‘’We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.’’
- Helen Keller


ONE

God please don’t let it rain today again, I prayed silently as I crawled hurriedly towards my temporary shelter where I have been hanging for the past two weeks, daily begging passerby for arms. At the same time, my eyes and senses were fully alert to my real mission in the rich business area of our Federal Capital city, a rich environment not meant for people like me, hundreds of thousands like me who were view as incomplete human beings because of our deformities and physically challenged frames. A condition none of us prayed for nor had hands in creating. But our fellow human beings especially those in this part of the world hardly understand or care to know.
I am a cripple , I was born unfortunate with no legs or rather with two sets of stumps which on a carefree look has the similarity of a normal grown human limps, but a proper glance would revealed what I am to you; a full grown man with small legs that could never carry the big weight of my frame. I lost my parents at a tender age and found myself growing up among a group of old folks who could hardly survived on their own, and few years later I found myself alone with the passing away of these kind hearted people who taught me how to be humble and appreciate myself the way I am. But the condition in my country won’t allow me the privilege of earning my living in a humble way. Instead, I was forced to result to begging or other dehumanized services to survive, like the other millions of physically challenged people in our rich, disorganized country.



You might be surprise why I pleaded to God not to let a much needed rain fall as I ran to my shelter. I was not trying to be greedy or self centered, because a farmer might not take it kindly with me, if he happens to hear such prayer from my mouth. But the truth is, I was eager to end what brought me from our long abandoned settlement, inside one of the far away slums within the capital and gladly return home to endure with more suffering and neglect ion.

My journey actually began one morning after a friend who happens to be a cripple himself told me the cheering news of a Good Samaritan he had stumbled upon one day on his way to his daily begging. The Good Samaritan he told me had been kind enough to dashed him twenty thousand naira to start his much cherished phone card business, and since then his life had changed for the better. He was one of my closest poor friends and I had noticed instantly that truly his life was now far better than many of us and he had that dignified look of a proud business man something most of us craved to become one day.
To cut the story short, my good friend gave me the name of this gentleman or rather what he assumed was his name and encouraged me to try my luck if I could trace him, since he never knew where he stays, but gave me a clue to the area he had luckily stumbled into him and over heard two different passerby addressed him with the moniker ‘lawyer’.




TWO

I thanked my friend and quickly organized myself with my scarce resources and bode an expensive ride into the city and painfully into one of the most expensive areas in the capital where only over charge taxis and privately run vehicles plies. And because of the negligence attitude of our people, especially those in authority, nobody cared or gave it a thought to create a special transport system for us towards this part of our country. I was sure the planners never envisioned the probability of the physical challenged people venturing towards this area; since business to them is the privilege right of only the able bodied human beings.

It took the grace of my creator and my courage to make it to this expensive part of our capital, as I was constantly stared pitifully at, harassed and even almost lost my life trying to cross one of the wide expensive roads with no provision for people like me. Just like the other many government infrastructures across the country that has no provision for the disables. We sometimes see and feel as if we are aliens in our land, as nobody ever thought about us before constructing a road, build a hospital or designed the many tall imposing structures adoring our rich cities, unlike other thoughtful nations who respect, value and have sympathy for the physical challenged in their society. Back here, we are seen as obstacles and valueless members of the society with no needs or right to also enjoy the good things of life.

My sojourn to the city was one of the hardest journeys I had ever under taken on my own, and for almost two weeks, I have been hanging around the rich unfriendly vicinity, praying and waiting for ‘ Mr. Lawyer’ to come down from his cozy office on the tenth floor of a twelve storey building. It actually took me five good days of patiently searching and making inquiries before I was lucky to come across an old man who work as a guard in one of the rich structures along the street, who had patiently listened to my story and told me he knew exactly who I was searching for. According to him there was only one popular lawyer with a sympathetic heart along the street and he was certain he was who I was looking for.

The smile and happiness on my face could have won me a record in a contest if it were to be a competition. Because the joy on my face was too hard to hide as I thanked the old man who directed me to the tall imposing building with a warning to be careful as the guards inside the structure don’t usually welcome people like me and hardly have time or sympathy to listen to our stories.
I nodded at his caution and bade him farewell as I crawled towards the tall structure. I was determine to go see this good lawyer even if the guards would turn to wolves and threaten me. I could not just turn back now and go back home, not after spending five crushing days in search of the illusive lawyer, whom nobody seems to know at first or rather pretended not to know, after staring miserably at my crippled legs and the sweat on my face.

I crawled confidently towards the gate and was immediately confronted by two guards in uniform who both stared surprisingly at me as if I was an alien who had just dropped down from the sky. I was quick to noticed the frowns on their faces and their threatening posture as one of them slowly make his way towards me the baton in his hand swinging threatening in his big large hands.
“Yes – what do you want?” he barked at me from afar, his eyes taking on my deformity.

“ Good afternoon sir “ I answered, giving him a respect I know he does not deserve, but I would have addressed him by his majesty or his royal highness, if these words would sweeten his mind and allow me to get inside and see Mr. Lawyer.

A car with a passenger drove towards the gate at that moment and the guard stared miserable once more at me, and then went to attend to the car, ignoring my presence in the hot scorching sun. He finally returned after letting the car in with much respect and fanfares.

“Yes – what do you want? “He demanded once again coming to stand few distance away from me, his eyes boring into my shape suspiciously.

“Well-done, sir – I want to see Mr. Lawyer” I said, making my voice a little high from where I was crushing, and mopping my sweaty face.

“Which Mr. Lawyer? – Which office he dey work? Wetin you wan see am for?” He demanded in pidgin in a harsh voice.

I knew I was suck because the old man never told me which office the kind lawyer was to be found, something he had told me he had no idea about, but all the same, I was determine, and nothing would stop me from achieving my goal this far. So I stared hopefully at the unfriendly guard and said. “Mr. Good lawyer – I was told he has an office here on the tenth floor. So I came to see him” I answered with a desperate voice.

The guard stared surprisingly at me and burst into a long hysterical laugh. His colleague also joined him and together they laughed their lives away, forcing me to also join them with a wide smile on my tired face. Then they both finally stared miserably at me and chased me out of the imposing structure.

“We don’t allow beggars around here” the second guard announced with pride and the big gate was shut on my face. That had been almost one week three day ago. And since then, I had been trying everything possible to see Mr. Lawyer, but the guards at the building would not allow me in. So I devised a plan to wait outside the vicinity, in hope Mr. Lawyer would come down one day during or after work and see me or if I am lucky, I might also stumble upon him like my lucky friend. Again it had occurred to me that it would actually take a miracle for me to climb up to the tenth floor if they were to allow me in. The elevators I knew was not meant for people like me and could visualized the scowl on the faces of other passengers if I try to join any of the expensive looking machines. But all these were just part of my imagination as the guards have refused to allow me to come near the building again.
So I found a space, an abandoned structure that at one time served as a bus stop and turned the dilapidated place into my temporary sleeping quarters. And there, I had ran into as the sky wore the look of rain again, after falling almost the whole day yesterday and my prayer was for God to kindly pause the rain for the day and bring out Mr. Lawyer down from his office and push him towards my way.



THREE

The strong wind of the rain blew across my face as I hurriedly crawled safely to my hiding place. God seemed to have refused to answer my prayers as the sky suddenly darkened, boldly displaying the sign of an unstoppable heavy rain.
Well thank God, I still had somewhere to run to and hide since most of the rich structures along the expensive street won’t welcome a disable person like me, not with their stern looking security guards and sometimes wild looking Alsatian dogs whose Jaws I guess could deal easily with a cripple like me. I propelled myself on the long abandoned concrete seat at the bus stop and quietly surveyed and analyst the able bodied human beings around me.

I watched silently as most of them although with full good legs and strong human frames still grumbled hurriedly away from the incoming rain, some even cursed loudly. Now and then I heard grumbling and curses like. ‘This rain again. I am tired with it’, ‘which kind yeye rain be this’, ‘another bad day – rain – rain’ a bad business day again’ . So on and so forth.

I imagined some of them taking my place for just some few hours and I guessed most of them would definitely go crazy as cripples, curse and grumble throughout the experience. Ungrateful bunch, I thought, wondering why most able bodied human beings hardly appreciate and thank God for making them whole to walk freely, jump, run, climb and go wherever their curious minds and legs decide to take them.
I grinned silently, staring at different angry faces of beautiful women with hair styles that must have cost them a fortune hurriedly scampered towards some of the buildings along the street, with frown faces, while their male counterparts also sprinted towards safety with none wanting to come towards the abandoned bus stop after staring at me and noticing my deformed figure. Thank God, none of them even came closer; at least the shade provided me with privacy from the scrutinizing eyes of these arrogant and swell headed able bodied people who might have forced me out of the safe shade with their curious stares, questions and over displayed pity.

Then as if in response to my silent thoughts, the rain suddenly came down heavily, just as three men scampered hurriedly into the shade away from the furious rain. God, here they come, I thought silently, staring at them and braced up myself to their curious stares, disgust looks and unsolicited pity, probably with torrent of investigative questions. But I told myself I still have the right to ignore them and stared up quietly at the sky as the rain came down freely with the wind blowing across our faces.


I quickly noticed that the three strangers where not friends, but the rain had pushed them here. Two of them had become close and were freely chatting away , stealing occasional glances at me, even though none of them had the courtesy of saying hello to me as the first occupant of the safe place. I was not actually expecting their courtesy as I was used to the arrogant postures of my able bodied fellow citizens who see us as the lowest class in the country with nothing to contribute to their materialistic quests.
But to my surprise, the third man who had ran into the shade last and had been silent as the two other two grumbled about the consistent rain that was spoiling their business and complained of the harsh economic situation in the country, suddenly glanced in my direction and nodded at me with a smile. I stared thoughtfully at him and nodded back with a smile. He left the other two and walked up to me, and then dropped his tall slim frame on the space beside me on the concrete seat.



“This rain is heavy” he said, his friendly smile still visible on his face.

“Yes – oga – na heavy rain” I replied in pidgin, smiling back at him. I noticed the other two fellows staring surprisingly at us as if they were just noticing me there for the first time. I ignored their curious stares and smiled up at the sky.

“But you are new around here; I have noticed you since last week.” My new friend suddenly said, staring with interest at me.

“ Yes – oga - I just come see somebody” I answered now staring more curiously at him, my mind trying to picture if I had noticed him among the hundreds of people I had come across since invading this rich environment. But I find it difficult to place his face with a body or action that might have caught my interest as I squatted all weeks waiting to see the invisible Mr. Lawyer.

“I see you every day from my office and I kept wondering what you were doing here. I mean it’s on usual to see someone like you here consistently for almost two weeks” he said as the rain kept its furious fall on the street and the two other men now back to their discussions. “Who exactly are you looking for?” He finally asked slowly.

I nodded silently at his observations, stared at the sky, then at the tall imposing structure where I was told Mr. Lawyer had his office. “The man is inside this tall building” I finally announced, my eyes still glued to the building.

My new friend stared surprisingly at me, his eyes also staring at the building. “ What is his name and what is your business with him?

“His name is Mr. Lawyer – I came to see him for help’’ I replied, now staring at him with a worried look.

“Who gave you his name and address?” He asked staring at me with a wide grin. Sensing that I was not ready to disclosed this information to him, he smiled and suddenly added
“ I am Mr. Lawyer – I am the one you are looking for.”




**********
Thirty minutes later with the rain now gone, and the sky wearing a cool bright glow, I sat silently alone at the back seat of a painted taxi as the driver speed down the double lanes of the rich city road that lead towards our ghetto. I grinned silently to myself, and now thanked God for allowing the rain to fall freely that day. I now realized that the rain shower was the natural circumstance that had pushed my savior Mr. Lawyer to my temporary abode. Who knows, if the rain had not fall, I guessed I might still be waiting hopefully with a depleted determination to see him. But providence had naturally pushed him towards me and true to my friend’s word; he was one of the biggest giver I had ever come across.
He had listened to my story as the rain hits down on the roof of the bus stop, silently nodding his head to my lamentations. He frowned when I told him how the guards at the gate had refused me entry into the building and nodded his head sadly when I confessed to him that I had been hanging hopefully outside to see him for almost two weeks, and wished that I had two good legs which would have given me easy access to the building and allowed me to ride inside one of the elevators or walk up the long flight of stairs to see him. He commended me for my courage and determination smiled warmly and reminded me that probably if I was physical fit I would not have come to see him nor would our paths have crossed each other. I nodded in agreement, seeing the wisdom in his saying.

Finally, he had looked down at me after the rain, stood up and said calmly with a broad smile “Come – lets go” and with that, we strolled side by side towards the building and he proudly took me into the tall imposing structure to the astonishment of some of the guards around who had stared foolishly at us as we made our grand entry. And up to his floor, I rode proudly in one of the cozy elevators to his tastefully furnished office, the first time in my life to ride in such a beautiful easy moving machine.
And finally, here I was, seated comfortably alone at the back seat of a taxi, a luxury I had never foreseen in my dream and the sweetest part of it all: thirty thousand naira richer – in cash, safely tucked away in the most hidden pocket in my old trouser, all these courtesy of Mr. Lawyer, the Good Samaritan.
I shut my eyes briefly, imagining what the taxi driver might think, if he knew I had that amount of cash on me. I hide a grin and try to visualized myself as a successful independent trader, that won’t have to depend on anyone for survival again, or daily beg around, living as parasite on unfriendly frowning faces, with just few among them with big generous minds as ‘oga lawyer’.
Thank God for the rain and its blessings, I thought silently, and peep out at the hazy looking sky. So finally, I was on my way to become an independent human being, proudly earning my living with dignity. Let the rain keep falling, I wished silently, and then shut back my eyes to enjoy a journey of a lifetime.


END

Random Voices
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