The Brink of Life

The Movements

“You say you go like follow Engineer Ajayi, talk, so I bin reason maybe na now, you go like do am”

“How long has my thoughts been audible?”

“Na onIy the Engineer Ajayi part, I hear, and I bin dey here for like one hour now, but, na like 30 minutes ago you just reach here sha”

“Do you even know him?”

“I no need know him, oga. As long as say na something weh you wan do and I fit helep you do am. Na wetin matter to me be that.”

Tope smiled a little, obviously touched by the older man’s willingness to help, when he had no obligation to. Somehow, he also liked the sound of the pidgin English coming from his mouth. But, he would hate to think that he’d been soliloquizing. The last thing he wanted was for his domestic staff to think he was hallucinating at 45 years of age.

“I’ll talk to him later, thank you. It’s not an urgent matter. By the way, how would you have gotten my phone?” He asked after a moment’s pause. As it later occurred to him that this was his gardener and he ordinarily should not know where his phone is.

“I for just ask you say where the tin dey, make I go carry am come”, the older man replied.

“Alright. Thank you.” What if the phone was in his bedroom, would the man have actually gone into his bedroom? Tope, thought for a while, and decided to let the matter slide. He was not going to quiz his staff on a situation he wouldn’t even allow in the first place.

Tope believes in operating based on immediate connection of people. So he’d made sure to stack up a network of friends from different professions. He knows he would certainly need them at some points, and would not want to scamper off in search of people he had no prior relationship with. “No trust, and lack of trust is bad for business.” He would often say, when asked why he operates like that.

Himself and Ajayi had met, when he joined NIFES student fellowship, during his undergraduate days. The guy’s intelligence had fascinated him. Ajayi was studying Civil engineering back then, but, his scope of knowledge extended beyond the engineering field. He had basic understanding of Contract law, Tort, Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques, Human anatomy, and Renewable energy with particular interest in Biogas and Solar. Tope, had asked him one time, “How do you know so much?” The young man had replied feeling elated; “I love knowledge. But, Engineering is the main deal for me. Engineering is creativity! Engineering is life” He paused a while, as if contemplating something, and then said, “In all fairness though, I do have a friend and a cousin studying Quantity Surveying and Estate Management respectively, those legal knowledge are integral parts of their academic drill.” He paused again, and this time, with a mischievous grin, he added, “as well as mine”, and then had gone further to taunt Tope; “If everyone were to be of good behavior, we wouldn’t need law, you see. But, there is no escaping structures, otherwise, everyone would die from the subtle wickedness of nature. I love real estate as well, so, I’ve decided to be an engineer in the real estate market”

What nerve! Tope burst into fits of laughter, in part due to his myopic estimation of the law, as simply an art to bring people into order. But, he that particular evening, he decided his usual nature of straightening matters out to people without inaccurate line of thoughts. And then he thought, I like this one. Ajayi’s specialty had been in structural engineering. “Before man was, structures have been, otherwise, how would you explain the existence of the Garden of Eden”. In his amusement, he realized, Ajayi Ayorinde is not the sort of that would exactly be described as tall, and what he lacked in height, he could not make up for in body flesh. But he did a good job of it in amiable personality. He is about 5”6 max, with pure black eyes, and some strands of hairs on his chin, which gives him hope of growing a goatee soon, and eventually some beards. By the time they got to final year, his goatee had come out significantly, but, nothing for the beards. Still, Ayorinde was hopeful.

Not that Tope himself would exactly be called out where tall people are required to present themselves. He was 173 cm in height, with BMI of about 23. Tope has striking good looks, which is complemented by his diastema, so much that one of his friends said to him at one time that he must be the most handsome person in his family, because it is not possible for anyone to be more handsome than he already is. But, all that beauty was smeared by acne, which dealt a great blow on his self esteem. But, he was loved nonetheless. It is common knowledge that a guy does not need to be good looking in order to be loved. But, Tope struggled with self esteem throughout his undergraduate days. However, he did accrue more height than Ayorinde. Something, he often made of joy of teasing the shorter fellow with. But, man was intelligent and confident as hell. And Tope liked him. Undergraduate friendship was particularly easy with AY as he is often referred to.

It’s over 20 years after now, and the memories are still fresh in his mind. They kept in touch once in a while, and ran into each other during business conferences. One common interest they both share is entrepreneurship. And the fact that apart from their professional practices, they were not much sure, which other field they wanted to venture into. “Tope, would certainly would certainly have valuable advice on which investment is better.

It was a Saturday evening on the 6th of October, Tope lay sprawled on his stretcher-chair combination, on his lawn, under the small evening shade of one of his palm trees. He isn’t much the type to go neighboring on social visits. Even if he was the type, now was really a bad time for such. Somehow, thoughts of the future had been crisscrossing his mind. Naturally, he plans ahead and meticulously implements them. He had not gotten to the societal level he is now by happenstance, nor did he intend to leave any aspect of his life to fate, or whatever it is called. After about over 15 years of practice at the Bar, his next aim is to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), which is quite ambitious as far as he could think. But, these recent mulling have been different. He had his future figured out alright, so why does it keep coming to him. It was as if something was prompting him to look at the future he had looked at. Thankfully, it was a cool evening, and his family members had yet to be back from his wife’s friend’s owambe. “The party must really be fun, they’d left since around 11am, and it’s almost 5pm now. Perhaps tonight’s gym activities will be cancelled.”, he muttered under his breath, with some relief, and hoped they won’t be back for a while. “Okay, so, what’s up with the future?” He started his mental exercise, and almost immediately, memories came flooding in torrents, from his social media feeds to his immediate neighborhood, his office and even within his very own family. Vivid visions of images he saw, but, didn’t see, while going to various places every day came to his inner eyes, and then, the thought hit him hard, like a cold water in the heat of a sunny day – exactly what needed. Just then, he realized that up until now. He had totally lived a normal life. Nothing extraordinary. Attended University of Ilorin, went to law school in Abuja, at the age of 27 years. After his national service, he got a job to work at the ministry of justice, Lagos state, which he did for two years and during which period he did his masters degree in criminal law at the University of Lagos, before getting an offer at EFCC, Ibadan. It was there he got exposed to interactions with drug smugglers, cyber criminals, and other kinds of criminal offenders in the society, and after five years of prosecuting these guys, he decided he wanted to defend them after all. From everything he had witnessed in his 7 years of working for the government, he decided it was hypocritical to continue to put people behind bars, when many of them ordinarily would not have had any reason to get involved in such acts, assuming they had better government. Somehow, he just couldn’t bring himself to see those guys as criminals. “They are simply disadvantaged human beings, and they should not be crucified because of that.” He had simply stated offhandedly, the first time he was asked why he chose to cross from prosecuting to the defense side, during his first year of private practice as a criminal defense lawyer. A colleague from the prosecuting side had even tried to bait him by asking what he would do if he was in a position to defend an armed robber that shot his wife dead? He gave a stern, almost angry look. The prosecutor had come to inquire about a case he worked on while he was at EFCC. Tope had just concluded a meeting with a client inside his conference room and was still there when Demola, got in. So he asked Felix, his secretary to bring him inside the room instead of his office. Being that he only just opened the chamber in less than a year, Tope wanted to get used to holding meetings at the conference room. So even meetings, which would ordinarily not fit into being held in there, as long as they are official ones. Tope didn’t mind making exceptions once in a while, although this particular man was would not have fitted into those exceptions, but, his prior meeting had been unexpectedly long, and tiring, even though that was not particularly surprising for Tope, being that it was an open appointment and a consultation service. He often charged premium for such, and this particular client didn’t mind the fees, but had even paid extra. So, Tope patiently spent sufficient time with him, and had even made scheduling adjustments to some of his other meetings. In truth, Tope had found the client’s case to be quite stimulating. The client, who was in his early fifties about 5’9 tall, significantly fat with pot-belly, had run his Toyota camry, 2010 model to hit a bystander right at the front of the Eleyele police station. He panicked and ran away, leaving the victim and onlookers at the scene. After driving for a while with no consciousness as to where he was going, guilt started to set in on him, and branched at the nearest law firm he saw, which turned out to be Tope’s firm. Tope listened to him, took down his statement in a separate file created for him, calmed him down that evening and fixed another appointment with him for the following day. It was as if Tope had performed magic on this client yesterday. When he walked into his firm this afternoon, he was completely calm and almost smiling, it’ll be difficult for anyone to realize that this was the same man who almost pissed in his pant out of fear, yesterday. ‘Or maybe he did, Tope thought and had to choke back a smile on the thought. He asked the man to narrate the story again to be sure that his senses were intact, and had not placed himself in some kind of delusion.

The man started, “I was returning from work yesterday around 6pm and decided to branch at Plat'num Night Club, at Eleyele, to relax with some friends.” He paused a moment as if trying to swallow something, and the continued “I wanted to get home early then so as to spend sufficient time with my family, who had been complaining about my coming home lately for about a month. So, I left the club around 7:30pm. But, just then, one chick I was chyking called me and asked to see me for an important matter. I was still on the conversation with her and before I knew what was happening, this man was right in front of me out of nowhere, holding his phone to his ears, obviously making a call” He paused again, and then added, “Or so I thought at the time. He had a bottle in his left hand and made a pose as if he was drinking. I suddenly slammed on the horn and brakes to jerk him out of my vehicle’s path, but, obviously he couldn’t move fast enough, and the distance was too close for my car to stop, so I ran into him. I wanted to help him, but, I saw him bleeding profusely and I got scared so I ran into my car, reversed and left the scene before the crowd could gather around me.”

Tope was amazed. The man was even more detailed today than he was yesterday. Obviously an effect of the panic he felt at that time. He’d had more time to process the whole situation now. But, Tope wondered whether he understood the extent of what could happen to him, if it turns out that there was as much as a single eyewitness who recognized him or took down his plate number. Tope had asked him yesterday and he had said he didn’t think anyone saw him. But, Tope was not satisfied as the man was not in a clear state of mind at that time, and as such might have missed it. However, his confirmation of it now, has helped matters a lot.

Tope opened his mouth to talk, but, the client was faster.

“I left my friend inside the club yesterday. He called me this morning to explain that a mad man had died as a result of hit and run at exactly that spot and around that time yesterday after being rushed to the hospital. It was he who rushed the mad man to the nearest hospital. The man died as soon as they he got to the operating room. My friend confirmed that there was no one who saw the car or the driver that hit him, and since he was a lunatic, the police had closed the case, and described it as a public casualty.”

Tope smiled, ‘no wonder the old cunt was smiling. If it weren’t for the attorney client privilege, he would have handed him over to the police himself.’

“I’m really glad I met you though. You are one hell of a good lawyer. What you said to me yesterday really calmed me down. In fact, none of my family members noticed that anything had happened to me earlier that night.” The man had gone ahead to officially hire Tope as his lawyer for every case he might need legal service for.

‘One of the bane of being a defense lawyer, you have to deal with completely unpleasant people like this’, Tope thought, but, he said to the man with a smile, “Go and sin no more. ”

As much as he resented the man’s attitude back, his relationship with him had been pivotal to his career in private practice, as he’d not only given him high profile cases, but, had also referred to him to his friends and others within his influence. Because of jobs he did for clients like him, back then till now, he doesn’t need to stay in the office till as late as 8pm when the man had met him, except in few critical cases.

“This world certainly is complicated”, Tope said.

The conference room is located immediately beside Tope’s office separated only by 6” wall, and a paneled door that provides direct access between the two offices. The room is modestly furnished with six chairs and an oval shaped table. One chair each at the opposite ends of the table and two each at the sides. At the right end corner of the room is a CWAY water dispenser, and directly opposite at the top is a wooden cabinet covered with glass. Inside are glass cups and trays, while at the center of the other end is a LG flat screen LED television, 55” wide. The room itself is rectangular of 4 meters width and 6 meters in length.

Tope was sitting in one of the two chairs on the right and motioned for Demola to sit at the opposite side, when he came after a courtesy handshake.

Tope knew Demola to be a very intelligent attorney, so he was surprised when the young man requested to meet him concerning a case that had been closed for almost a year now. The case was the final one Tope handled before exiting EFCC, and had gotten the judge to convict the suspect. He shook his head immediately, he didn’t want to remember the details of it. From what Tope gathered concerning the case, the suspect, who was in his mid to late thirties by Tope’s estimation, had been arrested, by the police had simply arrested because he refused to tip them when he was stopped at the border. So, he had been charged with possession of illegal drugs. Perhaps, he was just crossing the border for the first time. Tope thought, otherwise he should have known better than to try to drag such matters with those hoodlums. Unless you are a very influential person, you don’t get away without giving something to those guys. But, the evidences were stacked against him. About 3 parcels of cocaine were found at the trunk of his car, cleverly hidden, and it was Tope’s job to prosecute him. Tope was only privy to the truth of the case because of the network he has with those guys, and they were sources he couldn’t officially admit as evidence, and even if he could, his job was to prove that the guy was guilty. Ordinarily he could have simply refused to prosecute him or unofficially tip off the defense attorney about his evidence. But, a letter had come in for him on the very day of the first hearing of the case, that he must see to it that that man gets a life sentence. Tope looked up at the sender’s address on the letter, and gasped for breath. He never imagined he could get anything from such top level office in his lifetime, let alone this early in his career. It was then it dawned on him that the matter was beyond a simple case of police vendetta, or even drug trafficking. Those only serve as façade to secure the man’s capture. Apparently, he had made enemies at places where forgiveness is a sin. Perhaps, that was why he was fleeing. “Obviously, not fast enough”. Tope remembered saying back then after reading the man’s file and the letter that came with it. In reminiscence, he still felt like uttering that statement again. He had tried out his luck with Tope, by trying to persuade him of his innocence from the crime. However, Tope couldn’t help but think, ‘well, maybe you are innocent of this crime, but, guilty of a more insidious one. And when the devil is against your case, who better to appeal for you than God, but, it does not look like this man reckon with God, so devil got him.

When Tope narrated the story to his immediate boss, the woman had jokingly said, “That part with devil and God is figurative, right.” And Tope had replied with a brief smile, “I am pretty confident I will not be the one prosecuting the case, if it was literal.”

From his file, Tope had read that his name is Christian Kwekowe, a software developer, who trained in Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had worked with the technology company International Business Machines (IBM) for 5 years. When Tope met him for the first time, the word that came to his man to describe the guy with was ‘broken’. He had the look of someone who had been fighting for long, but eventually lost the battle. He was well built with trimmed beards and well manicured fingers. But, in the two days he’d spent in custody, his noticeable features had been tired sunken eyes and tangled beards, and Tope could not but, feel pity for him, when he walked into his cell on the second day to talk with him. The man had narrated his ordeal of how he unexpectedly got called by his line manager on a normal afternoon and had been informed that the minister had specifically requested for him to temporarily work on a project. He asked how long the project was going to take, but his boss had evaded the question and told him that the project was classified and everything he needs to know about it will be provided when he reports to the embassy. According to him, his personal defense attorney had gone down with a terminal illness on the day he got arrested, and had been in the hospital. It was his wife who picked the call and informed him of that he had cancer of the liver. The state had then offered him another lawyer, who had not showed up since he has been in custody. Tope remembered calling yesterday to inform the lawyer that he wants to ask some questions from his client. The guy had stated that he won’t be available, and had given an unclear reason. But, he had expressly allowed Tope to see Christian, and on top of that, he had not applied for bail for this client. Something about all that stroke him as odd, but, he decided to let it pass. After all, the guy in question was not his client, and considering the ominous feeling he’d been having about the case, the less complicated it got, the better for him.before accepting a contract to head a confidential technology project with the Ghanaian minister of Trades and Commerce. The project was supposed to span 7 years. But, at the 6th year,and 35 years old. Why then was he trying to cross over to Nigeria, especially on road. ‘What have you done?’ A feeling of foreboding swept over Tope. But, because he didn’t want to get into any trouble, he’d simply gone ahead as he’d planned. Done his job, and Christian bagged a life sentence for wrongful possession of cocaine. ”Done and dusted”, he said. And went home immediately that day. He didn’t want to remember that case anymore. Little did he know that fate had other plans for him.The meeting had been brief, but, as if Demola was trying to extend his stay, he had engaged in some ‘not so necessary’, conversation, and had ventured into why Tope left prosecuting. He’d come up with the ludicrous question about an hypothetical situation of his wife getting shot by an armed robber. With an irritating look, Tope had replied, “You still don’t get it, do you? We lose our lives every day. Every day we live is a gift, and as well a risk. It would be an height of ignorance not to know that the next day is not guaranteed for anyone. Regardless of the route, the fact remains, we would all exit this world someday. If the armed robber shot my wife dead, he had only killed one person – a half of me. If I defend him and he gets out, he certainly would know, it was grace extended to him, and he might just spend the rest of his days saving people’s lives. Why should I be the one to prevent him from such goodness? If I did, then I might as well have pulled the trigger that killed my wife.”

Now, he thought, how could he have given such an epic response, and still lived a completely normal life for over a decade after that. The guy had said something about him supposedly fitting as a politician, in response. But, it didn’t matter to him, he had simply mentally dismissed the statement with a smug smile, thinking it was a lame attempt to have the final word in an intellectual discuss. But, now, it was as if he had been reborn, the future might actually hold more than he had envisaged. He was about to start contemplating how to harmonize their current situation to achieve the possibilities that lay ahead, his wife’s car blared with horn, but, as if he didn’t notice continued in his mulling state. He was going to quickly wrap up his thought before his three children come jumping on him like toddlers. Something he actually enjoyed very much, and just as uninvited thought came a smile crossed his face, and he said; “I’ve lost this battle already”. He was already distracted by the arrival of his people, and just then he realized how much he’d missed his family within the hours they’d been out. This happens every time they go out without him. But, his mind got jugged back to his recent realization, and he cuss within himself and wondered, “Have I been asleep all my life?” He was rather thankful they had not shown up earlier.

The two girls jumped out of the back seat of the black Toyota Corolla 2008 model, and made straight for their father’s chest leap frogging and giggling joyfully all the way as though they were 10 years younger. He saw them, and a well of joy sprung up from his bowels. These people mean the world to him. As they were about to pounce on, he immediately jerked away from the stretcher, leaving them on a gravity free fall one on the other laying defeated on the stretcher before could change their action. They rolled over on their backs and saw him beaming a wicked triumphant smile over them. As if to return the favour, they leapt on their feet immediately and leapt at him. This time they got him, and they all burst into laughter. By the time they got off him, they turned around only to find their younger brother in their stretcher, now adjusted in the form of a chair, giving his own victorious smile. “He looks exactly like Dad”, Adetoun said. “For a split second, I thought, it was Dad sitting down there, except that he isn’t that small, and except he suddenly vanished from behind us reappeared on the chair, there was no way he could have gotten there.” “That’s what you get for starting a party with dad, in my absence.” Adetola, said in sheer victorious grin, and then his dad had scooped him up from the chair as though he weighed nothing, and kissed him on the forehead.

Tope didn’t think himself the kind of father that spoils his children, but, as much as that is, he also intend to make sure they lack nothing for love. He didn’t actually need to consciously do the later part, it’s a natural thing for him. His love for his kids have been like a flowing stream – ever peaceful, even in the hot of the day. He had consciously made sure they got acquainted with the village life, instilling the knowledge in them that there are people both younger and older than them who do not have the resources they have. Not that he thought he has much. But, he didn’t want his children thinking about life from the purview of material wealth. “Also, there are those with larger resources than you have”, he had told them sometime when they were able to steal time with their ever busy mother, to play baseball at a home organized picnic. During the night of that particular Saturday, he had made all three of them drink the juice from crushed bitter leaf. He saw the disgusted look on their faces and said, “Never forget that taste, guys. Sometimes, life will not always give you what you want. You will not always win. You will not always have your way. But, that is no excuse to give up on your dreams. Because even the best of men sometimes fail before they succeed. In all, always remember, you have a purpose in this life, so you cannot afford to live life listlessly, otherwise, you will pay for it, and some others will pay for it as well, by that, I mean those who should have an edge in life due to your accomplishments, will have that advantage taken from them. So, you do not live for yourselves alone. There are others whose lives depend on yours, just as there are those whose works will help your success.” That night, he’d read them ‘The Psalm of Life’, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, he started;

‘Tell me not in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream,

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem’

…