Short Story: CORONA ERA by Umeh Writes.
It’s been over a year since the reality of a new dark dawn started, and when I reflect on the past year, I still have teardrops rolling down my eye.
How did we get here? How did I go from living my best life a year ago, to picking crumbs under the table this year? How did we go from living in one of the best houses in Ikoyi, to squatting with my in-laws? From spending lavishly to struggling to eat 2 square meals? Who would have thought that Coronavirus from far away Wuhan would wreck economies like this, and change my life for worse? But the truth is…I don’t just blame China, I also blame me!
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I was the Manager of the biggest club in Lagos. I lived a premium lifestyle and made good money for my club, and that in turn mean’t I also made good money for myself. But the problem is I lived a lavish lifestyle not just because I needed to sustain the fake lifestyle, but also because I was confident the money would never stop coming. If only I knew…
My wife had always told me we should have some savings, but by the time I bought her second car, a BMW 3 Series, she stopped complaining. Money was not a problem, and there was multiple ways of spending it. Like LG, life was good until…
We’ve been hearing stories about a strange virus from China, but I never took it seriously. Why should I let something from far Asia bother me? It was until the government announced the first lockdown that I realized how serious it was. We shutdown for 2 weeks, and it felt like 2 months. 2 weeks of not seeing club lights, not seeing made men come into the club and spray a couple dollar bills and then slip some into my pocket. Two weeks of not making a dime, but spending via online shopping and all!
Then two weeks turned to a month, and I realized I didn’t have any more money in the bank to sustain us, and my club was not paying salary because it’s business unusual. Neither was I getting mega tips as usual.
I called some of my senior men and they all had excuses as to why they don’t have funds to spare because if the pandemic.
Luckily the lockdown was called off and I thought it was time to make some money, but business started slow and continued to be like that. Then the second wave of lockdown was effected, then I realized I was in for a serious problem.
For the next few weeks we fed from hand to mouth. This strange new poverty lifestyle was my reality, but it felt like a nightmare. Things got so worse, that when people discovered palliatives in warehouses I had to swallow my pride and become a Palliative Hunter, because a hungry man is an angry man. By this time I was not only broke, but broken!
Then things went from bad to worse, as after the second wave of lockdown my employers said they were going to cut my salary by 70 percent. Saying things like business is slow, the entertainment sector is affected the most, and they have to sack a lot of people but are putting their best men on a 70% salary reduction.
I was furious! In the 7 years I’ve worked with these guys, I made billions for them and this is how they want to treat me? This was the same club I had given my all to, the same club I turned from a small corner shop to one of the biggest clubs in Lagos and Nigeria for that matter! I rejected the offer, and that meant I became officially jobless. I don’t know what wrecked me the most…the betrayal or the heavy fall from grace to grass.
By this time my Landlord was on my neck for his rent. Several other bills were there looking at me like I was superman or something. I sold my car and that of my wife, but it didn’t take long for us to go broke again.
Unable to pay our rent to a rude landlord who was quick to use thugs to chase us out, I went back to my club to ask if I could start working for the 30% pay, and they said they already have someone in that position, and they’ve not even paid the person yet as things are really slow right now. Damn!
With no money to pay for rent, that was how we had to go squat at my inlaws. Unable to find another job due to the pandemic, I had to depend on those who used to see me as a god. The subtle and direct insults, the steady reminder that we were not contributing anything, the frustration of seeing yourself become worthless…words can’t explain!
I was depressed, frustrated and full of rage. This is the type of thing that makes a man run mad. All kinds of thought crossed my mind. Dark thoughts that can make a saint do evil things with ease. All my connections abandoned me. The rejected stone became an object of caricature. I was at my lowest low, and the only thing high about me was the constant alcohol in my veins. If anyone had told me I would get down to this level, I would never have believed nor imagined it.
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It’s the year 2021, and I have gone through hell and born again to mother earth. The things I had gone through in 2020 was enough to write a tragic novel. With Covid-19 killing millions of people around the world and changing the life of many for good, and some unfortunate ones like me for bad, the virus is still very much in the air and doing numbers. But we’ve adjusted to the new normal, adapted to the abnormal, and evolved because we have no choice.
I just got a new job with a new club in the heart of Lagos, and I swore to make it as big if not bigger than my previous one. But this time, I will live my life like I’m expecting a new pandemic every year. Like I’m preparing for the unknown. I have been awakened and never to be caught unawares again, because I can’t bear to go through all that turmoil again.
Like gold I have gone through fire, and even though I suffered so much, I’m coming out refined, beautiful and ready to dominate my world!
