Diary Of The Grumpy (Episode 3)

  

 Episode III

        Mr Henry had never been known to be a troublemaker through out his life, he had moved into the Kadiri lane with his late wife Dupe when the residents were mostly newly weds, they were almost all alike in nature, they had had kids who went to the same schools and were finally sent to the same colleges, some of their kids had even married from the same neighborhood, there was always love, some peace and quiet in the neighborhood as the upbringing the folks living in the neighborhood gave to their kids were alike, it was like bringing up perfect children, most of the kids of the families who originally settled in Kadiri lane like Mr Henry's' turned out to be successful or at least living life comfortably, gradually the original residents of the lane had sold their properties to one new couple or the other, by the time Henry was 60years old he was the only original resident of Kadiri lane among the different species of people who now roamed the lane, his house was located at the center of the lane and it stood out among other houses on the lane. Other houses had adopted the modern style of fencing their apartments to the height of an adult's waist, extensions had been built and strangers had been admitted into them as new tenants, there had been the good, the beautiful, the cheating, the bad and the ugly tenants to talk about, sometimes the strangers were even creepy-looking and you should double check the lock on your doors before you slept at night. Kadiri lane was no more what it used to be, Henry's house stood without any fence but with its neat and open lawn in the middle of the lane which had a 'KEEP OFF' sign drilled to the ground on it, from time to time people had offered him good money to sell his one and only property to them and as obviously as stubborn as he could be he had refused many times, one of his adamant potential buyers was the ambitious Tony who was an accountant, he was in his late twenties and was married with two young kids, his wife Patricia had been rumored to be promiscuous from time to time but nobody had genuinely liked Tony enough to tell him about his occasionally cheating housewife. Tony had had the dream of erecting a large super service store where Henry's house is located, he wanted his wife to run the business while he concentrated on his accounting job but Henry seems to be delaying this dream of his from coming to a reality.



Henry had been living alone in his bungalow apartment for over 8years since his wife had died, his youngest grandson Tobi came visiting every last weekend of the month and occasionally his friends Benji and Thomas came around for card games. Sometimed his closest friend Thomas would sleep over after so much gists, Thomas who had the troublesome mouth had never ran out of news and things to talk about was 5years younger than Henry, he was who you'd call a 'Talker-thief' and had himself a ball every-time he got on Henry's nerves, Thomas had been teased many times that his sharp tongue could wake the dead with his insults, he knew that his tongue might put him in trouble one of these days but talking alot was some addiction he couldn't help. Henry's first child and son of his 3 kids (2 boys and a girl) had hired a female housekeeper Sam to visit, cook and clean every weekend, Henry refused anymore of the issue of house keeping or caring. Sam (Aged 35 and unmarried) was referred to as a family friend most times who did well at her job and Thomas had taken a liking to her even though he was still married to his troublesome wife, he tries at every opportunity he gets to woo her into dating him or just sleeping with him.


Henry had arrived back to his home the night he was held at the police station, he walks to the fridge hoping some of the spaghetti Sam made the last time she visited was still left in his fridge, he found it hiding behind a carton of juice he had in the fridge, he got the plastic food container out to smell its contents and to his relief it still smelt alright and he hoped it tasted as good, he couldn't eat it cold so he decided to warm it up, he turns to stare at the microwave his daughter had bought him for 5seconds contemplating on using it again after the first time he had used it, he shook his head and took hold of a frying-pan instead, his daughter had gotten him the microwave two months ago and he had been afraid to used it, Henry wouldn't touch a machine he couldn't understand, he wonders how a box could do so much by just touching one or two buttons, the first time he had tried to use it when his daughter bought it for him was the day he had placed a pot of porridge in it to get it warmed and he had witnessed 'lighting strikes' in his own kitchen, he couldn't believe what he was seeing till he quickly unplugged the microwave and opened it almost immediately to catch the last electric circuit that was still left on the metal pot, he withdrew his hand and left the pot along with its contents in it for days, his fear had hindered him from seeing how helpful the microwave was meant to be. He turned on the cooker and started warming his dinner, he hurriedly had the dining set up for one and placed his juice and a drinking cup on the table and went back to his dinner, he smelt the aroma and nodded. He poured it in a flat plate and took it to the dining to eat, it tasted as good as it did originally. He was done with dinner soon enough and proceeded to have his shower, he did and went to bed but decided to call his son before he slept, his son picked up still sounding sleepy and said yes to everything he said about his new shoes and the needed lawyer, his son even said "Yes" when he mentioned that he had to go to the police station for questioning, Henry wast sure his son wasn't listening and so he decided to call it a night and hung up after his son promised to call in the morning. He wanted to have a goodnight with no worries and no regrets, he thought the court issue was an excitement he secretly craved in his sometimes boring old life........ to be continued.





Previous Episodes
Episode 2  Diary of the Grumpy. (Episode 2)
Episode 1  Diary of the grumpy. (Episode 1)