Fred was a good man. To most families he was a son and to most people he was a brother. In those days, it was not uncommon to see him organize his friends to go for free farm work, just to help families that didn't have grown up children to farm for them nor money to hire labourers. All he would get in return was food for him and his friends, a gesture he never asked for, but was just appreciation from the families he worked for. He would normally schedule families to work for weekly, especially during holidays. In fact, no family in Eto village could say they never benefited from Fred's hardworking attitude and good heart.
In school he was not different. Everything he had was always shared among his classmates in class five. It was very normal to see girls of his class flock around him during break time, as Fred would always have something to share.
Everyone were happy with him, but he still had an enemy.
At times people hate you for the good things you do.
His uncle, Ekpe hated him. Ekpe had four daughters without a son. In fact, story has it that he pursued his wife out of the house the day she delivered the last girl, immediately he visited the local birth attendance (Abia uman, as popularly called in his dialect) and found to his surprise that the baby was a girl. He became furious and blamed the wife for not giving him a male child that would inherit his landed properties.
His hatred for Fred was twofold. First, Fred was the only male child that will inherit all the lands from both families since Fred's father and him (Ekpe) were the only sons of their father. Thus, if he died, nobody from his own end will enjoy the wealth. On the other hand, he hated Fred because everyone liked him and always said good things about him. In fact, Fred won the hearts of people and as such he can't possibly attack him publicly.
Thus, he planned to poison him. According to his assertion, "since I don't have a son to inherit my lands, nobody should inherit any land in our family" he concluded.
He never uttered any word about Fred's goods deeds, ranging from cultivation of his farms, weeding his house frontage weekly and helping his daughters in their homework. Fred took his daughters as his sisters, not cousins.
Luckily for Fred, Ekpo's third daughter, Inem had bumped into the father while talking to himself about putting poison for Fred to die. She immediately tiptoed out of the house without allowing the father to know that she heard him.
Fred was shocked to hear that his beloved uncle could plan to kill him. But Inem warned him strongly because she knew what the father can do. "My father is a wicked man, he has tried to kill my mother before" she said, just to drive home her point and made Fred to believe her.
Fred was spared because generally he was a good man and particularly he was a good cousin to Inem.
In life, it pays to live a good life with people around us.