“Customer sorry o! I just stepped out to have my breakfast,” Mrs. Linus looked at me and faced the other way. It was as if she had neither seen me before that day, nor heard what I said. The unfriendly look on his face did not pass me unnoticed. However, I chose to ignore that.

“Good morning Madam. Has it been long since you came?” I pressed on but she ignored me and started talking to my colleague, who was already repairing her car.

I moved to a corner to sit and think about my life. My name is Ikenna but you can also call me Iyk. I am a motor mechanic. I am good at my job, even my enemies testify to that. But my problem was that I couldn’t retain my customers. Any customer that met me would always praise my handwork and vow to remain loyal forever. Subsequently, they would be complaining about one thing or the other. Then, I would lose them.

This particular woman was so impressed on the first day I worked on her car that she promised to make me happy.

“This car has defied solution. I was thinking of selling it before I was directed to come to you. You have made me to smile today, I promise to reciprocate.”

Those were her exact words. She even gave me her business card before she left. But few months later, she was acting as if she had never met me.

“This is not ordinary; Nedu has jazzed my customers. I have to stop him.” I rose from where I was sitting and went to confront him.

“Nedu, what do you think that you are doing?”

“Young man, don’t distract my customer,” Mrs. Linus addressed me with a strange unfriendly tone.

“Did she just refer to Nedu as her customer? Is she for real?” I thought.

I made an effort to bring her to her senses. It was obvious that something was wrong.

“Madam, it is me, Iyk. I am the person that is your customer, have you forgotten that car you said has defied solution. I was the person that worked on it. You even gave me your business card” I tried to convince her.

“Are you implying that I am blind or what? It is you and your entire generation that are blind. You want to use your bad luck to affect me,” she cursed.

“Madam please don’t allow him to get you worked up. Instead of him to go and face the spirits that are fighting him from his village, he is here fermenting trouble,” Nedu told her.

“Thank you nnam oma. He can’t unruffled me. If he tries further nonsense, I will make sure that he spends some days in police custody.”

I quietly recoiled. Truly someone was after me. But what I could not figure out, was my offence. Why would I sow for another to reap? How could Nedu come between me and the juicy offers from my customer? I felt that I needed to do something to stop the ugly trend.

That day was unusually dull. None of my customers brought cars for repair. I was at a corner, silently nursing the wound that Nedu inflicted on me when one of my colleagues came to meet me.”

“Iyk man, how far?”

I looked at Nelly and sighed without uttering a word.

“I hope you won’t let Nedu go scot-free for that nonsense he did this morning.”

“Nelly, what do you want me to do? My customer prefers Nedu to me. I won’t blame him for my misfortune.”

“Iykman, listen to me. You are my man so there is no need to hide the truth from you. That woman came in the morning and was asking of you. Immediately, Nedu rose up, looked at the woman in the eyes and said ‘I am Iyke’ I thought it was a joke but before I could say Jack, I was hearing … Come and check my car…. you are the best mechanic… If I leave you and go to another mechanic, I will die. Fear gripped me as I was watching the drama.”

I felt like I was stung by a bee. All my body system changed.

“Are you telling me that this was exactly what happened this morning,” I asked.

“Yes. But you trust me. You know that I don’t tolerate nonsense. I matched straight to the woman and tried to explain to her that the person she was dealing with was not Iyk. My brother…. You needed to be there. The woman almost fought me. She even accused me of trying to tarnish the image of her good customer.”

What Nelly was saying sounded real but I was still skeptical. I knew Nelly so well; he could add 1 plus 1 to get 11. But that woman’s action was that of a hypnotized person. It means that there must be an element of truth in what Nelly narrated.

“Nelly are you sure of what you just told me.”

“Why would I tell you lie? You are an expert in this job and you have been helping us out whenever we are stuck. I owe you the duty of watching your back.”

“Does Nedu remember that? In fact, I have had enough of this nonsense. I must take an action,” I threatened.

“That is my man. I am solidly behind you in every action you want to take,” Nelly hailed me.

I quickly got the police to arrest Nedu. My plan was that he would spend a week in their custody but our mechanic association twisted my arm. I was prevailed on to get him released. As soon as he was out of police custody, the association summoned us to settle the matter. I presented Nelly as my witness but he gave me the rudest shock of my life.

“Nelly is my witness. He was there when everything happened.”

Nelly slightly jerked up his ear as if he heard strange news.

“What exactly are you talking about,” he asked me.

I was surprised at the way he was sounding but I ignored his reaction and explained what I meant.

“I mean that you were around when my customer was asking of me but Nedu took over.”

“Iyk, Please! Please!! Please!!! I don’t know what you are talking about. If you know where you had your bathe, go there and search for your wrapper. Don’t involve me in a matter that does not concern me.”

I sat in silence, numbed by the shock of Nelly’s response to me.

“Iyk are you still with us,” our Chairman asked, breaking the silence and bringing me back to reality.

“Yes sir,” I answered slowly.

“Do you have any other thing to say?” the chairman further asked.

What would I have said in such situation? I carefully sealed my lips to avoid further embarrassment.

“Now, listen to me Iyk. I will advise you to look inward and stop blaming others for your woes. I will not say more than this,” the chairman concluded.

At the end of the meeting Nelly came to meet me and was apologizing.

“Iyk please forgive me for what I did. It was out of fear that I denied you. I am the only surviving child of my parents, I don’t want to die. You know that Nedu’s father is a native doctor. You also know that chairman is from the same village with Nedu. I don’t want trouble”

I stood and walked away.

Watch out for the next episode