By Segun Durowaiye
Pray never to experience the kind of poverty and lack Shola Lawson went through in his life, brethren! He was so poor he had no wife, no friend, family and companion to share in his lonely and sorrowful life. He had no one at all to console him in his lonely world.
Ladies always dumped him whenever they realised he was poverty-reincarnate. Come to think of it, which particular lady would date a completely broke and poor man in this season? Such was the case and situation of Shola. Even though he was good-looking, tall and handsome. The few ladies he had dated in the past had all deserted him and left him to his fate. Since everybody loves a winner, nobody gets close to you when you are on the lowest step of the ladder of success. He was an auto-mechanic with workshop located in Isolo, a peaceful and urban town in Lagos. As good as he was in the mechanic business, only God knew why he was so poor in the profession. To him, too, it was a mystery! Something he just couldn’t fathom and understand at all.
Any money he earned in his work often vanished and fizzled out without something to show for it at the end of the day. His Landlord had even threatened to throw him out of his one-bedroom apartment located in the most crooked ghetto of Ejigbo, a developing area where he resided. He had been served the Quit Notice for the past one year. And the elderly landlord was only waiting for the right time to strike and throw him out into the streets. He felt absolutely tired of life, desperately thinking that he must have been cursed by a witch or wizard on the particular day of his birth. Sometimes, when Shola was deep and immersed in sorrowful thoughts considering his condition, he wouldn’t know when sad and melancholic tears would stream down from his eyes.
Oh, what a life! At times, in one’s journey through life you wouldn’t just know how to balance the options in life. You put in all your best and all you get just goes down the drain, as if one is guilty in the presence of the Almighty God. Such was the peculiar and strange case of Shola Lawson, a brilliant but very, very poor auto-mechanic.
Shola had dated about three ladies in the past who had promised they would marry him. One was named Titi, another Bimbo and the third lady was Yori. And they were very pretty and beautiful young ladies. These experiences were at various different stages in his life. They would promise him love and truly acted glaringly like fiancées for a short period of time, but at the end of the day, when these Daughter’s of Eve realised the extent of poverty the young man was wallowing in, they would disappear out of his life, into thin air, never to be seen again.
On a particular Monday morning, Shola wasn’t feeling very good. He got up from his bug-infested ragged bed, seriously experiencing headache and hot body temperature. He guessed it must be malaria fever or Typhoid as usual. He felt he mustn’t take chances or else he would just die like that in his lonely world. “Let me quickly rush to the nearby Zion Clinic for treatment… lest I die here…” he whispered to himself, all alone in his God-forsaken hovel he was living.
He mustered his last strength and hurriedly walked to the Zion Clinic. He showed the Receptionist in attendance his card as they requested for it. Pronto, he was attended to by Doctor Nicholas, who was on duty that morning, having gone through a couple of tests. Truly, it was shown he had Typhoid Fever. Shola spent two days at the clinic and amazingly he had fully recovered and very strong again. When it was time for payment of the services rendered by the Zion Clinic, Shola was fidgety, stuttering and stammering in speech.
The Managing Director of Zion Clinic appeared and bluntly ordered the Security Officer to chain him to a pole near his sick bed at the clinic. He was tied to the pole instantly! “Heeeeelllp, my God!” he screamed and begged in tears, “I promise to pay my debts…I beg you in God’s name…” Shola wailed between sobs but no one listened. They all felt unconcerned to his plights and wailings. No one cared… To be concluded.
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