FROM FRYING PAN TO FIRE

Life is not fair is it, especially in a moment when you feel everything would go well for you, but suddenly everything falls apart leaving you to wonder what exactly happened. For me I felt maybe someone put a curse on me, and it was working really well. How I wished I could go meet them at that time to beg for mercy and do anything to avert the curse. But now that I think about it, the only curse I was in was the curse of moving through life with no support, and taking on responsibilities that were way out of my league. At a point running away became an option, I could at that moment understand how men felt before running away from their wife and children. Not that I had any, but even if I did, it couldn’t be worse that things were already.

I was 19 years old then, when I dropped out of school because my parents could no longer support my studies. You might have probably heard that story a thousand times, but that was because it happened to me, I went through the hell, and it forged me into something new. I was still trying to cope with the thought of dropping out, but the site I came home to meet, made me realize dropping out was the least of my problems. It was like lighting stroke me, when I saw the place my once big family with lots of houses and cars now resided in. We had become worse than a shadow of ourselves. Every night I had to watch my mother cry in pain and frustration, and it was then the thought of changing the narrative started to form in my mind.

I went Job hunting, at the same time I was searching online for anything, something I could lay my hands on that would change my life and that of my family. I felt I could do it, I was so sure I could make it happen. When I saw an information that was worth selling because a lot of people were yet to know about it, I knew I had a gold mine and I wasted no time rushing into it. I decided I was going to learn everything there was to learn that night so I could market the information. There I was on my phone scrolling and taking down notes when my mum came to meet me abusing me for playing away my time because I was on my phone.

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

Kelvin we are hungry, is it that phone that would put food on the table, your father has left us and you are now the man of the house, is this how you are going to take care of us, is this how you are going to take care of your home? Your mates are outside looking for ways to hustle to provide for their families, you are sitting here with your phone. My mum went on and on, ranting about my laziness and how I had disappointed her like my dad because I had spent all day on my phone. Not saying a word back I was just looking at her until she finished her rant and left. In the real sense I really didn’t have anything to say, Because I was doing my best and until there were results, there was nothing I could do.

The next morning I woke up having slept only two hours in the entire 24 hours ready to market my products. In just three days, I made over $1,000 from that single information. I was finally going to make my mum swallow her words back, I was going to prove that I wasn’t so useless after all and all my sleepless nights were finally paying off. I gave my mum 10,000 naira to go to the market. She was so stunned that she looked at me in amazement and said who would have thought that the boy I birthed, what looked like yesterday, would be giving me money for foodstuffs. I felt proud of myself saying within myself, don’t worry, I just withdrew a little from the main cash, when my investment finally pays, I will give you a better life.

Instead of stunning my mum, I was the one left stunned going back to my account and seeing all the places I invested my money were scam, and they all shut down right before my eyes. I started sweating profusely as though I was just coming out of the shower, I felt a stinging pain in my heart as though someone had stabbed me directly in the heart. The pain was so sharp that my legs couldn’t carry me as I just sat on the floor feeling the breeze coming from the window on my skin. My heart went cold instantly. I wished I could cry that instant but I found myself just staring at the wall. My mum came again to tell me that she needed more money because my younger brother was sick and she needed to take him to the hospital. I don’t know how I was able to remain calm, but I just sent her the last 10,000 naira in my account and said that was all I had on me for now. It was at that point I felt I had grown 5 years in one day, and instantly I said to myself Kelvin, You are not useless, you were just stupid to put your money into ponzi schemes.

THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE INKWELL CREATIVE NONFICTION PROMPT #121