'Sunrise at Midnight' by Ugwu Lawrence Enenche

Adakole had written the second semester examination of his year three (300 level) and was now on holiday in his father’s house. His father underwent a surgical operation recently and was told not to engage in any arduous work for months.

He worked tirelessly in his father’s farm. Some of their relatives and friends did come to help him. His step-mother had warned her children not to greet him and shouldn’t go for any emissary for him.

Few weeks later, his father told him to leave his work and look for where to work for money. ‘I can’t be able to afford your school fees in this condition I am. Just the way you did in the previous holidays, you can do such or even more,’ he said and rested his head on the wall. ‘There is nowhere I can borrow money to give you when you are going back.

The fifty thousand naira I borrowed when you started, I haven’t pay all. I still owed him twenty thousand naira. Since orange season has gone, you can look for other work that can fetch you little money,’ he said and lied down on the mat he was sitting.

Adakole sat down looking into the air. He stood up and went to his room. ‘God help me,’ he said. His phone rang and he went outside to receive the call.

‘See, since the death of our father, Mama has been sick and could no longer trade cassava to Ahor Market. She doesn’t have any money and we are about to be sent away from school because of school fees. We have no one to help us. And Mama doesn’t have clothes at all. All her clothes have faded,’ she said.

‘I don’t have money now. As I’m talking to you, I don’t know where and how to get my school fee. My father underwent surgical operation and had told me to work out my school fee myself. Notwithstanding, I will try my best to look for money and send you before the end of next month,’ he said wearily.

‘Can I look for where to lend money so that when you send, I will return it? We are told to come with our school fees next week.’

‘Okay, you can look for. Tell Mama to be prayerful.’

He returned to his room and sat on the bed looking glum. ‘It shall be well,’ he said. He wore his shirt and went to a building to pray.

‘God, I’m tired of life. Please take me home,’ he said in tears. ‘Why why why, why me?’ he sobbed.

He lied on one of the benches and covered his face with handkerchief. He wept and stood up. ‘I won’t die. I must make it in life. This situation will not continue,’ he sobbed. He shook his head and hissed. ‘It shall be well with me and my family in one day.’

He left there and went to their kitchen to roast cocoyam. He sat down looking at the cocoyam on the fire and tears flowed from his eyes. He quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand when he saw his step-mother approaching and bent his head. ‘If you burn all the firewood, you will go and fetch them for me,’ she shouted.

She told him to stand up from the wooden chair and he stood up and sat on the floor. She took it to the parlour and offered it to certain people who came to visit her husband.

One of her daughter went to the kitchen and saw Adakole pouring palm oil into a small plate. She ran to the parlour and told her mother. Soon after, she returned to the kitchen. ‘My mother said you shouldn’t use all,’ she said with frowned looked. ‘When you return to school, we are the ones to suffer the lack,’ she continued.

‘You are very stupid. If you look into my eyeball again, I will slap you. Am I the one you are talking to like your mate?’

‘Slap me,’ she said and moved closer to him. ‘See me, oya slap me.’

‘She claimed she bought everything in this house, but this palm oil was not bought. I’m the one who cut the efu and brought it home from the farm.’

‘You are insulting my mother! I will go and tell her,’ she ran to the parlour.

After he returned from farm the following day, Adakole went to meet Ejeh, his secondary school classmate who withdrew when they were in SS2 and was working in Alpha and Omega Block Industry. ‘Adakole keneke,’ Ejeh hailed as he sighted Adakole. They were three who were working at the block industry; a middle age man who was operating the machine moulding the blocks, Ejeh was carrying it to a nearby plain ground and the third worker was mixing the sand and cement together. Adakole sat on a rickety bench looking at them until they stopped to eat food.

He told Ejeh he wanted to see him and they walked a distance from others.

‘I’m facing serious financial challenge and I need your help. I want to work with you or in any of the block industries around here so that I can get a little money before I go back to school. Please help me,’ Adakole begged.

‘You don’t need to beg. To be sincere with you, you can’t be able to do this work. It is very hard and demands a lot of energy and strength.’

‘Please Ejeh, I can do it little by little until I master it. Please, help me.’

‘You may think I don’t want to help you but the truth is that you can’t be able to do it. See,’ he pointed to the fresh blocks. ‘Double six inches in a palette. That is twelve inches.

You can’t be able to carry a fresh six inches block in a palette, not to talk of carrying double in a palette. All the machines in all the block industries around here don’t mould single six inches blocks; they mould double in a palette at a time. And you can’t be able to carry nine inches block.’

‘Can I carry any of these ones up to know how heavy it is,’ he said pointing to the fresh blocks.

He and Ejeh walked to where the blocks were arranged and he lifted one of it up.

‘Truly, it is heavy but I can carry it for a while before I get tired.’

‘You may carry up to twenty palettes but you can’t go beyond that before you get tired and we used a bag of cement to mould thirty palettes. No worker around here will accept you to work with him for a while and stop because you are tired.

None of us here will complain of being tired until we complete nine or ten bags of cement. If you do, they will set you up and bring another person to replace you. Even the owner can sack you and bring another worker. There are many people looking for this job. They come here every time but we don’t attend to them but I’m attending to you because you were a good person when we were together in school.’

‘Thank you very much....’

‘What I can do for you now is to plead with the driver so that you can join those boys that load blocks into the motor. He and the boys carry blocks to a building site and will soon return.’

‘Thank you very much, I’m very grateful. God will reward you greatly.’

Adakole sat down waiting for the driver. Ejeh and his co-workers ate food and continued working. ‘God, into your hands I commit my life. Let your will be done in all areas of my life,’ he prayed quietly.

The driver returned and Ejeh talked to him. The driver told Ejeh to call Adakole. Adakole went and greeted him.

‘My name is Segun. Your brother told me that you are looking for work and I want to help you because of your brother. Have you loaded blocks inside motor before?’

‘No sir, but I can do it,’ Adakole replied.

‘Notwithstanding, we will teach you. Come before 8.00am tomorrow.’

‘Thank you very much sir,’ Adakole said.

‘Oluomo! Padi to daa niyeh! Thank you very much,’ Ejeh hailed Segun.

The following morning, Adakole was in the block industry before all the workers. He sat on a bench looking at the machine. He stood up and walked to the machine. He held it handle and attempted to jerk it up. He left there and went to touch the blocks moulded the previous day.

The driver arrived with the cab and they exchanged greetings. The driver opened one of the sides of the cab and climbed up.

‘You can bring the blocks,’ he told Adakole.

Adakole carried the blocks to him and he arranged it. The motor was half-full before the two young boys working with Segun arrived.

‘Ogbeni, it is only one of you that will work with me today. Somebody has started working before you people come. I have been warning you people of coming late but you were taking me for levity,’ Segun told the boys.

‘Aaah! Brother Segun it is not good like that. Please, let both of us work today and one will go in search of work in another place tomorrow. I need money seriously,’ one of the boys said.

‘Kole seese. Both of you can’t work with me today. yinka, go and change your clothes and come to work,’ Segun told one of the boys.

Yinka took off his clothes and wore his working clothes. ‘You can learn from him,’ Segun told Adakole as both Adakole and Yinka carried blocks to the vehicle.

They carried blocks to different building sites till sunset and took their bath at the block industry. Segun gave Adakole nine hundred and fifty naira. ‘This is your share. Your money is nine hundred and forty naira. Bring my ten naira tomorrow,’ he handed the money to him. He gave the same amount of money to Yinka. ‘Eat before we start work tomorrow so that you won’t get tired quickly,’ Segun told Adakole. Adakole thanked him and left for home.

Adakole fetched garri and drank as he got home and went to bed. He woke up at about 5.00am the following morning and went to kitchen to cook. He put cocoyams in a pot and set it on fire. He cooked it and carried it to the block industry.

He ate from the cocoyam whenever he was hungry. ‘Lawyer, you don’t want to spend your money on food. You are eating lambo like those prisoners in Olokuta maximum prison,’ Yinka told him as he was eating cocoyam in the motor while they were carrying blocks to a building site and all of them laughed.

Adakole worked with Segun and Yinka for a month and saved a good amount of money. ‘Thank you God. When one door closed, you opened another door for me,’ he said on his knee as he returned from the block industry one day.

He bought a fairly used Nokia N72 mobile phone from a fellow worker in another block industry and sent his old Nokia mobile phone and money to his mother to pay her children’s school fees. The CEO of the Alpha and Omega Block Industry gave him five thousand naira and wished him excellent in his study. He paid his school fees and continued his study.

Ugwu Lawrence Enencheis a prolific writer and reputable researcher on African Literature and folklore. He is a celebrated public speaker with a distinguished, ineffable, modest and pro-active personality. He has written many published and unpublished articles, stories, poems and his recent novels are Just After Dawn, A Talking Dream and Gone With Love. You can reach him via email: ugwulawlaw@gmail.com. Follow him on Facebook at Ugwu Lawrence Enenche.or Twitter Lawrence Enenche

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