Friday the 13th is usually associated with bad luck but I knew it would be different, because I felt an itch on my left hand when I woke up. I did not get off the bed immediately even though it was six minutes past four in the morning. It was a struggle everyday between my lazy self and the alarm on my phone. I kept pressing the snooze button and it continued shouting.

“God, how did I get myself into this kind of life.” I lamented and finally untangled myself from the mattress. It was exactly 4.30am when I felt the itch on my left hand again. First one, might have been a coincidence but twice, no way. It was a popular belief in my town, Umuokofia in Enugu state that an itch on your left hand in the morning meant that someone will gift you a huge sum of money that day.

“Amen, amen, amen oooo. What God cannot do does not exist,” I said.

I was just managing myself in Lagos and practically living paycheck to paycheck. I have seen sapa and it has seen me. I could not help but reminisce at this point about how it all started. I graduated five years ago from the prestigious Enugu State University. I was the valedictorian and had great hopes for the future. Hopes to bag a good job in at most six months and start a family in three years. Now, five years had gone by, none has manifested. Indeed, if wishes were horses beggars will ride.

I walked towards my room mate who was preparing pap for us to eat with the moi moi she made the night before. “Ada, I am expecting something huge today,” I told her with excitement in my voice. Ada, was more that a flat mate to me. We worked today at a law firm in Victoria island. We connected in the office after we realized we had a lot in common- both of us were victims of black tax and lived in face me I face you buildings at Ejigbo. It is safe to say that we had suffering in common. We decided to save money and move into a self contain apartment that we both shared till this day.

After breaking the news to Ada, I expected her to share in my joy because a win for me was definitely a win for her. Instead, in a tone that cannot be described as nice, she said, “that money magic is only associated with the right hand not the left, Prisca. Eat your moi moi and let us leave for work, we are behind schedule.”

I lost my appetite immediately and started to question myself. Was it the left or right hand, I wondered. I could not help but call my mother at that time. Mrs Orji, my mother did not seem very happy to hear from me at that hour. She always said that Lagosians did not deserve to spend eternity in hell fire as we had lived hell here on earth. I agreed with her, because how else would you explain to a sane person that I wake up everyday by 4 a.m and get back home by 10.30pm.

Mrs Orji was unhappy that I disturbed her sleep but I wanted an answer. I went ahead to ask for clarification, she reassured me that that luck was connected to the left hand. My joy knew no bounds but it was short lived when I heard my Aunty Ekwutus’s voice at the other end of the phone. I did not realize she was visiting.

“Onyinyechukwu, when are you getting married?”, she asked. I had reasons to believe it was too early for that conversation but I wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine. I replied, “I will get married the day you tell me why you were named Ekwutus.””

The silence on the other side of the phone was loud. After a few seconds, my mom said, “call your Aunty and apologize to her.”

#MMBA3