Fear Drop … the series

… an amalgamation of fiction and fact, popularly called faction. Get entertained and be informed.

Episode One:

‘Lagos will be no more in fifteen years’  

My reaction had appeared calm even though my heartbeat raced faster than a faulty plane nose diving for destruction as I listened to the petite dark skinned attractive lady sitting four tables away from me at a workshop organized for volunteers on climate change in Lagos raise an alarming concern. It reminded me of months back when the doctor had diagnosed me with cancer of the breast and recommended I undergo surgery. Inside I was frozen yet I appeared unfazed outside. This time, unlike my moment with the doctor, I regarded the bearer of the news of an impending doomsday closely.

I noticed her piercing eyes that darted about like she was screening our body parts for cocaine or bombs, but her assuaging smile eased me up a little bit. I learn later she was the popular blogger I had been following on tweeter when another curious volunteer had asked who she was and she introduced herself as Abang Mercy. Lord, have mercy because I had envisioned she would be muscular, nasty and brutish when I meet her in person judging from her tweets online, fearless and forthrightly blunt, like the statement she made above, a behavior my mum insisted I was born with which she feels is an abnormal trait for any lady. Well the trait has brought me in contact with this lady; whose achievements like mine I reasoned came out of the abnormality in our genes.

Don’t wonder too much who I am. My name is Ejiro and I do not come to you by chance, yes, because it is my understanding that you have read about me on popular blogs like www.pinkpearlfoundation.com and www.omojuwa.com where my writer friend that goes by the name Richard had written, without my consent, about my fight for abused women via my NGO ‘Fear Drop’ and, to my chagrin, about my fight with cancer and a runaway father.

It was a client of mine, an avid reader, who reads like her life depends on it that had come upon the said story about me, and although Richard had modified one or two things about me in it my client-friend had been able to put the puzzle together and presented me with her findings. If you call her busy-body you won’t be far from the truth, that was the reason she got abused, abused again, and abused by her elder brother who loved her dearly, and in a manner he isn’t supposed to. Whoop! I have spilled more than I am supposed to. I hope she doesn’t read this, and if she does, well ‘girl you know I love you like a sister, and I ain’t doing this to hurt you’

My client-friend had brought her findings to me a month after the surgery, a mastectomy determined by me and my doctor based on the stage of the cancer, the "personality" of the cancer, and what was acceptable to me in terms of my long-term peace of mind.

That peace was marred by my unrepentant chameleon father who had sneaked back into my life on a false pretense as he caused division between me and my siblings, and cleared off what was left in my NGO’s account while I recuperated on my sick bed.

He is the reason I volunteered to monitor the climate change response in Lekki- Ajah axis of Lagos State in addition to my NGO, Fear Drop.

You are probably wondering what that has got to do with climate change. Everything, yes everything, when I learn that he owns a valuable property in Lekki that blocks a canal thereby hindering the free flow of water, one of the causes of flooding, and the authorities are keeping silent about it because he has some powerful friends in the corridors of power. 

I am going to cry to the high heavens until that building is brought down as I won’t allow one man’s luxury and selfishness put many people in misery.

I must admit that my great dislike for the man I used to call my father fired this humanitarian zeal in me, but when I approached Mercy at the close of the workshop and asked her why she insisted Lagos will be no more in fifteen years and listened to the facts of her argument my nerves almost got paralyzed.

… to be continued.

End Credit: starring @aninoritse as EJIRO; @RealBobbyBlaise as Client-friend's brother; @PinkLipsChic as Client-friend; Guest Starring @AbangMercy as herself; Graphics Designer - @Naughtinez; Photo Concept - @Dinnovatorsmind; Story/Concept - @thenaijaseer

Note: You may follow them on twitter for an update on the story.