Terrific Tales on Traffic - Episode 8 (Beggar Danger)

Thursday, July 7th, 2016

It's 9:30 am and I’m still in bed. I am aware of all the noise around me, the blaring of music from Samuel’s room, and the honking of vehicles on the street. Hmmm!!! What a sweet relief!! God bless this public holiday. I have actually forgotten what it feels like to be at home on a weekday. I don’t even know what the Muslims are celebrating but I could actually kiss two hot Muslim boys now. On a normal Thursday morning, I would have been in school by 6:00 am and still find myself seated at the back. 

Prof John Nnamdi aka Voldemort had his classes on Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30am prompt and was always in class by 6:15 am to turn latecomers away. I used to think that school everywhere starts at 8:00 am because that’s when other “normal” lecturers resume. Voldemort is the only lecturer in Unizik Campus, that is also well-known for his legendary carryover students with a registration number of 2005… and insists on 80% classroom attendance. ECO 415 – Advanced Macroeconomics, with 4 credit units was not a course you will want your enemy’s children to fail at all, not in a lifetime.

Today is Salah, I don’t know which one, Mubarak or Ramadan, I’m not a Muslim or cultural student so please, blame me not. All I know is that it’s a national public holiday and no lecture day. We didn’t have many Muslims in Awka, so no Salah rice to look forward to. I opened my eyes slowly, and watched Oge, my roommate, as she mopped the room.

“Oge love, goooooo morning!” I said stretching myself. She shook her head.

“I shall report you to the Dark Lord! See when you are waking up” She said with an evil grin on her face. 

By the dark lord, she was referring to Professor John Nnamdi. I always filled her in with his evil deeds every day. There was a day he seized Sandra’s sandals and made her walk barefoot back home. I also heard he failed a girl last year because she did not “appease the gods” So we nicknamed him Voldemort, the legendary Harry Potter Villain. Oge was lucky, she was in year one, and she hasn’t met the bad guys yet, I pray she doesn’t because bad lecturers are horrible, and young beautiful girls like us are their target.

I got up and extended my hands “Hi, my name is Harry Potter, nice to meet you” We both laughed,

“He’s not my God biko, (please) Is he paying my school fees? I am free to wake up anytime I like.” I hissed back

“Okay oh, see how you’re whining because today is a public holiday, let me catch you next week.” She said.

We laughed, Oge was simply the best roommate in the world. We had a perfect understanding, and though she was older than me and I was almost out of school while she was still starting, she respected me and I also did her. More so, unlike Ada and Chinenye, the sisters living in the adjacent room, who fought every day, we had never had any reason to fight.

I joined her in cleaning, choosing to clean the toilet while she focused on the kitchen. She was playing songs on her phone. Another mutual interest, we liked the same genres of songs. Chandelier by Sia was blasting out and we started screaming along and laughing at our silly voices. Then a knock came, Oge reached for the door while I peeped through the toilet door, it was a little girl.

“Aunty good morning,” she said

“Yes, what do you want?” Oge snapped back, Oge had zero tolerance for unwanted disturbances.

“Ahahn! Oge takes it easy, Na small pikin be that a child for god sake” She shrugged and shifted away from the door, allowing the girl to enter the room.

“what is it, fine girl?”, I asked nicely

“Aunty, my mom is very sick, and there’s no money to take her to the hospital, I have not eaten, can I wash your clothes or if you have food or anything you want to throw away, please give me, Aunty. I can help you wash your toilet or plates, I can do anything please Aunty.” She pleaded.

“No, we don’t have anything for you,” Oge said.

“Ahahn!, Oge, Nawa for you oh” I chided her

“Rosie, don’t trust these children, they are a scam”

“Ah! Aunty, I’m not lying, I swear to God, my mother is very sick, I cannot use my mother and lie, let God punish me, please anything you have, God bless you, Aunty” she said as tears poured through her eyes.

Damn, I was so broke but I hated to leave this girl without something, I reached out for my purse and gave her 100 Naira, she thanked me and walked off to another room. Oge shut the door.

“Rose, which money will we use for eggs for the spaghetti now?” Oge asked angrily.

“Must we use eggs?”

“Yes! We must oh! Why would you give that girl money?”

“Oge, she was in need. That’s just a little charity. What if you were in her shoes, eh?” I could see that she was actually pondering on that thought too.

“It’s not as if I’m heartless or anything. These children are not to be trusted, most of them are liars.”

“We are all liars, I mean we lie to our parents, increasing our school fees by over 50% so that we could have more cash, everybody tells lies, we can’t even differentiate lies and truths these days but the underlying fact is it is all for survival”

“Whatever the reasons are, I don’t do charity again. All these children begging for money, they make more money than people working, going about stealing from others what if they are the ones that stole our phones?” Oge asked. I looked at her pensively

That phone story is still quite a mystery to me, Oge and I usually wake up every morning to fetch water from the well for a certain time when our lodge pumping machine got spoilt. One morning, we were fetching water, we forgot to lock the door and after the second round, we came back and started looking for our phones. Just like that! We couldn’t point accusing fingers at anybody but we just alerted our neighbors so that they can be alert too. We got new phones now and are super security conscious now but Oge never got over it.

“I am also in need, if I tell my own story, people will be touched too, that girl’s mother has been sick since the first semester, tomorrow it is her sister, and her entire family the day after tomorrow, every day a different story, it’s a lie joor, is she not scared? That girl should be either 15 or 14 years or younger and she is roaming around students’ lodges, begging for money, what if guys take advantage of her? You know how guys are” she continued

“Hey, Oge that’s a good thought, let me see if she’s still around the building” I rinsed the lather off the wall tiles and flushed the toilet clean. I looked around the sparkling bathroom with satisfaction and came out. Oge was breaking the spaghetti.

“Please go and buy my eggs biko, Onyeomaemeka Miss Charity”

“Yes ma, Miss Obiakpor, Stone-hearted human being” We laughed at ourselves. I grabbed my purse and headed out. Favour Lodge was a three-story building, and there was a quadrangle in the center, my room was on the second floor. I looked around from my floor, and I saw no trace of her. I went downstairs, got the eggs and some biscuits, and headed back upstairs. When I reached my floor, I caught a glimpse of her on the last floor, peeping through a room’s door. It seemed like no one was inside, she tiptoed inside, looking around mischievously.

No way, that’s not how begging works. I wonder what this girl is up to.

I ran to my room, opened the door and signaled Oge to come, and told her what I suspected, pointing to her the room the girl was in. Oge ran to the nearest stairs while I locked our room door. The girl was out of the room, with a big bag and was heading for the stairs, looking around suspiciously. The next thing I saw was Oge dragging the young girl out of the stairs, I walked towards them.

“What were you doing in that room?” Oge shouted at her

“Aunty, nothing, I was begging them for money? My sister is very sick, we are orphans, and we don’t have any place to stay, I left her in an uncompleted building down the road, I just want to get something for us to eat.”

“Ehn!! Rosemary are you hearing, see this liar” Oge gave her a resounding slap, and people started coming out of their rooms

“You said it was your mother that was sick, now it is your sister… liar!” Oge roared at her. The girl was shaking, she faced the ground accepting defeat.

“Oge, wait don’t beat her, let’s not create a scene,” I said, Oge didn’t listen to me, she tried to hit her again, but I stopped her. She was so angry, she looked at me from the corner of her eyes. Calm down, I mouthed.

“What are you doing here, I ask you the second time, I swear if you lie to me, I’ll deal with you,” she asked her, by now, the girl was shivering and scared.

“Aunty, nothing, one aunty asked me to come inside,” she said trembling

“There was nobody inside that room, what’s inside that bag?”

“Aunty, na clothes and slippers wey dem dash me?” Oge felt the bag, It was filled with folded clothes.

“Who gave you clothes?” the girl was trembling but did not reply. I began to pity her.

“Oge, it’s enough, let the girl go.” Oge dragged the girl out to the corridor where everybody could see her,

“Please, everybody check your rooms for missing things” She announced, some people went inside their rooms while others shouted at her to leave the poor girl alone. Oge held her tightly, she was crying bitterly.

“Poverty is not an excuse to steal, do you hear me?” she roared, the girl nodded her head, and Oge shook her vigorously and re-echoed

“Poverty is not a god-damn excuse to steal if I see you in this lodge again, I swear, I’ll deal with you.” Oge threatened and pushed her away. 

She staggered through the stairs and ran out of the lodge, clutching the bag of clothes, as she was running a phone dropped from her pocket, I started down the stairs, but by the time I reached down she was out of sight and the phone was gone too. I went back upstairs to meet Oge debating with Esther, the prayer coordinator on the way she treated the poor beggar girl. There were a lot of curses hurled at Oge, who was actively throwing them back. I have never seen Oge that way before, she was so mad, I tried to calm her down all to no avail. I looked through the staircase window, squinting through the perforations to see if I would see the young girl but I didn’t.

“Rosie, let’s go,” Oge said and we withdrew back to our rooms.

“Oge, you shouldn’t have hit that girl,” I said once we were within the safety of our room.

“Yes, but I don’t regret it, Rose, forget you’ll not understand” I know there are a lot of things behind that statement and Oge had a rough childhood. I was surprised, I pitied the girl, but I said no more concerning the incident.

We cooked our spaghetti, bathed, and ate and soon we were well over the whole drama. As we lay down to sleep, we heard another knock on the door.

To be continued

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Written by Rosemary Ugwuogo aka Dauntless