Sunset at noon

His name was Harry. His father was a successful businessman in Scotland until he woke up one day and told his family that they were going on a vacation to Nigeria. As soon as they landed in Lagos, he announced to them that they were not returning to Scotland again. A lot of people believed it was the handiwork of his enemies aka “African remote control” aka “village people”.

His children fought him to a standstill until he was forced to send them back to Scotland but Harry stayed back because he wanted to please his father. When he joined us at Community Highschool, it was difficult for him to fit in at first but he was a natural. Within a few weeks, he was trekking the streets and eating local snacks with us.

After secondary school, Harry proceeded to study petrochemical engineering at the University, he graduated with a 4.99 CPGA as the best-graduating student in his faculty. Several companies were falling over themselves to hire him but he chose the one that gave him the best offer.

Let me throw in here that Harry lost his father a few days after his graduation ceremony. It was a brief illness but within a few days, he was gone.

Well, like they say, “life goes on”.
Harry moved into a highbrow area of town, he had a fleet of cars and he was by all means very comfortable, however, his love interest wasn’t what I expected. All the girls wanted Harry but he settled for Bilikisu. Yes, she was nice but it didn’t change the fact that she was the food vendor we used to patronise back in the day. I had my reservations about their relationship but Harry was a grown man, there’s a limit to what I can ask him to do.

Anyway, I remember that day, just like yesterday when Harry and Bilikisu announced their engagement and we all went out to celebrate. We had barely settled down to eat when Harry started to complain about his stomach. I thought it was something in the food but it got worse by the minute so we had to leave. There was no improvement as the days went by and before we knew it, Harry was gone, we lost him.

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Harry’s death was devasting to everyone, especially his mom. She became very sick and suffered a stroke, shortly after that she slipped into a coma and never came out of it. Her other children hurried back to Scotland after she was interred. They couldn’t stay a day longer in Nigeria because they were afraid for their lives.

It came as a shock to me when Harry’s uncles started fighting over properties. I couldn’t help but wonder if they had a hand in these deaths. But there was a particular uncle of Harry’s that stood out. He wanted to know what was happening to his brother’s family so he took it upon himself to dig deeper. It took quite some time but Uncle eventually came up with his findings.
So it turns out that Harry’s father actually died of natural causes, it was just his time to go and there was no foul play involved. Harry on the other hand died as a result of a love portion overdose administered by his wife-to-be. No wonder Bilikisu went AWOL since the enquiries about Harry’s death commenced!

Here I was pointing accusing fingers at some greedy old men not knowing that Bilikisu was the devil. Harry could have any girl he wanted but he chose Bilikisu and he loved her recklessly. Why would she want to “jazz” him? She cut off a young man in his prime because of her insecurities… What a world!??