We were in the same class in Primary 6, this calm and unassuming kid. He never comes to school with food, snacks or sweets. He often went around begging from other kids and those who were generous enough gave to him. I was open handed too. We were all kids between 9-12 years old, but I’ve looked long into his eyes to know he had grand plans for himself.
One morning at 11:00 am when the bell went for break time, we stood up to sing and bless the food. We thanked the Lord for those who had food but can’t eat, we thanked him for those who can eat but they have no food and finally, we thanked him for ourselves; those with food and can equally eat the same food.
You know it’s quite funny because as a child, I found those lines highly disturbing. Why would I mention those who don’t have food when I can simply pray only the last lines and move along? But then I grew up to realize certain things only made people feel good when they see themselves as more fortunate.
So that day, our poor friend didn’t go around begging for food, snacks or sweets. He simply went to one kid and told him, “I received a message from above because I am a seer now. Someone will steal your sweets tomorrow in the class. Don’t come to class with sweets.”
We laughed it off and believed he was just hungry. But true to his words, that particular kid had his 2 sweets missing in class the next day. He was the only one who lost his sweets. Our poor friend, now turned seer gave him the “I told you so look” and moved on to announce to another kid that his snack would miss. It happened.
Everyone was marvelled at this seer’s ability to know what would go missing but I knew what was happening.
Before approaching you with a message, he must’ve studied you to be sure of your movements in class, where you dropped your lunchbox and every tiny detail to help him in stealing that particular item he prophesied would get lost. So one day, I approached him and told him to stop his little game.
“But this is just a harmless game.” he said.
“You must stop it, else I’ll report you to the class teacher.” I reaffirmed
By the time he agreed to stop, he had no need to beg anybody or steal food, snacks and sweets, because every day, two or more people gave him their food, snacks or sweets to avoid the bad fortune of theft happening to them.
Soon, our seer had more than enough food, snacks and sweets for each day and he started giving it out to other kids and became the class philanthropist. Everyone now feared and respected him.
We parted ways after primary school and by chance in 2016, I saw him at a joint I liked to relax whenever I'm back from work. It was a cold evening, when someone tapped me from behind. And we were surprised to see each other.
He was in his final year as a student of Marketing and I was happy for him. I told him his natural skills would come in handy for many companies wishing to land very good salespeople in this country. He laughed real hard and shook his head.
“I have bigger plans bro, I have bigger plans and you have no idea.”
On 15th August 2020, I saw pictures from the regional office of a very popular Pentecostal church in this country. I read the profile of their young regional foreman who has a degree in Marketing and his fast rise to the position within a few years.
I remembered his words in 2016!
With a microphone and an audience ever ready to receive the message, our poor kid from Primary 6 can now join the bandwagon and experiment on the emotions, hopes and aspirations of millions, free of charge.