CHOOSING THE STREET OVER CITY

If I were to choose my life, my existence, my personality, my being, my soul, my body and everything around me, life would be easier .
My name is Hope and that is already bad enough as an introduction. Mostly, I felt the reason my life is a duplicate of hell is because my parents were unthoughtful or maybe inspired by the vision of my fucked-up life and as a source of consolation tagged me HOPE.

I'm the darkest being you could ever wish stained you, my skin colour I think is the architect of this whole racism episode in the world today. Oxymoronic enough, my parents are fair and my siblings at worst light dark a bit.
Perhaps they say the beautiful ones are not yet born and this is my best philosophy. Indeed solace!
Although mummy kept saying I had natural beauty and reminded her of her mother, I saw that as Solace too!

One would think a lady with such weird attributes will definitely be a Brainiac. OMG! I more than suck in anything.
Infact, the best thing that has happened to me in my entire life is writing this story.
And to make it seem a bit interesting because my existence is over boring, I'll like to introduce you to the main casts.

Meet my Mother, a widow, 59, a trader and everything poor you could imagine!
Meet my elder sister, 25, a student, everything peasant you could imagine!
And meet my younger brother, 20, street-boy, everything innovative.
And meet my story! CHOOSING THE STREET OVER CITY!

"there's no joy in the street, there's no joy in the street "...

I was popularly known for expressing my deep pains with a musical vibration of my vocal cords. As I sang, I could hear the poorly not well constructed building, dancing to my tune and indeed that's the audience I could ever entertain. Like my younger brother would mock me,"beautiful voice for a dog's birthday party".

That day, as I sang at the peak of my voice feeling like the Christina Aguilera of my street, I heard a voice blend out the final stanza of the song!
It was my elder sister, "Martha! Yeeeeeeee"
Her attires, wow! Dressed in something I lack all suitable adjective to qualify. Beautiful!

Martha happened to be one of the sources of income in the family, her love for anything that paid, a pure definition of a street hustler with class. She hustled with intelligence, restrictions, happiness and pride.

"Mehn... Una need hear watin happen for street"
"Watin happen" Israel and I chorused.
"na these bag snatchers oooo, the guy snatch the girl bag run na him that fair guy for area, 'Papa Boy' wele omo guy" she demonstratively explodes.
Before her landings, Israel was on the go, off he was to get the latest in the street.
"Israel, you no go stay back now ooo" Martha echoed to reveal the thinness of her neck.
As she took off her dress, I Examined my Dear sister, observed the reduction in weight, observed the dimness of her skin colour, the stressful body, the pains of poverty, the gladness of sadness.

And I reminisced those times, Martha would return from work with alot of smiles. Now school stress coupled with the stress of making money to make ends meet had turned my Dear Martha into a debased frustrated She-goat.
See how time flied to generate Suffer!

The knock on the door interfered my inner thoughts, and the reaction "Who be that?" Arrogantly produced by Martha got me amused.
The knocker as I would word-form moved in without replying. This is one problem with this compound! "Who be that?" And the reply was usually the appearance of the questionee!
"Una no dey reply before Una enter" Martha queries in anger
"Shae u asked who be that? And I'm replying by showing you myself" Trending replied
OK! What a name! That's what we called him.

TRENDING, Israel's older friend who's about my age or more. Israel never made friends his age. And he despised his age mates and mostly called them small children.

Trending as the name implied was blessed with a good physique, he's a die hard fan of muscle building and empty bank account construction. There's less anything in this world he knew not about despite he benefitted not with this intelligence. He's the I experienced everything kinda guy, the I have every idea kind of guy who implements none of these ideas even for the betterment of his always broke livelihood!
I've never known someone so sensible and senseless at the same time.

"Where Is Israel?" he questioned as he offered himself a seat.
"Omoguy done move go where the latest gist dey happen for street " I replied

"You mean that guy wey snatch bag?"

OK! I wasn't surprised!
"Mehn I know that thief ooo, the guy dey stay for Gideon street, him mama dey hawk groundnut and banana na" he added
Martha carried away by the explanation of the thief's details, "Mehn, people dey ooo, he mama dey sell banana he no follow sell, he prefer to dey steal about"

Martha walked into the room, and I observed Trending staring at her with amazement, What could he be looking at? Was he amazed at the weight loss or at her footsteps? OK it definitely has to be the footsteps. Martha was a potential sneaker, her feet never made a sound. She possessed this modest way of life where one could speak in the lowest pitch over the phone, smile when there's urge to laugh out loud, bear when there's reason to rage. Martha is everything one could wish to be, She's a role model.

And again! This individual interrupted my inner thoughts.
"How you dey?" Trending asks and the first answer that came to my mind was the evil feeling of 'don't you have where to be?'.

Instead, the usual "I dey fine" when all is not fine found its way out of my mouth. I had my reasons for disliking Trending, Permit me to share.
There was once, Trending's cousin came in from Dubai, he was a lover of the timid girl, he loved me or maybe liked or maybe just wanted to use me. Trending tried his best possible to make sure all these affections were on Rita one of those vibrant street girls because she would be able to dance to his tune and extort his cousin enough to share. On that fateful day, Trending brought his proposal of me insisting on purchasing a new phone so I could share the money with him. I let him know that I wasn't bold enough to even look into his cousin's eyes, he used such words on me I would never forget. 'You dull die. No wonder you dey like this! You be wack individual!'

Since then I couldn't remember the next time I uttered a sound to Trending. Trending kept informing his cousin that I was possess, that I was an ogbanje and how I got to know that, he never knew. All I knew was that his cousin asked me if how they got rid of the ogbanje spirit in me and that was the last time that one equally heard my voice too. He came around the house frequently but the I'm not around response became the feedback of those moments.

After he left for Dubai, Israel handed some money over to me that he gave, and when Israel heard why I acted so strange, he confronted Trending and that resulted in a huge combat. Also that is another reason Israel doesn't talk to Trending that much, but the street doesn't allow us to keep malice. The street had its way of uniting even Cats and rats, The street had its own comfort, it's Joys! The street had a way of bringing out your beauty even when you feel you're the ugliest as I always did! The street had a means of blessing the damaged. The street was where I belonged! The street was my home! And I'll always choose the street over the city!

Just as the thoughts kept flowing, Israel interrupted me. He rushed into the house unconscious of the fact that his torn slippers had slipped its way into the parlour with the urgency of his rush!
'Mehn! Area sweet oooo. Guess watin happen?"
Trending replied with so much certainty that he could always Foretell one's thoughts, 'Police Don come carry the guy'

"Wrong!" Israel sharpened that word like he was also in deep hate at the moment with Trending. And that got me laughing out loud.
"Watin this one dey Laugh" Trending managed to vomit in shame of his defeat.
My back bone Israel came in 'She dey laugh with your mouth?
"Hmm, na wa for you oooo." Trending spoke in a reconciliation manner, 'we dey fight? '
"Na u sabi. U no want fight person laugh con dey concern you"
"Oya sorry, watin happen?" Trending asked politely.
"Infact I no tell you again, bye bye" and he was off to the backyard.

Then the sound of mockery came out again from my mouth as Trending walked out maybe to confront Israel at the backyard.

It was very clear, how my brother managed to be the head of his clique despite the gap they gave him in age, the way he spoke to them, he talked to them like they're all the small children he's avoiding. Israel was a potential leader, he had the spirit of commanding and controlling whoever it was despite their ages, classes and power. Trending was a little deal for him.

At that moment I didn't understand why he replied that guy that way for it was embarrassing. If I were Trending, I'd not come around for days but that wasn't the first nor second nor third, Trending against all odds and despite all his I too Know would always come around, after all he couldn't beat my brother a second in the IQ count. My brother was his goal changer. why he loved my brother that much even when my brother exhibited hatred at times towards him I never knew.

After a while, Israel came in and sat close, "That Trending guy too dey show himself, For Person house he dey ask why the person dey laugh"
"No mind am, he's foolish! " Martha replied as she walked into the parlour from the room.
"So watin been happen wey u say make we guess" I asked.
"Nothing! I been just dey find something to take rubbish the guy, coz I know say he go always guess nonsense, Mr I too know! "

OK! That was the peak of it! My voice was louder than Martha's voice in the laughing competition. If walls could complain, our building would kill us with murmurs. To think of my brother running into the house from afar, then on seeing Trending, insisted we played guessing roles just to ridicule him was the peak of it. "Hahahahahahahhahahahhahahaha.. ."
The sound continued...

'Gbum! ' The street was awoken by this sound. It was about 5pm on Sunday and everyone was on low key in their houses enjoying the presence of Power but behold the ancestors of the streets had not been consulted or maybe libation was skipped that Sunday morning.

Every street had its limitation to Joy bringing and ours was the inadequate power supply. Before the twinkling of an eye, everyone was out.
'Choi! Transformer again! Na wa oh! This one na til next year ni '

I could affirm that, the last time the transformer was faulty, it took three months before we perceived power in the area and now again.
Well that wasn't my problem at the moment, my problem was the screening exercise I had in school the next day. I'd been admitted into the University of Rugo to study psychology. I was on scholarship by a lady I once saved her Son's life.
OK! Let's talk about how I met this lady.
On that fateful day the street was with enough joys, cars moving about, Boys at a corner arguing on no other topic than football as usual, girls all about having no clique.

Then this Range Rover stopped by Mama Ifeoma's shop. The driver, a very beautiful money speaking lady comes out and walks into the shop. I could tell how expensive that lady was, her scent was perceived from the distance I stood, her hairstyle looking very expensive, the jewelries she had on, OMG! Was class all about looking expensive? Wasn't it time we judged class by people's inner intelligence?

But despite all these classic looks, this lady was bargaining the price of a commodity like she was at once bend down select market. EWO! She spent long in that shop and I was tempted to approach there in pretence of purchasing sweets.

As I got close enough, I drew closer that I lost my sense of movement then I hit this beautiful lady. "Sorry Ma".
"Are you blind? What's wrong with you? Nonsense! " she uttered.
And there I was again lost in thoughts, was rudeness one of the features of high class? And looking deep into this case, how did I get so close? Was I magnetized by the perfume? Or was it the Hope of my future success that magnetized me to her?

As I stood there lost in shame, I heard laughter coming up from a corner and behold that was on me... But that wasn't long enough as this lady's voice roared again, I moved aside in fear feeling it was on me again.
"Michael, Get inside the car immediately! "
At that juncture, I looked at the direction her voice transmitted to, a young boy if 6 or so was already faraway from where her car was parked, he was kicking an object I couldn't see clearly. And he wasn't listening to her at all.

"Michael!" She called out again.

Just then I observed a motorcycle with a passenger fast approaching and I've never had instinct in my entire life like this. I walked speedily towards the track the bike was driving and the passenger as they approached Michael, picked him up with speed while the boy kept screaming....
"Let go of me! Mummy! Mummy! "
And there was chaos in the street as boys shouted at me who was closest to the scene.
I had to do something quickly, what could I do?
I was about to become a Saviour or a failure.

The fate of Michael's rescue was in my hands...

STAY TUNED FOR EPISODE 2
STORY BY ME: Itoro Archibong
PC: @aniekanbassey

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