Chapter Two The Vow
Mathew continued his journey in the city of Lagos doing one menial job or the other,until after about five years when he was about 27yrs old at the car wash a young Lady drove into the car wash in a Lexus SUV.She ordered him to wash her car and Mathew jnr had no choice but to wash ,he really felt like talking to her but couldn't, because the elegance of this lady melted any form of manly pride in Mathew.The picture of the look of the lady looked like the dream woman of Mathew and the car reminded him of his wealthy status he had always wanted to be.
After this experience,he vowed to get back on his dream ride which he had forgotten about due to the harsh experience he had gone through in few years.He vowed to get back on track and was determined to pay any cost to achieve that.
He saved up and started a high school in Lagos,at 27 yrs old he started the high school.He didn't feel bad for whatever maltreatment they dished out at him in school.He would go to school in the morning and come back to his car wash job and worked hard.He would save some stipends for schools and educational items,he put his best to his academy and he was not doing badly in school.
Every now and then,he reminds himself of the dream of becoming a wealthy man.While at the school ,he pulled several stunt of bravery and smartness that made the teachers began to like him.He continued with his education and was doing well all the way.He eventually finished a high school with hard work and self nurturing.
At 33 years he finished the high school and planned to further his education to University.it was not easy,it was a hard work.He worked for 3years to save up,he did all manners of odd jobs,he was every where and did everything,he saved up and wouldnt get deterred by the ordeal but pressed so hard at saving up for school.
Finally he got admission at Lagos State University at 36,it was a great dream to realise for Mathew.He was in school and had to work sometimes at the car wash and sometimes as a Uber taxi driver.He was shuttling between the school and the menial work.
while in year Ii ,he received message for a Uber ride ,by the time he got there,the client turned out to be an old friend who was an old school mate far back at the village.One conversations to the other,they became pals and became close.The newly found friend in no time turned to be a bad influence.For about a year he rolled with this friend and his guys,they lured him off the path of his educational dreams,he joined in smoking, clubbing and partying.Those guys were cyber criminals and drug pushers.
He began straying from good grades in his year II and started skipping classes due to night parties and his grades were dropping in school.They went for a party at one time,fight broke out over a trivial ownership of a certain girl ,they were fighting another set of guys and they wounded those ones badly and ran away.the following day,the Parents of those guys came with Police men to arrest those guys and Mathew was arrested alongside . He and his friends stayed in cell for about five days until the Parent of his friends came to bail them but he had nobody to bail him,so he stayed there for about 2weeks more and he was rotting there until one day an NGO organization came around and offered him a help.
When he finally came out,it was done on him how far he had strayed away from his desired pursuit,how failure in courses were the ordwr of the day for him.He realised he had committed a heinous crime against himself and God Almighty.He began retracing his steps and climbing back but it was not easy ,alot of damage had been done.He had to repeat the courses and eventually scooped forward.He returned back to his car wash and Uber ride because he had left all of that .
In his 300 level,he was going home one day and it was late in the night because he had to stay back in school to study because that became a routine for him since the last incidence.As he was going home around 9pm,he stumbled at a scene where some bad guys were trying to rape a girl from his school,he impulsively reacted and attacked those rapist and sent them away,Mathew being a brave boy from the village days really saved the lady with some fighting skills, he learnt from his forest days.
All along he and the lady called Rose became friends,that was something to cheer because no lady ordinarily would have come so close to Mathew because of his dirtiness and being always unkept in school.This lady Rose ignored the condemnation of her friends but rather got alot closer to the guy,only for her to discover the amazing dreams of Matthew,she learnt about how Mathew desired to be a very wealthy man and how he has defiled several obstacles in life to come that far.The Lady fell in love with him,having discovered this quality.she encouraged him the more,Mathew always got inspired by self made millionaires, so he always desired to start his own busin- ess. One day,he shared all these with this lady and the Lady loved him the more.The lady Rose being a year junior to Matthew and who was a girl from a comfortable background,in one way or the other she supported Mathew through school,in which gave Mathew more time to focus on his studies because he had to spend lesser time on the menial jobs. Mathew who was studying Automobile engin- eering and he was always facinated with cars and repair of cars.He had a unique feature in creativity,which would later work for him.
At their Final year project, Mathew built a miniature car prototype and set up a miniature garrage where the car would park by the use of a remote control.The Panel were impres- sed and even his Project supervisor.At about 41 years of age he graduated and never for one day feel ashamed of his old age,because he believed that the cure for ignorance is Education and to be an illiterate Is to be limited in life and, the drive for wealth always encourage Mathew for outstanding perform- ances.
He had an ambition to build his own car company,even from school.He was so cons- umed with this passion that he would sacrifice anything for it.When he graduated and due to his age ,he could not do a compulsory one year service to the nation called NYSC,he was just exempted.So he started out doing menial jobs and continued to build on his dreams of building cars, therefore he had several prototypes and different designs.From there he started moving from investor meeting to another and all to no avail,for the space of two years ,he went on doing a support engineer job to small automobile workshops,and he was only given stipend wages but he was fulfilled because it gave him the opportunity to practise what he learnt on automobile engineering in school.
A time came about 2years after graduation, Rose also had graduated and served ,he proposed to her and she agreed to marry him because she so much loved him and believed in him.They were both excited thinking.very soon and in no time they will be husband and wife.
The day came when Mathew went to meet the Parent of Rose to tell them about his intentions to marry their daughter.After a rigorous interview by the Parent ,they came to a conclusion that he can't marry their daughter because he had no reputable Parent nor did he have a good job,he told them about his inventions but they never saw anything good in it.He begged them seriously to allow him marry their daughter, they refused abruptly and threaten to arrest him if seen around their daughter.They scorned him and rubbished the so called inventions.
On getting home, he was heart broken that for about 2 months he was crying and would not be placated ,nobody could console him.After the two months,he came to conclusion that the he would prove Rose 's Parent wrong that his inventions are not bunch of garbage.He swore to put his best in what he was doing and he took another five years to continue to work as a small scale automobile workshops owner ,he was making some few change while on his own.
One day ,fortune smiled on him and at this point he was 48years already.A man had a car he treasured and that car developed a fault and it was so serious that he went to every automobile workshops for repair,no one could offer him a help.This man was disturbed that his beautiful car was parked there ,no repair and a day came someone recommended him to the man who happened to be Mr John Ufford,at first he never believed anyone else could attempt it let alone of doing because he had gone to severally big-time engineers who could. not solve the problem of his car.So when he got Mathew's shop ,he was discouraged and how can any engineer from this slumlike workshop,that seem to be a Godforsaken place.He walked in with so much doubt and discussed with Mathew and Mathew took up the challenge and went with him to where the car was .The next day Mathew started work on this car and In one week the car that was said to be dead resurrected under the gloves of Mathew.The man was so happy with Mathew and really was fascinated with his performance and they got talking and in the process ,Mathew mentioned his invented cars and his dream to set out as a big car producer in Africa and in the world.This man without wasting time bought into Mathew's inventions and demanded to see the small prototypes that Mathew had made and on the next day ,Mathew took it to him at the office ,right there the man had rallied some set of investors to take a look at Mathew's inventions and all of them fell in love with it.
They invested hugely into the invention and gave Mathew three months to come up with the first real car prototype and which they can set up a factory for him.Mathew set out with the making of the car.He hired some other engineers to support himself.They worked several months , inspite of many components they have put together ,they were battling with some certain components because he promised to make a car that is highly fuel efficient,that was the promise to the investor.He spent more than three months and the investor gave him additional one month to come up with the car but to no avail,he put all he's got,he could not fix that particular component.He eventually fell out with the investors and they demanded for their money,he told them to give him 2 weeks to go about it,they gave him and at the end of that 2 weeks ,he could not finish nor could he provide their money,he was arrested with the police and detained in cell for a month and later arraigned before the court and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for fraud .At this point he was distraught and felt like ending it all by committing suicide but no sharp objects was available for him to use.
After about one year he was in prison,they jailed one very wealthy man called Mark Abraham was to serve for one year for fraud at the same prison that Mathew was.The fraud that Mark Abraham was sentenced for was that,two years ago he bought a property and took possession of it not knowing that the property documents were fake .He had already occupied the property before the rightful owner of the property came and asked him to vacate their property but he refused , even when he was shown the original docu -ment. He refused to vacate,not knowing it was the Gateman of the rightful owner that designed a fake document and sold it to Mr Mark.The Gateman( Security man of the house) had fled away ,so Mr Mark was arraigned for being an accomplice to the Gateman and illegal possession of another's property.
There in the prison for about three months ,Mr Mark was always crying and guess who was always comforting him? it was Mathew,,after about three months Mr Mark was already accepting the new reality and he got talking with Mathew ,they both exchanged their experiences and Mr Mark seemed to fall in love with the story of Mathew and he promised to help him when they get out.
At the end of their serving terms they got out together and Mr Mark took Mathew to his house and set him up by investing into the project .At that time Mathew was 53 yrs old, Mr Mark sent him abroad for more exposure on the automobile inventions and after six months he came back and where he got stuck at first ,he had learnt the way forward.This time around he made the car and they prepared to launch it for exihibition.
Mr Mark was so excited and they both celebrated the grand victory.This tenacity kept Mathew going and in that same season after he launched the car at exihibition.He met a beautiful lady at the bank whose name was Diana.Diana was a beautiful young lady who worked at the bank and was at that time 35 while Mathew was already 53. They went on a date and she was so excited about Mathew's dreams and ambition ,on the other hand Mathew was also excited because she fit into the dream woman of Mathew.He refused to settle for less ,so it took him a long time to really come in contact with the woman she truly loves.
In less than three months the two of them expedited the marriage process and they got married.Though at first Diana's Parent were a bit sketchy about the compatibility of the two because of their age difference,but the couple's strong feelings between them overshawed whatever any external opinion.
In less than three years they had two children already named Mary and Jude.All along Mathew kept in his heart to prove to Rose's Parent that his garbage invention will one day be a choicest vehicle of people all around the world.After the exihibition they started building the factory to mass produce them.They got a nice factory and started mass production through a bank fund procured by Mr Mark,he became a partner In the name Axilis,gradually people began to like and majorly because of the extreme fuel efficiency,it became the choice of all and the production continued and many more moulds were created.