LUDO MOCK

There was an obvious calmness in the street of Ogena because its

occupants had all left and gone for their various activities abandoning

her in desolation. But suddenly a young boy who was a little bit

depressed made her feel some companionship as Chima was seen

walking towards their home, portraying the look of a tired and unhappy

He was carrying a tray of different fruits which includes: paw paw,

oranges, pineapple and water melon. This he carried in the morning and

he set off to sell them only to be insulted by some group of boys who

were of the same age with him. In rage he was compelled to abandon

the hawking for the day. When he got to their apartment, the door was

looked as usual. So he went to the backyard of their house and opened

the only window in their small room and collected the door keys from

where it was hidden and quietly returned back to the frontage and

When he opened the door, he heard a sound of which he never

bordered himself because he already knew that it was the insignificant

landlords living with them that were making the noise as they were

running for their life immediately they took notice of Chima.

Mrs. Chukwudi, Chima’s mother traded on crayfish. This explains better

why there were a lot of rats living with them.

Chima’s father often spread rat poison in their house which had on many

occasions killed all the rats as expected, after which their small room

smelled highly unpleasant until all the dead rats must have been

discovered and thrown away. Painful enough was the fact that after a

week other fresh rats will unabatedly troop in and assume the position of

the dead ones. This consistent cyclical process made Mr. Chukwudi to

relent over killing the rats as such resolved to accommodate them.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Chima, who had entered the room, removed some pieces of clothes on

their old and only bed and quietly lay on it for a rest. After a while, the

young boy was far asleep, ignoring all his worries. He had finished his

secondary school education and came out with flying colours. He had

the best result in his school. Chima sat for J.A.M.B and screening

examination and cleared all and was offered admission into the

university, but he was burdened with the malignant illness of lack of

finance and so the admission letter given to him was ignored.

His parents were poor who can’t even afford a sound three-square meal

in a day. They barely managed to train Chima out of the secondary

school by the grace of God. For the moment they didn’t have intention of

training him further irrespective of the fact that the boy was very brilliant.

The whole blame landed on finance.

Chima slept till evening arrived and his parents were equally back from

their day’s activities. Immediately he was woken up by his mother who

became conscious to know whether her son was healthy. This is

because parents often suspect something wrong when a child who

should be playing or doing other things suddenly begins to sleep in the

day time. It could either be that the child was unhappy or unhealthy. In

view of this, Chima was woken up only to confront a series of questions

from his curious mother who desired to know why her son was sleeping

when others were not. After Chima had confidently provided all the

answers to her numerous questions, she drew a positive conclusion that

her son was healthy and okay.

After three hours of arrival, Mrs. Chukwudi had already finished cooking,

and invited her husband and son to super. When they had finished their

dinner, papa Chima; resorted to no other thing this time around than

chatting with his family.

“My son, I am very happy that you have succeeded in completing your

secondary school education,” he said, while struggling with a cup of

water to push down the food substances in his mouth.

“Chima my only son, I am proud of you because you have never put

shame to the face of this family irrespective of the fact that we are

suffering from the dreaded illness of poverty,” added Mrs. Chukwudi.

“Papa; Mama, I appreciate your recommendations and will keep on

thanking God for giving me a good supportive and morally inclined

parents like you. I also promise to keep doing my best for the betterment

of this family,” said Chima.

“Yes! That is why I have always said that you are the true son of your

father. But my son, what is the way forward? What are you really

planning to be in life and how do you plan to achieve it? This is because

I know goals set without God and money is nonsense.” Mr. Chukwudi

“Papa! Don’t worry. Whatever God proposes for me must surely come to

fulfilment, whether there is money or not,” he assured wisely and

“That is very brave of you, my son. Whatever God says you will be, that

you must surely become. So, do the little you can to help yourself and

leave the rest to the almighty God,” Mrs. Chukwudi advised

“Yes mama,” he answered in acceptance.

“My son, you can now go in and have some rest,” suggested his father.

“Alright, papa,” he replied as he confidently left them and went in.

The next day was promising and very bright. Chima took his bath and

left the house very early with his tray of fruits. He was going street by

street while shouting:

“Buy your fruits here! Buy your ripe pawpaw and sweet pineapple.” As

he was still shouting, a passerby was alerted and he went to him.

“How much are you selling the pawpaw?” he demanded while touching

“This one is N100 and this ones N150,” Chima replied, lifting them up

one after the other.

“It is alright, let me have the one of N150,” he requested, stretching out

his hand to pay Chima.

“Here is it. Thank you,” he appreciated and continued in his normal

Chima continued this way until he suddenly met an old friend who was

his secondary school mate. Not just that. When they were in school,

Chima was his second teacher who often helped him in class

assignments and even during the examination respectively.

“Oh! My goodness, I can’t believe my eyes. Philip you!” he exclaimed

and immediately lowered the tray on his head and warmly embraced his

friend who was also so excited.

“Wonderful! Chima, where have you been all this while?” Philip inquired,

“Me! I have been around,” He replied quietly.

“Do you mean you have been around and we have not been seeing?”

“Waitoh! Does that mean you never travelled since we finished SSCE?”

asked Chima in amazement.

“Yes, but I only travelled and stayed for a while and returned back to

“So how are you catching up with things?” Philip looks at Chima and

“I recently got admission into Spring University to study robotics,” he

“Wooh! What a coincidence. Do you really mean that? I equally got

admission into the same university and also to study the same course,”

Chima exclaimed, very surprised.

“This is wonderful so we can still continue from where we stopped. But

Chima, how come I have not been seeing you since we resumed

lectures?” he asked still over excited.

This question made Chima sighed.

“My brother, you know my parents’ condition na! No money to support

me. So I just abandoned the admission and resorted to hawking to keep

myself busy and sustain myself for the mean time,” he replied bitterly.

Philip looked down and said: “Hei! But never mind count on me, let me

see my parents’ first and discuss it them. I promise you that I must do

everything possible to get you back to school.” Chima swiftly jump up

and embraced his friends, full of joy.

“I appreciate your kindness,” he said sharply.

It is alright. Common guy. Let’s leave this place,” he suggested and they

both left, still discussing.

When Philip got home, he quietly and passionately approached his

parents and discussed Chima’s sore problem with them. His parents felt

pity for the young boy. After hearing the story of him, they decided to

Philip, having achieved this goal, alerted Chima to start packing his

things and get prepared for they shall be leaving to school the following

Chima, while in their house, started rejoicing, as soon as Philip informed

him of this. Swiftly he started packing all his belongings without

considering breaking the news first to his parents.

“My son, why are you over-excited and at the same time packing all your

things? What is the issue on ground?” Mr. Chukwudi who had already

prepared for work asked in total confusion

Without allowing Chima to answer his father, his mother queued up

“What is really behind this sudden action, Chima, my son?” she asked,

looking at her son depicting a high level of confusion. It was until now

that Chima who had been laughing raised his head happily to relieve

“Papa! Mama! God has done it. Right now, I am preparing to go to

school,” he disclosed happily.

“Chima, how managed,” her mother asked, drawing closer to hear him

Without waiting, his father added another similar question.

“My son, we mean how? Because I know too well that the little business

you embarked upon last few days can never be the source of your

sponsorship to school,” he asked, still confused.

“Papa, don’t disturb yourself, God has answered my prayers,” he said as

he jumped, praising God.

“But how?” his mother insisted.

“Okay! I will tell you how. I don’t know if both of you knew that my

secondary school friend called Philip who was used to visiting me then

whenever we have an assignment to do,” he exposed.

“Philip, the big man pikin”

“I know him and what about him?” his father interrupted.

“He saw me the other day hawking as usual. After a brief discussion

about our past and present, I learnt that he got admission into the same

school and the same department with me. We still went on discussion

until at a point he asked to know why I haven’t started. Then I told him

everything as it was. He felt very sad about my condition and promised

to discuss my problems with his parents’. And today, oh! This beautiful,

lovely and lucky day, his parents have approved that I should move

along with him to school on their own account.”

“That is wonderfully awesome, my son,” Mr. Chukwudi said rapidly.

“So you mean you are leaving right away?” asked his mother.

“Yes, mama,” he replied.

“I thank my God for wiping away my tears ooh!” she proclaimed while

dancing to demonstrate how happy she was.

“Please my son as you leave for school, do not join bad companies. But

always hunger to make us proud as you had always done,” his father

“Yes, papa” he replied in affirmation.

Before now, Chima had already gathered all his belongings into a big

bag and was set to move, following Philip instruction that he should go

direct to the school hostel without waiting for him any longer. His mother

carried some of his lighter luggage and they both set out towards the

main road. On reaching the main road, Chima entered a bus and waved

goodbye to his mother.

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