Chapter 1

'Madam, please give me Bigi and RC. I need two packs of chin-chin also.' I sat on a chair and took off my "bicycle seat" cap. The worms in my stomach protested at the delay in bringing the "food."

I found it hard to imagine how I got to this point. Having to skip breakfast and use a combo of sausage roll and soft drink as brunch wasn't appealing to me at all. But life had thrown me these lemons. Before you tell me how I was supposed to make lemonade from them, please, I need strength.

So Bigi and RC it was, for brunch; then garri and salt with a touch of sugar for a late lunch. If I make it to afford dinner, it's nothing more than a 70g pack of Indomie noodles.

As I sat biting the hard sausage roll, I was calculating how I was going to solve my numerous problems. My rent was due and I was under the threat of eviction anytime soon.

I had debts to pay. Madam Genesis was ready to show me fire for the balance of 2k I still owed from the foodstuff I bought from last month.

Lost in thought, I took another bite of my sausage, only to realize it had finished and what I was indeed eating was the wrap. The storekeeper must have probably been wondering if I was normal. She looked at me in a mixture of disdain and sympathy. When I paid her for the snacks, she breathed an inaudible sigh of relief.

My name is Ezekiel. At 34, I was eligible to be married but still very single. The prolonged state of my bachelorhood was a source of jesting among many who knew me. I'd often be teased with terms such as "Manchelor" and "Father Gregory."

I didn't believe in bringing a woman to come and suffer in the name of marriage. That's why I refused to get entangled with any girl. I know any girl could be mine for the asking; I had a very fine face and a pleasant nature. But "Na money be fine Bobo," as far as I was concerned. How can a man's pocket just be dry like Lagos-Ibadan expressway?

My friends who kept calling me "Easy way" and "Zik of Africa" were either sadistic or dumb. I mean, what is easy in the life of a guy who can't even afford to own a decent change of clothes?

It wasn't as if I wasn't trying. I have tried selling second hand clothes, worked as a barrow pusher in Ogbete, even hawked herbal products for different companies. Now, I was collecting scrap metal to sell to junk dealers. Look at me, a man who once had dreams of being a lecturer! What kind of lecturer doesn't even have an SSCE result?

That's right; I dropped out of school when I was in SS1. My father died during the summer holidays before I was to enter into Senior Secondary School. I resumed after his burial but the school could only put up with the debt for one term. When it was obvious I had no means of paying, I was "advised to withdraw."

That was how I became a houseboy at 14. After slaving away 15 years of my life for 3 different taskmasters, I decided to get free. A friend had advised me a few months back to come over to Lagos and stay with him. I had some money saved up and on getting there, I called him, something I could have done before leaving Asaba, just to hear he had been transferred to Enugu.

I had used the last cash on me to go looking for him in Enugu. But my phone got stolen at Peace Park in Enugu and I couldn't reach him. I took several rides, till I found myself in a village called Echara in Nsukka, where I decided to settle and build life from the scratch.

I lived in Nsukka for 4 years, with nothing to show for it.