Oga Martins & His Kettle of Fishes – Episode 14

Martins was in a state of complete disarray, he had planned how his day was going to pan out and his present dilemma did not fall into that equation. But like they say, man proposes, God disposes. No one ever plans for improbable occurrences and that is why bad things happen to both good and bad people. These days sef! Good people suffer more ill-luck, so there is really no motivation for bad people to stop doing their evil deeds.

Driving to St Benedict’s hospital was not going to be a walk in the park for Martins because he had to drive all the way to Lekki from the mainland, Maryland specifically. The traffic congestion on the third mainland bridge was nerve-racking.

If a prophet cladding white garment, armed with a bible and bell in hand had come knocking on Martins’ door that morning before he left the house with a message of an impending doom to befall someone in his household before noon, who wouldn’t even had been in any form of doubt on who the victim would be. After all he has been prone to a lot of ill-luck and misadventure since he graduated from Ibadan Polytechnic. Even in his state of plenty evil still does rear its ugly head. And Martins couldn’t deny the fact that he sometimes did think the devil was a stronger ally of his as compared to his creator even though the liaison between the duo was non-consensual.

Or how else can one explain the loss of his infant child in the most reckless and bizarre way he could never had imagined? How could he explain to anyone at all that his son died from serious head injuries after the spinning blunt blades of a malfunctioning ceiling fan that was hitherto singing away its existence noisily dislodged from the Judas’ hinges attached to the ceiling and sliced through the infant boy’s fragile head? Martins could swear the devil was still a stakeholder in his life even if he was turning out to be a very successful career man.

Aisha had left the house that morning hale and hearty. In fact, he had been the sick one so the whole news about his wife passing out at work and subsequently rushed in an ambulance to the hospital was all absurd to Martins.

“Lord please, I don’t want any more drama in my life especially with my loved ones. I don’t want to lose anybody ever again. Olaoluwa’s death is one too many and the most painful of the lot.” He lamented as he maneuvered his way through the flowing traffic at the admiralty road at Lekki phase II.

Martins had witnessed people die and experienced misfortune in a substantial part of his adult life. The death of Tunde who impersonated Engr. Adetukasi was still fresh in his memory. The controversial bank robbery that led to the disappearance of Ada, his once upon a time boss and colleague and subsequent arrest of his erstwhile bosom friend and roommate, Deji were incidences that reminded Martins that he had some form of connection with tragedy.

As he drove into the parking lot of the hospital, Martins for the first time in a long while prayed for almost 15 minutes before he alighted from his car. He had his heart in his mouth as he made his way to the hospital reception. Even though he had prayed to God for a favourable outcome he still feared the worse. He knew in his heart that praying for that long was a wasted effort if he still had doubts in his mind. He braced up as he walked into the hospital lobby. Just before he could walk up to one of the nurses on duty, a young doctor came out of one of the wards with his wife’s colleague – Amina.

“Doctor, that’s her husband. Good morning Mr. Martins”

“Good morning Amina. Doctor is my wife okay?”

“Yes, at least she’s stabilized. It’s just the onset of prenatal stress.”

“Prenatal stress! Doctor what are you talking about?”

“Mr. Martins your wife is 5 months gone”

“Aisha is pregnant!” Martins joy knew no bounds as he lifted the protesting Doctor high up in the air and would have thrown him across the lobby if the doctor had played along.

Oga Martins & His Kettle of Fishes continues next week…