Congratulated With a Bucket of Water

The excitement of having a new job was so much that calling friends and family to tell them about the job came as an immediate response to happiness. While on a call marathon, a friend of mine made a joke about not losing my new job the same way the old one was lost too.

It was a hard past to let go of, the way the old job was lost, but letting it go was a must because a new chapter of my life was about to be started.

When the calls to everyone that needed to hear my good news were done, my dirty clothes were my next priority, doing my laundry to always get prepared for days ahead as a newly employed man.

"Where this boy dey? Jay??"

It sounded like Sly's voice, he called my name from outside, enquiring about where I was and only a handful of people call me 'Jay' and the handful were 2 of my closest friends, Sly and Ebuka.

On opening the door to greet them, a bucket of water was poured on me, which was so unexpected and left me frozen for a while to recover from the shock before asking why the water had to be poured on me. We stood facing ourselves, and they both started laughing after a while and I couldn't help but join in the laughter as well.

Ebuka was with a bottle of wine and Sly was with the bucket and the original content of the bucket was already emptied on me. For some obvious reasons, all the shock died down after seeing Sly with the bucket because he's the only one amongst the 2 of them who can come up with such an absurd thing to do to a person.

"Oh, I already know what you are capable of," I said.

Sly laughed and walked to his car to drop the bucket in the boot of his car.

"Wait, you brought this bucket from your house just to pour water on me?" I asked.

Ebuka replied, "Congratulations call for extreme measures, my man." We all laughed and walked into the house.

There were wine glasses on my table, which we used to drink wine and celebrate my new job. The laundry which was a priority earlier ceased to be as celebrations with a bottle of wine took over. As soon as the last drop of wine left the bottle, I went into the bedroom to dry up and changed my clothes and wore something party-worthy because there was no way they would have let me do anything afterwards besides taking me out to celebrate. We were on our way after deciding on the best place to be on a Monday evening. City Park, Wuse 2, was the best choice, one of our favourite hangout spots. We ordered lots to eat and drink and most importantly, they were taking care of the bills because if the bill payment was to go 3 ways, I, John Solomon wouldn't have been able to afford it.

A laughable situation, I was broke.

Sly and Ebuka made the evening worth it, as they have always done and they were happier than I was for my new job after many months, not up to 5 months though, but it was such a long time to be jobless.

We had lots of interesting conversations like we usually do; being with them brings more life to the atmosphere and it gladdened my heart.

Truthfully, they always had my back throughout my down times and being with them here to celebrate me, was a moment that will forever be cherished.

Ebuka asked how the money saved throughout the years worked was spent because it wouldn't have been possible to be left broke after barely 5 months and I was more than happy to explain that to them.

At my former workplace before losing the job, 70% of my total savings were used to invest in shares and stocks and the remaining parts were used to sort out my house rent and foodstuff, with other minor expenses.

The house rent was paid in advance for 2 years in case the opportunity to get a new job doesn't come quickly and there would always be a roof over my head for a long time and with the little money left, there was always food to eat.

They were both impressed at how precise my plans were and the measures taken to do those things with my money and they were looking forward to when I'd cash out from the shares and stocks bought in my name.

They ordered more drinks.

And I'd like to point out that we didn't take beer all through, we only had red wine, and we had finished 5 bottles and headed to our 6th.

At about 8 pm, both their girlfriends came to join us at our table, yeah, I know you're wondering why my girlfriend didn't come also, well, I had none at the time and as to why we split, was related to how my old job was lost. I'd like to tell you about that but now is about me and my new job.

We stood up and greeted them with hugs and they were super excited for me, yeah, all 4 seated knew the story behind the lost job so, they were excited.

"When it's 9 pm, I'll like to be on my way so I can finish up my laundry and prepare for work tomorrow," I said.

"Keep quiet, because you don get new work now, we no go rest," said Sly.

"No mind am, e don see us wey jobless, we wey no get work to go tomorrow," concluded Ebuka, and we all laughed at the joke.

It was almost 9 pm, and we paid for what we ate and drank, sorry for that, they paid for what we ate and drank. Imagine counting myself as part of those who paid, funny.

They drove me home, we said our goodbyes and I quickly went into the house to finish up with my laundry and to make adequate preparation for the next day's work.

When it was almost 11 pm, every work was finished and preparations for bed commenced.

Sleep abandoned me when my eyes were shut and overwhelming feelings came knocking, and all sorts of worries began to fly into my head. It was futile to force sleep because it wasn't coming, I got up from the bed, and left my house to go take a walk.

There was partial darkness everywhere because lights weren't on every corner but the night was calm and quiet, only a few cars and bikes were seen plying the road. My walk took me to the junction at Next Cash and Carry, and I enjoyed the scenery for a while before turning around to walk back home.

"John Solomon?? Hey, John," someone called from behind.

It was a very familiar voice but not in a million years would someone like that be outside this late in this part of town.

Ms. Josephine, the bank manager sitting in her car looking all beautiful, either she was going to a party or coming back from one.

"But she doesn't live in Jahi, then she must be going back home from a party," I thought to myself.

She kept her gaze on me until I was close to the car. She was in the car with someone, a woman who she later introduced as her friend.

"What are you doing out so late, walking about?" she asked.

"You were standing there for a while before you turned to leave," she continued.

"I couldn't sleep so I decided to take a walk. Do you stay around here, ma? Because I know you don't."

"No, I don't, but my friend does," she answered.

It turned out that she had been around with her friend since she dropped me off at my place after work. They went to hang out and she'd be spending the night at her friend's. We said our goodnights and my walk home began, on the lonely road.

The only sounds I heard were from insects and frogs, and I started having regrets as to why I walked so far at night.