There And Back On Time - Season 1 - Episode 44

5 years ago

There And Back On Time - Season 1 - Episode 44

Room Alone

Germany Dilemma
That coward from Camerounian had taken my
weed. The weed I had saved all my money to
buy. The weed where all my hopes had been
hinged had been stolen.

* one bad thing about drugs was that you
can’t report that you lost it to the authorities.
It was an illegal business and you couldn’t
even make noise about it.*

What was the next thing to do?
My heart was beating faster than normal, my
blood had gone hot.

I left my door open and went down to the
first floor where Johnson lived. As soon as
he saw my eyes, he knew that something had
happened.

He asked what it was and I told him. He asked
me to sit down and calm down first. He
brought out a can of becks beer and gave
me. He told me not to make noise about it.
He closed his doors and we went outside to
look for the thief.

I had seen him rushing outside on my way
back from where I went to buy the
airfreshner.

We searched everywhere but couldn’t find
him. On our way back to Johnson’s room, we
heard the Camerounians drinking beer inside
one room. We knocked and opened the door,
the thief was among them. As soon as he
saw us, he looked away.

They all stopped talking and looked at us. I
called him outside and asked where he had
kept my weeds. He denied stealing it.*
I told him that the receptionist said he had
taken our key when I went outside, he
maintained that he didn’t take it.
Johnson dragged me away from him because
I was beginning to shout.

We got back to Johnson’s room and I helped
him packaged his own goods.

When we finished, he gave me another
50grams and asked me to pay him up when I
had enough money.

That was the only thing that calmed me down
because I was not ready to sell for them
again and wait for another one month to get
my allowance.

In the night, I went up to my room and find
the useless Thief on his bed. As soon as he
saw me, he got up and sat down. I didn’t say
anything, I just opened my cupboard to bring
out my knife to cut chicken that I had bought
the day before. As soon as he saw the long
stainless blade, he jumped out of the room
like hussain bolt. It was funny but I didn’t
laugh.

I had just found the opportunity to chase him
out and own the room all alone.

I came out to the passage and as soon as he
saw me, he quickened his pace and vanished.
I went inside the house and laughed.

Later that night, a Camerounian called Guy
(pronounced Gee) knocked on my door. When
I opened it, he said he had come to carry his
friends bag. I allowed him to take the bag and
some other things that belonged to the thief.
(That was how I got the room all to myself
until the day I left the HEIM)
From then on, I stopped keeping my key at
the reception. The room belonged to me alone
and there was no need to keep the key there.

The thief had moved in with Guy. Each time we
met on the road, he would be on alert as if I
was going to stab him to death. He eventually
left the HEIM and relocated to where I never
found out. He only returned to take his
allowances at the end of every month.
I made almost 450 euros from the weed
Johnson gave me. I gave him all the money
and he gave me more. Within one week, I
returned his credit to him and from the
profit I had made, I started my own business.

The room was mine alone, so I didn’t fear
losing my goods anymore.

Life became sweeter from then on.
Sometimes I would call Agnes and ask her
how she was doing. I didn’t know the
whereabouts of Awiti and Melinda, I would
have been calling them too.

I called Africa almost every day as well. I
talked to Efuah all the time. Sometimes, I
would offer to send her money but she
always said that she had enough. She just
wanted me to be alright. Her pregnancy had
reached four months and her stomach was
getting bigger everyday. She would take
pictures and send to my email address.

By the ending of November 2002, I had saved
up over 8000 euro of my own.

I would mentally change my money to Naira
sometimes and smile.

Life on the street remained the same. We
would go out in the morning and return in
the noon. Then we would rest and go back in
the evening.

By November, the winter had come.
Everywhere was very cold.

The authorities had given us winter allowance
of 100 euros. I used mine to but winter
jackets and winter boots.

I hated cold, so I would wear three pullover
inside before Jacket. I would also wear a tight
trousers before putting on my regular
trousers.

I had fitted in perfectly into the system and
there was no stopping me.

I was the youngest Nigerian in the HEIM at 22.
Years, so the older ones such as Jordan
who was 35 then and Tony who was 40 then
would encourage me to save money. They
said that if I continued the way I was hustling
for three consecutive years, I would have
enough money to live a free life. They were
right.

* There was a thread I created sometime ago
about where I had been and the people I had
meet. someone asked me how I got the
money to travel all over Europe. I wish the
person is following this thread because I
didn’t want to talk about drugs on that thread and I didn’t want to lie either, so gave him no answer.

The link to the thread is this
www.nairaland.com/1269303/nairalander-
poses-tuface-ifeanyi-udeze
)
by December 2002, the snow had fallen
everywhere. The whole city was covered with
white. We wore boots with snow soles
because the flat soles were slippery.

On December 29, 2002, the day of our
monthly allowance, Agnes returned to the
HEIM to collect her money. Her stomach was
somehow big. I had approached her and we
got talking. She said she had heard that I was
doing fine in the HEIM. She said she missed
me and that life was not easy for her. I
wanted to ask her to return to the HEIM so
that I can cover her. I could have been paying
her more than the authorities were paying
us. I was making over 1500 euros every
month.

The problem was that she had taken in. My
Agnes was pregnant and the worst of it all
was that it was for John the Bighead.

That bastard had won Agnes while I was busy
looking for money.
I cried.