If you have inspiring and original writings, feel free to post on this platform.
writingsthatinspire@gmail.com
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
FEEL FREE TO POST
If you have inspiring and original writings, feel free to post on this platform.
writingsthatinspire@gmail.com
Monday, 15 February 2016
AGAINST THE TIDE [Excerpt]
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER SEVEN
One day, weeks after Ndidi turned fourteen, an incident occurred that sent tides in her and Nkechi’s direction and posed a great threat to their future.
Noon was past gone and they were hawking on the express road as usual after sales in the motor park.
“My birthday is on the 3rd of next month o,” Nkechi informed Ndidi.
“I will give you moi-moi as a present,” Ndidi replied.
“Is it because I gave you plantain chips on your own birthday? You know I don’t have money yet.”
“You also know that we are in the same shoes.”
“Get money from Ebere and buy a gift for me.”
“You are talking as if Ebere has money.”
“He can always collect from his mother.”
“Who will break my head when she finds out.”
“I will come to your rescue.”
Ndidi burst into laughter,
“You, rescue me from that woman?”
“Yes now.”
“You are not serious.”
As they stood by the side of the road talking and looking out for buyers, two boys approached them.
“We hope your moi-moi and plantain chips are fresh,” one of the boys asked, checking out their wares.
“Yes,” Nkechi replied.
“And cheap?”
“Yes. How much moi-moi and plantain chips do you want to buy?”
“It is not us. Someone in that building behind that yellow one wants to buy,” the other boy said, pointing.
“Buy and take back to the person,” Ndidi suggested.
“She wants to see them herself.”
“And she is the one to pay you.”
The girls had doubts but because they had not sold much that day, they considered following the boys. They sized the boys up first. They looked too young and innocent to be kidnappers. The girls went with them.
They got to an entrance in the building and entered. The room was obviously unused. It only had old calendars hanging on the wall, a bench and a table at a corner. There was no one there. The girls’ doubts increased. They stood close to the entrance, alert.
“Are you afraid?” one of them asked.
“For what?” Nkechi replied, feigning boldness.
“Where is the person or we leave?” Ndidi asked.
“Calm down. She is inside that room,” the boys said, pointing at a door opposite the entrance door.
The girls did not move.
“Aunty they are here,” one of the boys announced and went towards the door.
“Let them come in,” a woman’s voice said from behind the door.
The boy that went ahead opened the door and stood there. The voice of a woman had reassured the girls so they went towards the door. On entering, they saw only two young men in the room. There was no woman. It was one of the men who had feigned a woman. The girls were really scared. They turned to leave but the other boys blocked the door. The girls knew what that meant. They threw their wares down and tried to break through to freedom. The boys covered the girls’ mouths to drown their call for help. When they could neither free themselves nor cry for help, they started throwing punches, biting and scratching. That earned them beating by the boys and the young men together. They were eventually overpowered, their mouth gagged and their hands tied.
“Please let us go,” the girls mumbled.
Once the girls were captured, the two boys left the room and shut the door leaving the two young men alone with the girls.
“Please don’t do anything to us,” they begged with tears running down their eyes.
The young men paid no attention to their pleas and raped the girls harshly.
_______________________________________________________________________
About The Book
“Against the Tide” is the story of a young girl named Ndidi; the third child of her parents, who up until the death of her father was living in affluence. The story follows her ordeals, hardship she passed through and what eventually happened to her.
“Against The Tide” is a well written fictional story that highlights certain issues concerning child labour and abuse as evident in household slavery, street hawking and sexual harassment. The book tries to pick up causes and effects and goes on to make little effort in proffering solution
for more info,
-- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
-- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
-- +234-813-289-8209
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
Monday, 14 December 2015
AGAINST THE TIDE [Excerpt]
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER FIVE [pages 47-51]
They sat in the shade of a building in the park and talked for a while. Ndidi taught her some simple things she had learnt from Ebere.
They were there for a while when suddenly; pandemonium broke out in the park. Some hawkers ran into the park with their wares, either, all thrown away or still dropping. They had run from the express road near the park. Shouts were heard outside the park by men saying, “Hold them! Catch them!”
All the people in the park, especially the young ones, took cover. The hawkers who had run in were crying. They spread the news: Two children who were hawking had just been forcefully kidnapped on the express road by three men in a car. They had sped off and were a far distance when people around realized what had happened and some tried pursuing them but couldn’t catch up with them. They seemed to have planned to perpetrate the crime when the roads will be free of vehicular traffic. So there was no impediment to a smooth sailing in their kidnap.
Ndidi and Nkechi were sad and scared.
“Let us go home now.” Ndidi said, shaking with fright.
“From where?” Nkechi asked.
“Let us look for another way out.”
They left the motor park immediately, through an apian way bypassing the express road. As they walked home, they avoided cars that were parked by the side of the road with men inside. Whenever a car came close to them, they would run far from it.
“I don’t think I will sell again o,” Nkechi said as they walked home.
“Me too,” Ndidi agreed.
“Those people are wicked.”
“Who knows what they will do to the children?
“The police will catch them.”
When they got the point where they parted ways, they both walked home in haste. When Nkechi got home, her aunty was around. She told her what happened.
“Is that a story you made up as an excuse for not selling anything today?” her aunty asked her.
“No aunty. It really happened.”
“Where is the money you got from the sales?”
Nkechi gave the money to her, wondering why she cared more about the money than her well being.
“The money is complete,” her aunty said. “Thank your stars. I would not have believed you and you would have paid. Go and fetch water!”
Nkechi sadly left to fetch water.
When Ndidi got home, only Ebere, Onyi and Jerome were around. Ebere always brought them back from their school on his way back from his own school. Theirs was in the neighbourhood so it was not difficult for him.
“Mummy is not back yet?” Ndidi asked as she dropped her empty bucket.
“No,” Onyi answered. “She is still in the shop.”
Jerome came to her and she carried him.
“You came back early today,” Ebere said.
“Something bad happened today.”
“What happened?”
Ndidi told them what happened in the express road that afternoon. They listened with rapt attention and Jerome kept asking questions which she answered.
…
She went to do some chores while Ebere and his siblings played in the parlour. When their mother came back that evening, they told her what Ndidi had told them.
“Story story,” she said. “So she did not sell anything today.”
She called Ndidi with a loud voice. Ndidi came and greeted her.
“Which cock and bull story are you telling?” she asked Ndidi. “Did you sell everything?”
“Yes aunty.”
“Where is the money?”
Ndidi went into the room and brought some money and handed over to her. She counted it.
“You are lucky,” she said and went inside her room.
Ndidi exhaled to diffuse tension when she was out of sight and Ebere gave her an ‘I told you’ look.
_______________________________________________________________________________
About The Book
“Against the Tide” is the story of a young girl named Ndidi; the third child of her parents, who up until the death of her father was living in affluence. The story follows her ordeals, hardship she passed through and what eventually happened to her.
“Against The Tide” is a well written fictional story that highlights certain issues concerning child labour and abuse as evident in household slavery, street hawking and sexual harassment. The book tries to pick up causes and effects and goes on to make little effort in proffering solution
for more info,
-- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
-- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
-- +234-813-289-8209
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
BIRTHDAY WISHES: BETTY OTUECHERE
Happy Birthday to a friend, a WTI reader and follower; Betty Otuechere. We pray this new season of your life will bring the fulfilment of all your heart yearns for. You will walk in purpose. Have a wonderful celebration. Cheers!
With love,
WTI Team
Friday, 27 November 2015
AGAINST THE TIDE [excerpt]
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER TWO [pages 23-26]
Ndidi and Nkechi became inseparable friends. They always went to hawk together and came back in the evening together. They encouraged each other, always talking about a bright future ahead of them, not knowing when and how that would be.
Another person Ndidi met in the hawking environment was Jude, a boy a bit older than them. He was a hawker of bottled water and bottled drinks. He was a good boy but was always moody and on his own. Nkechi was the only person he related with freely. Ndidi asked and got to know from Nkechi that he was an orphan. He had lost his parents to HIV. He was not a carrier of the virus because his parents were not infected at the time of his conception. It was few years before then that the calamity came upon him. He had made up his mind not to remain in the village but to seek greener pasture in the city. He got to the city few months before Ndidi came into the scene and slept in motor parks. He started with selling pure water and gradually moved up to selling bottled drinks he carried in a basket. His manner of sales was risky as he had to run alongside moving vehicles on the highway. He didn’t have much choice as the vehicles were too much in a hurry to stop for the passengers to calmly buy what they wanted. The exposure to the hazards of street hawking almost took his life one day. He was hawking in his usual manner when a vehicle trying to avoid another one swerved and ran into him. It knocked him unconscious with some broken bones. He was helped by good Samaritans and rushed to hospital by the driver of the vehicle that knocked him down. The man paid his bills and took care of him till he got better. The man found out from Jude about his life and was moved with compassion and decided to take him in and train him through school. Jude didn’t bother taking him to the village as there was no well wisher to see in the village to inform. He was the only child of his parents and his relatives had dealt with him, taking over the little property that belonged to his parents. Thus, Jude went to stay with the man and his sons who were older than Jude in another town in the same state. He told his fellow hawkers who wished him well.
Ndidi’s promotion examination result was excellent. She rejoiced. However, her joy was short lived when her aunty told her that she couldn’t afford sponsoring her and Ebere in secondary school at the same time and so she had to drop while Ebere continued. She wept. She remained sad for some days.
She thought of going back to the village but couldn’t muster the courage to tell her aunty. Whenever she saw her former classmates preparing to resume school, she would wish she were they.
“If daddy and uncle had not died, I would also be preparing for school,’ she thought at times.
When her former classmates got to know about her plight, they comforted her the much they could. Nkechi did all she could to comfort her best friend. Ebere and his siblings also did their best to cheer her up. Only her aunty showed no empathy. She sent her to hawk as usual, and scolded her at the slightest opportunity.
Few weeks after, Ndidi no longer felt bad. She helped Ebere in his preparation for school. When school resumed, she helped him iron his school uniforms, pack his books and so on, with joy.
However, her joyful disposition was short lived as her aunty who couldn’t hide her annoyance anymore scolded her one morning with such hatred that she left to hawk, crying.
(GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!)
for more info,
- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
Ndidi and Nkechi became inseparable friends. They always went to hawk together and came back in the evening together. They encouraged each other, always talking about a bright future ahead of them, not knowing when and how that would be.
Another person Ndidi met in the hawking environment was Jude, a boy a bit older than them. He was a hawker of bottled water and bottled drinks. He was a good boy but was always moody and on his own. Nkechi was the only person he related with freely. Ndidi asked and got to know from Nkechi that he was an orphan. He had lost his parents to HIV. He was not a carrier of the virus because his parents were not infected at the time of his conception. It was few years before then that the calamity came upon him. He had made up his mind not to remain in the village but to seek greener pasture in the city. He got to the city few months before Ndidi came into the scene and slept in motor parks. He started with selling pure water and gradually moved up to selling bottled drinks he carried in a basket. His manner of sales was risky as he had to run alongside moving vehicles on the highway. He didn’t have much choice as the vehicles were too much in a hurry to stop for the passengers to calmly buy what they wanted. The exposure to the hazards of street hawking almost took his life one day. He was hawking in his usual manner when a vehicle trying to avoid another one swerved and ran into him. It knocked him unconscious with some broken bones. He was helped by good Samaritans and rushed to hospital by the driver of the vehicle that knocked him down. The man paid his bills and took care of him till he got better. The man found out from Jude about his life and was moved with compassion and decided to take him in and train him through school. Jude didn’t bother taking him to the village as there was no well wisher to see in the village to inform. He was the only child of his parents and his relatives had dealt with him, taking over the little property that belonged to his parents. Thus, Jude went to stay with the man and his sons who were older than Jude in another town in the same state. He told his fellow hawkers who wished him well.
Ndidi’s promotion examination result was excellent. She rejoiced. However, her joy was short lived when her aunty told her that she couldn’t afford sponsoring her and Ebere in secondary school at the same time and so she had to drop while Ebere continued. She wept. She remained sad for some days.
She thought of going back to the village but couldn’t muster the courage to tell her aunty. Whenever she saw her former classmates preparing to resume school, she would wish she were they.
“If daddy and uncle had not died, I would also be preparing for school,’ she thought at times.
When her former classmates got to know about her plight, they comforted her the much they could. Nkechi did all she could to comfort her best friend. Ebere and his siblings also did their best to cheer her up. Only her aunty showed no empathy. She sent her to hawk as usual, and scolded her at the slightest opportunity.
Few weeks after, Ndidi no longer felt bad. She helped Ebere in his preparation for school. When school resumed, she helped him iron his school uniforms, pack his books and so on, with joy.
However, her joyful disposition was short lived as her aunty who couldn’t hide her annoyance anymore scolded her one morning with such hatred that she left to hawk, crying.
(GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!)
for more info,
- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
AGAINST THE TIDE [Excerpts]
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE [PAGES 2-4]
She went closer to Ndidi in an effort to slap her. Ndidi receded a bit, but she held the collar of Ndidi’s blouse forcing Ndidi to rattle out her explanation.
“No ma, I am not lying,” she said. “When…when I was hawking with Nkechi, an okada man knocked her down. I kept my bucket by the side of the road and went to help her gather her plantain chips scattered on the road and also to make sure she was not badly injured. When I went back later to carry my bucket, I noticed that my moi-moi had reduced in number. I counted them and discovered that five wraps of moi-moi had been stolen. I looked around in search of anyone holding moi-moi so I will know who took them but because the place was rowdy, I didn’t see the thief. That was what happened ma.”
“I knew you would tell a sweet story to cover up. You liar.”
“No ma…”
“Shut up,” her aunty said and hit her repeatedly. “Because of this, you won’t eat anything this night,” she said when she was satisfied with the beating and started storming out of the kitchen.
“Am sorry ma. Please forgive me ma,” Ndidi begged, crying, going after her. She stopped and looked back at Ndidi.
“If I close my eyes and open them and you are still here,” she said, “you will see what I will do to you.”
Ndidi knew better than to remain there, pleading. She left quickly, managing to dodge another blow from her aunty who was standing close to the door. She left and stood at the verandah sobbing. Whenever neighbours pass, she would either wipe her face or turn her head but they already knew her situation and didn’t bother asking her what the problem was.
“Ndidi!”
“Ndidi!” her aunty shouted again and came out to the verandah.
Ndidi who was called back to reality by the sight of her aunty moved backwards, wondering what else was coming.
“Did you or did you not hear your name?” her aunty asked her.
“N…n…no ma.”
“Come here you liar.” She went towards Ndidi to hit her.
Ndidi retreated but the wall was standing between her and any attempt at escape. She held the wall hoping it would swallow her. As her aunty wanted to hit her, a neighbour came into the compound. Her aunty pretended she was doing something else but the neighbour knew what was happening and passed them without saying a word.
“Will you go and buy bread for my children!” she said, dropped the money on the floor and went back inside.
Ndidi picked it up, wiped the tears from her eyes and left on the errand, trying as much as possible not to let people know she had cried.
_______________________________________________________________________
About The Book
“Against the Tide” is the story of a young girl named Ndidi; the third child of her parents, who up until the death of her father was living in affluence. The story follows her ordeals, hardship she passed through and what eventually happened to her.
“Against The Tide” is a well written fictional story that highlights certain issues concerning child labour and abuse as evident in household slavery, street hawking and sexual harassment. The book tries to pick up causes and effects and goes on to make little effort in proffering solution
for more info,
-- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
-- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
-- +234-813-289-8209
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
“No ma, I am not lying,” she said. “When…when I was hawking with Nkechi, an okada man knocked her down. I kept my bucket by the side of the road and went to help her gather her plantain chips scattered on the road and also to make sure she was not badly injured. When I went back later to carry my bucket, I noticed that my moi-moi had reduced in number. I counted them and discovered that five wraps of moi-moi had been stolen. I looked around in search of anyone holding moi-moi so I will know who took them but because the place was rowdy, I didn’t see the thief. That was what happened ma.”
“I knew you would tell a sweet story to cover up. You liar.”
“No ma…”
“Shut up,” her aunty said and hit her repeatedly. “Because of this, you won’t eat anything this night,” she said when she was satisfied with the beating and started storming out of the kitchen.
“Am sorry ma. Please forgive me ma,” Ndidi begged, crying, going after her. She stopped and looked back at Ndidi.
“If I close my eyes and open them and you are still here,” she said, “you will see what I will do to you.”
Ndidi knew better than to remain there, pleading. She left quickly, managing to dodge another blow from her aunty who was standing close to the door. She left and stood at the verandah sobbing. Whenever neighbours pass, she would either wipe her face or turn her head but they already knew her situation and didn’t bother asking her what the problem was.
“Ndidi!”
“Ndidi!” her aunty shouted again and came out to the verandah.
Ndidi who was called back to reality by the sight of her aunty moved backwards, wondering what else was coming.
“Did you or did you not hear your name?” her aunty asked her.
“N…n…no ma.”
“Come here you liar.” She went towards Ndidi to hit her.
Ndidi retreated but the wall was standing between her and any attempt at escape. She held the wall hoping it would swallow her. As her aunty wanted to hit her, a neighbour came into the compound. Her aunty pretended she was doing something else but the neighbour knew what was happening and passed them without saying a word.
“Will you go and buy bread for my children!” she said, dropped the money on the floor and went back inside.
Ndidi picked it up, wiped the tears from her eyes and left on the errand, trying as much as possible not to let people know she had cried.
_______________________________________________________________________
About The Book
“Against the Tide” is the story of a young girl named Ndidi; the third child of her parents, who up until the death of her father was living in affluence. The story follows her ordeals, hardship she passed through and what eventually happened to her.
“Against The Tide” is a well written fictional story that highlights certain issues concerning child labour and abuse as evident in household slavery, street hawking and sexual harassment. The book tries to pick up causes and effects and goes on to make little effort in proffering solution
for more info,
-- https://www.facebook.com/Against-The-Tide-178275012313259/?ref=bookmarks
-- https://www.facebook.com/Nedu-Isaac-148249582031777/?ref=ts&fref=ts
-- +234-813-289-8209
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
(c)2015.Chinedu Isaac
Sunday, 15 November 2015
BIRTHDAY WISHES: CHINEDU ISAAC
Happy birthday to the Senior Editor and contributor to Writings That Inspire. This new phase of your life will bring immeasurable blessings. God bless you sir.
with love.
WTI Team
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