AT THE SCENT OF WATER

I used to hear the phrase “at the saint of water” but didn't really know what it meant until the day I was hopeless and like that phrase, I understood what it meant to be hopeless and helpless. A typical example that explains that phrase is a dying plant that springs up at the scent of water. I know what it means to be so hopeless that I wasn't expecting anything from anyone as I knew I was all alone. If there was anything beyond frustrated, it was how I felt at that point, life became meaningless and I was ready to die because I knew there was nothing else to leave for then. I couldn't blame anyone for anything that happened then, I wasn't even having the strength to do so anymore. I remember laying down and waiting for death when NEPA brought light…

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The light came as a beacon of hope, but the only strength I had was to plug my phone that had been dead for three days. This was a time when I was so close to dropping out of school, I had tried so hard to pay my fees, but the bills needed to make me write exams were just too much for me to pay and it was as though I was destined not to finish the higher institution. A part of me was thinking about dying, and another part was trying to figure out what I would do after dropping out. I knew all hope was lost, and there was nothing I could do. In fact, the last hope I had was dashed to pieces when I worked into the exam hall hoping a miracle would happen and I would be allowed to take the exams, but instead, I was walked out of the exam hall by the exam officer disgracefully.

I couldn't cry, I couldn't call anyone. I was earning 10,000 naira monthly, and the company I was working for owed me a salary. The freelance contract I put all my energy into turned out to be a scam when the guy who gave my friend and me the contract refused to pay us for the job. I did not want to even do it without getting something upfront, but my friend persuaded me to do it because the person who gave the contract was his friend. I wished I had spent that energy doing something else, at least I knew it would have profited me a little. So reaching home on an empty stomach that hadn't seen food for three days, I was worn out, and somehow knew if depression didn't kill me, hunger would.

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After electricity came on and I plugged my phone into the light, my phone charged for a few minutes when I started hearing my phone ringing in my dream. I woke up to it ringing and checked the call, it was my pastor who had been calling me before that time. I was hesitant to pick hoping he wasn't going to send me on an errand because I did have some strength left in me. But then as I picked up his call, the first thing he asked was whether I had been able to pay my fees, I said no, and he said I should rush to the bank that instant, that someone was there to pay my fees. This was the point where I became dumbfounded, strength came to me instantly, I wanted to cry and shout at the same time, it was all the emotions running through me that instant.

I later went to the bank, I walked a long distance without feeling hungry and after the transaction was successful, I was too happy to feel hungry and tired. I'm sure people who saw me along the way would think I was running mad or something, but they had no idea what the Lord had done for me. Although my problems weren't over because my landlord was on my neck, and even though I had paid the school fees, I still had lecturers to deal with who wouldn't let me write without buying their textbooks. I was offering 11 courses and each textbook was 5,000 naira. So you see there was still a problem. But at the scent of water, which was the good news of my school fees, hope came and so did ideas.

I went back to school the next day and started pleading with my lecturers one by one to help me by giving me more time after the exams. They allowed me to have a good relationship with them before that day, and that was how I wrote the exam for that day even though I already missed two the first day. But there was another problem. It was the fourth evening and I was already feeling like fainting, I'm not good at begging, and the close ones I managed to beg said they didn't have to give, so I stayed out hoping something would come through for me. Luckily for me, the year one students were given an impromptu assignment to write, and they needed someone who could deliver ASAP. The majority of them brought it to me and immediately they were paying to ensure I did their assignment first. I charged them more than the norm because of the urgency, but I didn't hesitate to visit the nearest boli spot I could find and ate boli with fish and pepper sauce alongside a cold bottle of Pepsi.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE NAIJA'S PROMPT FOR THE WEEK