CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ayuba was home alone when a woman came asking for his mother. She had borrowed money from his mother and promised to pay as soon she received her alert. Well, she had gotten her alert and had now come to redeem herself, maybe against tomorrow; in case she needed to borrow money from his mother again. Only a foolish person would fail to return what he had borrowed.

There had been many foolish people in that regard. His mother had experienced it; “let them come with their issues tomorrow and see whether I will attend to them, nonsense people, always return whatever you borrow.” He had seen it before and had heard his mother complain about such people. They would come to seeking for help, trying to convince her that they had gone round and now she was the last person they could turn to. They would promise to pay her back as soon as possible and how they would thank her and lay blessings on her only to go back and do the opposite of what they had promised, refuse to pay his mother back her money. Some for months, some years, his mother had even ran out of ways to ask them to pay her back. Once he had suggested the police station but his mother thought it wasn’t worth it, how would she look at them tomorrow? She would rather have the burning coals be on their heads not hers. 

He had once heard his mother giving advice to his uncle who had just gotten a job. “You must be careful with people when it comes to  money issues. Many will come to you for help, especially now that you are not married.” His mother had paused for effect, and she saw it, the young man swallowed hard then smiled sheepishly. “If anyone asks you to lend him one thousand bucks, give him a hundred bucks as a gift, let him know now is not a good time for you and that he does not have to pay you back and you would have avoided any problem that would have come up in the future”. 'Smart woman,' Ayuba had thought that day but if she knew how to give her brother this advice. Why couldn’t she do same for herself? Perhaps she would have avoided all the disappointments that followed. 

This woman was no foolish woman, mama had trusted her and she had come to repay that trust. The only thing that undid her good intention was the fact that she met Ayuba at home and wasn’t it her fault; she met him at home? No way. She didn’t know Ayuba had issues with gambling, his issue was not made public, it was contained. They counted the money together and she gave him the money, to give to his mother of course. They both counted it and it was twenty‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ thousand bucks. She thanked him and left. 

The ‘devil' returned before his mother. Why on Earth did his mother not return before the 'devil’? If only she had returned before the 'devil', wait, did the 'devil’ even leave at all? The devil didn't request for the money. It just planted a thought- “bet, an that was all”. But did the devil really do it? There is an old story which said an old man had seen the devil crying. Out of curiosity, he asked the devil what had happened. The devil replied ' why won't I cry? Everybody blames me for the bad things they do, the ones I know and the ones I'm ignorant of, “you steal, it’s me, you fornicate, me.”

Whatever it was, Ayuba hearkened, a few minutes later, he was on his way to the betting house, with the twenty thousand bucks he was to give his mom. He had told himself, ' he would just go there, sit, watch and leave' . And he was true to himself, he kept his word, at least for fifteen minutes, the urge was too much to resist, just bet on virtual and make quick money, so he thought, he didn't really think he could easily lose quickly as well. 

 Virtual betting had been a quick way of winning and losing money in betting‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ centres. Initially, betting virtual games had never made sense to Ayuba, what sense is there in watching animations play a football match and predict which side will win? And to make it more annoying, these animations score easily and miss easily but people still play and win, and today Ayuba was going to play virtual. He had used 150  bucks to bet his first game but two matches with two tickets gone  . 

He played again, and again and again and again. He soon realised he was left with fourteen thousand bucks. Ayuba should have walked away but no, Ayuba didn't. To him it was a no brainer, where would he get six thousand bucks to complete his mother’s money? His only option was to play again, perhaps luck would shine on him and he would end up winning more than just the six thousand. Surely he had seen it happen before, people hitting it big in game betting, if it had worked for them, why wouldn’t it work for him? Who had he offended?

To one who hasn't gambled before, walking away was an easy choice but a big time gambler would not judge Ayuba, he would reason with Ayuba, he would have been there before, surely he would know what it felt like. This time he won, two thousand bucks, he convinced himself he could recover what he had lost. For three hours he kept playing, winning, losing, losing, winning, losing, he was dazed when he realised he was left with one thousand two hundred bucks. 

The betting centre soon became a big world and he was the only one in this‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ world of his, spinning and spinning and spinning, an artificial headache began to hit him, he needed time to recover, what was he to do, to whom will he run to? He decided to play one last game; the last attempt of a dying man was sometimes ludicrous. What was he to lose? He had come here to beat this betting centre but he been beaten, well beaten, over and over again. He used the one thousand two hundred bucks to book just a game, the team he picked were apt to scoring goals and picked the option over one point five.

What does that mean, eh? It means there will be at least two goals in that match. The match ended one nil. His last stand was for nothing, his ticket, useless. His efforts today had been nothing short of sisyphism; Sisyphus would know so. He didn't return home, what was he to tell his mother? He spent the night at a friend's place. His mother and brother kept calling him but he wouldn't answer their call. Was it to give them the impression it had been stolen or what? Just plain stupid. You've‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ been caught in the act, man up and walk to the execution let the executioner do his job, and both you and the executioner will be done with; easier and better for both of you.