Cement Race

It's still mid January and the turn the weather is taking this tuesday morning isn't all that normal and that worries Mr. Martins as he hurries to his mason work as breeze brushes against his skin kind of causing the hairs on his arm to stand alert like new recruits on their first training session. Nothing in perfect order, a kind of huddling together and odd to look at.  

He eyed upwards wondering whether the rain is serious with the sign it's spewing, everyone is expecting rain from second or third week of February, never mid January. He have lived enough to know when certain things are from nature and when they are from man. A hell of madness goes on in the kingdom of humans  these days. He increased his speed to get to his place of work for about twenty-one cements he bought just yesterday evening were all outside not covered with any tarpaulin or some other water resistance material. A bag goes for 9100 naira. If that money goes to waste, the man he is building house for will never believed anything coming from him. He might even be talking from the cell with a cell phone swearing to his innocence. The state of the economy doesn't warrant stories and he's not good in giving one. 

One thousand thoughts were running riot in his mind about the weather phenomenon unfolding before him. There is no way he will ever believe that what's unfolding is not the handiwork of his enemies that never used their mouth but their eyes in sending the state of their heart to you whenever they lose out on a bid for any contract.

To think that the guy building this house is a young man of late twenties living abroad. He has only seen his pictures with his son when they were in secondary school so, the three other competitors for this contract were all known builders around the nkpor city and they were on the race before him and they still couldn't understand how he manages to swing what they thought is in the kitty his way. If they know that it's the familiarity that snatched this contract from them, what he is witnessing won't be surprising to anyone. He is believing or rather his heart and mind have started their calculus on him and he hates that subject whenever it engulfs him like it's doing just now for this change of weather this morning has induced one.

The other two were already presenting their estimates before he entered the race and little talk to his son struggling to make ends meet with his family in another city and subsequent call to past classmates had swung the favor and the contract like magic his way to the chagrin of the other three. But it had came with clauses and one of them is whatever: "I don't need stories of any kind no matter how familiar we might be. Is that okay with you Mr. Martins?" The voice asking that question wasn't joking around for any reasons, his stand and how eager he's to implement them were passed acrossed in that phone conversation. "Of course, no stories" he had answered with forced laughter that was not reciprocated by the voice at the other end and that passed the message across well.

Now, it's only just yesterday evening he bought the cement he sent money to build the house with, he had not packed the cement into the batched house constructed for keeping the working tools in and packing the cement in due to the weather being friendly and where it was packed easier to access by the workers today when works begin. Now, this nonsense weather changing unexpectedly can't be nature at work but his enemies. "Where will I get money to replace these cements if they all go bad and more importantly making sure the deadline agreed with the man building it isn't missed in any way and this kind of carelessness getting into the ears of the man building it this early is a joke and he Mr. Martins doesn't in any way like such joke. "Whoever is behind this joke of a weather should please stop it" he murmured as he hurried from his abode to his place of work on a trek of about 50 minutes. He doesn't have money to enter tricycles running his route, so he had been trekking it since he landed the contract, deceiving his system it's a kind of exercise. 

Funny enough, today he wanted to enter those tricycles, none were anywhere to be found. Is it the weather fault too? He wondered as he kept marching while casting his eyes backwards and slowing down whenever he heard the sound of tricycle behind him only to see that few out that morning were filled to the brim.

"Shit" he murmurs for slowing down a bit to wave down the tricycles only to see it filled to the brim. He was into that calculus again trying to know how many steps he wasted by just halting a bit in four occasions he has done that. Big sigh escaped from him once again as he trudged forward and the weather changing more to cloudier state.

The breeze had turned into serious winds, the kind you will think drive the gathering cloud away from where the wind is staging claims but it seems as if the rain is not shifting ground. The more the wind, the darker the cloud gets. Mr. Martins was surprised when he heard a sound by his side and nearly jumped only to see another filled tricycle zoom past. How come he did not hear the sound from afar he queried himself as deeper sigh escaped from him. It's like everything is going against him this very morning, even his ears are not performing their duties well. 

He sighed as he thought to himself and wondered at his age if he had not overgrown this type of stress associated with money making. "Had I not bought the cements, I would not have collected money from this guy, I would have sat out this morning phenomenon in my house but..." 

About thirty minutes later, he got to the site of his work and saw the gate of the plot open and wondered if one of his coworkers had arrived under this breezy weather. Unlike his people. They are not known to be eager to leave their houses when something like this is in offing. By nature, people sit back for many reasons laziness isn't part of it. He rushed into the plot to see the man that came second in the bidding war as they called it covering the cements up with a tarpaulin he did not know where he got from.

He got rooted on the spot, speechless and a million thoughts and permutations running riots in his mind. "I knew it, I know this isn't nature playing games with humans in the middle of January, it's man at work" he thought with eyes firmly fixed on the man busy covering the cements on the land and site he has no business anymore being in.

The man was last to notice him. "Yeah, Mr Martins, I can see one million questions running around in your mind. I was passing from that cement dealer yesterday and i saw you buying all these cements for Chidi's house and i believe you are still living in Mazi Okorie's house in the phase four so i said i should come take a look when this weather is churning out breezes as if it's running out of fashion and yet, clouds getting darker. I was not surprised to see them outside. It's in our nature. I can't carry them inside before the rain catches up, so I said I should instead cover it up with tarpaulin. I am living just five minutes away. He kept eyeing the man without replying and he kept talking without caring for any reply and  the weather kept getting darker with the breeze still fighting lost battle as Mr Martins sees it.

He nods as the man's voice rattles on and mad enough, it's even sounding sincere and getting Mr. Martins more confused. One of the images that criss crossed his mind during those invasions of uninvited calculus were this guy standing before him and the other competitors. He was sure beyond doubt that it wasn't nature at work, as he knows it, it doesn't make mistakes and doesn't shy away from its responsibility. How come it's one of the very men standing before him doing the opposite of what he was supposed to be doing? He went silently to lift the tarpaulin up from an angle and used his eyes to count the cements as first drop of the rain hit him square on the center of the head as he strengthens after assuring his spirit that the cements are complete and exactly as he placed them yesterday. 

They moved to the shed the batcher offered as the rain hit the earth with ferocity that brought back his convinctions. You need no one to tell you that war is going on in some kingdom unknown to man and its end product is what the earth is at its receiving end now.

"my nephew was classmate to Chidi, from look of things, it seems as his intervention wasn't good enough to sway this contract my way and that was when my curiosity was piqued and i made few calls and knew who you are" he said eyeing Mr Martins with smirk, who is now more than interested in the man yakkings than he was in him. "Your Nephew?" He asked with a smirk of his own on the face as the full meaning of "And know who you are" hit him more and widened the smirk on his face more and more. He turned fully to the man as he hit the conversation with the same fierceness the rain was hitting the makeshift batcher and the tarpaulin few feets from them.