Day I Almost Became Rich (a short story)

Photo: AFP

I was eating and enjoying my drink at 4:00pm in a restaurant when a man suddenly walked into the restaurant carrying a briefcase. I guess he was a big politician because his dressing and pot belly portrayed it.

He walked in and sat down as quite a number of people in the restaurant kept glancing in his direction. Suddenly, a woman came into the restaurant, walked straight to him, fell to her knees and started crying. She knelt before him and told him that she and her children were starving since her husband died.

The strange man opened the briefcase and gave this woman N500,000. The woman jumped up in excitement, thanked him profusely and left the scene in happiness.

I was still watching when another man started crying and went to him. Like the woman, he also knelt down and begged him. As he begged, he explained that he needed money to establish his business. This man brought out his cheque-book and wrote a cheque of N10 million and handed it to the crying man.

By this time, I was mentally preparing the lie I would tell the man. As I began crying and went to the man, I already knew what I was going to say. Immediately I knelt down, I heard a male voice saying: "Cut!! Cut!! Cut!!"

I turned around and saw the director of the movie. He laughed and said "I'm so sorry but we are shooting a movie here."

Please, in my shoes, what would you have done?

Story by Ikenna Davidson