The second week after I returned to my base, I resumed my business. On a Tuesday morning, there was electricity, which we do not get often, so I was very busy and fast, rushing through the pile of work I needed to attend to. Time had gotten to 11 a.m., but I was not bothered about breakfast. I just wanted to dig deep into the work before the electricity was seized.
Then, two of my old-time customers who had been owing me and refusing to pay walked in, with their eyes thick and red, like they had been injected with drugs. I knew trouble was going to erupt because the last time they came, they showed me a fake bank receipt as proof of payment for the money they were owing and ran off without allowing me to confirm it. I later told them about it on WhatsApp, and they did not respond reasonably, which also showed that they did it intentionally and expected me to fall for it. But I am smarter than them.
As soon as they entered, I picked my padlock and locked the second entrance to the main place where their clothes were kept. I do laundry. I insisted that they pay the money and also queried them for giving me a fake alert. Before I knew it, they charged it against me and started making trouble, saying they wanted to fight.
I will not lie; if we were to fight, they would beat me clean because they were actually three, and their eyes looked smoked. But then, I could not just allow them to come to my place and intimidate me like that. After all, it is my place, and they were the ones who did the wrong thing by sending me a fake proof of payment and also refusing to pay.
Anger fueled up in me, and I raised the electric iron, threatening to burn them. That really made them angrier. One of them picked up the scissors on my table and threatened to stab me. At that point, I was damn scared because, with their eyes red like that, they could actually do it and run away. My threat to burn them with the iron was just a mere threat, but honestly, I could have done it because I was deeply provoked.
The neighbours who came to my rescue could not withstand them as well. They were begging them, my customers, to carry their problems and go. After a hot exchange of words and several attempts to burn with the iron, stab with the scissors, and hit with a rock, which lasted for over 45 minutes, they finally left.
They only left after my neighbours advised me to give them their remaining clothes so they could go and that I should forget the money, because they actually came for trouble and nothing more.
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