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Episode 37

“Bow down to me and I won’t destroy your
land!” A man on a horse said. He was of the
black race and had a funny looking piece of
metal on his head which was assumed to be a
crown.

“Never!!!” The person he was talking to
screamed in response, “my people would
rather die and bow down to you!”

“Hmmm… Very well then. You shall all perish
before night fall!” He turned back to his
second in command who was patiently waiting
for an order and said the three words he had
been waiting to hear in a while, “Kill them all.”

The second in command just smiled and
bowed in response. He looked over his
shoulder to have a quick glance at the
millions of blood thirsty soldiers who were
ready to kill and with the loudest voice he
could conjure, he screamed, “attack!!!”

And then Henry stepped in and screamed,
“cut!!!” Just like that, the lights were turned
on and the actors on the stage all stood and
turned to wait for Henry’s directions.

Henry glanced at his wristwatch, “take ten you
all, when we come back, we would stage the
war.”

The actors all mumbled words of agreement
and stepped out of the stage to rest and so
other stuffs before the shooting continued.

Henry on the other hand turned went to the
extreme right corner of the studio to seat. A
table and chair had been placed there and it
was his supposed office during the shooting of
the movie. TOP believed that giving his office
in his studio would make him think more
about the movie and produce a better content.

After making slight adjustments to the script
and handing it going through it, he raised his
head and starred at the door of the studio. He
was worried. Zainab was supposed to be here
and she hadn’t even passed by once. Was she
avoiding him? He asked himself but
immediately responded in the negative, he had
done nothing wrong yet so there was no
reason for her to avoid him.

He decided to go and check on her in her
office for the second time that day.

He dropped the scripts and the little
microphone attached to his shirt and headed
to her office. He got there soon enough and
instead of knocking or entering straight up, he
stood at her window for a while, just admiring
her.

In the real sense, she wore a dark green skirt
which could be mistaken for black if not
looked at properly and a light green top with
a sexy looking dark green jacket to match. She
initially wore black heels but after considering
the discomfort it rendered to her, she removed
it and replaced it with a flat she had brought
from home. Henry notice all this and even
more noticed that she was concentrating on
her phone so deeply that she didn’t even
notice he had been standing at her window for
nothing less than five minutes.

He thought clearly of his approach, he could
approach angrily asking her why she wasn’t
present at his shoot or he could go in warmly
and crack a couple of jokes… He decided to go
with the latter.

He knock just once and without waiting for a
response he barged in to the office. “I’ve
always wondered why women loved to stress
their selves. Why bother where a high heeled
shoe to work if you would change to a flat
once you get to the office?” Henry asked as he
walked to the chair.

Zainab was startled at first but almost
immediately gained her compulsure back, “I’ve always wondered why you don’t ever wait for me to invite you in when ever you knock. You just barge in, you may as well not knock at all…” She mischievously replied.

Henry wanted to fire back but Zainab response
had put in on a tight spot and he had no
reply, he just smiled and changed the topic.

“I was expecting you at the studio but you never showed up?” He said in a tone that made it seem more like a question that a regular statement.

Zainab quickly sent Boniface a “cwyl,”
message which meant Chat With You Later,
and dropped her phone. Without any argument
or mischievous reply which Henry had
expected she stood up and said, “I’m sure you still have thirty minutes left, so let’s go.”

Henry remained in his seat, looking surprised.


As he stepped out of a four story building IT
company which specialized in providing
internet services for firms and individuals,
Taofeek was pretty sure he would receive a
call from them within the next twenty four
hours.

He had just dropped his C.V with the
personnel manager on the third floor and even
though the receptionist on the ground floor
had told him there was no job vacancy, he felt
that with a C.V like his, someone would be
sacked so as him to to replaced.

He had two degrees from Canada number one
university and another from Oxford in England,
let alone the different professional degrees he
got from both online courses and from Yale
and Harvard. How and why he attend all these
schools still surprised and better yet annoyed
his dad up till present. All his dad wanted was
for him to get a B. Sc and join the family
company but due to Taofeek keen interest in
education, he had gone ahead to bag a B.Sc,
masters, Ph. D and an endless list of degrees
from the best universities he could lay his
hands on. Then to top it all he had more than
enough working experience as a manager in
one of his father companies which happened
to be a very huge and popular IT company
too. So when he expected them to call in 24
hours, he was bragging or trying to sound
cocky.

That was the third company he had dropped
his C. V in that afternoon and decided to head
over to the last company which was at the
other side of the Lagos Island to drop his last
one before trying to look for an
accommodation. He didn’t like the fact that he
stayed with Zainab as that indirectly put a
pause to his search for independence. He
knew Zainab cared too much about him that
she would ask him tonnes of questions each
day after he comes back from work, he wasn’t ready for that, he had already answered more than enough questions during his years of acquiring the degrees which rested
comfortably in the suitcase held firmly.

Taofeek headed to the bustop and waited
patiently for a taxi, after waiting for a short
while, one stopped at his front.

“Where you dey go?” The driver asked staring at his through the rare view mirror.

In his foreign American accent, Taofeek
replied, “shey you know where Christ Embassy
dey?”

The driver was angry at first thinking it was
just a joke considering the fact that there were
thousands of Christ Embassy churches all
around but after turning to face Taofeek
directly and see his face was straight, he
assumed Taofeek just didn’t know what he
was saying. “Which one?” He calmly asked.

Taofeek had google possible IT companies all
around Lagos island where he could drop his
C.V and although others had a specific
address, the last one – the one he was about
to head to didn’t have one. Rather, a phone
number and direction to a Christ Embassy
church was on their website. The only reason
Taofeek was interested in them was the
amazing salary range they offered.

He picked up his phone and checked his saved
pages on his browser where he had saved the
website of the company and handed it over to
the driver.

The driver took it and starred at it for a few
seconds then looking confused, he turned to
Taofeek and asked, “you wan dash me your
phone abi wetin?”

It occurred to Taofeek that the driver could
either not read or had no idea what to do with
the phone, he took it back and gave him the
comprehensive address of the church.

“So na wetin you no fit talk since be that
shey?” The driver asked in disgust as he heard
the address and knew it, and it was also
obvious Taofeek was a “JJC” aka Johnny Just
Come, so the driver decided to make some
extra cash of him, “oya enter make we dey go,
your money na one thousand naira for thirty
minutes oh!”

Taofeek bursted out into an uncontrollable
laughter. He couldn’t exactly believe the driver
though he could cheat him that much. He
didn’t know the price but he was sure that
Nigeria drivers don’t charge based on time
but distance and here this driver was telling
him to pay half hourly… Simply ridiculous.

“Oga, if na play you wan use me play, abeg
carry you scatter scatter car commot my front
make better person come, na five hundred I go
pay for the whole journey, if you no gree, dey
go abeg!” Taofeek replied, and although he
still sounded funny with his American accent,
the driver could easily tell he was serious and
he knew what he was doing.

“Oya make we leave am as one thousand
naira, I no fit take five hundred for this kind
long journey.” The driver replied.

“I no get one thousand oh, you go take eight
hundred naira?”

The driver sighed, the original fee was actually
six hundred naira, “oya enter.” He said and
Taofeek entered.

The driver deliberately spent and extra fifteen
minutes on the road taking a longer road
instead of the usual shorted road to make the
journey seem longer and in his naiveté,
Taofeek had no idea all he wanted to do was
get there on time so he could do what he had
to do and then go house hunting before night
fall.

The driver eventually arrived at the destination
and after pointing at the Christ Embassy
church across the road, he took the money
and zoomed away happy over the extra two
hundred naira he had just ripped of Taofeek.

Taofeek on the other had stood on the road
side, carefully scanning the environment with
his eyes and searching for a huge building
that could possibly be the IT company
considering they paid that much, he expected
the company to be huge. He saw none.

He picked up his phone once more and dialed
the number on the their website. After the
third ring the call was picked.

“E gbon, ta lon soro?” The recipient said as
soon as he picked the call.

“I beg your pardon?” Taofeek said in response,
“please is this Ginger net?” He added.
The recipient immediately readjusted and
switched from his initial Yoruba to queens
english, “yes, sorry about my earlier response,
how may I help you?”

Taofeek sensed something suspicious about
that but just played along, “I saw on your
website that you guys were employing new
staffs and I also saw an address to your
company so I followed to the address and I’m
right where the address in the website says
but I can’t find your company.”

The recipient went silent for a while as if he
was trying to think of what to say or was
whispering to some one in the back ground,
after a few seconds he replied, “sorry for the
inconviniences. Ginger net is a new IT
company in Nigeria and we operate in the a
different way. We love to treat or staffs in a
special way and at the same time be
anonymous, thus the address on the website.

We would send a driver in a car to pick you up
in a few minutes so please just hold on a
while and put your phone on standby.”

Taofeek was confused but impressed at their
style of operation, “okay, I’ll wait.” He said
excitedly.

But maybe he shouldn’t have waited.


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