Last To Make It Is A Fool!

We were five lives interwoven by the desire to beat poverty in this game of life. We wanted it all, to breathe an air where money was the last thing on our minds. In a way, you can say that is what we all got in the end. We would have been six but after the words as we sat across the ruffled man in the dingy shrine, one left.

Lukmon would later tell us, “Omo una dey craze o.” He looked at us like he couldn't believe it was not really a joke that had gone too far. He shook his head in disappointment at our humourlessness. “Abeg I no do o. Make I dey hustle dey go. God go run am for me.” That was the last we heard of him. Till he died 2 years later from a robbery at his job as an Uber driver on the streets of Nigeria.

That should have been me adamant to keep my soul. A boy from a good Christian home. What was I doing there in the first place?

Maybe it was because of my nature to always see things through. Or maybe it was the pain of my mother hiding her diagnosis till the cancer took her breasts then her life because she would rather not waste money we did not have on hospital bills. Or was it from being fed up with having to tell my younger sisters I had nothing to send for airtime for the millionth time that day.

Either way, I had gone back with the rest even after we were told on our first visit that made Lukmon leave.

“Una sure say you wan live this kain life? Go think am well o because this cup, once you drink they no dey drop am even after you die o. The gods get their own mind. I just be messenger. Some of you fit run mad, some of you fit no still make am, and some of you fit die once.”

I had heard these words and still refused to turn back. I was warned but I ignored the knots in my chest and returned with the rest who in their minds really had nothing to live for. They, who were alone in this world of sin and not like me who had a whole lot to live for.

At least, the hand of poverty did not meet me like it did Bola who worked backbreaking shifts at the block factory to pay his fees, or Chude whose father was as deadbeat as they came so had to take care of his mother and eight younger siblings alone. Neither was I as bad as Goodness who only had 3 outfits to wear to classes. Or Shina who drank so much garri we called him Soakaway. No, I was better off. My father loved me. He made sure to pay my fees and that of my 2 sisters. He taught me his engineering skills so I could make some cheap change in school from repairing and installing electronics like he did. I was deeply loved at home. So why was I there?

I still don't know the exact answer but I know my greed is one of the many that floated around when I tried to trace it back to when it all started. I know the fact I felt I needed to make it to flex was one of the top five reasons why I did it. I didn't want to suffer. Or worse, suffer aimlessly. My father was proof of suffering aimlessly. A man who had lived his entire life working very hard and hoping for God to make a way but still had nothing to show for it. Still, owing rent every other month. That wasn't my life and I knew a degree would not save me from that path. Not in this world I was born into. The pact was here and now and so I joined.

We all said to ourselves, whatever the outcome, whoever made it out of the rest must take care of the rest and their family. That was the least to do for any of us that would sacrifice their life.

We agreed, we took the oath, we were prepared for whatever would happen.

We had done it all, played by the rules of life but it was clear that life only rewarded the cruel and we had to hack it.

This seemed the only way.

When we finally drank the cup we were warned. One would have to go and we couldn't decide who it was, it was up to Them and we were fine. It wasn't so bad for only one to go for what we were getting in return. And we got it in return. The riches. Too much of it than we could keep up with. It just kept coming.

For five years, we plundered unscathed. We pilfered unfiltered. Until he left. Chude died exactly in the fifth year of our oath. But not after he ran terribly mad. He died from breaking through his restraints and running into an upcoming truck. We mourned him but we all knew at the bottom of our hearts, we were glad it wasn't us. If only we had known then, that he was just the beginning.