FOUND IT IN THE CANAL- WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME AFTER TAKING MY ASSIGNMENT __OCTOBER 9TH

Found it in the canal.

That is how my own story started.

It was last rainy season. In my area, after heavy rain, that our big canal behind the school usually overflows. Children will be jumping, women will be shouting "my bucket don go!", men will be using long stick to pull things.

That day, I was coming back from computer shop where I went to print my assignment. I was holding my original file, very important, with my name written boldly. Rain started suddenly. I tried to run.

As I was jumping the small gutter to cross, my hand slipped. My whole file fell inside the canal. Brown water carried it fast.

I shouted "Jesus!" People gathered. One small boy said "aunty, jump inside na, water never reach knee." But I cannot. That canal smells. God forbid.

I was crying. My assignment due tomorrow. 20 marks. How will I explain to lecturer that canal swallowed my assignment?

Then one old man selling agidi near the canal used his long rake to drag something. He dragged my file. It was soaked, mud everywhere, but still there.

But that was not what I found.

Inside my file, water had entered, my papers were wet, but something else was stuck on my file cover - a small red wallet. It was not mine. It must have been inside the canal before.

I opened it. Inside there was 15,000 naira, neatly folded, and a small paper with phone number and name "Chinedu - Mama shop debt".

Everybody shouted "Omo! Lucky you!" Some said I should keep the money since I lost my assignment.

But my conscience pricked me. I knew that money was maybe for someone's shop, someone's survival.

I dried the number and called it. A woman picked. She was shouting, crying, saying she thought the canal carried her sales money when she slipped morning. She had been looking for it since morning.

I told her I found it in the canal. She came running, with wrapper, no slippers. When she saw her wallet, she knelt down and prayed for me.

She gave me 2k for my honesty. I used it to reprint my assignment.

That day I learned, what canal takes, canal can also give. And sommetimes what you find in the cannal is not yours, but your honnesty will be your own rerward.

IMAGE IS AI GENERATED