Sitting on the school’s water reservoir, I was scrolling different WhatsApp groups on my phone when I came across Samson, a guy who sells fixed matches to people.
“How far, my boss. How do you sell your fixed matches and how many odds will they be,?” I asked Samson while checking my account balance to know if I can afford to pay him for the odds.
Thirty thousand naira? That was a lot of money as at the year 2018. I wasn’t even getting up to that from my dad monthly. It’s gonna take me two months to get that.
“Samuel, are you in school? Come to the water reservoir. Let’s have a chat,” I guess Samuel was waiting for me to call him before. He came almost immediately. Samuel is a big gambler who can spend almost all his money on gambling.
I told him about Samson’s fixed matches and it sounded reasonable to him.
Right there, Samuel transferred fifteen thousand naira to my bank account so we can pay Samson and get our fixed match.
“Hey Samson. I just sent you thirty thousand naira,” I said that with my phone on loudspeaker so that Samuel would know I really sent him the money.
“I’ve received it. You’d have to wait till midnight because that’s when I get the games I buy which I will send to you. The game is twenty odds and if you play it with ten thousand naira, you’d get two million naira back,” I saw Samuel jump on immediately. He had started calculating how much money he would make and what he will use the money for.
“Thank you, thank you,” I fell on my knees immediately because I knew I had made it in life. If Samuel and I share the two million naira, I’d get one million naira.
The happiness in us led us to Iya Alaje’s shop. There was nothing we wanted to eat that we didn’t get.
Samuel realized I brought him a life changing deal and he did everything to satisfy me because we would be millionaires in almost a day or two.
“Everything in Iya Alaje’s shop isn’t that expensive and I’m sure it isn’t up to a million naira. I can literally buy everything in this shop,” a lot of other students looked into my eye when I said that. They didn’t know what was coming. My shoulders were up throughout that day.
As for Iya Alaje, she wasn’t even angry but she didn’t believe in me. Even though I was a millionaire to be, I had the mentality of being a millionaire already and I acted like one.
“Why are you all staring at her? We both are millionaires even though we have decided not to br proud,” Samuel backed me up after we saw that everyone right there was looking at us.
While putting some plantain chips in my mouth, I was sipping my Maltina drink. I sat on Iya Alaje’s bench and ate to my satisfaction.
Move with my friends? That was the last thing I could ever do. I already had new friends in mind to move with after I get my one million naira. I got home at night and did not sleep. I boasted too much already and can’t even wait to get my fixed matches from Samson.
I woke up 3:00 am on dot and I didn’t see Samson’s wallpaper on WhatsApp anymore. What was happening? Did he block me on WhatsApp? All those questions were coming to my head.
I called Samuel. I was shocked that Samuel wasn’t sleeping as well and he was about to text me to know what’s up.
“How come? Why didn’t he block you on WhatsApp? Have you forgotten that we are supposed to be millionaires,” it’s like Samuel wasn’t getting me. I got blocked on WhatsApp by Samson. All our hope is gone.
Samuel got to my hostel the second day and we both were crying. My roommate was looking at us and was wondering why we were crying.
“What’s making our new millionaires cry?,” we didn’t even answer her. We were busy crying because we won’t be millionaires on that day again and we won’t even get back our thirty thousand naira from Samson. That became double tears for us.
Every form of daydreaming in my body died at that moment. I didn’t want to go to school but I was having a test so I went.
The millionaire!!!! All my friends hailed me when I got to school. I didn’t answer them. I just humbled myself and ran away from school after the test. I can’t go through such shame from my friends.
