he thought. Just at that instance, he could see a security man advancing towards him.

  ‘Who is there?’ The guard asked.

  ‘JT,’ he answered.

  ‘Whom do you wish to see?’ He asked.

  ‘Please, I want to meet with Prince.’

  ‘Prince?’ The guard asked in confusion.

  ‘JT on realizing that he could not be granted entrance rephrased his statement.

  ‘I mean, I want to meet with the chairman.’ He knew that Prince would definitely be with the chairman.

The security man opened the gate and ushered him in.

JT walked towards the main building and never imagined that looking at the building from the outside, one would bet that the exterior is just as good as the interior.

But on the contrary, the interior seemed much more sophisticated than the exterior itself. This artistic irony seemed to impress him more. The flowers! Yes, the flowers caught his attention. There were beautiful laurels as well as flowers all around the house and he couldn’t stop himself from touching them. He however felt that the rain did not drop on this side of the world as everything looked just perfect.

Just as he was about to pick a rose from the flower garden, he felt a force on him.  He could feel so much energy instantly.  There was this connecting force between him and whoever that owned such hand.

  ‘What do you think you are doing?’ She snarled.

  JT, who was squatting in a bid to pick the flower, looked up and saw the most beautiful being he had ever seen.

He stretched up his upper limb and stood eye ball to eye ball with this intruder.

‘I’m JT, Justice in full,’ extending his hand for a handshake and equally smiling.

She ignored the extended hand and brushed off the hand she was already holding and used her high-heeled shoes to crush the rose he had just picked.

‘You don’t go about in people’s houses plucking their flowers? Do you?’ she snarled again.

  ‘I don’t think I have ever done this before, but I didn’t know what propelled me today. They are just simply beautiful,’ he said.

  ‘Well, the next time you come into my residence and touch anything, exquisite or beautiful as you may see it, you would see the worst of me.’ She said as she walked past him but stopped abruptly and added.

  ‘What the heck are you doing in my house and who do you wish to see anyway? I can’t imagine father pulling out with the likes of you. I don’t wish to see you here again.’ She sized him up with her eyes from top to down and from down to top again. She had a wry smile with her as she walked away.

To say that JT was amazed was an understatement, as a matter of fact; he was hypnotized by her beauty and not her arrogance.

  ‘I didn’t know that Chief Thomas Idowu had such a beautiful grown-up daughter like this.’ He thought.

As he walked towards the building, he could spell out the girl’s features.

She is indeed a beauty to behold. As she walked; her long legs sprouted out from her short skirts. The high- heeled shoes gave her an elegant look. She had a habit of pushing her long black hair back with the nodding of her head from different positions.

In contrast to JT’s colour, she had a dark shining colour like that of a polished earthen ware. Her big round eyes were simply overwhelming. She spoke with an accent and JT thought she must have lived in the U.K. He was totally enthralled by her beauty.

  ‘Everything I want in my woman.’ He fantasized.

He entered into the gallery and as he walked towards the huge sitting room he saw from the walls of the gallery a collection of knick knacks. He browsed through them and was quite intrigued by the collector’s sense of art.

Prince on sighting his friend rose and introduced him to Chief Thomas Idowu.

  ‘Sir, meet my friend Justice,’ gesticulating with a wave of the hand.

  ‘Good morning sir,’ JT greeted still standing.

  ‘Good morning my dear, how are you?’

  ‘I’m very good sir,’ he responded.

  ‘Well, in that case what are you waiting for?

Please, do sit down.’ He waved his hand to a seat.

  ‘Thank you sir,’ he responded, sitting.

  ‘Well, what brought you to my house young man?’

  ‘Hmm…,’ he muttered.

‘Actually sir,’ he rolled his eyeballs as to pick his words carefully and seizing the opportunity to scrutinize the man before him who was actually unaware.  He was a sturdy man with all his physical features telling off his success story.  He looked mean from his appearance but had the softest of hearts. Justice tried to draw an analogy between this kindhearted man and his harsh daughter but couldn’t place it.  He was drawn out of his assessment state when he heard his name.

‘JT, we are still waiting,’ his friend chipped in.

 ‘Yes, as I was saying, I called on my friend Prince, but unfortunately he was not home. I was told he was here and as the matter was urgent I decided to meet him here myself. I hope you wouldn’t mind sir?’  He opined, unsure of his response.

  ‘Why would I mind? You seem to be a well-groomed young man, judging from your appearance though these days, appearances are quite deceptive.’  He chuckled, throwing his right hand into thin air.

  ‘All the same, you are quite welcome. Pardon me Justice; I hope you wouldn’t mind telling me a bit of what brought you here.’

Immediately, JT looked at his friend and Prince gave him a carry-on nod.

  ‘Sir, a couple of hours ago the rains came and unfortunately, the whole house was drenched. As it is, Prince is the only person I have that I can trust as a friend. So, I need him to help me wriggle out the water from the soaked foam. And if possible, help me close the opening on the roof.’ He exhaled as soon as he was through with his statement.

  ‘Why would you need someone to climb the roof with you? Why not call a builder to rectify the problem?’

  ‘I don’t have any money on me sir. I’ve not been paid owing to the fact that my boss travelled out of the country. Consequentially, I have to manage myself until I get paid and there is no other person to help me in this situation but my friend here.’  He gesticulated towards his friend, giving him a captivating wink.

  ‘I admire you for your sincerity and humility. One wouldn’t get most young men like you with these endearing qualities these days. Well, how does giving you Ten Thousand (N10,000.00) Naira sound?  Will it enable you rectify the problem?’  The Chairman asked uncertain.

  ‘No sir, thank you. I’d rather do a job and be paid than collecting money I did not work for.’

The chairman sat staring at him.  Honestly, in all his service years he had never seen an honest and active young man like this.

He gave him a job of attending to the laurels.

The same laurels which the daughter forbade him from touching.

He finished his work that day and went home and was able to fix the leaking roof, cooked a tasty meal for his parents and still had some money left that could carry him for a couple of days before his boss returns.

That evening, he sat with his best friend and reminisced about yesterday, talked about today and then dreamt and fantasized about tomorrow.

It was an auspicious day. The dusk had finally given way to the dawn. It was a long wait for Justice.

His alarm clock struck 5a.m and started ringing.

He was awakened by the sound of it, he ran straight to the convenience to ease himself. When he was through with that, he went back to the room, knelt down in front of his bed and made a short prayer. He was full of anxiety as to what would happen at work today.

He didn’t know what to expect.

  ‘What does today hold for me?’ He asked.

He hurried down to the bathroom and had a cold bath. Over the years, he had grown so fond of having cold water bath. He believed it energizes him and creates a kind of mental alertness. He thought that today could be the day that would change his story.

Straight from the bathroom he hurried into his clothes and bade his mother good-bye.

 ‘Mother…mother, I’m off to work.’

  ‘Aren’t you going to have breakfast, my son?’

  ‘No mother I’m already late,’ he closed the door behind him as he hurried out to the streets.

He looked at his wrist-watch it was already five minutes past six. He wondered how he was going to make it to the Island before 8.00am given the constant traffic jam that has always been unavoidable in the mornings.