On That Fateful Day.

Chika adjusted her bag as she rushed down the busy oshodi road, the sun had barely risen, but the air was already so
thick with noise, hawkers there were already shouting, and the bus conductors were calling out for passengers, and the sweet aroma of puff puff frying nearby.

Chika had bought a few pieces from the roadside woman and was eating them happily as she walked down to the bus stop.

And suddenly, a man bumped into her so hard that her snacks nearly fell from her hand.

“Sorry! Sorry! Please. the man blurted out to her, bending down quickly to pick up a small brown envelope that had fallen by Chika’s feet, and without waiting, he ran away, his slippers were slapping the ground loudly.

Chika blinked. “ Omo,this lagos people and their wahala,” she said under her breathe, shaking her head.

It was barely two minutes later, when another man approached, he was tall and sweating, and his eyes darted around as if he was searching for something urgent.

“Young lady excuse me,” he said, “please did you see someone pass here, he was holding an envelope?”

Chika hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, he ran towards that way.” She pointed down the street.

The man cursed under his breath. “Chai! Today of all days?” and he also took off running in the same direction.

Chika was left standing at the bus stop, her puff-puff suddenly became tasteless in her mouth.

And later that morning, as Chika finally sat inside a bus she had struggled to enter,
crawling through traffic, people around her were talking about something.

“You hear wetin happen?” a woman whispered to the man beside her. “Dem say one man dey carry evidence for big court case, but him don disappear with am.”

Chika’s ears perked up immediately, she gripped her bag tighter, her mind replaying the scene with the envelope.

Meanwhile, not far away, the man with the envelope ,Kunle was hiding inside a mechanic’s shop, his chest heaved as he opened the brown package, Inside it were documents stamped with a red seal ,he whispered to himself, “If they get this back, everything is finished, but if I hold it… maybe my life fit change.”

Suddenly, footsteps approached. It was the tall man from earlier, Officer Nedu

“Kunle!” Nedu barked. “See just hand over that envelope before you just destroy yourself.”

Kunle clenched the papers tighter, “You think I will just give it back? do you know how many years I have suffered? this is my only chance.”

Danjuma stepped closer, his voice firm but calm. “I know life has been hard, but this envelope is so not your ticket to freedom, I mean It is evidence, You know many People are counting on this, please don’t let greed chain you like a prisoner.”

Kunle’s eyes just went between the officer and the envelope, and for a very long time, the world just seemed to stand still , the sound of cars outside, the mechanic hammering with a spanner, even the breeze paused.

Finally, Kunle’s hands shook as he l
stretched the envelope out _ Omo, I just… I just wanted a way out.”

Nedu took the envelope gently from him, See guy sometimes the way out is not through shortcuts at all, shey you know that one decision can change everything, and this, he tapped the envelope, might have just ruined your life forever.

Kunle sank onto a stool, covering his face, so this is what fate had for me today.”

Nedu sighed and placed his hand on kunle's shoulder, not just fate,you know your choices too, but just that one thing is for sure, this will always be remembered as a fateful day.”

That day, Chika eventually got her aunty's house, she was still shaken by what she had witnessed and heard in the bus, even though she did not know the full story of what had happened, and for Kunle, the man who almost let desperation lead him astray, it was indeed a fateful day, one that reminded him how quickly life can turn on the smallest of choices.

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