That should be in February this year (2024) when we woke up to the quarrelsome loud shout of the woman who owns a small shop close to us.
"Nobody should tell me to pay the electricity bill this time around or they think I don't know they're the ones doing it?! They should take it! They should go and use the light themselves oooh!"
"Mummy Success what is the matter this early morning?" I asked her as soon as I got to the spot she was, very close to her shop and two ladies who were going about their work, were there too, to ask what was making her shout at that early hour of the day.
"See the bamboo stick, they've cut the wires again," she said aloud with more anger written all over her face, pointing at the bamboo stick which she used to extend electricity from our building to her shop because the shop is a steel container that's not part of the block.
"Ha! Again!" I was surprised because that was the second time they'd been cutting her wires in the night within the space of three weeks. At that moment, I quickly connected the first shouts of her lamentations about not going to pay electricity bills because she assumed someone in our compound or all of us in the compound were responsible for such an act.
I consoled her for the loss because according to her, she spent a good sum of money to buy the wire that was stolen and I left the scene to avoid hearing words that would stir up some anger in me because she said she was not going to pay electricity bills again. Then if she happens to connect the wires back, I would move a motion to disconnect her wires because we weren't the reasons her wires are always cut off. She was seeking for solution but out of anger, she was barking up the wrong tree.
She decided not to buy wires to connect the electricity again out of fear of the terrors of the night stealing the wires again but just as life would have it, there was constant electricity that period and the shop was in total blackout, there was no way to power her refrigerator. So after a while, she bought wires again, called an electrician and connected the wires but this time around, a taller bamboo stick was used to raise the wire very high to keep it off the hands of the people always cutting the wires at night.
After a month of connecting the wire back, I was asleep around midnight when my brother aggressively woke me up.
"What's that?" I jumped up at how he tapped me.
"There are thieves in the area and they're being pursued" He said and immediately, I reached out to the back of my door where I kept a cutlass, I picked it up and ran outside to see what was happening, and I was putting on just a short. I got there and met my next-door neighbour, with a well-sharpened cutlass, panting very hard like he just finished an Olympic race.
"What's happening?" I asked him.
"You see those wires that woman was stylishly accusing the people in this compound of cutting, the thieves that have been doing it came this night and luckily I wasn't asleep, so immediately I heard the sound of people jumping up and dragging wires which were making noise in the zinc, I came up with my cutlass and they ran away. Look at their torch, footwear and face cap" My neighbour, said as he panted more heavily.
"Those thieves should go and jubilate for escaping because if you had caught them, I wouldn't have waited for your story before doing what's in my mind" My heart was boiling for missing out and the thieves escaping.
That night, we used pliers to cut the wires which were halfway disconnected by the thieves and packed them inside the house to avoid the situation of the thieves coming back that night to continue their work.
That night was a Saturday and I usually go to church very early in the morning of Sunday. So I wasn't around to report the situation to the woman when they came to the shop that morning. When I returned from church in the afternoon of Sunday, the first person who welcomed me was the woman, she came to show appreciation and with style, to say sorry for the earlier accusations.
Thanks for reading.
All photos are mine
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