HUNGER, ADVENTURE, TROUBLE|| TALE OF A STUDENT

In my days at the University, weekends were the most fun. It wasn't all because we got a break from classwork. But especially during the time our stipends and provisions had depleted drastically, which was mostly times nearing examination, it was because we had a little chance to be humans.

Source

My circle of friends were a little crazy. Call them crazy-cool. I was more the reserved one. One of the things they did which they dragged me along to join them in was to gatecrash parties. Those guys always knew where an event was holding. And we attended. Invited or not. You cannot blame us. Hungry as we were, we only went for the food. Sometimes, we had more than one event to attend per day.

We'll get dressed in our best and storm the event, carrying ourselves like we were the party host. Saturdays and Sundays, we ate at those events. Luckily for us, the "strictly by invitation" thing was not very popular then. In our clothes pockets, we carried sacks. We had funny ways of getting more than one round of food which we took home. Whatever the event was; birthdays, memorial, wedding, dedication, even funeral, we were there live. One of us preferred funeral because he said the jollof rice cooked there tasted far better. We saw these events as hunger alleviation scheme. It was always fun and adventurous until something happened.

That particular week, we had had it difficult. Sipping garri and practicing the 0-0-1 food rule. We were in our room on Saturday when Jaga came in asked us to dress up that he heard there was a big party going on down the road. Hastily,we obeyed.
We got to the location for the particular wedding reception. It was to hold in a canteen. First time I ever witnessed that.

Upon our arrival, the event had already begun and it was all shades of glamour. We occupied one round table, taking pictures and impatiently waiting for item seven. Soon the chefs began distributing food to the guests in takeaway packs.

Before it got to our turn, my friends and I had already left out seats and relocated to another section of the hall where we could eat very well without supervision. The kind of hinger we wentthere with, we knew etiquette and home training cannot tame it.

Immediately we settled on a table at the far end of the hall away from the other guests, a waitress i aasumed was part of the chefs approached us.
*What would you like, sirs?" she asked with a smile.
*What do you have?" My friend, Jaga asked.
"Fried rice, jollof rice, coconut rice with chicken curry sauce and peppersoup. We also have swallow with different soups," she said.

My friends and i exchanged joyful glances
*This couple get money o" Jaga whispered"Let's enjoy." We smiled to that.
"Give me a plate of jollof rice, fried beef and coleslaw. And then two plates of swallow with egusi soup." Jaga ordered.
I ordered jollof rice, with fried rice on the side and moin-moin. Ossy ordered his own too.

The waitress wrote down our order on a small note and then kept a number card on the table before us. The food arrived moments later and we began gobbling hungrily. I noticed that the rest of the other guests had just takeaway packs but I cared little.
"Bring me turkey" Jaga ordered shortly after. "Two!"
"This couple try o. God will bless this their marriage," Ossy said in between mouthful.
"Amen o!," myself and Jaga agreed.
"Omo, tomorrow if I go to church, I'll just dedicate my time to praying for them. They too try," Jaga said.

The turkey arrived shortly and like the hungry lions that we were, we devoured it. At this time, the guests had started dispersing. The ceremony was over. The waitress soon approached us again.

"Here's your bill, sir" she said, handing a slip to me.
"Wetin?"(what?) I voiced.
"Bill for your order sir,?" she replied.
I passed the slip to Ossy.
"What is this?" Ossy said between mouthful of turkey. "Na bet9ja slip?"
"They said we should pay for the meal we ate," i announced.
"Pay kini?," Ossy snapped. "Is this not supposed to be a wedding?"
"Sir, this hall is divided into two," the waitress began. "That part is exclusively for the wedding reception and this part is for our customers.
Immediately she said that, I understood why other guests had takeaway packs. I began to notice the difference between the Chef on the wedding side and the one standing before us. Differences were becoming clear. I tried to swallow the turkey in my mouth but it got stuck in my throat.
"What kind of problem is this today? You too, why did you not explain to us this thing when we first sat down. You are to blame." I said to the waitress and turned to look at Jaga who was breathing rapidly now.
"What sort of wicked people are the couple. This is the height of wickedness nau," Jaga yelled.
"So how much is everything?" I asked the waitress.
"It's #81, 500, sir!" she snapped.
"81 what for what? For turkey wey no done? Something wey no even sweet," Jaga, the craziest of us yelled.
"Sir, you either pay or I alert security!," she threatened.
"Call security nau. Call security!" Jaga snapped. "But you see that couple? They will know no peace. Their marriage go scatter, bet me!"

I would withhold the details of how the rest of that day and week ended. Just know it was gbasgbos(problem) with sprinkles of fire and brimstone. Till date, I don't attend events uninvited and when I do, I ask questions a thousand times over before I eat. Affliction can never occur a second time. Meanwhile, I say another amen to Jaga's prayer.
SMH!

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SOKA🖤