Johnson just got out of prison after serving a three month jail term for stealing a pair of scandals. The prison has become his second home, perhaps, his major residence. The major cases that took him to there was stealing minor things like shoes, food, clothes, and even a deflated tyre.
He never knew what made him indulge in stealing for it had become his second profession. Being a good furniture maker, he gave people the best designs. Everyone loved his work, yet, he was still into stealing.
Mr Obot was his grandfather. He was a hard-working farmer who worked on people’s farm and got paid at the end. He also had a large farmland whom he cultivated and had good yield during harvest. Obot had a pause in his life. He was a heartless thief. Once, he had stolen the spade of the man who hired him to work. When the owner came for it, he denied not having set eyes on any spade when he landed on the farmland. Everyone believed him because the owners searched thoroughly for it in the farm. Obot buried the spade on one side of the farm.
“Thank God you are already excavating the soil with yours.” The owner said and heaved a sigh of relief. Obot left with the spade he had stolen and buried after completing his task on the farm.
He had also stolen the only basin Mma Ekpo had used for fetching water. Visibly, that was the only basin she had and the only container left for her after her husband had divorced her for not giving birth to a male child. Mma Ekpo shed many tears for her lost basin, and even after seeing it in Obot’s house, he denied not being hers.
Once, Obot had stolen money from the purse of a woman who sat close to him in church during Choir rehearsals. He denied it outrightly, but all fingers were pointed at him. When he saw signs of the choir leader venting into a search, he removed a handkerchief, alongside the money from his pocket, bent to the floor while feigning a cough and used the handkerchief to cover his mouth while forcing the money in. After he swallowed the money successfully, he stood up and shouted that he should be the first to be searched.
Sister Gloria apologised to him and went home crying, but before she left the church, she knelt before the tithe box and rained curses on whoever took her money. One of the prayers she made was,
“Lord, may the generation of whoever stole my money never stop stealing. May his or her children make stealing their profession and may it be their habit. A habit they will never break out from, on to all his generations. Amen.”
So, the curse continued until now. Johnson is now in prison, after he stole a bunch of plantain from his neighbour. Now people wonder when the curse will be terminated.
Written by © Abigail Imoh2020
Eket, Akwa Ibom State.