— No Turning Back
The drive from Ijebu Igbo to Ijebu Ode was marked with silence. Roving and wandering thoughts lingered.
Baba Dalemo wondered how his wife was going to receive Tunji. He hadn’t shared his plan of recruiting Tunji as one of his boys with her. He hadn’t been home for two days after she demanded he stop the job he was doing.
Baba Dalemo worked for a land grabber who doubles as a real estate broker. All his years working for his boss, he had fought his boss’s enemies, been sent to jail, and now has a big scar on his back.
Before turning at Sagamu, he spotted an agbo seller in a kiosk where some men danced to the sound transmitted from the radio.
“Tunji, quickly go across the road while I park my car. Fetch me a bottle of gin and agbo jedi that we can use to sustain ourselves for the journey.”
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Excited at his uncle’s request, Tunji hurried out of the car after the car was carelessly parked on the roadside.
Looking to the left and right before crossing the express, Tunji was once again enveloped in his thoughts: “I didn’t know Baba Dalemo was this exposed; one would never have assumed him to be a drinker. I still have a lot to learn from this man who successfully deceived my father that he is a saint.”
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“He’s awake, Doctor!”
A continuous applause and sound of praise followed in the hospital ward.
“Where am I?” Tunji asked the girl whose bed was situated close to his.
“Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital,” the girl said weakly.
He wanted to ask more questions, but for the strength that failed him, he slept back.
Patients and their families who were crowded in the hospital ward began to offer thanksgiving on his behalf, even though no one had come to identify him yet at the hospital. A week had already passed, and while the doctors were concerned about his failing health and hospital bills, Tunji spoke for what would be his second speech since the accident at Sagamu.
Baba Dalemo, who could have rushed him to the hospital after the accident, sped off without informing Tunji’s parents that their son had been in a road accident.
Tunji survived another week in the hospital and somehow gained strength to explain his plight to the doctors and nurses who attended to him while he was unconscious.
Some of the patients in his ward were sympathetic towards Tunji, who had partially lost his memory, and requested that the hospital allow their relatives to contribute towards his hospital bills.
His hometown, family, and name had become unknown after gaining consciousness. He wondered if he had lived a good life and contributed to the good of the world for strangers to help him at the hospital.
After staying for almost four weeks in the sick bed, Tunji finally got discharged and was given the opportunity to work as a messenger in the hospital since he had no one.
“Somehow, I feel that I am made for more, but until I figure out why my life turned this way, I’ll accept the job with gratitude,” Tunji hesitantly shook Dr. Oladele Solanke, one of the doctors who had taken pity on him.
Teasingly, the doctor replied, “A man who is made for more should not disregard little beginnings. From this day onwards, we shall call you Mr. Made for more until you get your memories back.”
“Doctor, do you doubt me? On my sick bed, I saw a lot in my dreams. I not only swim in money; I command money; don’t say I didn’t tell you first.”
