Beauty For Ashes (Chapter 2, Part B)

       The morning Sun shone brightly displaying all its glory. The ever-busy city of Benin was full of the hustle and bustle associated with every week day. Through the window of the car in which Michael drove me to school every morning, I observed children in a tearing hurry to school and adults to their various worksteads.
      Noble Kids’ International School was a beehive of activities as the children and teens trooped in turns into their classrooms. The school was undoubtedly the best in the city. It was highly respected in the state and its environs. It also had an impressive line-up of alumni.
Although the school was an expensive one, my parents never found it hard to pay all the required fees. Meanwhile, my bosom friend wouldn’t have been in this school with children of the high and mighty but for her benefactor, Mr. Onose who had taken up the responsibility of training the young girl with a promising future. Let me share her story the way she told it to me.
      According to Lisa, her parents were once in the money and had everything working well. Her father was one of those referred to as ‘men of timber and calibre’ but all this came to a halt five years ago.
On that fateful day, his multi-million naira company collapsed and caught fire. There must have been flaws in the building materials used in constructing the company of ten years. ‘How was he going to pay the business debt he owed Loyal Bank after obtaining a loan a week before the incident?’ became the big question then.  He had invested the money gotten from the bank in his business. All his goods worth millions and millions of naira had been completely destroyed. When time elapsed, he had no choice but to watch the bank take possession of his two houses; a mansion and a bungalow. He had used them as collateral. He then resorted to renting a two-bedroom flat and setting up a small business with the rather meagre money left in his bank account. It wasn’t only the pathetic loss that had posed a problem in their lives. Mrs Omorodion was an invalid during this period. She was diagnosed with leukaemia. But after a while, she came through, hale and hearty again. Lisa described it as a miracle and God's intervention but I had no idea what a miracle meant.
       Lisa’s family had fallen from grace to grass. However, their case wasn’t as bad as it ought to be. Surprisingly, people who were always ready to help flocked around them. This came as their reward for being cheerful givers in their time of plenty. The popular saying, ‘Whatsoever you sow, you shall reap’ was especially true in their lives. ‘A poor man has no friends,’ you may argue. That’s not totally wrong but their life was a proof that the natural law of ‘give and take’ still holds true. One of the ever-willing helpers God sent to them was Mr Onose. He was a friend of Mr Omorodion who decided to lend a helping hand when he saw the state in which his long-time friend was.