There And Back On Time - Season 1 - Episode 38

5 years ago

There And Back On Time - Season 1 - Episode 38

Germany Dilemma

I arrived at the Essen Central station at
about 4:30 pm. I had changed trains in
Magdeburg – Hannover – Braunschweig and
Dortmund. The train timetable was printed and
given to me when I bought the ticket at the
Brandenburg station.

I called Afam when I got to Essen. He directed
me to their own HEIM in Essen West. Theirs
was far better than ours. Their state
Westfalia was the richest state out of the
sixteen states that made up Germany.

The Westfalia state boasted of (Koln) Cologne,
Dusseldorf, Essen, Aachen, Monchenglabach,
Bielefeld, Duisburg, Dortmund, Mulheim and
even Gelscheinkirchen; the city of Shalke 04
football club. Other cities such as Oberhausen,
Fulda and many large cities were also
situated in Westfalia. It was obviously the
largest state too in terms of human
concentration.

When I got to Afam’s HEIM, he took me
outside and bought some beer and chicken. I
cooked the stew in their kitchen while he
molded and smoked marijuana.(we called it
weed in Germany).

There was one other guy who shared his
room with him. His name was Emeka, a body
builder who had dreadlocks.

When we finished eating, we went back to
Oberhausen to get my bag from Matthew. I
had called him again but his phone was still
switched off. When we got to Oberhausen, we
entered an Afro shop where a Yoruba man
sold African food items. We asked him if he
had seen Matthew recently.

We wanted to ask around before going to
ring his bell.

The news we got from the man shocked us.
Matthew had been arrested over one month
ago, precisely in August. He had been a
suspect of drug dealing. The police had
monitored him for many nights before he
was arrested.

My mind flashed back to the day I and
Nnenna saw Matthew being dragged out of
the car and into his apartment. That was the
day I left for Camp.

I was nearly caught in the net too. If I had
been in the house when they brought
Matthew, nothing would have stopped them
from arresting me too.

We left Oberhausen and went back to Essen. I
called Nnenna and asked her about Matthew,
she said he was arrested in August but she
didn’t want to tell me yet. She also said that
all those nights when Matthew claimed to
have gone to work was actually drug
dealings.

* Her tone made it look like she didn’t care.
Matthew was a guy who kept her in the
house and gave her his keys. Matthew was
also planning to take me out before his was
arrested. I felt for him but I also knew
instantly that such fate may be awaiting me
too*

I told Nnenna that I was in Essen, he asked
where I was and I told her. She promised to
come in the night and pick me up.
About 9 pm, Afam said he was going out to
Dortmund. He told me plainly that he was
going to ”The Ogboo” {the venue where they sell cocaine to germans).

He asked me to stay in Essen. His reasons
was that I needed to first of all, learn how to
keep the drugs inside my mouth and how to
swallow them if I suspected police presence.
It was a little scary story, so I agreed to
stay back in Essen for the time being.
Twenty minutes after Afam had left, Nnenna
called and said she was downstairs. I walked
down and met her. She was with a white guy
inside a car. She asked how I had been and
what I intended to do from then on. We
chatted for a few minutes before we all got
back into the car and drove to her hostel.

She lived in a general students hostel.

Although it was a big hostel but she had her
own room which was well decorated.

The white guy had dropped us and left. She
made salad for me while we talked.

She said she may be pregnant but not for
me. I didn’t care since my clear objective at
that time was how to make money. I didn’t
want anything whatsoever to tie me down..
When I finished chewing the salad like a
hungry goat, she sat beside me and lie on
my shoulder. Her mouth had found mine and
we continued where we stopped two months
earlier.