Chapter two

  ‘Wow! That was close. If mother had demanded for money from me, I would have been in for it,’ he smiled as he had gotten a positive response for his worries.

  ‘JT, your food is served,’ his mother called.

 He walked towards the table, sat down and prayed before savouring the food.

He smiled at each spoon he put into his mouth and relished the food that had so much great taste. He praised his mother’s cooking prowess.

The birds were chirping in the neighbourhood. From one mango tree to another they made their nests. They hopped on top of all the trees from a mango tree to an orange tree and then to the hibiscus flower in front of Justice’s house. They tended to the flower with their constant hopping as Justice would do during his leisure.

Apart from designing buildings as an architect, he also had another thing that turns him on, a hobby he wouldn’t dare let go even if he wanted; tending to the flowers.

He lazily opened his eyes as the morning ushered in a new dawn. He made to hurry out of bed to prepare for work but immediately realized it was a Saturday. He got out of bed as he put on his footwear and concurrently wore the jacket of his pyjamas.

He went straight to the window after saying his prayers as he was attracted by the song being sung by the birds through their constant chirpings. As he opened the window, a ray of thin bright light ushered itself into the room thereby illuminating the room. After the light was a sharp caressing breeze that stroked the hairs on his arms and brushed back his thick curly black hair.

He thought; today is indeed going to be bright and his prayer of no rain would be answered.

He hurriedly brushed his teeth and had a cold bath. His mother brought in breakfast of cooked noodles with scrambled eggs and a hot Lipton tea. He savoured it as always.

He enjoyed taking Lipton and preferred it to other cocoa beverages as it keeps him fit.

After breakfast, he took his laptop out and sat at the frontage of the house under one of the mango trees. He was trying to make more sketches of some buildings when suddenly he felt a drop on his hand.

He looked up to locate the bird that had excreted on him when he realized that they were actually rain drops.

Immediately, the rain drops were followed by thin films of lightening and a roaring thunder. And then, the rains came pouring. He barely managed to carry his belongings into the house even though he was half drenched.

  ‘JT, where are you?’ His mother called from the bedroom.

  ‘Over here mum,’ he answered trying to hide himself from his mother’s scrutinizing gaze.

  ‘Just take a good look at yourself. I’ve always warned you never to sit under that tree whenever you want to work but you wouldn’t heed me. If the birds don’t excrete on your clothes and on your laptop, it would be something else. And now today, just now your whole body is drenched because you called for it.’ She snapped.

  ‘Well mum, I don’t see anything wrong in my sitting under the tree. They are just nature, mother.’ He went to embrace his mother but she brushed him aside and sighed as she went out to the frontage to view the magnitude of the rain.

She was cut short in her tracks as she noticed some showers of rain pouring into the living room from the portion of the zinc that was blown open by a fiery breeze the last time.

  ‘O my God! What do I do now?’     

  ‘Mum, what is it?’ He rushed in on her immediately he heard her exclaiming.

She didn’t respond but only managed to point her fingers up towards the direction of the rain that was pouring.

  ‘Oh! My God! Not again,’ Justice exclaimed.

  ‘JT, where is your father?’ She asked with a grim face.

  ‘He-e-e,’ nodding his head as words proved difficult to come out of his mouth.

  ‘What do you mean by he-e-e?’ She asked in a rather confused state.

‘He actually went for a parochial church committee meeting, so he asked me to tell you, because you were not around at that time.’

She hurried into the room and brought as many buckets and bowls as she could collect.

  ‘You think we would pull through this?’ She asked as she lifted a bucket that was already filled and he kept another replacement immediately to avoid the house being flooded.

It rained heavily for another 30 minutes and started subsiding. Unknown to both mother and son, while they were trying to save their living room, the patch on the zinc in the bedroom which was directly on top of the bed had started letting in the waters. The foam soaked so immensely that when JT came to rest his bones after the exhaustion he could not help but cry on seeing it.

He ran out to call his neighbour, the one that had stopped him on the way the other day.

Over the years, Prince had been a close friend to JT, in fact; he was known to be his confidant. People know them in that area as ‘David and Jonathan.’

Prince as well, had finished his first degree and was working for a bank at that moment. Both parties could do anything in each other’s house without minding.

  ‘Prince, Prince,’ he called as he rushed out of his room. He knocked on Prince’s door.

  ‘Yes, who is that?’ His father asked.

He was a tall, slim, dark complexioned man.  He liked having a clean shave and looking so neatly groomed. He shouldn’t be anything less than 50.  He looked so gay and easy going.  He sat in the living room, his eyes glued to the paper in his hands.

Justice opened the door to the living room and peeped.

  ‘Good afternoon daddy, please is Prince in?’

  ‘Oh it’s you JT,’ he lit up his face on seeing him. He had always liked the friendship between his son, Prince and this well-groomed boy, JT.

  ‘He is not in my son but I think I should direct you to where he is, that is, if you really want to see him urgently.’

  ‘Yes, daddy I do,’ he responded hurriedly and prayed that this his friend’s father should hurry up before the foam soaks beyond recognition.

  ‘He told me he was going to meet with the chairman.’ I hope you know who I’m talking about?’ He asked and hoped that his answer should be positive.

  ‘Yes daddy I know,’ there is absolutely nothing about him I don’t know, he thought.

  ‘Oh, that’s good,’ lifting his face from the newspaper he was reading and his face immediately lit up because of the answer he got.

  ‘Then you hurry up before he leaves from there and goes to another place. You know?’ He tried to start a conversation. ‘These banks don’t give one a breathing space,’ coming close to whisper into his ear.

  ‘Yes I know daddy,’ JT responded and was already at the door before he shouted, ‘thanks daddy for the information.’

Prince’s father smiled and went back to his reading. The chairman’s house was not too far from the house.  JT had to wear a three quarter (3/4) sized knickers just to enhance easy movement.

There was a large mass of water everywhere.

He paddled his way through the water though not without much difficulty.

He could see the stupendous building some kilometers ahead. The pain he felt in his legs could not be compared to the pain he felt in his heart.

He wished his friend could help in amending his broken heart.

‘Few more strides,’ he thought, he would be there.

The Local Government Chairman, Chief Thomas Idowu is indeed a man to reckon with. For the past four years in which he had really carried out his duties and responsibilities, he had really not given any citizen any course to question his integrity. In fact, he was a good man to the core; and his wife? As the saying goes; “there is no successful man without a woman.”

She is an epitome of beauty, humility and intelligence. Now that their tenure is almost concluding, the citizenry still wants them back at all costs. Rumours even had it that he is contesting for the gubernatorial elections.

Being enwrapped in his thoughts, he couldn’t realize what was happening, he was already standing in front of the gate housing the magnificent building.

He peered through the gate aided by the little gap in between the gates and what he saw amazed him.

  ‘What a house in its grandeur.’ He thought.

  ‘Well, I can’t get a sight of Prince. Oh well, it’s not as if he would be standing outside the building like one waiter or something,’ he chuckled.