I live very close to one of the busiest lounges in my town and initially, I didn't like the place because it was the headquarters of noise and disturbance, especially at midnight when we were supposed to be sleeping. But as time went on, I got fund of the whole system and I love the fact that there's no robbery case in the area because the busyness of the area winds down when people are beginning to wake up, so armed robbers find it difficult to make moves in such area.
Notwithstanding, one of the scariest encounters in such an area has been fighting. Terrific fight happens a lot especially at midnight when clubbers have soaked themselves in alcohol and can't contain themselves. Sometimes, I would wake up at night to a loud bang on my door or window by people fighting and I would shift very far away from the spot close to the widow by the roadside in case the bangs hit my glass window, so I don't get injured by the broken glasses.
During the 2022 Christmas season, I travelled to the village immediately after Christmas day to go and celebrate the New Year with my family, I spent up to a week there and the day I returned to my base, I just dropped down from the bike carrying me and big sack containing foodstuff, then one elderly woman who lives close to my compound saw me and walked to me and started wishing me a happy new year with a touch of sympathy.
"Oyibo! Happy New Year! Welcome back. Sorry for what happened"
'Sorry for what happened?' My mind pondered because there was nothing bad that happened to me. Well, I had to skip the thought and reply to the greetings with all smiles.
"Mama! Happy New Year!"
"It was when I came in the morning that I saw it. I didn't sleep here that night" She added and everything looked confusing to me because I had no idea what she was saying.
"Mama, what happened?" I didn't hesitate to ask this time around.
"You didn't hear? Your neighbours didn't call you? There was a fight exactly on New Year's Eve and your window was destroyed" she said pointing in the direction of the window for me to go and see.
I quickly dropped my bags at the door and walked with her to go and see the broken window which was located on the road. Immediately I saw it, goosebumps took over my skin, one of the slides of the window was destroyed totally and it was as if it was an intentional act. I quickly checked through the broken spot in the room to see if anything close by had moved and thankfully, everything was intact.
"I knew it, I knew something like this would happen one day. Thank God I wasn't at home because who knows what might have happened if any of the glasses touched me" I was angry considering how I was going to fix it back but I just thanked God I wasn't at home and make the mama believe I wasn't in pain.
"That's it, my son. We just have to thank God." Mama added and asked me about my family at home and she left.
I went on to unlock my door, got in and swept the glasses that were scattered inside my room. On the window side, I had one of my tables close to there where I usually pack some customers' clothes that I ironed at home. I cleared off the table to avoid the risk of thieves taking advantage of the opened spot in the window. Although rods were serving as protectors with the window opened, hands could get into my room and pick something that could be passable in between the rods of the window.
During that period, I was out of cash because I just returned from the Christmas holiday where I spent all my savings to celebrate the season to the fullest, so I suspended fixing the window till when I had money in my account. That's it, I slept in the room up the two weeks before I could fix the window.
Thanks for reading.
| All photos are mine |
