(A chronicle of brushes with nature, fate, and inexplicable happenings; this story will run for the next three weeks)
The mysteries of life! That’s what I call it.
Johnbull felt downcast after being hit by series of setbacks and frustrations. The blistering pace of failure in his life had left him flustered. This afternoon, he arrived Benin, the capital of Edo State in Nigeria, from his base in Lagos, in bid to find lasting solution to his mysterious problems. He had tried his hands in almost anything, but he had found success impossible. It was as though an invisible force held him down while facing a seemingly impregnable wall.
Johnbull is gifted and hardworking; very powerful and full of hope. He hardly got discouraged and was never deterred. But the incident that finally drove him to Benin was the theft of his Volkswagen Beetle car—his only vehicle. It was 8pm on that faithful Thursday night, in the month of June 1989; he was returning from yet another tough day and stopped by to pick up a few items from the supermarket. When he returned, his car was gone—stolen—and that realization left him devastated. Typical of the attitude of Nigerians, those who gathered to sympathize with him vanished after few minutes and left him to rue his fate.
That night was hot with dry air and the street crowded as usual; and the struggle by both men and machine was intense. Johnbull could not explain how he got home, but somehow, he did with his tie hanging loose from his jacket — and remained inconsolable. It was only miraculous that he drifted off to sleep; when he woke up next day, his heart was heavy with grief and he decided to narrate his sad experience to his mother who subsequently pleaded for him to rush home.
Alone, in his Lagos one room apartment, Johnbull felt let down and wondered if God had not abandoned him. While those he considered his mates were ‘riding high’, here he was trapped by strange events. Fear took hold of him and with his heart beating fast and confused, he got up lazily from his bed and walked down to the bathroom; in few minutes, he was dressed ready to go. Outside, the early morning sky was bright and the breeze cool; but Johnbull was already sweating when he finally made his way to the garage. Six hours later he was in Benin….
