AT times in life, we tend to think that we are above some situations; it is only when we are in the particular situation that we get to know that theory is different from practice. This is what happened to a friend of mine, three years ago. This friend believed that he could not be spiritually charmed. But after his traumatic experience, he now sees life differently.
We were a group of friends who were in the same field of work but different companies. We used to converge on any place of our choice (we had several joints) to relax after the day’s work, eat and entertain ourselves with some drinks as well. It was at such meetings that we tried to catch up with happenings in our personal and work life. Some of us went there just to avoid some marital problems; some just to catch up with their pals and some went to wait till the traffic rush hour had passed.
The owner of our popular joint, a pretty and streetwise lady in her early 40s, happened to be the jovial type; she had so many highly connected patrons from all walks of life, who were regular callers at the joint. Because of the different social levels of her clients, she could switch from one mood to another depending on how it came. Whenever there were customers in the place, she tried as much as possible to make them feel welcome.
While waiting for the usual Lagos gridlock to subside, we could discuss everything under the sun and the madam would come around to join the discussion if she was less busy. One day, we were discussing about the efficacy of love spell on men and the beer parlour owner agreed that indeed the love spell, which we termed ‘vegetable’ could be potent and that it was only in rare cases that it would have no potency on the person it was being used for.
That day, our friend did not agree and insisted that as far as he was concerned, no love spell could have efficacy on him.
The discussion on love spell continued the next day and still, he insisted vehemently that no love spell could have an effect on him. As we were discussing, the beer parlour owner excused herself to attend to some customers. After sometime, she came back and asked all of us if we wanted pepper soup along with our drinks; we all agreed since we knew she was so nice that she could even grant us credit facility if we didn’t have money to pay.
She left and came back later with steaming bowls of pepper soup and served each and every one of us. As we were being served, she jokingly told our friend that he was being served with a love spell to which we all (except him) laughed uneasily. At this stage, some of us could not even take the soup again but our friend scooped everything, even taking from some of us who could not take theirs.
We all left the place together that night and each person entered his car and drove off. But before then, the lady came and jokingly asked our friend if he would not stay back a little to which he laughed, entered his car and drove off. We all left for home but in the night, my friend’s wife called and wanted to know if her husband was with me or was working in the office, and I said no.
Several of our friends and I were worried, more so as calls to his phone were not answered and later on, it was switched off. The following day, his wife called at the office to tell us that her husband did not come home the previous day. We were all afraid that probably he had an accident and the search for him started in earnest, with no result.
We did not go to our usual joint that day due to the stress of trying to find our friend, but the second day, someone saw another friend of ours and asked if our friend was that ‘broke’ as to spend his leave working as a bar man in a beer parlour. We were surprised and off we went to the place, which turned out to be our usual joint, and lo and behold, he was there as Madam’s Personal Assistant, calling her ‘Mummy’ and he was at her beck and call.
We were surprised to see him, a senior manager in his office, doing that and asked him why he did not go home for the past two days. He answered and said that he was just staying there for a while. We were surprised but there was nothing we could do, even as the owner of the beer parlour said he came on his own and she had asked him to leave but he refused.
Looking at him, he was still wearing the same clothes he wore two days ago but he was wearing it inside out, making him look like a mentally challenged person.
We called his wife and told her that we had seen her husband, that he was in a retreat somewhere and that he would come home later; we had to lie to her because nobody could tell her the truth.
Days rolled into months and still he refused to leave the place or even to go to the office. His clothes had become dirty while his appearance was unkempt. Over time at the beer parlour, however, his ‘position’ tactically dropped from what could be called ‘personal assistant’ to ‘a bar man’, then to ‘a waiter’ and finally, to a cleaner and plate-washer. And yet, he would not accept that something was wrong with him.
