The Brink of Life

The Brink of Life Chapter 1 With careful slow, but firm and steady strides, he went to his kitchen to fetch two cooking buckets. He was going to the well, which he’d had some laborers dug up for him, some twenty five years ago at his front yard. He remembered yelling at them to make sure the well was not less than thirty feet deep and that the sides be neat and rough at the same time, for that was how best words would avail him to describe his heart’s content for the job he required. Certainly, he paid good money for that work, and the result he’d gotten from it since then has been mind - refreshing, to say the least. As far as he was concerned, the good water that comes from that well has been a major contributor to the long life in health, which he had enjoyed so far. At seventy – nine years of age, he is as agile and nimble as a 50 year old, and one with a mind that is as keen as an arrow and an eidetic memory. He made sure to plant cashew, mango, pawpaw and banana fruits around the compound. His love for fruits is unparalled. The sitting room is modestly furnished with three one sitter chairs. Two of them positioned adjacent to the entrance, while the one is placed parallel to the door. There is also a one three sitters placed at a distance beside the entrance door to give sufficient space for free opening and closing of the door. A 40” plasma tv, which Adetola’s father bought for him to replace the 43” sharp television his elder brother bought for him, which he had been using for over five years now. And at the centre of the sitting room is a wooden center table, which recently got just to fill up more space in the room, when the previous one completely broke down some 6 months earlier. The plasma is placed at the far end of the living room, directly opposite the three sitters chair. Exactly behind the two one sitter chairs is his dining room, where he often eats, but, mostly alone. The dining room has an adjoining door to the kitchen, which provides direct linkage between the two rooms. He eats at almost any other location in the house, whenever he has friends or extended family visiting. He often boasts to Adeniyi and Akinwumi, his friends of about a decade, “only God can remember situations, better than me”, and they don’t bother to dispute that with him, for even they think so of him. His excellent adoption of the millennial English speaking style is a quality they found weird and at the same time envy about him. Although, that mostly only happens when speaking with educated people like himself. His two friends were teachers like him, so they get a lot of it. His house is located on a two and half acres of land, at about two houses to the right of the king’s palace. On this particular day, it was an especial moment for him, as his only male grandchild, an eighteen years old boy, who is rather intelligent and handsome… He paused his line of thought for a moment, with a deeper thoughtful crease on his face (what was that English word that described “young-uns”, whose intellect are above their age grade? A Prodigy? or Wizkid? He was certain there are more than one English terminologies for that, but, none of those two sounded like what he was searching for. However, either one of them two would suffice for now. He didn’t want to loose his train of thought. His grandson had come earlier in the afternoon, dropped off by his mother to spend his end of the year holiday with his grandfather, exactly as the boy had requested of his parents. And that, according to the child, means, his seventeenth Christmas on earth is going to be with his paternal grandfather, and he; Michael Olayinka Adejolu, is going to make certain that the boy’s other two siblings would wish they had come with him to spend their Christmas holiday in the village. Not that he has any misgiving against any of his children or grandchildren; in fact, he adored them, because, to him, family means everything. But he simply wished that they would spend more time with him in the village than they actually do. Ever since the demise of his wife some five years ago, he had been forced to accept the frequent visits of his two friends as his most intimate social connections, and man, in all honesty, friendship with those two are all a man need to feel like the most loved fellow on earth. His other family members of course visit him once in a while, but those were not enough for him and he particularly decided to let them be when they started to talk to him about relocating to live with them in Challenge, in Ibadan with them. As far as he was concerned, nothing beats the village life, what, with all the herbs available to treat oneself and ensure health to the bones and flesh to the body? Or is it the calm motions of the village stream which are capable of restoring peace to the most troubled mind by just a mere sight of it? Certainly, he was persuaded that if there was anything that beats the village life, it was heaven and not the city life. He had been to the city on a couple of occasions and what he considered himself to have enjoyed on all such journeys were the inhalation of wicked gases and smokes, even the one, which they said was supposed to make them enjoy life better, entreated him with nothing but cold and headache, they call it air conditioning, but as far as he was concerned, that system was conditioning the air around them to do them more harm than good, the inhabitants of the city are simply treating themselves to die earlier than their allotted lifespan, he was certain of that. **************************************************** Chapter 2 Armonk, New York Christian Kwekowe had worked all night trying to sketch the right wire frame design for the software his department is creating. He had started the sketch in the previous week before, and today makes it exactly 4 days since he’d started. “I must complete it tonight”, he said, at about 8:30pm. “Even if it means not sleeping throughout the night.” Just as soon as those last words dropped from his mouth, he doubled down on his thought and realize, today is Sunday, which means, if he doesn’t get to rest tonight, the probably of getting that rest during the weak would be negligible. He shrugged, “Not my first time of having insufficient time to sleep, in a week.” He took a bite from the last piece of pizza, he bought and had been eating since earlier in the afternoon and took a bottle of soda from his freezer. “I can’t even think clearly when I’m hungry, much less, work” He said to himself, and then brought out his sketch pad and clutch pen, from his back pack. He was going to lay out the design on paper first, which he had started with already, and then reproduce it in his laptop. By 12 midnight, he completed the layout on paper, and stopped to check his wall clock, he’d been on it for 4 hour straight, and he didn’t even feel any form of fatigue. “I hope I’m not becoming a machine” He quietly said to himself. He was still wide awake as the day. He opened his laptop, logged into his account on the company’s in-house software, which all the UI/UX design team uses, and then started. “Now to the fun part”. By 4am he completed the software design and submitted it to the project manager’s inbox. A pop-up message appeared almost immediately on the inbox section of his screen. ‘Seen. Will look into it and get back to you. Thanks Chris!’ He wasn’t even surprised that his boss was working at that time as well. ‘It’s my pleasure. See you at work, Charlotte.’ With that, he logged out of the company’s page, and logged into his Github account and continued the codes he was writing as part of the materials for the web design tutorial he was preparing. He could not sleep again at that time, otherwise he would be late for work. “Christian enjoys his work, and describing him as excellent at it, would be an understatement.” Charlotte said to Frank, the department’s talent manager. “I understand your concern” Frank tried to explain, “I don’t think you do, Frank, so, let me lay it out clear to you. Christian is one of the best talents we have in this department. Moving him out, to God knows where, for who knows how long is just plain crazy. I’m prepping him already to take over from me when I get transferred. He has expertise in backend and frontend development in over 3 different languages and as well a professional UI/UX designer. Within the five years he’s been here, he’s got excellent rapport with colleagues from other departments. In fact, most of them prefer to interface with him or at least make sure he’s present on the team, whenever there is any project we have to run together. He is that good Frank, the kind of person that can make others easily want to go all out for him, while he himself easily gives his all for others. He’s just the kind of person you want to stick around with, you know, both for professional and social support. There are not many people around here who are like that. I’ll be going on maternity leave next month, and Christian was supposed to hold the forte till I get back, or maybe even officially become the team lead before I get back, so that I can resume to a new department. But, you are trying to take all that away from me, from all every member of the team.” Charlotte was almost in tears, but, she held back because they are in the office. “You know that the devil is in the details, Charlotte. But, if it satisfies your curiosity, it is precisely for those reasons you have out listed, that he was requested for. And really, there is nothing I can do about it. This situation is beyond me. There is an understanding between the company and this particular client. Apparently, Christian showed up on their radar, and he got selected.” Frank replied. “You know, I look at his file, over and over, and I just wish they’d have picked someone else. He’s got quite a promising future here, beyond just leading your department. Hell! If plays his cards well, with enough spirit, he might even get to lead the entire company someday.” “He will come back, right?” Charlotte said, wanting assurance that she will get to work with her best team member and friend, again.” “Well, let’s see what he prioritize more. Loyalty or Royalty. In the meantime, he’s supposed to resume there tomorrow. But, we’ve been able to buy him the rest of this week to prepare. So, you’ll have to tell him this morning.” “Christian got to his desk by 8:00am prompt and found a message waiting for him on his receiver. Charlotte wanted to see him. He assumed it was something about the wire frame he sent earlier in the morning. “Perhaps, she wants me to make some adjustments to it.” He dropped his back pack, and headed for her office. He got to her office and paused a while. She was standing with her back to the entrance door, while facing the window blinds, as if looking at something that isn’t there anymore. She’s usually in pants and top or shirt, but, today, her outfit choice is a slim fitted gown. In his experience with her, that usually means, she’s prepared for a particularly serious day ahead. She only wears gown whenever she thinks there won’t be time for her to relax at work. So, she needs all the serious moods she can get. Her typical work ethic is to be in a relaxed mood, and she tries as much as possible to create that atmosphere for her team members as well. Something they all appreciate her for. Despite her serious mien today, he could not help but notice her curves as her plump shape fills out the gown, which makes her particularly attractive. Her side view is slightly visible from his standing position and some of her features, which he often doesn’t notice are now in obvious sight. Most times, their interactions occur when they are directly facing each other or walking alongside one another. Her dreadlocks today is complementing with her average height as always, something he always find attractive about her, while her standing pose as she focuses her gaze on the fabric of the blinds, radiates that elegance she always has. In all, Christian could not help but think; ‘Damn! She’s beautiful. Her husband is certainly one hell of a lucky man.’ “You wanted to see me.” Charlotte looked up and felt that attraction she always had sweep over her again. He’s tall and has high level body muscle build, which is rather visible through his slightly bulging chest in his turtle neck long sleeve and pants. ‘Any girl would be lucky to have him in her life. I wonder why he’s still single. If I weren’t married already, I’d have bought him lunch and invited him for dinner over and again. Too bad, he’s leaving.’ Somehow, She just had the feeling that he won’t return to the company. So as far she was concerned, it’s farewell to a great colleague and friend, even though, she wanted in all things to be wrong. “Have your seat, Christian” The first look he saw on her face made him feel uneasy. And somehow, the thought that look sent to him was ‘I’m not resigning’. He even wanted to say it out loud, because he didn’t understand what could make his boss, who was always poised and business like, loose composure, almost teary. Christian sat down in an office chair at the opposite end of the table. Christian opened his mouth to say something, but, she beat him to it… “You know, I don’t remember ever having any issues with any job you’ve done, in the five years since we’ve been working together.” She started. “In fact, in that space of time, you grown from being more than a dependable colleague to a good friend. But, just like you often say, nothing lasts forever.” “Are you leaving?” Christian blurted out. He could not help himself. “No. You are leaving, Christian” He didn’t understand the statement. “Why? How? Where? He paused to catch a breath. How am I leaving? What have I done wrong?” “You are not fired Christian. Take it slow.” She paused, and then continued when he didn’t say anything. Obviously waiting for her to provide explanation. “One of the organization’s top client in Africa has requested for you. Somehow, you showed up on their radar, and they think you will be a good fit for a project they are working on. It’s a confidential project, so, all I know is that, the estimated time for the project from inception to completion is 3 years. But, things may change, of course. Other details as you may require will be provided when you report there for duty.” “Am I being relieved of my duties because of that?” “I don’t understand.” “Am I being sacked because I have to go work somewhere for a while?” “What!? No! Why would you even think that?” “You have a very sad look” Charlotte, don’t. He may return, and that will complicate things. Well, 3 years is enough time to dissolve whatever sensual complications may arise. She told herself. He’s leaving. “I’d actually really liked you. I’d even imagined what it would be like to be your girlfriend. So, your leaving is more painful for me than it ordinarily should.” This isn’t real. Christian said to himself. “You’ve never even so much as hinted it before. As much as I can tell, all you’ve ever been since we’ve been working together, is a friendly boss.” He said. He didn’t even know what to make of such information. He is pleasantly surprised and saddened by it. “There’s no point in attempting something that should not be, right. All that would have been achieved by that would be nothing but complications. Maybe we wouldn’t be so friendly by now, if I had as much as hinted it.” “Well, thank you. It does really help that you didn’t.” She brought out an envelope from her drawer, “In there is your travel ticket, and other documents as you may require to get there safely. A chauffeur will be waiting for you at the airport to take you to the company when you arrive.” She paused, and then said with a tint of sadness, “So long, my friend.” “I often wonder though, why you are still single, at what now, 30 years?” She paused, and then added, “That is if you are open to discussing it, in the spirit of friendly departure.” He smiled, “Maybe I’m just not a chill normal dude, after all. I mean, things like that just haven’t seem to find me. Once in a while though, those thoughts of loving and being loved by someone comes to me. But, somehow, we just haven’t met, yet. I love the tech world though, and it seems to love me back. Indeed, that has been my comfort.” She stood up and extended her hand to shake him. “I hope you find what your desires.” He received the handshake, smiled and replied; “Thank you.” He would have told her he actually liked her as well. But, just like she said, “that would serve to achieve nothing other than complications for the both of them. Maybe in another life, they would be lovers. He left the office, and was on his way to Africa. That very day, around that 10:00AM, somewhere in a mansion in Africa, an elderly man, about 55 years of age received a call: “Yes?” He said: “We’ve found the last piece of the puzzle, he will be here on Monday, exactly seven days from now.” The person the other end of the line said, and the line went dead. Chapter 3 The compound of the Adejolu’s sat on an expanse two hectares in Akilapa estate, Apata area, Ibadan. The building sat at mid portion of the land, exposing a significant open space of alternate carpet grass and concrete interlocked floor tiles at the front and back of the house, harmonized to produce the effect of a cool weather drive or walk, depending on the whichever activity is being performed, even on a sun infested afternoon. The external wall at the front reveals neatly interlocked red and black colored brick tiles of stretcher bond with a parapet that is doing a failing job of hiding the hipped roof of black slate roof covering. The roof beauty is however better visible on the sides and rear view, revealing a concave sloping concrete fascia that projects the roof architecture. Tope Adejolu, jnr is a lover of nature, so, he lined both sides of the 1.5 meters high fence with a mixture of Firs, colored Spruces, and Cypresses and cedars and Eagles Ford, Christmas trees, planted in their plastic vases, from the beginning to the end. He also planted 3 queen palm trees at specific intervals of about 7 meters apart at the frontage and 3 spindle palms at the back of the house. “One of the good things about the plants is that they would keep visitors company till they got inside of the building.” Tope had said jokingly to his wife, when she asked him, what the many plants in the compound serve to achieve. The house is a six bedroom en suite bungalow, with two living rooms and a boys quarters at the back, and a lawn tennis court marked out at the right side of a safe at the front of the building. On this particular evening, he was sauntering around his compound. He had built the house with the intent to live the rest of his life in it. If he ever built another one, it would be for another purpose than living, perhaps to rent it out. Speaking of which, he remembered that real estate is a business that had piqued his interest, since about five years ago. He was on call with a friend of his who resides in Abuja. Somehow, their discussion had wandered off to what Tope could do, if he had any free money to invest somewhere. The friend had wittingly mentioned wholesaling for cement manufacturers like Dangote or Elephant, but, Tope didn’t buy it. He had then suggested opening up a boutique for his wife, but Tope had primly replied, “If it’s not in the medical line, Teniola won’t do it. She doesn’t seem to have a joy for any other trade.” His friend had chuckled and enthused, “All that intelligence, and it’s only for one love. Talk about passionate commitment.” Tope smiled, this nigga had been in his best man, so, he aptly knows his wife. “How about you establish a secondary school, and both of you manage it together?” Tope pondered on it a moment, and then stated flatly, “it’s just not my thing.” “Man! Now, I remember how deliberate and precise you can be.” “Well, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Ayorinde sighed, and then said, “This is the last option I’ve got. You can develop a building and rent it out.” “Real Estate!” Tope, stated, with more warmth in his voice than he intended. “That is precisely the broad name for it.” Before, Tope could say anything further, Ayorinde added, “There’s a conference holding here soon, and Real Estate will be discussed practically and in more details. I can get you a slot, if you’d like to attend” and then as a way to encourage his friend better, he added. “You can learn everything you need to, about the basics of Real Estate investment in Nigeria, at the conference.” Tope had done property management law during his masters, and he had thought at the time, ‘assuming criminal law doesn’t exist, I would have gone into this field big time. Perhaps, it is not too late to dip hands into the bag, after all. Besides, who practices only one legal field in Nigeria?’ “Get me the ticket.” Tope said, again with, more urgency than he intended, and then added in a more subdued tone, somewhat as a way of admitting his emotions, “I look forward to attending.” “You have it.” And, with that, they ended the call. The following month, Tope traveled to Abuja for the conference. Indeed, it was just as Ayorinde had described it would be, a couple of viable 21st century business opportunities were discussed during the conference, and among them was ownership of real properties, which includes, lands and houses, basically. He’d come across a 2010 report from the United Nations Statistics Division – the World Statistics Pocketbook, at the conference, which had proved quite illuminating and thought provoking to him. From the report, he’d found that urban population increase across Nigeria ran from 10% in 1952 to 48% in 2009. “38% increase in 57 years, not bad.” He said and continued reading. Lagos residents were about 17 million people at the time. He’d also read that the country has a housing backlog of about 14 million units, with about 85% of urban residents living in rented apartments, expending about 40% of their income on rent. Now, I am getting to the interesting part, he noted with a smile. The report further showed that informal housing was the most prevalent form of housing with over 80% of the state’s population living in unplanned settlements with poor living conditions. “Hmmm! That is … something” The formal sector makes up about 15% of the market share, targets high-income earners, while houses categorized as low cost are mainly outside the reach of low-income earners, consequently raising housing costs above affordability for people in this category, even though such apartments are described as low-cost housing. Tope further read up on the mortgage industry, which was described as underdeveloped and generated below 100,000 transactions in almost half a century, between 1960 – 2009. “Rather pathetic”, he said under his breath. Mortgage to loanable funds between 2004 – 2009, ran a dismal average of 14.5%, while the market itself was valued at US$850 million. At the current exchange rate, that would be around, #127.5 billion, Tope mentally noted. “I’ll confirm that when I get home”, he said, quietly. Real estate contribution to the country’s GDP was below 5%, while mortgage loans and advances, ran even less at 0.5%. He looked at the figures presented in this respect in comparism with advanced economies like US at 77%, UK 80%, Hong Kong at 50% and even Malaysia at 33%, and fell into a sad mood. But, he summoned the courage to continue the read. He wanted to complete this report, as the revelations revealed to him from there interest him in some way he can’t really put into words. It’s like a mixture of feelings. He saw opportunities in the low housing performance in terms of availability and cost, and yet, he wished that his beloved country was better already. The few low-income earners with home ownership often acquire land and build gradually from their savings. On the other side, high-income house owners buy with cash, or mortgage finance, which is often amortized over a maximum of 10 years span. He did a quick mental backtrack of how he acquired his house, and realized, the report was accurate. He’d built his house with a combination of savings and loans, and with a bemused sarcastic smile, he realized he was actually in the country’s middle class segment. Yet, he didn’t really see it as an issue back then, because he didn’t even stop to think that savings and loan finance means for housing might be a general situation across the country. Who knows, and who really cares how his neighbor financed his house. That would seem like snooping around, and a couple of factors wouldn’t allow that. First, he has a culture of strictly minding his business, something he got from home training. Two, there was no time for poking into other people’s affairs, he has his family and business to watch over, and that is a lifetime responsibility you don’t retire from. “Another one of my naïve psychologies, probably”, he said with exasperation. He further read that the Land Use Act 1978, is particularly causing land ownership challenges for people, as the Act vests land ownership to the state Governor thereby significantly deterring people from ownership, while other factors like slow bureaucratic procedures, and the high cost of land registration and titling, negatively impacted ease of land ownership for people. In all, Tope decided, real estate would be quite a profitable venture after all... He paused his thought for a moment, and mouthed, “I think”. His only confusion as of yet, is whether to invest in residential or commercial buildings. He got home on Friday around 6pm. The conference had started on Monday, but he left the previous day, and the first thing he did on getting back home was rush to the bathroom for shower. That was one of his vanities. Tope baths in a day as many times as he goes out and returns. There’s no talking him out of it, no matter how short the trip was. Even his wife who is in the medical line had to admit that is something. “But, I can’t complain, it’s a good thing,” She said, when their kids had mentioned it at some point. “You’d think his body stinks to him already whenever he got back from an outing”, Teniola said. “Maybe it does”, Adetola had replied jokingly. “I will have to discuss with my friend, Mr Ajayi” Tope subconsciously said, thinking it was only in his mind, while taking a stroll through his garden, after his bath, something he often did when trying to process his thoughts and align them. To his surprise, his gardener who often come twice in a month – the first and last weeks, asked him if he should fetch his phone for him, so he could make the call. Adetola did a mental double-back, and feeling embarrassed, he asked, “What!?” He was completely unaware of the man’s presence